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I normally use pfsdb to look up traits, but used it for items recently. The "read more" was very cumbersome especially since I had to hit it for every item on the page.
Faction and Deity tags won't show up for the linked trait like they would if you were viewing the trait in the filtered search.
Fixed and fixed :)
The 'read more' was well intended (the concern was that the page would get too 'long') but I do see how it would be irksome to expand every section.
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I just added a "Compliance" field in the statblock that shows whether the character is PFS Standard or PFS Core.
The traits have also been updated so that those which are in the online web enhancements document (which is core) are properly labeled. This should allow players to choose these traits and the overall character still be shown as 'Core'.
If anyone might find a way to create a non-Core character that is being incorrectly shown as Core, or the other way around, I'd enjoy hearing about it. My guess is that there are still logic gaps here, but - I don't know where. I'd love to get this consistent so that users can feel confident they are making a 'Core' character if that is what they desire to do.
There is also a new 'Venerate' field in the 'Basics' tab (the one with alignment, name, and background), which you can add any veneration your character may have.
!
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I don't remember seeing it, but I did want to raise one issue with the current (well recent, haven't been on in a couple days) implementation. Although the sheets you produce are very pretty, they are also very non-standard.
I assume you intend to work towards something closer to a standard character sheet, I'd like to suggest that a stat-block format is probably a lot easier to code and would cover a substantial percentage of user's needs. Long-term, I'd love to see three options. 1: Your custom, pretty format. 2: Something very close to the PFS-standard character sheet and 3: Pathfinder-standard stat-blocks.
Thanks for all the work. As a fellow developer who's frequently engaged in the thought-exercise, I'd love to chat with you about how you're implementing various things. But, a forum is a crappy venue. Maybe I can buy you dinner at a con sometime.
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I assume you intend to work towards something closer to a standard character sheet, I'd like to suggest that a stat-block format is probably a lot easier to code and would cover a substantial percentage of user's needs. Long-term, I'd love to see three options. 1: Your custom, pretty format. 2: Something very close to the PFS-standard character sheet and 3: Pathfinder-standard stat-blocks.
I agree the sheet needs more work and I think more than one option would be a great idea. I did push up a new character sheet - pretty much a complete redo - fairly recently; do try it out if you haven't already. The front page of it is very 'stat-block'-ish, though the rest is organized in a manner to try to use space and ink efficiently (wasted space and too much color/shading was a common feedback critique with the previous sheet).
In time, I would also like to investigate a way for players to create 'custom' character sheets. This will take some research and work, but I believe it should be possible to create a system where players can upload a 'template' that contains the structure, colors, style, etc., and then the sheet would be generated based upon that template. The idea is that people could then even share templates, and we could have community driven character sheet designs with different themes, colors, and other aesthetic variances. This isn't something that will happen right away (it would be post-level 20 work), but I think it would be a great feature to add.
Also, I'd enjoy talking shop sometime. There are aspects to this application that I like to think are clever; though there are aspects of which I am painfully aware are not :) There is a good deal of refactoring that needs to happen. It's been a very big job and it's far from over!
As some one brand new to PFS who started playing at a con in Australia only a couple of days ago i'd love to test out this character builder and see how it would run from someone that hasn't built one before and where it could be easier for new people :)
Brand new players are certainly welcome! I'll send you a code this evening ;)
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In time, I would also like to investigate a way for players to create 'custom' character sheets. This will take some research and work, but I believe it should be possible to create a system where players can upload a 'template' that contains the structure, colors, style, etc., and then the sheet would be generated based upon that template. The idea is that people could then even share templates, and we could have community driven character sheet designs with different themes, colors, and other aesthetic variances. This isn't something that will happen right away (it would be post-level 20 work), but I think it would be a great feature to add.
It's a bit intensive for the template developer, but XML and XSLT are perfect for this application. Alternately, something like a Velocity template would also work. both would be fairly straightforward for an aspiring template-writer to customize an existing example.
