I learned recently that WotC shut down Ema's Character Manager earlier this year. Given that his tools made the game easier and more fun to play, thus helping them to sell more books, this seems like a remarkably stupid business decision, but obviously they see it differently. In any case, I contacted Ema to see if he would consider doing a version of his character sheets, generator, and database compatible with Pathfinder, using only the open content therein; he said that that was unlikely, as he had created the software mainly for his own gaming group, and they weren't interested in playing Pathfinder (silly of them, I think, but there's no accounting for taste). He concluded that it was unlikely that he would work on a Pathfinder Character Manager "unless Paizo hires me."
And I thought, "why not?" The tool he created is incredibly useful: it let you store complete stats for up to 100 characters in a database, where updating any one value automatically recalculated all related values (e.g. increase your strength, and your base attack bonus, damage, strength-related skills, and so on went up with it), and dynamically generate the most attractive PDF character sheet I've ever seen from that database, with all stats, equipment, spells, etc. included. I'd gladly pay a subscription fee to have that functionality available on Paizo's site. Ema is still reachable at charsheets@emass-web.com (I don't think I'm violating his privacy by posting that address here, as it was publicly available on his own site up until he took it down); Paizo could contact him about doing a Pathfinder version of his software, or just seek to obtain it as is and edit it for Pathfinder yourselves -- since it's based on the 3.5 rules, it shouldn't be all that much work to adapt, especially as you'd only be working with the parts that fell under the 3.5 OGL.
Just a suggestion.
Best Regards,
Alex
Check out Erian_7's sheet when you get a chance..
http://paizo.com/people/erian7
The discussion thread is here
http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/pathfinderR PG/communityContent/houseRules/erian7sExcelBasedCharacterSheet&page=1
That's fairly typical for an Excel sheet -- it matches the functionality of Ema's database, but it's not especially readable, and certainly not pretty, in comparison to the standard Pathfinder sheet. Ema's sheets were marvels of functional aesthetics: see his Dragonlance variant D&D 3.5 sheet, or his remarkably elegant Fourth Edition design (compare it with the eyesore which is the official 4e sheet, and you'll wonder if WotC didn't shut him down out of sheer creative envy -- they should have hired him instead). Unfortunately, only the plain, blank sheets can still be obtained from sites other than his now-vanished one; he never did form-fillable sheets, because players who wanted that kind of functionality could get it so much more efficiently at his website, then generate a sheet once they were satisfied with their stats, skills, equipment, spells, etc.
I will grant they did have one limitation, at least from a North American perspective, which Paizo will probably want to fix if they do decide to do as I suggested and acquire Ema's software: because he lives in Italy, the PDF's are scaled to the European ISO 216 A4 standard paper size, rather than our own arbitrary 8.5x11" standard. I actually bought a couple of reams of A4 paper last year when I was setting up a campaign that would have used Ema's character sheets (it never got off the ground, unfortunately, because two of the prospective players moved 800 miles away), but it's not easy to find in the U.S. Paizo might be better off adapting Ema's database software to fill in the fields on one of their own perfectly serviceable 8.5x11" landscape-oriented character sheets than actually creating a version of his A4 sheet.
I will have to concur with the OP. I've used Ema's prior to the web's site dissolution and hardly any other dynamic character sheet maker could hold a candle to his. I could swap out source books and other options on the fly in order to exclude or include certain options, spells, etc. I was very disappointed to see it go and whomever would decide to take advantage of it would be scoring a major coup, IMHO.
That would be an incredibly bad idea.
You said so himself: He is not interested in Pathfinder. This game is too good to have someone work on it just for money.
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Check out Erian_7's sheet when you get a chance..
http://paizo.com/people/erian7The discussion thread is here
http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/pathfinderR PG/communityContent/houseRules/erian7sExcelBasedCharacterSheet&page=1
Bell South says that that page sucks! Never did like Bell South no how....
That would be an incredibly bad idea.
You said so himself: He is not interested in Pathfinder. This game is too good to have someone work on it just for money.
I agree with the sentiment -- it's the passion for the game that shines through everything the Paizo team do and say that makes it so great -- but what Ema actually said was that it was his players that weren't interested; his exact wording was, "Unfortunately, I don't play Pathfinder. I raised the question with my gaming group and the unanimous answer was negative - they simply have no interest in it." And he wouldn't have to work on it; Paizo could probably buy his database and do the necessary work on it to make it Pathfinder-compatible for a fairly trivial sum of money compared to what they could make from people subscribing to it and using it to manage their characters.
Later,Alex
P.S. I was out at one of my local gaming Meetups last night, at a game store in Glendale, AZ, and got to talking with the owner about the shortcomings of 4e and the appeal of Pathfinder; he said that Pathfinder, despite the comparatively small selection of books so far available in comparison to 4e, is actually outselling 4e in terms of total number of books purchased at his shop. Is cool, no? ;-)
Director of Brand Strategy
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If Paizo were to host a character generator/database, why would they need to employ someone else do do it? They have two software developers on staff and anything they would host would need to be integrated into the existing site, so they'd have to work on it anyway. I also don't think Paizo needs to do something like this to support the game, though, as it's all Open Gaming Content, and anyone can create whatever resource they feel would best meet the needs of their group or the community as a whole.
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I know about the hate towards necromancy, but I just had to bring this up again. Dos anyone know anything about the author(s)? Or the reason why they couldn't continue working with PF material?
I have d20pfsrd.com to replace good old d20srd.org and I would really like ema back, so I could have a fully comfortable 3.75 experience :)
I know about the hate towards necromancy, but I just had to bring this up again. Dos anyone know anything about the author(s)? Or the reason why they couldn't continue working with PF material?
I have d20pfsrd.com to replace good old d20srd.org and I would really like ema back, so I could have a fully comfortable 3.75 experience :)
From ENworld's news page, as qouted at Candlekeep by Kuje in February 2009.
Ema's Character Sheets Closed "Right now, the site is in an "indetermined" state, as I've just received a Cease & Desist letter from Wizards of the Coast. I'm currently looking into the problem, and I hope I will be able to provide you with more details in the near future."
Apparently he did not get anywhere. A shame really, as I fail to see how his stuff threatened wotc in any way.
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Apparently he did not get anywhere.
I don't know if it was the problem with that SRD rule that supposedly went "if you switch to 4e, you lose SRD rights to 3e" or what, but it's a terrible shame for all games that Ema provided sheets... um, for
A shame really, as I fail to see how his stuff threatened wotc in any way.
They charge money for their character builder, so I see how somebody would get this "c&d's for everyone" idea :/
I've been slowly working on this for a while, and arguably I'm not done yet. Here is a link to a character sheet I made inspired by Ema's Sheets.
Pretty well done!
A couple points of improvement, mostly for the second page:
1: Pathfinder now has so many feats, that just listing the Core Feats doesn't leave much room for some more esoteric builds.
2: Pathfinder officially has both a Head and a Headband slot (see here), and it seems like 90% of character sheets forget this.
Other than that, fantastic! I may have found my new character sheet!
DOOOTTTZZZZZZZ