Here’s a list of changes:

- Added support for Pathfinder. Touch AC, Flat-Footed AC and CMD can now be entered for combatants.

- Reactivated the heal / wound buttons from v0.4. Back by popular demand!

- Fixed a bug that prevented negative values for most statistics.

- Fixed a bug that would cause the program to crash if negative values were entered for Listen / Spot skills.

- Fixed a bug with the random number generator that would set the maximum value for a random roll to be one less than the actual maximum (so a d20 would be 1-19).

- Made some of the checkbox descriptions clearer.

- Few other miscellaneous tweaks and UI improvements.

Download TrackWork v0.53

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Actually, I’m just going to point you in the general direction.

Disclaimer: I, in no way, condone or support reverse-engineering the Character Builder or its associated libraries. I also cannot condone redistribution of any Wizards-owned IP or content.

The greatest failing of the official 4e Character Builder from Wizards is its weak support for homebrew and custom content. For such a powerful and mature tool, it’s an incredible shortcoming. In addition, the recent (and second) delay to the September refresh of the CB highlighted the fact that players are at the mercy of Wizards for rules updates. Without WotC’s regular software support, the CB quickly falls out-of-sync with new books and Dragon/Dungeon magazines. For those on the cutting edge of the game, it’s fairly crippling.

Recently I came across a Google Code project called cbloader. It’s a fairly simple C# application that decrypts the “combined.dnd40.encrypted” file, extracts the rules database from it and writes it out as XML. You can then use the app to instruct the CB to use the XML instead of the encrypted file for its ruleset. This XML is completely editable. At any time you can redirect the CB back to the encrypted file, so you can have a modified database and the original running in parallel.

In essence, it allows you to update the CB yourself, or put in proper custom rules fully supported by the application. With colours and bonuses and all.

Obviously, if players could add their own content to the CB (including the official stuff) there would be little reason for them to purchase the monthly updates, except for major rule changes (such as with Essentials and the September CB refresh). That, and saving yourself the hassle of typing in all the new content, which is significant.

I’d like to clarify that I am not at all associated with cbloader – it’s just something I came across. If you’d like to take a look at it, go right ahead. I can tell you now, out of the box, it won’t work, and I don’t feel comfortable explaining how to fix it.

I will say that anyone with reasonable experience with programming, particularly C#, and some familiarity with reading and writing to process memory should be able to get it operational quickly, after which it will do exactly what it says on the tin. As for manipulating the XML itself, well, that’s another can of worms entirely.

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Zafehouse 2: Development has been… slow. At work, we’re getting extremely close to the business end of development and I’m spending a lot of time doing the designer thing. It hasn’t left me with a lot of brain space or time for Zafehouse 2. This has compounded my aforementioned sadness.

Compounding the compounded sadness, I’ve hit a few roadblocks with the game, which I am methodically resolving. The biggest one was enemy/player placement in combat. Originally I was using pixel positioning, which seemed decent on the surface, but caused havoc with movement, path-finding and a bunch of other tiny things that grew into a series of big things with teeth, bad breath and mad, mad eyes. I’ve now switched to a grid system, and much of the pain has faded. I’m now refactoring the drawing code and logic so I can finish combat completely.

I’ve finally added the concept of stamina and I’m happy with the implementation. Stamina “units”, at their most basic level, are action points that carry between turns. When you don’t perform any strenuous activities, you regain half a stamina unit. Activities such as moving for extended periods, fighting and break (but not dismantling) furniture drain stamina. Having low stamina makes you move slower, while having close to no stamina stops you from barricading doors and making barricading supplies. Stimulants prevent stamina loss, but leave you with a stamina “debt” that must be repaid before you can regain it again.

Stamina also allows you to fight additional combat rounds before the zombies can act, giving you a small advantage when turds hit the turbines.

Survivor carry limits have been reduced, making your choice of stronghold even more important. Currently, survivors can carry 2 medicine, 2 alcohol and 5 barricades, down from 4, 4 and 10. On the upside, I realised 25 was a silly maximum for bullets – it’s been upped to 50. You’ll have a choice of one of five perks to increase your carrying capacities – one for each supply type that increases it a moderate amount (probably double), and one that increases them all by a small amount.

