CHARACTER SHEET INSTRUCTIONS
The character sheet generator can be used to create a character sheet template for practically any system, even homebrew and modified (and if it can't, tell us all about it and we'll try to change it so that it can). You get to choose what is displayed on the character sheet by checking off various labels and text fields, or typing in your own. You use the GM's character sheet generator to do this. You and your players then use the fill out form that is generated to record your character stats, keep track of equipment and money, etc. Both the GM and the player can see character sheets as they're being filled out, so you can guide inexperienced players in rolling up and fleshing out characters. After that your players will be able to bring up and change their own character sheet, and you will be able to bring up,look at, and if necessary change everyone's character sheet. Except for a built in die roller, the character sheets are "dumb fill out forms" no different than paper sheets. They do not calculate values for you or fill in anything automatically.
When you press the character sheet button on your control panel for the first time, a new window will appear with several bars and buttons. The top title bar says "Select a character sheet or option." There are five buttons in two rows below it. The first row has one labeled "Create new character sheet template," a second labeled "Fill out form for new character," and a thirld labeled "View sample D20 template." The second row has one button labeled "Fill out form for new character," and another labeled "Cut and paste text character sheet." Below that is a bar that says "GM's NPCs and Monsters" and below that several bars with your player's names on them, titled "Playername's characters," with a button below each labeled "new sheet." Lastly there is a bar that says "Delete character sheets" and a button below it labeled "Delete selection below." Below that there is a scroll down selection window, which is initially blank. As you and your players create character sheets for NPCs, monsters, and PCs, buttons with the name of each of them will appear below either the "GM's NPC and Monsters" bar or the appropriate "Playername's characters" bar. You will be able to click on these buttons to bring up your and your player's character sheets to view or modify them.
The first thing that you, the GM, have to do on this page is create a Character Sheet Template to fit your particular game system. The template determines exactly what information is shown on the character sheet and certain aspects of the layout, like how many blank spaces are available to list spells and so on. To create a template, click the "Create new character sheet template" button. This takes you to a page titled "GM's Character Sheet Generator," which is described below:
You will notice right away that this page consists of a long series of text labels with check boxes next to them. Some of the large text labels have red letters on dark brown backgrounds. Others have large black letters in light colored, seemingly recessed text boxes. There are also numerous small text labels in small, light colored recessed text boxes. The little white square boxes all over the place are check boxes. By checking off the little boxes and, when necessary, changing labels in the text boxes, you can create a customized character sheet template to fit your system.
We have provided an example pre-filled-out page that generates a character sheet for a D20 fantasy game. You can see it by clicking on the Sample D20 sheet button. By making minor changes to it you can create character sheets suitable for Cthulhu, Traveller, etc. etc. etc.
If you are a stickler for detail or a just plain masochistic type, we will walk you through the whole form so that you can check off little boxes to your heart's content. We would suggest you have a sample character sheet from your preferred game system in front of you so that you can identify what kind of stats you will need to display.
The first thing you come across is a category titled "Rolled Characteristics" There are 12 labels below this starting with "Strength" and ending with three labels titles "Other1," "Other2," and "Other3." Note that all these labels are in text boxes. That means that you can change any or all of them to reflect the categories that are rolled in your game, no matter how offbeat it is. You use the boxes next to these labels to select the characteristics that players will roll for. For example, in D20, you would check off the boxes next to "Strength, Intelligence, Constitution, Wisdom, Charisma, and Dexterity. If you are running classic Traveller, you need check off Social Standing and Education but not Wisdom. For Cthulhu you need "Sanity" and so forth.
At the end of all the check boxes are two lines with fill in spaces. One says "Roll ____ D-____ for each characteristic. In the blanks you fill in how many dice are used to roll each characteristic and the number of faces that the dice have. For most games, you roll three D6s for each characteristic. The next line says "Let players use best of ____ rolls. If you let players take the best of two or more rolls for some or all characteristics, put the number of rolls in here. All this does is automatically cause the dice roller on the next page to roll its dice N times and provide N columns of rolled values to choose from.