Biggest gotcha in either is the XSS risks inherent in accepting templates that generate HTML from the public.
BTW, the first question in the talking-shop would have to be "What tech stack are you using?"
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TG is made using a good ol' LAMP stack. The framework for the back-end is Laravel, which I have simply fallen in love with. It is very powerful stuff.
Something like XML and XSLT are definitely not bad suggestions (and perhaps deserve further consideration), but I think we can make this even easier on a template developer :) To be clear I'm talking about the generated PDF files that potentially could be customized (customizing the online character sheet would require a lot more thought, I think).
The PDF's are generated by converting CSS/HTML to PDF server-side, therefore - CSS and HTML may be all a template developer need concern themselves with. Doing this require that I create a notation for character sheet elements and publish them as definitions. If I could do that, then a snippet of a (really basic and junky) template would could look something like:
Edit: the below is not space formatted due to the post ignoring blank spaces :p
<div class='container' >
<div class='row'>
<div class="col-xs-4 col-xs-offset-1">
@CHARACTERNAME
</div>
<div class="col-xs-4">
@PLAYERNAME
</div>
</div>
<div class='row'>
<div class="col-xs-4 col-xs-offset-1">
<b>Race: </b> @RACE
</div>
<div class="col-xs-4">
<b>Class(es): </b> @CLASSES
</div>
</div>
<div class='row'>
<div class="col-xs-4 col-xs-offset-1">
<b>Armor Class: </b> @ARMORCLASS
</div>
<div class="col-xs-4">
<b>Melee Attack: </b> @MELEEATTACK
</div>
</div>
//..etc...
The application would take this template, parse it for notion values (e.g., @PLAYERNAME, @ARMORCLASS, @MELEEATTACK) and replace them with the appropriate text. Then it would run it through the converter to PDF and there you would have it.
The above example assumes Bootstrap is available (which it is, since the site uses it); however, I would like players to be able to include their own CSS and likely image graphics if they desire them, so that they can be as empowered as possible to come up with their own designs. Whether the CSS could be 'linked' or would have to be in the template is definitely a question.
Again this may make it sound fairly simple but the notation itself would take a good bit of work and there are always (always) surprise gotcha's that are not realized until you're about 15% into the job. I do think this could be a cool post-level-20 feature and it is something that I would enjoy looking into.
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This tool was great before and gets more and more awesome :)
On the spells pages: What part of the spell is searched? I wanted to make a core character and tried to search for "Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook" since that's the text after the "source" label, but I get an empty result set.
Hm... maybe a switch on the first page to make the char a CORE character, and then listing only the stuff from legal sources ( http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5lh0h?Introducing-the-Core-Campaign ) would be perfect, but I have no idea how much trouble this would cost...
Oh, and you might want to change the order of "skills" and "languages."That way you'll first put points in linguistics and then select the languages. Right now you need to select your bonus languages first, then, 3 steps later, you add ranks to linguistics, backtrack to languages and add the remaining ones to then jump forward again.
It's just a small thing, but I think it would make the user experience a bit nice ;)
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Searches for spells touch the name, description, and spell range I believe; this wasn't meant to be permanent and I do agree it could be better. I would like for the spell pages to include an array of query toggles to make life easier, similar to what the main feats page have available. This would include sources.
That's not a bad idea about linguistics and skills :) Also - yes it is true there are some items flagged as UE and that is breaking determining whether the character is core or not. I feel this one is pretty high priority and it will be fixed soon (within a week or two). I believe the items *are* actually in UE, so it's not really completely wrong - it's just that it throws off the 'core' consideration. I plan to get them fixed simply by going through all of the items (equipment, weapons, and gear) and redirecting them to the core rulebook where appropriate.
Spells should also be checked; it is possible similar errors could be waiting there as well.
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Progress has been made in correcting equipment and weapons that were incorrectly flagged as non-core; all core items should now correctly be flagged.