I’m still aiming for a July demo – working towards this has provided me with a goal that has helped crystalise the game’s direction. Expect the demo to have just one scenario (likely the tutorial one) and no high score uploading.

4e Power Toolkit: I’ve had plenty of requests for improvements recently, but I’m not sure if the current code can support these extensions. The program is reasonably modular, but only to the limits of the vanilla WotC power format. Various expansions, like the “Power” books and the new PHBs, have morphed the Power format into something that’s becoming harder to support with the current version of the 4ePT.

As such, I’m looking to recode large parts of the program to not only improve the interface (based mainly on user suggestions), but to increase the modularity of the Power format. Currently the 4ePT uses a tag replacement system to format the powers. It works well, but it’s grown harder to maintain as WotC’s powers has evolved. What the 4ePT needs is something component-based, but I’m still nutting out exactly how this would work. I’m also keen to add power “templates”, as the powers of a class often share sources, damage types and implements. Hopefully this will streamline the power creation process, especially for official classes.

I don’t have a timeline for this rewrite as my focus is on Zafehouse 2. I’m also keenly aware that WotC could release its own Power/Class Creator, much like it did for monsters. Obviously, if I hear news of an app like this, it’d effectively kill the 4ePT. Which equals more sad.

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Sorry to all the English-only speakers out there… v0.7.0b doesn’t contain a great deal for you. Here’s the changelog anyway – something might take your fancy:

* Added first implementation of localisation support – different languages can be chosen by selecting one of the relevant flag icons at the bottom of the main program window. It is highly experimental and it is not recommended to upgrade to version 0.7.0 unless you plan to beta test localised text. Localised text is stored in the Locale subdirectory (English.txt, French.txt, Italian.txt, etc). Text may not be perfect and some text may still be in English even when a different language is selected. Please contact logan@playwrite-blog.net regarding corrections

* Powers and classes created in one localisation are not compatible with other localisations

* Language data is now stored in power and class XML

* Powers and classes with custom data (power sources, effect types, etc) will now load correctly

* Updated PDFsharp to v1.31

Probably the big takeaway is that classes and powers are not compatible between different versions of the toolkit. I should also mention the Italian translation was made with Babelfish, so it’s no doubt a bit rubbish.

If there’s anyone out there who’d like to translate the program into their mother tongue, just dip into the Locale subfolder of the 4e Power Toolkit folder. You’ll find an English.txt file with the program’s English text. Use this as a starting point to create your own localisation file. Once you’re done, just email me at logan (at) playwrite-blog (dot) net with the file and the language it’s for, and I’ll include it in the next build.

Thanks to Xavier Hunault-Pérusse for the French translation.

Download the 4e Power Toolkit 0.7.0b

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Shadows and darkness – both are your tools, the incantations you have learned grant you all the powers of the Umbral Realm, all shadows are at your beck and call. Through years of study the realm of the dark has opened your eyes to the eternal bleak eternities and the reflection of all. Each time you cast a spell, you know that shadows are encouraging your words and that they wish to do your will. Your soul is forever held by the Arch Shades, whether the good or the malign.

And here’s an example of one of the powers:

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Masterplan is the program you want. Along with an interactive flowchart to track your party’s progress, you can create and manage combat encounters, put together traps and skill challenges and best of all, build dungeons manually or automatically using graphical tiles. If it sounds so amazing it could blind pigeons, you’d be right.

If all you want to do is craft dungeons quickly, then go ahead and stick with CrawlNotes. But I think Masterplan would suit better if you plan on expanding your adventures – in any which way.

Masterplan [Habitual Indolence]

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v0.6.0 also removes the minimum size on the creator windows, allowing the program to be used on small screens, and I’ve fixed a problem that would prevent secondary and tertiary attacks from appearing on power cards. Otherwise, v0.6.0 is a lightweight update… but one you can’t do without!