The next category you encounter is "Character Info". The things you check off here will determine what your players get to fill in to flesh out their characters. There are two categories without check boxes – Character name and player name. You must give your character (or NPC, or Monster) a name, since that is what the rest of the program uses to identify it. Your own name or handle is already printed for you. The other characteristics that you check off will depend on the system you are using. For example, in a fantasy game you probably don't need "military rank" but you will need "race" and "alignment" and a bunch of others. Again, look at a typical published character sheet for your system.
If you check this category a box will be generated where your players can write out a detailed description and history of their character. You can use it for the same thing, or to write notes about your NPCs and their encounters with PCs. The limit is 1000 letters and spaces, which comes out to about 200 words.
The next category, titled "Quirks/Personality Traits" was inspired by Hackmaster (Kenzer & Co.). "Quirks" are formalized in their system, but giving your players a small number of basic personality traits or interesting quirks (like phobias, nervous tics, habits, strong attractions or aversions) to fill out can help them flesh out their characters and inspire better roleplaying in any system. If you check this you can choose the number of spaces available for players to enter one or two word quirk or personality trait descriptions.
The large block of labels and check boxes that comes next is called the "Base and Modifier Matrix" In most systems there are several character properties that typically have a "base" value that is subtracted and added to by all sorts of modifiers depending on circumstance. Armor class and Fortitude are two examples in D-20. We have collected these together in a big matrix to save space. The character properties are listed in the leftmost column of text boxes. The various modifiers that can be applied are listed along the top row.
Depending on how you check off the boxes, the player gets a series of labeled rows (hit points, armor class, etc.) with fill in boxes for certain modifiers strung out along each. For example, in D20 a character's Armor Class has a base value of ten to which are added modifiers for Armor Bonus, Shield Bonus, dex, and size. Therefore if you are playing D20 you would go along the Armor Class row and check off the box in the Armor, the Shield Column, the dex column and the size column. For the other rows you would check off different sets of boxes.
Take a look at the sample D20 Character Sheet Generator and the sheet that is generated by it to see better how this works.
There is no checkbox for the whole matrix. If you don't want any of this stuff, just leave all the boxes blank. If you check off any box in any row, that row's property with a fill in box will appear on the character sheet.
Note that all the row and column labels are in text boxes, so you can change any of them.
Weapon Characteristics and Defensive Item Characteristics
The next two groups cover weapon characteristics and defensive item characteristics. These generate tables with space to list N weapons or defensive items in the leftmost column with fill in boxes for the characteristics of each, which are listed along the top row. As usual, check off the labels that apply to your game. You also need to fill in how many weapons and defensive items the player will be able to list (you can increase this later).
This group generates a table where players can fill in their skills. The table will have a space for the name of each skill, a space for a numerical value, and a small number of modifiers that you can name yourself. You also have to choose the number of skills that your player can list. You can always increase this later.
This group generates a table where players can fill in their feats. The table will have a space for the name of each feat, a space for a numerical value, and a small number of modifiers that you can name yourself. You also have to choose the number of feats that your player can list. You can always increase this later.
For the next item, Equipment List, all you have to do is choose how many spaces are available for players to list the equipment and non coin valuables that they have at any given time. For higher level characters this can get quite large, and as usual you can increase it later.
The next group generates a small number of boxes, one box for each type of currency that a character might be carrying. For example, for a fantasy game, you would probably check off "platinum," "gold," "silver," and "copper." The player would get four boxes with those labels, and would fill in each with the number of coins of that type that he or she has. Note that you can change any of these labels to reflect whatever monetary system your game uses.
The next group is used to list the number of spells that are available to a character at each level, plus bonuses, etc. Choose the number of levels that you want to list for now (as usual you can increase the number later) and check off the categories/mods that you want to include. The player will have to fill in the boxes, including the ones listing the number of spells available.
Spell List
The last item generates a series of boxes where players can list their spells. The only thing you have to do here is choose the number of boxes you want to list. You can increase the number later.