If anyone manages to 'break' the compliance field by making a core character that shows as non-core (or vice versa) please do let me know. I am now considering this one to be pretty high priority and it is important to get right.
Thanks!
--TG
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32
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I've been enjoying creating characters with this tool, especially for those classes that require a bit more bookkeeping to create (wizard, druid). Additionally, I'm very impressed with the response to feedback tickets! Question about that, though: if I feel an issue has been resolved, should I be the one to close the ticket?
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I've been enjoying creating characters with this tool, especially for those classes that require a bit more bookkeeping to create (wizard, druid). Additionally, I'm very impressed with the response to feedback tickets! Question about that, though: if I feel an issue has been resolved, should I be the one to close the ticket?
I am glad you are enjoying the site :) The workflow for the tickets was designed so that users would typically have the 'final say' on when they are to be closed. This is to make sure we don't prematurely close a ticket when the user isn't quite satisfied with the fix yet. There is a 'monitoring' mode which is a sort of 'soft-close'; it typically means the dev *thinks* the item is resolved, but is waiting to see if the user agrees or has anything else. If you'll notice, commenting on a ticket that is in 'monitoring' automatically bumps it to 'Accepted', which puts it at the top of the work queue to be read.
When selecting the heirloom weapon trait, shouldn't it list "dwarven" weapons as well (if you're dwarven), since dwarves treat dwarven weapons as martial weapons?
I believe you are correct! I think equipping the weapons as martial works (I seem to recall writing code so that it'd work, at least), but I do not think it was thought to extend that to this trait. I just created a ticket to do that.
We've taken a pause in the data gap to get into some of the refactoring of the application. The 'store' is getting a new look soon. We've gotten more than one ticket on problems with the store in the last month or so, and a redo is really needed to fix the issues it has. A big one of course is allowing players to purchase things in lots with one click - buying 10 torches by clicking and reloading the page over and over and over is *way* tedious and that needs to stop.
It is a rather deep refactoring though, so I do not have an eta quite yet.
The data gap is (I believe) complete for feats - traits is something that we'd like to audit next.
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When selecting the heirloom weapon trait, shouldn't it list "dwarven" weapons as well (if you're dwarven), since dwarves treat dwarven weapons as martial weapons?
I have this fixed on dev and looks to be working; should work now for all related races.
It's likely better for it to migrate over when we make the store redo live, but that might take a couple weeks. If you need the character sooner than that, poke at me (here or in a PM) and I'll see if I can get it live early ;)
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Big update pushed up!
The store has been redone. Screenshot here. The intent here is to make it a much easier experience as well as make it more suitable for mobile users. As such...
Your opinions are wanted! Try out the new store and see if it is a better experience for you.
Previously, the UI has relied heavily on 'hover' effects - information about the item shows up when you hover a cursor over it. This has obvious problems in the mobile world, where hover doesn't really exist. Therefore, the store was reworked to rely more on click events, which should make the process much easier for everyone - especially mobile users.
You'll also note that the page does not need to refresh itself while you make your transactions. Everything is now done in a smoother fashion so that you no longer have to wait for the page to reload. And (drumroll) you may now buy lots of items with a little quantity clicker; buying 10 torches at once has never been easier!
If this UI works well for everyone, I would like to start rolling it out for the entire site. The next page planned to be reworked is the Equip page. Spell selections could definitely benefit with a similar reworking as well.
Also - please note that you may now also select your free set of clothes. Every character may select an outfit so long as it costs 10 gold or less - for free! Feel free to make your selection in the free clothes store.
I would like to rename the 'Character Factory' to something more RPG-ish. It really should be the name of a tavern. As in, setting your character to 'public' means you send them off to the tavern, out in public, to socialize and be seen by all. So - this tavern will need a name. Something Golarion-ish or Pathfinder-ish. Suggestions are very welcome :)
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<< >> <<
The Pig's Paunch
The Wounded Wisp
More seriously:
The Drunken Unicorn
The Stoned Medusa (well, maybe not [i]that[/t] serious)
The Open Road (We have a glyph, yah!)