You can download it from here, and all custom classes and powers can be seen at dnd.playwrite-blog.net.

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Here’s a complete list of changes.

=v0.5.4 beta=
* The “Racial” option in the power type dropdown of the Power Creator now displays the correct output
* Default filenames will now be stripped of HTML tags

=v0.5.3 beta=
* At-Will, Encounter and Daily powers at levels 2, 6, 10, 16 and 22 are now grouped together as Utility powers when exported as HTML in the Class Creator
* The Power Creator will no longer obscure controls when resized
* Powers can once again have ranges without attack subtypes
* Added Beast as an attack subtype
* Racial powers now read as “Racial Power” instead of just “Racial”
* Added No Action as an action type

=v0.5.2 beta=
* Added Daggers, Tomes and Totems to possible implements
* Fixed a crash with PDF exporting

=v0.5.1 beta=
* Changed the width of powers to 3.25in (~298px) to match the size of the PHB format
* Class Creator export dialog now provides a default filename

Not groundbreaking stuff, but there might be a change or two in there that prompts you to take another look at the Toolkit.

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Version v0.5 of the 4e Power Toolkit is the first step towards this objective. Along with a boatload of general improvements, including proper class feature support and feat powers, you can now upload your classes and allow people to comment and vote on your work.

A lot has been crammed into v0.5, so I’m expecting it to be a little rough around the edges. But I have spent the last week bug-testing, and I’m feeling confident.

Here’s a complete list of changes:

* Added class upload. Visit dnd.playwrite-blog.net for more details or try out the feature in the Class Creator

* Added class feature support

* 4EC and 4EP files can now be opened directly by double-clicking on them

* Increased the size of the class modifier dialog

* A few miscellaneous tweaks to various dialogs

* Cancelling a Save dialog for the Class and Power Creator will no longer save a file to the application directory

* “Feat” is now available as a power type

* Switched order of “Keywords” and “Action” modules in Power Creator

* Fixed issues with newlines not being correctly converted and displayed in HTML and XML

* Class Creator and Power Creator windows now resize their controls in a more useful fashion

* Added new version update window with changelog

* Corrected version typo in changelog

* Merged EXE and DLLs into single file with ILMerge

* Added DotNetZip v1.8 (dotnetzip.codeplex.com)

Check out the 4e Custom Classes website (it’s a little empty right now, but I’m sure that’ll change soon), and be sure to download v0.5!

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* Added Expand/Hide, Edit, Delete and Save options to powers in the Class Creator
– You can now edit powers directly in the Class Creator, and save powers from a class to a separate file

* Version check module will now timeout, which should speed up program loading when the download server cannot be contacted

* Improved attack range and type options, now includes spirit. Note that selecting ‘None’ for attack range on certain powers will default to ’1′

* Powers can now have names up to 128 characters long, and the power HTML template will correctly display names of this length

* Added effect keywords from Player’s Handbook 2

Of course, v0.4.1 is available from apps page.

Right now I’m working on improving the resolution of the power card PDF output. Unfortunately, it looks like that while this can be achieved, you won’t be able to use custom templates for it – unless someone knows of a good and free HTML-to-PDF library (iTextSharp doesn’t cut it). Custom templates for power card HTML output won’t be affected.

If you’re willing to install PDFCreator, you can always just print the HTML output to PDF!

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A full list of improvements below:

* Added right-click menu to power preview window. Menu options will show windows for the original source, inline source and image preview. Both the source text and image can be copied from these windows.

* Added new power HTML export options:
– Embedded CSS, when the power will be displayed by itself on a single web page
– Inline CSS, for use in blog and forum posts and CrawlNotes

* Added new power image export options:
– BMP, provided for maximum compatibility with other applications
– PNG, for web use and reduce file size. Note PNG is a lossless format, and should be the one used most of the time

* Changelog window now uses Courier New font for improved readability

* Fixed an additional bug with the Class Creator window that would cause it to scroll when it shouldn’t

* Fixed some error checking quirks with Save/Load dialogs

No need to dilly-dally now! Pick v0.4 up over at the apps page.

