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KarenCravens
Karen Cravens

Mon

Nov 19
2007

05:09Z

Character sheets

Let's talk character sheets.

The next release (after the current release, which is actually not released until the DNS gets changed to point at the new server) will have the "mustering" system on it: you put up your game proposal, and people throw characters at it, and when you have enough you like you throw the switch and it becomes a real live group. You can pitch multiple games and start whichever one gets the most interest, or you can express interest in multiple games and commit to whichever one starts first (or whatever).

That much I have no problem with. Also, the character sheets themselves... very freeform, should work for anything, eventually we'll get templates so people can just fill in the blanks. It's the relationships of characters to players to gamemasters to groups/topics that I'm having trouble with.

What if you have the same character in more than one game? Should a GM be making character-sheet changes in the first place?

Or should the *player* always be able to make character-sheet changes once the character is in the game? I suppose if it's part of the daily status report, it's not like they'd be sneaking changes in.

And how tightly should a character be tied to a player, anyway? Can we settle for a single owner (at a time, anyway), and what happens when a player disappears? Should the GM have authority to reassign character-sheet ownership (and if so, what about the character in multiple games again) or should there just be the capability of "photocopying" a character sheet?

Thoughts? Or is this too vague to think about yet without seeing some examples?

AndrewJanssen
Andrew Janssen

Mon

Nov 19
2007

05:17Z

Character sheets

Karen Cravens wrote:

Let's talk character sheets.

The next release (after the current release, which is actually not released until the DNS gets changed to point at the new server) will have the "mustering" system on it: you put up your game proposal, and people throw characters at it, and when you have enough you like you throw the switch and it becomes a real live group. You can pitch multiple games and start whichever one gets the most interest, or you can express interest in multiple games and commit to whichever one starts first (or whatever).

That much I have no problem with. Also, the character sheets themselves... very freeform, should work for anything, eventually we'll get templates so people can just fill in the blanks. It's the relationships of characters to players to gamemasters to groups/topics that I'm having trouble with.

What if you have the same character in more than one game? Should a GM be making character-sheet changes in the first place?

Or should the *player* always be able to make character-sheet changes once the character is in the game? I suppose if it's part of the daily status report, it's not like they'd be sneaking changes in.

And how tightly should a character be tied to a player, anyway? Can we settle for a single owner (at a time, anyway), and what happens when a player disappears? Should the GM have authority to reassign character-sheet ownership (and if so, what about the character in multiple games again) or should there just be the capability of "photocopying" a character sheet?

Thoughts? Or is this too vague to think about yet without seeing some examples?

Are the character sheets going to be flexible enough so that Celandra could, if we wanted to, use them for our societies? Or is that a bit much?

Andrew

KarenCravens
Karen Cravens

Mon

Nov 19
2007

14:48Z

Character sheets

character sheets going to be flexible enough

Should be, yep, though I'm not sure what you'd consider part of the "character sheet" from a quick look at your wiki.

TimHall
Tim Hall

Mon

Nov 19
2007

21:43Z

Character sheets

Karen Cravens wrote:

Let's talk character sheets.

What if you have the same character in more than one game? Should a GM be making character-sheet changes in the first place?

I can certainly see reasons why a GM might want to alter the character sheet. I've had system-illiterate players who were good enough roleplayers and writers to make it worthwhile translating prose character description into gamespeak myself.

Or should the *player* always be able to make character-sheet changes once the character is in the game? I suppose if it's part of the daily status report, it's not like they'd be sneaking changes in.

If you use something powered by the Wiki for this, then there's the built-in audit trail.

And how tightly should a character be tied to a player, anyway? Can we settle for a single owner (at a time, anyway), and what happens when a player disappears? Should the GM have authority to reassign character-sheet ownership (and if so, what about the character in multiple games again) or should there just be the capability of "photocopying" a character sheet?

Thoughts? Or is this too vague to think about yet without seeing some examples?

The only concrete examples I can think of are the GM-created ones I mentioned above, and the GM reassigning existing character to new player, which I've also done a couple of times.

KarenCravens
Karen Cravens

Mon

Nov 19
2007

23:53Z

Character sheets

built-in audit trail
That's built into Wirebird, too, the problem is just getting the audit trail looked at. (Raise your hand if you ignore the status reports, or at least ignored the old ones. Trivia overload.)
KarenCravens
Karen Cravens

Tue

Nov 20
2007

00:53Z

Character sheets

GM might want to alter the character sheet
Oh, and: Would this be satisfied by the system's ability to change ownership on the character sheet easily? (That's not in doubt, just the ability of the GM to assign ownership of *other* people's sheets.) The electronic equivalent of the player handing over the sheet, the GM scribbling on it and handing it back. Or in the case of system-illiterate players, the GM writing up character sheets and then handing them out to players.
Some of the latter case (a GM writing pregens before players sign up) is probably better served by the electronic equivalent of the photocopier, so as to let the mustering system do its work. GM puts up a bunch of pregens, and the game pitch says to photocopy the one you want and use it in your application. Because otherwise you have to email the GM to get ownership of the pregen, then apply, and I'd rather that was automated. Also because then if you have more than one person who wants to play the same character, they can both apply, *and* you can apply with more than one character in case you don't get your first choice, etc.
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