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interface hell
It doesn't take that much effort to get software to the 90%-usable stage. I wish the publishers of the D&D character generator had tried. :-(
It's not hard to figure out how to use (which is good, as there are no menus and not much help -- it's a pure click interface). The character sheet that it eventually generates is pretty painful, though -- grayed out text that actually did matter, poor contrast on the reverse-video bits, etc. And they include all sorts of info that I don't need (like spells I don't have), which probably motivated them to make everything small so it would fit in only 4 pages. Sigh.
Now if I could write a script that would take this file and transform it into a plain text file, I'd be quite happy. Sadly, I think I lack the relevant skills. Hmm, maybe if I take the character file, send it over to a Unix box, and run "strings" on it? Gotta try that. (It'll probably give me disembodied numbers without the names of the stats, but we'll see.)
It's not hard to figure out how to use (which is good, as there are no menus and not much help -- it's a pure click interface). The character sheet that it eventually generates is pretty painful, though -- grayed out text that actually did matter, poor contrast on the reverse-video bits, etc. And they include all sorts of info that I don't need (like spells I don't have), which probably motivated them to make everything small so it would fit in only 4 pages. Sigh.
Now if I could write a script that would take this file and transform it into a plain text file, I'd be quite happy. Sadly, I think I lack the relevant skills. Hmm, maybe if I take the character file, send it over to a Unix box, and run "strings" on it? Gotta try that. (It'll probably give me disembodied numbers without the names of the stats, but we'll see.)
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And I agree that the layout is pointless--for a sorcerer, the sheet should only include the spells you might possibly cast.
I haven't heard anything about progress on the product the character generator is a demo for.
Here are some links to other sheets:
WotC's D&D Downloads (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/DnDDownloads.asp)
The D&D3E character sheet (http://www.rpgsheets.com/sheets/Dungeons%20&%20Dragons-%20Third%20Edition/Dungeons%20&%20Dragons.pdf) at rpgsheets.com (http://www.rpgsheets.com)
This Excel spreadsheet (http://www.rpgsheets.com/user/3e_Character_Sheet.xls) at rpgsheets.com (http://www.rpgsheets.com) might or might not suck.