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A handy feature I’d like to build into the Power Toolkit and CrawlNotes. Until I find the time, here’s how you can do it manually:

1) Load your power into the Power Toolkit, and export it to HTML.

2) Open the HTML file in Notepad and look for a line starting with <style type="text/css">. Copy this line, and all the lines below it until you hit </style>. Alternatively, copy the below text:

 <style type="text/css">
    .InternalPowerContainer {
    text-align: center;
    width: 375px;
    margin-left: -10px;
    margin-right: -10px;
    margin-top: -16px;
    }

    .PowerContainer {
    text-align: center;
    width: 375px;
    }

    .PowerHeader {
    height: 18px;
    text-align: left;
    padding-right: 4px;
    padding-left: 6px;
    color: #FFFFFF;
    }

    .At-Will {
    background-color: #669966;
    }

    .Encounter {
    background-color: #993333;
    }

    .Daily {
    background-color: #404040;
    }

    .PowerHeaderLeft {
    padding-top: 1px;
    font: bold 10pt Verdana;
    float: left;
    }

    .PowerHeaderRight {
    padding-top: 4px;
    font: 7pt Verdana;
    float: right;
    }

    .PowerText {
    color: #000000;
    text-align: left;
    padding-top: 2px;
    padding-left: 6px;
    padding-right: 4px;
    padding-bottom: 2px;
    background-color: #FFFFFF;
    font: bold 7pt Verdana;
    }

    .Flavour {
    background-color: #E6E3C9;
    font: italic 8pt Times New Roman;
    }

    .Alternate {
    background-color: #E6E3C9;
    }

    .AlternateNonPrimary {
    background-color: #E6E3C9;
    padding-left: 14px;
    }

    .NonPrimary {
    padding-left: 14px;
    }

3) Open “main.html” (found in the CrawlNotes directory) in Notepad. Paste the text you just copied just below the line that starts with <title>. Make sure the entire pasted region ends just before the line that starts with </head>.

4) Go back to the HTML of your power. Copy everything below </head> (but not the tag itself).

5) Remove the whitespace from the text you copied using this website. Copy the cleaned text.

6) Paste the text into any of the room description boxes in CrawlNotes. When you export as HTML, your power will appear correctly formatted on the page.

There’s no reason why CrawlNotes and the Power Toolkit shouldn’t have better synergy. Something else on the giant list of things to code. :P

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Thanks Matt for showing just what can be accomplished with the program. I desperately want to get the Upload feature of the Toolkit working so there’s a central repository of user-created classes and powers, but I need to do some work on the backend. My knowledge of PHP is a little, well, disappointing, so it’s taking time.

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Anyway, here’s a list of changes:

* Added class modifiers to Hit, Effect, Miss and Sustain boxes. A class modifier can be used to include modifiers to powers based on classes, feats and other factors

* Fixed a bug with the Class Creator window that would cause the scroll position of the left hand window to constantly reset while a power was being dragged

* Added Melee 2, Melee 3 and Melee 4 to possible ranges

* Added scroll bars to a number of text boxes

I know it’s not huge… I’m working on it as I can.

If you’d like to grab the latest version, just head over to the apps page. Again, thanks to everyone who has made suggestions and reported bugs!

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Thanks to everyone for putting up with the delay, as well as those who have provided feedback thus far.

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2.2 fixes a data corruption bug with deleting adding rooms and switching levels. That’s it!

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So, I won’t.

Here are the changes you’ll find in v0.2 Beta of the Toolkit:

* Fixed bug with Power Creator that would cause the “Attack type” combo box to fill forever

* Power names may now be 36 characters, up from 30

* Hit, Miss and Effect text now correctly formats carriage returns and multiple spaces

* The Auto-detect target function now uses “creature” and “creatures” instead of “enemy” and “enemies”

* A power card template based on the power layouts in the PHB is available under “Templates\Power cards”

* HTML exported via the Class Creator will no longer add titles for levels or frequencies that have no powers

* Added “Melee or Ranged” option to attack types

* Added NYI text to power card HTML export

* Fixed a typo in the “Classes” help tab

* Added changelog to Help window

Thanks to everyone who’s provided feedback and bug reports so far, every bit of help is appreciated! I’ll look to add the Upload feature next version so everyone can start checking out the awesome classes and powers being cooked up out there!