After you've checked everything you want to, click on the "view sample character sheet" button to view the character sheet as it will appear to you and your players. You cannot fill out anything on the sample sheet. The sample D20 character sheet generator also has a "view sample character sheet" button. If you like what you see, click the "Save this form" button (the reset button next to it, if present, does nothing on the sample sheet). If you don't like something, go back to the character sheet generator and change your labels or check off boxes. If you have really messed up, use the "reset" button at the bottom of the character sheet generator to erase all the check marks and label changes, and start over.
Once you have saved the sample character sheet, you can go back to the Selection Page (two pages back) and click the "Fill out form for new Character" button in the second row of butons to bring up a character sheet that you can fill out by typing into its text boxes. Players will have an equivalent button on their Selection Page.
There will always be a text box at the top of the character sheet labelled "Character Name:" You must fill out this box. The character's name will be used by you and the program to identify the character sheet.
Your own name or handle will be printed below the character name fill in line.
There will likely be several fill in tables under the general heading of "Basic Character Information" These will cover information like level, occupation, gender, etc. etc. and many other things like lists of skills or personality traits that are dependent on the game system and game genre. You will get to decide what most of this information is and type it in to flesh out your character. The text box labelled "Character description" will also be there if you chose to include it.
If your game system uses dice to roll up certain characteristics, a table labeled "Rolled Characteristics" will appear amongst the Basic Character Information tables. There will be a blank field and a button labelled "Die Roller" next to the "Rolled Characteristics table. You use the die roller to determine the values of the rolled characteristics.
All of the boxes in the character sheet are text boxes that you fill in by typing, with the exception of the die roller.
To operate the die roller click on the "roll all dice" button above it. The die roller generates M columns of N random numbers, where "M' is the number of characteristics that must be determined by die rolls, which you indicated on the character sheet generator, and "N" is the "best of ____ rolls" number that you indicated on the character sheet generator (see the instructions for rolled characteristics above). Each random number is determined according to the number of dice used for each characteristic and the number of faces per die. The odds are the same as if you were rolling real dice.
You must decide how to let players (and yourself) allocate the rolled values to the list of rolled characteristics that appears in the "Stats" window next to the die rolls. Depending on your system or your own house rules, you might, for example, let players allocate the highest from each row of rolled values to any stat, or allocate the highest values in each row in order, down the line of stats. In any case your players have to type in the values themselves.
After you have filled out or changed information on the character sheet, you can save it by clicking on any of the "save changes" buttons at the upper left, middle left, or lower left of the page. All these buttons save the entire page. If you really mess things up, you can use any of the "reset" buttons to erase ALL the values in the character sheet. Note that we said ALL the values, not just recent changes! The character sheet becomes blank again. Don't use this button unless you really mess up.
When you fill out and save a character sheet for any NPC or monster, a button with that NPC's/monster's name on it will appear below the "GM's NPCs and Monsters" title bar. Pressing one of these buttons brings up the appropriate character sheet, to which you can make further changes if you like.
If you have a pre existing character sheet in .txt format that was produced by a character generating program or typed up by yourself, you can use it as is instead of using the on site generated fill out forms. Press the "Cut And paste text character sheet" button. This will open a window with two text fields: A small one line field at the top where you type in your character name (remember, you have to provide a character name even if it is already on your existing sheet - the program uses it to identify the character sheet), and a large blank area where you can simple paste text from another character sheet. Be sure to press the "save text and chara name" button next to the character name field to save everything. As usual a button with that character name will appear below the "GM's NPCs and Monsters" label.
You can modify character information by hand at any time after you have pasted it in.
Below the each of the large labels with a player’s name on it you will find at least one button called "New sheet." If a player has already saved character sheets, you will also see one or more buttons to the left of that with each of the player’s character names on them.