The Pugnacious Pomegranate
The Dead God
The Golden Mask
Brandy's Place (homage to a PC who died in a tavern that was going to be renamed in her honor)
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I am liking the suggestions! It would be difficult to pick just one. I'm wondering if this is something that would be fun to vote on? We could do it in rounds of elimination to narrow it down.
The cover of the NPC Pawn Set is good inspiration; certainly fits the scene.
Let's give it a few days at least (maybe a week) to get some more suggestions and then we can start eliminating down to a final name. ;)
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I wouldn't mind trying this out if your still handing out codes.
Sent - and you may be the very last one! That is likely it for codes. We're now gearing up for a public opening, which will render codes moot. The one big exception would be for any employee of Paizo; if there are any Paizo employees who do not yet have a code, but who might like one - send me a PM and it will be yours.
I'm now focusing on the site's opening to the general public, and we're working on the best way to do that. I believe what we have created - and I include everyone in this thread in that 'we' as all of you have helped me to create Tabletop Giant through all of your feedback - what we have created is a solid proof-of-concept that this sort of application can and will work. While Tabletop Giant is not finished, what we have is demonstrable evidence that character creation software need not reside solely on an offline desktop application. A web-based character manager is entirely feasible and I believe it would significantly facilitate play. Therefore, I want this application to live on, and to expand into a fully featured character manager that covers the breadth of gaming experience, from level 1 all the way to 20. We *can* have nice things!
I am really excited by this project and I have a real passion for it; I am looking forward to seeing a fully featured level 20 character manager become a reality. I do not think it is hyperbole to suggest that this application could help to expand Pathfinder gaming. By using web-based solutions to facilitate Pathfinder play, we can make the game easier to learn, more accessible for those who wish to play, and provide better communications between gamers as well as with Paizo itself.
As it was announced sometime ago, it is tentatively planned to open Tabletop Giant along with a Patreon donation page to support it. We are also going to be exploring other possibilities which would give us more freedom; these other possibilities would ultimately need to be approved by Paizo. If Tabletop Giant is to be, then it really needs to be funded to at least the minimum extent that full time development could be supported. Tabletop Giant is not a small effort. It is a very large task, and its capabilities justify full time attention. I am happy to continue working on this project in a part-time capacity as we have already been doing, but obviously that does make things slower than preferred. We have made huge progress since this thread started in April, and all of that progress was done through part-time work - imagine the progress if full-time+ hours were available.
Tabletop Giant has come a long way since April, when this thread started. Almost 200 players have signed up to try the site out and to help test, and those players all together made over 700 Pathfinder characters. Given that production, I feel it is likely the site will be rather busy once we open up. I think this is going to be a fun ride. I hope to be able to announce other details about our opening soon, including dates and other points of interest.
Thanks!
--TG
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Hello all,
I just wanted to touch base; it's been awhile.
An update is in work that will to an extent redefine Tabletopgiant, and it is this redesign that has kept me busy for the last few weeks. This update is really required before we can go public and launch our Patreon page, as it is this update that will better define user accounts, and how those user accounts may interact with the site as well as with each other.
I'm going to describe a bit of what is planned in the following. The functionality I'm going to describe here will be rolled out in waves; this is a big change and it will require a lot of work.
With the initial update, all users will have an actual profile. There will be privacy settings provided so that a user can 'go private' if they wish. With this profile, a user may make 'friends' with other users and communicate with them through private messages. There will be a modest 'about me' section, and the users friend's and created (public) characters will also be displayed.
Additionally, within this profile, a user will be able to flag which source materials they own, and they will be able to make characters based upon this ownership - meaning, all sources not owned will automatically be filtered out in the character creation process.
Within their profile, a user may flag which sessions they have played and GM'd, so that they may easily track which scenarios they are eligible to play or GM for credit.
Groups will also be implemented. Groups will be a way for users to congregate online and plan events together. For example, there may be a "Los Angeles Pathfinder Society" group, and those players within that geographical area can join up with the group, and as a group can plan games and events as desired.