To grab the latest version, head over to the Downloads section.

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First, there’s the Power Creator. This lets you make powers just like the 4e Power Creator before it. Except this has support for Secondary and Tertiary attacks as well as Sustain and more. You can even add your own power sources and keywords using text files.

With a few powers created, you can load them into the Class Creator. Play around with primary stats, proficiencies and other details, and then export it all as a pretty document, presented much like the PHB. HTML is the only option right now, but PDF and text formats are not far away.

Finally, there’s the Power Card Creator. Export your powers as power cards using the template you want. Templates are made in HTML, so they can include images, CSS… whatever you want. There are two included with the program – one optimised for HTML and the other PDF. And yes, you can export the cards to PDF and it’ll format them all nice-like.

So, where can you find these awesome tools? Why, they’re all included in the one program – the 4e Power Toolkit!

It’s beta, so if it crashes or something doesn’t work, don’t get angry. Actually, if the program does chuck a hissy fit, please post about it on the 4e Power Toolkit forum so I can fix it.

The program features an auto-update function, so you’ll always know when a new version is available. For now, get the latest build from the link below. You’ll need Windows XP or Vista and the .NET 2.0 Framework. I apologise for not having a Linux or Mac version – it’s beyond my abilities to even entertain the idea of supporting other platforms.

If you like the toolkit, be sure to have a play with the other 4e apps I’ve put together:
CrawlNotes: A dungeon-planning tool for all occasions
TrackWork: The no-frills initiative tracker

Download the 4e Power Toolkit

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It also helps that rubbing out stuff doesn’t leave a mark… unless you use white-out on your monitor. If this is the case, generating 4e characters is the least of your concerns.

For those of you who scoff at the idea of using a computer to help with a pen and paper game, sure. I get it. The old school method has an obvious advantage: all you need, at the minimum, is a pencil and a piece of paper. This sort of minimalism appeals to a wide range of people, mostly because it’s cheap. I like cheap.

Unless your memory abilities are herculean in nature, you’ll need a 4e PHB too. You can subsequently add a character sheet and dice, in that order. There’s also something real about writing out your character, as if you’re carving their very psyche with graphite. This slow, methodical process also allows one to reflect on their choices, and you could argue that a stronger, more rounded character is the result.

The disadvantages, however, are numerous. Writing out a character takes time – time that a lot of players (and a few DMs) fail to take into account when starting a new campaign or levelling a character. The game comes to a grinding halt as stats are allocated and powers, feats and skills are chosen. Throw in newbies and those six hours alloted for fun, excitment and general orc-slaying are wittled to a paltry four or less. The potential for human error also lurks around the edges of every formula, and what should be a +4 to hit becomes +2, +6 or nothing at all.

In the case of levelling, you have to manually – and carefully – transfer items, treasure and other tidbits to your new sheet. It’s easy for the occasional gem or Resounding Mace +1 to slip through the cracks and, before you know it, an entire warehouse of silver candelabra is inadvertantly left to rot on a discarded character sheet or to exist only as rubber shavings underneath a couch cushion. On a PC, you can just load your character, hit a button and everything is sorted for you.

It’s hard to argue that in terms of efficiency, accuracy and ease, a PC character generator is leagues ahead of its real-world, pencil-driven counterpart. Once this realisation occurs, the question stops being “if” but “which”. To make that question as simple as possible to answer, I’ve taken it upon myself to dabble with five 4e character generators and rank them based on portability, ease of use, stat calculation, reliance on the PHB and cost (if any).

#5: dnd4e’s Fillable PDF Character Sheet
http://dnd4.com/dd-4th-edition-character-sheet

Overview: A Portable Document File (PDF) of the 4e character sheet with editable fields. Some fields have logic behind them to calculate stats, hit points and other values.