Use the "New sheet" button if your player is starting to fill out a new character sheet, has not yet given the character a name, and you want to watch and assist (after they give their character a name and save the sheet, a separate button will be present with the character's hame on it, and you will have to click that). A blank or partially filled out sheet will appear. This sheet will be almost identical to the one you use for your NPCs and monsters, but will have a few extra features:
In addition to the "save" and die roller buttons found on your own fill out form, this one will have an additional button next to each save button labeled "collaborative mode," and also another button near the top left of the page labeled "Chat Window." These let you communicate with the player and see changes to the character sheet as the player inputs them. You can also make changes yourself.
Collaborative Mode lets you see changes to a player's
character sheet as the player is filling it out. It only works if you are viewing a player's character sheet
after having pressed a "character name" button or a "New Sheet" button under that player's label. Collaborative mode is handy for helping
new players fill out their sheets and for making sure that players are honest
about allocating die rolls to their stats, etc. To enter collaborative mode you
and a player must both have one of the player's character sheets up at the
time. To enter collaborative mode,
click one of the "collaborative mode buttons at the top left, middle left, or bottom left corners
of the page. After you have done this, a red "Collaborative mode is ON"
message appears at the bottom of your character sheet. When the player enters or changes a value,
the new value appears on your copy of the character sheet within several
seconds of the change. The player must click the "save changes" button on his
or her screen to enter the new value. This is not quite a two way street. If you change a value for them, the player will have to manually
refresh their screen (using either their "save changes" button or their
browser's refresh button) to see the change.
If neither you or your player make changes to the screen for a period of about five minutes, Collaborative Mode will time out, and you will get a message to that effect at the bottom of the character sheet. Just press the collaborative mode button to start it up again.
In the upper left hand corner of your character sheet you will see a button labeled "Chat Window." Pressing this opens a small window containing a large rectangular Chat Box where messages will appear, a single line text box labeled "message" below it, where you can type in your messages, and four more buttons. This window lets you exchange typed messages with the player while the player is filling out or changing a character sheet. When the window opens, the chat function should be on. If it is on, you see a vertical column of short horizontal lines, like dashes, in the rectangular Chat Box. If it is off, you see the words "Chat Box" there instead, and if you use an Internet Explorer browser, you may hear a click every few seconds as the box automatically updates itself. You can turn the Chat Box and chat functions on and off with the "Chat on" and "Chat off" buttons.
To send a message to the player, type it in the "Message:" text line and press the Snd button to the right of the line. Press the Rset button to erase the message line if you make a lot of typling mistakes and want to start over. Your message will appear, preceeded by your name or handle in bold, in your Chat Box and the player's Chat Box a few seconds after you type it. The GM's messages to you will also appear.
If you choose to modify a player's sheet you can press any of the "save changes" buttons at the upper left, middle left, or lower left of the page at any time to save whatever changes you have entered since the last press of that button. If the player really messes things up, you can use any of the "reset" buttons to erase ALL the values in the character sheet. Note that we said ALL the values, not just recent changes! The character sheet becomes blank again. In fact, we recommend that you allow the player decide if they want to do this, and let them click the reset button on their own screen.
You or your players can go back to a sheet at any time and change the values.
Below the GM's NPCs and Monsters buttons you will see several labels, saying "Playername's characters." Each time one of your players fills out and saves a character sheet, a button for that character will appear below the player's name label. Most of the time each player will have only one or two sheets. Pressing one of these buttons brings up that character's sheet.
You may view and change any player's existing character sheet in the same way that you view and change a new one. Collaborative mode is also available on these sheets. Players can only view and change their own sheets.
Under the "Delete Character Sheets" label at the bottom of
this page there is a button labeled "delete selection below". Below the button is a scroll bar. Clicking the arrow on the scroll bar brings
up a list of all of the player's characters and your NPCs and monsters,
identified by the character name and its owner. You can highlight any one of these and then click the "delete
selection below" button to delete it. After you do that the character's button disappears from the page.All records of the character are deleted,
and neither you nor the player can get them back, so don't use this button
lightly. In fact, unless you are
expelling an unwanted player from your game and don't want their character
around either, it would be better to let the players delete their own
characters as the characters die, retire, whatever. Many players save sheets for nostalgic purposes.