Since each user is able to toggle which scenarios they have played, planning new games within each group will be made easier than it is now; Tabletopgiant will be able to make recommendations of scenarios that are the 'least played' by the current group population, which should help the group's planners come up with good scenarios to run for their games. Users will also be able to prioritize those unplayed sessions that they really want to play, and these prioritizations can be used to 'weight' the suggestions that Tabletopgiant will make to group event planners.
These groups are going to have a geographical setting (city, or zip code), and new users will be able to search for groups based upon their own geographical location; meaning, new players will be able to find the groups in their city easily.
Groups can also be private and personal; there would be nothing wrong with creating "John's Homebrew Group" and then inviting a few personal friends. A setting will be provided to keep this group out of the general group search for other users.
Each group will have its own forum, and the group's administrators will naturally have moderator level functionality of that forum.
Each group will be able to plan events. Players may sign up for an event through their name, or through one of their characters. This last part is emphasized as it can have a real impact; as Tabletopgiant will provide character creation and management capabilities, a GM of a planned game will be able to review the character sheets of the character signed up for the game days before the event.
Further, during the game, so long as they have internet access and a device (e.g., tablet) able to do so, the GM will be able to bring up the character sheets of any and all characters signed up for the game (as long as they signed up with a specific character), allowing the GM to access information without asking the player, which can help with gaming immersion. For example, you don't have to ask if anyone has Knowledge (Engineering) so that they can roll to see if they spot a cave-in threat; you can check privately, and then make rolls for them, and only alert them to the threat if someone makes the DC.
As I said in the beginning of this post, this functionality will be rolled out in waves. The first wave will have the user profiles, ability to send private messages, the ability to make 'friends' with other accounts, the ability to save which sessions they have played and GM'd, and the ability to save which source materials they own. This update will likely occur within the next two weeks.
Immediately following that update will be the work on groups, group forums, and then the work on planning events. These may be three different updates, depending on the rate of progress.
Once this framework is up and working, we will launch the Patreon page and open up the doors. It is hoped that we will be able to do this by the end of the year, but it may have to be soon thereafter.
I look forward to pushing out the first update, and will post again when it is rolled out.
Thank you,
--TG
Hey There Tabletop Giant! I'd love to get an access code to give your character creator website a try! I have a great idea in mind for a character I'm going to be playing soon and I've been looking for a cool sheet to keep everything updated and neat on. Let me know if I can give it a shot!
Thanks!
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With your proposed updates for signing up, are you allowing to sign up with both name and character? I'd assume yes, but you said or. And would also be good.
'And' is more correct :) It might be confusing for GM's and organizers to only see a character name signed up for a game (the obvious question they'd ask is - who's character?).
Picture it as 'attaching' your character to a game after signing up for it (or, as part of the process of signing up). This way the GM, and the other players, will be able to see who's coming to the party. Each event will also have its own dedicated comment block so that the GM and players can chat in the days (weeks?) before the event.
The user profiles and their accompanying features are coming along great. The term 'user profile' is so generic that I don't think it describes what we're doing all that well. I'm going to resist up-talking them more than I already have; suffice it to say that I'm very interested in everyone's opinions once this rolls out. I'm going to push to have them up by the end of the next weekend, if not sooner.
I would be very interested in testing.
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I'm trying the character factory for the first time and the search leaves much to be desired. It looks like it only searches the character name fields which is probably the least useful thing it could search through. Unless someone tells me to look up a specific character name, the search field doesn't help. I expected it to be able to search by class which it does not appear to be able to do.
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I'm trying the character factory for the first time and the search leaves much to be desired. It looks like it only searches the character name fields which is probably the least useful thing it could search through. Unless someone tells me to look up a specific character name, the search field doesn't help. I expected it to be able to search by class which it does not appear to be able to do.