Requirements: Windows, Linux or OS X. Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Reader or Foxit. Photoshop if you’re hardcore.

Good: It’s basically a genuine 4e character sheet. Everything is positioned how it should be, and printing can be done without hassle. It represents the least amount of technology one could inject into a character sheet – your mouse/keyboard becomes a pencil and the PDF paper. Acrobat Reader is free to download and use, so portability/compatiblility is not an issue.

Bad: Adobe’s Portable Document Format is not known for its ability to dynamically alter on-screen values. The capability is there, but its clunky and doesn’t always work how it should. Without the full version of Adobe Acrobat or an alternative like Foxit, making changes to the internals isn’t happening either. You’ll still need the PHB to look up powers and there’s nothing stopping you from making an illegal character. The fillable PDF makes it quite clear that, to take proper advantage of a computer’s aid, more technology has to be involved.


#4: Wizards of the Coast’s Character Builder
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/insider/characterbuilder

Overview: A character sheet built for Windows using .NET 3.5 Framework. Complex logic and a large database of feats and powers lets you make do without a Player’s Handbook.

Requirements: Windows and .NET 3.5 Framework. Maybe Linux and Mac with Mono.

Good: Currently in beta, the Character Builder is shaping up to be the best, easiest and most visually appealing way to generate and level characters. Almost everything is automatically calculated, a database provides quick reference to powers, skills, feats, class descriptions and other bits and bobs, and you can go as far as to add house rules and reformat the standard character sheet. When you’re done, you can save the character off for later editing, and printing is right there as well.

Bad: You have to pay for it, which is beyond ridiculous having already spent a wad on the PHB, DMG and MM. It’s also in beta and the “free” version only allows characters of levels 1-3. So you can make new characters, but levelling is out of the question. It should also be noted that Windows is the only supported platform, so OS X and Linux users are out of luck. It might work with Mono.

Beyond the proprietary save format Characters are saved in XML and can be printed via the bundled viewer app. There’s no HTML or text file export, which is almost suffocating, and wouldn’t be hard to add giving the file format. Installing a PDF printer isn’t a big deal but, really, for the price this functionality should be in-built.

The Character Builder is not an online component of D&D Insider, so you won’t have to pay a subscription to generate and level characters once the final build is out. You will however need a subscription for updates.

If paying for something that ought to be free appeals to you, then whack another two points onto the score. The rest of us will continue to wait for WotC to pick up its game while we use free alternatives that are almost as good.


#3: Pfhoenix’s Character Sheet
http://dnd.pfhoenix.com/downloads.php

Overview: A character sheet built for Windows using .NET 3.5 Framework. Complex logic and a large database of feats and powers lets you make do without a Player’s Handbook.

Requirements: Windows and .NET 3.5 Framework. Maybe Linux and Mac with Mono.

Good: Adding a power or feat gives you access to a massive, graphical database of what I can only assume is all the current 4e content. It’s on the awesome side of, well, awesome and must have taken a significant amount of effort to compile. So, massive kudos for that. Hit points and defenses are calculated automatically once all the required data is in place, and drop-down boxes allow you to easily select your race and class. The interface is straight-forward and you can save characters as XML files for editing later or print them out in proper sheet form. Well-rounded and the second-most visually appealing.

Bad: A Windows app that needs .NET 3.5 is about as portable as a grand piano. Okay, it’s not as bad as VB6, but it’s not best-case. I haven’t tested the program in OS X or Linux with Mono, so I can’t say whether it works. All I can say is your experiences may differ. The program also doesn’t stop you from whacking in a billion feats at Level 1, and the Validate feature doesn’t do much of anything. I also noticed a bug with the Print Preview where the skill list is obscured by checkboxes.

From a coding perspective, it would be nice to have access to the database. I know a lot of applications I could use it in…


#2: Sheepy’s Javascript D&D 4e Character Generator
http://dnd.pfhoenix.com/downloads.php

Overview: A Javascript-driven, web-based generator that uses checkboxes and radio buttons.

Requirements: A recent web brower with Javascript support. So, all of them.