I hear you - look for the 'Filtering and Ordering' button, which when clicked will review toggles to filter by class. It was a quick job so could look a little better, but I wanted to get it in quick to help you out.
Also, do check your PMs if you haven't already ;)
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User profiles are live. Here is mine: http://www.tabletopgiant.com/Tabletopgiant
Every single registered player should also have a friend invite from me sitting in their 'inbox'. Currently, only my cat is on my friend's list. This is sad. Don't make me one of 'those people' who's only friend is their cat (don't get me wrong - I love my cat - but my social circle should be wider than that). So, if someone could login, try it out, and accept the friend invite from me, that would be awesome.
When you login, please do take a look at the 'Account Setup' tab. This tab has a lot of stuff. You can change your profile, which is simple enough - but this tab also contains a place to declare all the source material you own, as well as the start of a scenario tracker. In a future update, the character creation part of the site will be updated to only show items from the sources that you have declared that you own (there will also still be an option to use all sources). The scenario tracker will be used when we implement groups and events, which I would like to do next.
I am very, very interested on feedback for this change. Really, what this is evolving into is a light social network for the Pathfinder Society. You will be able to find friends, network with them, join player groups, plan events, and make and manage your characters all in the same web based application.
Edit: I want to add - setting this up was a bit complicated. Lots of moving parts. There could easily be bugs - help me to find them and that would be awesome!
Editx2: Please do consider 'publishing' your characters! That way, they show up on your profile and look neat.
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And now http://www.wanderingmurderhobos.com points towards the TG character factory.
I am resisting the urge to rename the character factory the same - barely.
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A few new things. First, the site Privacy Policy is up, which can be a dry read but I wanted to point it out in case anyone has any concerns. With that policy I also updated the site to use https for all connections (attempting to connect http: will get you forwarded), so that all can feel the joy of SSL.
Groups are going to be dug into next. Groups and events are a wee bit complex but compared to a level 1 character creator they are cake and punch. I'll look to have a draft of groups up by next week.
Fourth post in a row! Someone else say something so that I don't feel dirty from bumping my own thread too much.
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Another large update just went up. The addition of user profiles and this new update - groups - really changes the site. Please take a look!
Groups are now in. To sum:
- Groups may be created by any registered member of Tabletop Giant.
- Group creators automatically gain administrator status of the group they create. In a future update, the group creator may also grant administrator privileges to other members of the group.
- There are three types of membership a group may declare: open, approval required, or private.
- Open groups may be seen and joined by all registered Tabletop Giant users.
- 'Approval Required' groups may be seen by all registered Tabletop Giant users, and all such users may petition to join the group. This petition must be approved by a group administrator before the player may actually join.
- Private groups are suppressed from public view, and membership is through invitation by group administrator only. This essentially creates a private 'room' for a group of friends, as it generates a place they can meet up online, including their own personal forum.
- Group administrators may invite anyone on their friendlist to join their group, regardless of privacy type. If the group is public, then any member of the group may also extend invites to anyone on their own friendlist.
- Each group comes with its own forum. Bolded because I think this is a cool feature. When you view the group's main page, look for the 'Visit Forum' button in the description block. Click to visit!
With this change I have created the first group - The Grand Lodge. I invited everyone who is on my friends list; however, this is (of course) an open group, and I do encourage everyone to join. Feel free to use the forums of this group as a 'General Forum' for Tabletop as a whole.
Further, the Character Factory has been removed. Published characters are now shown on a per group basis; meaning, when you visit a group's page, it will contain a tab called 'Player Characters' which lists all of the characters created and published by members of that group.
You may also now set whether your character is 'cloneable' or not, and this is configured on the 'Publish' tab of your character sheet. Characters that are 'Cloneable' will be shown with a 'Clone' button within the group player character's tab.
Please do give this all a trial run - this was a *lot* of work and there could easily be lurking bugs.
Events are next. The general design has already been pretty much decided. They will be nice. You will like them.
Any chance I could get a code? I wouldn't mind checking out the site.
Sent :)