Good: From a technical standpoint, Sheepy’s is the most impressive of the lot. It has a massive database of powers and feats, and can tell when you’re eligible for something or not; making an illegal character is close to impossible. The finished sheet includes brief descriptions of your abilities, so you don’t need the PHB to run it through a game. If you want to take the generator on the road, it can be saved to your hard drive for use offline. Best of all, it doesn’t care what operating system you’re using, as long as it has a browser with Javascript support.

Bad: Characters cannot be saved for levelling or editing, requiring one to reenter all their data. The only export function is a text file – supremely flexible but it’s no character sheet. Finally, rituals are not supported, but it’s so minor it borders on irrelevant. It’s also the only generator other than WotC’s that doesn’t present itself as an editable sheet, which may confuse newbies. Otherwise, it’s pretty hard to fault, and my default choice when I don’t have #1 available.

If Sheepy’s had a save function and HTML export, it’d be tied for first place.


#1: dnd4e’s Excel Character Sheet
http://dnd4.com/dd-4th-edition-character-sheet

Overview: An Excel spreadsheet with formulas to calculate statistics and locked pages that contain powers, feats and other information.

Requirements: Windows or OS X. Microsoft Excel.

Good: Auto-calculates statistics, contains a bunch of locked sheets with powers, feats, racials and other details that are referenced when appropriate and you’re free to tweak behind the scenes by revealing the hidden data. It’s a good combination of functionality and flexiblity. If you happen to use a laptop as an electronic character sheet during games, you can even add a worksheet to keep a record of your items, treasure, hit points and encounter/daily power usage. I should know, because it’s exactly what I do during my regular sessions. Your character, in its entirety, is contained within a single file for a single program. Printing is the definition of easy, and it comes out looking almost exactly like a genuine character sheet.

Bad: If you don’t have Excel this just isn’t an option. If you do have Excel, it’s still possible to screw up the formulas so values stop auto-calculating. It doesn’t take much to create an illegal character either. I should admit I’m a bit bias as I do have Excel, and Sheepy’s would probably be my #1 choice if I didn’t have it.


Conclusion: I should stress that none of the above tools is a bad choice – they’re all better alternatives than a pencil and paper. If you just want to save a character in electronic form, you could get away with the editable PDF. Personally, I prefer the one that combines power with flexibility and ease of use, and that just happens to be the Excel spreadsheet.

The big takeaway? Use whichever one is easiest for you!

On the horizon: PCGen is the default free tool for generating characters for 3.5e (and a bunch of other systems). There’s no support for 4e at the moment for various reasons, but I expect it’ll become my app of choice once a 4e dataset is available. Keep an eye out for it and use one of the above in the meantime.

Contenders: If you’ve found a good electronic character sheet, and it’s not listed here, be sure to let us know about it!

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A handsome (and big) screenshot can be found here.

It’s crazy how much I’ve packed into version 2. It’s a rewrite, basically. Oval rooms join the plain old square ones and the resize function is less fiddly. The canvas performance is magnitudes faster, and there’s a semi-real time preview map if you don’t mind a small performance hit. All the program’s windows can now be maximised.

The canvas is now 2048 x 2048 pixels, and you can scroll around it by holding down the right mouse button and dragging the cursor.

The app is smart enough to check for new versions too, so you’ll never be out-of-date.

The HTML templates included with the executable allow you to customise the output. There are special tags embedded in the templates that you can move around to get the pages looking exactly how you want them to. I’ve got a very basic set of templates built into the program, so feel free to tweak.

Version 2 is not compatible with maps made in versions prior to it. If enough people request it, I’ll code an import feature, but you should be able to manage. That, or you’ll explode. Please don’t though!

A few features didn’t make it into this version: room linking being the major one. It’s next on the implementation list, as soon as I figure out a nice way of doing it.

Special thanks to At-Will for providing me with some incentive.

Considering the amount of work that’s gone into this, I’ve got it down as a beta. If you find any bugs or have suggestions, please post them in the CrawlNotes forum.

Download CrawlNotes v2.0

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