SR4Chargen excell sheet updated for augmentation, Why yes, I have been gone for 18 months Options

[imperialus]

Soo.... what ever happened to the update that was supposed to be coming out that gave drop down lists for items, weapons, and other fun things?

It probably became too much work. Besides, with the amount of gear in Shadowrun the dropdown list would be half a mile long.

[cndblank]

It probably became too much work. Besides, with the amount of gear in Shadowrun the dropdown list would be half a mile long.

Certainly having sections (Firearms, Armor, Munitions, surveillance gear, and the like) would be the way to go.

[Vestifex]

How can you add cyberware that is not listed.
I tried to put in the single cybereye manually but I can´t it to work, it only shows NV.

[JeffSz]

I just upgraded to Office:mac 2008 and have problems with the spreadsheets not listing all items in dropdown menus. It happens with several versions of the sheet though so I think it might be a problem with Office though (woot).
Everything worked fine with 2004.

Google "OpenOffice for OS X" - OpenOffice will even read the stuff from Vista's retarded format that non-vista Excel can't open, and it will read those drop-downs properly either way. It's free/open source. You -might- have to install apple's (also free) X11 environment. I'm not sure if OpenOffice has been ported 100% X11-independent yet.

[JeffSz]

How can you add cyberware that is not listed.
I tried to put in the single cybereye manually but I can´t it to work, it only shows NV.

Are you house-ruling single-cybereyes in? Interesting... Do you have a rationalization for not having that totally screw up the character's vision? Lol. Try looking through one side of a pair of binoculars/glasses with one eye and looking thru your other eye as normal... -10d6 to perception tests! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Fortune]

Are you house-ruling single-cybereyes in?

No house rules needed. Rules for Single Cybereyes are on page 38 of Augmentation.

[JeffSz]

No house rules needed. Rules for Single Cybereyes are on page 38 of Augmentation.

Huh. I missed those when I went through. Weird. What's the book's rationale?

[Fortune]

Typically, the Single Cybereye is for those people that want to implant an eye in a non-standard place (such as the palm), but the option is also there to replace only one of your normal eyes if the character so chooses (gaining only half the benefits of normal Cybereyes in stressful situations).

[It trolls!]

Google "OpenOffice for OS X" - OpenOffice will even read the stuff from Vista's retarded format that non-vista Excel can't open, and it will read those drop-downs properly either way. It's free/open source. You -might- have to install apple's (also free) X11 environment. I'm not sure if OpenOffice has been ported 100% X11-independent yet.

You don't own a Mac, do you? Because if you did, you'd know how running X11 apps along native Cocoa stuff is like using flechette ammo when you could be firing APDS (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) The OOo people finally got off their asses and stopped ignoring the Mac last year but the native port is still in early beta and after past claims of OS X not being important enough and a Mac port being too difficult I kinda hold some grudges against the OOo dev team.
Anyway, just came to post that with SP1, Office 2008 finally loads the Chargen correctly (but is still slower than 2004 through Rosetta (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sarcastic.gif) ).

[mindcandy]

Hi all,

I've just picked up shadowrun 4th ed. It's the first time for me since second edition was hot off the presses!

In an attempt to simplify the eternal gm's chore of talking folk through the character generation stages, I've been looking at the various aids here at dumpshock and wanted to offer some feedback/ask some questions about this spreadsheet.

1). When I select active skills from the dropdown box there are no details relating to the associated attribute. Could this information be added easily?

2). It would help newer players if; when selecting a skill group, the skills within that group are automatically listed below. This tells players which skills are in the group but also allows them to easily increase skill levels should they choose to 'break' the group later without having to redo the character sheet.

3). When a skill specialisation is chosen (which I believe should cost 2BP - SR4 Core rules P75) inputting the higher stat in the 'level' field does not cost 2BP but works out the cost as if another skill had been added. Could this box be auto filled as '+2' when a specialisation is chosen as well as the 2BP cost correctly added?

edit: I just noticed that the 2BP is taken into account when a specialisation is chosen, but entering anything into the level field for that specialisation still affects BP total when it shouldn't

4). When printed, the sheet does not occupy a full side of A4 paper. How do I extend the various columns to take up the full page and offer more space to my players for information without breaking the formulas?

I really appreciate the effort that people put into these things (goodness knows I'm hopeless at excel), so thanks alot.

.M.

PS; whould I be right in thinking this spreadsheet is widely regarded as the best one for 4th edition? I seem to have found many variants on the official character sheet which I can fill in by getting Adobe Acrobat to find the text fields but very few of them add up the build points like this one.

[Xerxos]

4). When printed, the sheet does not occupy a full side of A4 paper. How do I extend the various columns to take up the full page and offer more space to my players for information without breaking the formulas?

That's done in "page setup"/"page layout"
There should be a option to adjust the page to one A4 page

[Mickle5125]

1). When I select active skills from the dropdown box there are no details relating to the associated attribute. Could this information be added easily?

2). It would help newer players if; when selecting a skill group, the skills within that group are automatically listed below. This tells players which skills are in the group but also allows them to easily increase skill levels should they choose to 'break' the group later without having to redo the character sheet.

PS; whould I be right in thinking this spreadsheet is widely regarded as the best one for 4th edition? I seem to have found many variants on the official character sheet which I can fill in by getting Adobe Acrobat to find the text fields but very few of them add up the build points like this one.

1) they could add it, but the thing is, this spreadsheet already treads a thin line between ok and copyright infringement. If they add too much information (IE: sufficient information to make buying the bbb unnecessary), then the big bad lawyers of the world will descend upon them to force them to remove this ever-so-useful tool.

2) it would be useful, but this character sheet is mostly intended to get the buildpoints calculated so that you can easily and non-messily transfer it to a proper character sheet afterwards.

PS) there are several excel sheets out there (I've collected them) that do well in helping with shadowrun 4 character generation. This one is one of the better ones, in my opinion. I do have one or two that are more complete than this one, but those are also more complex and confusing at the same time.

[Tabula Rasa]

You don't own a Mac, do you? Because if you did, you'd know how running X11 apps along native Cocoa stuff is like using flechette ammo when you could be firing APDS ;) The OOo people finally got off their asses and stopped ignoring the Mac last year but the native port is still in early beta and after past claims of OS X not being important enough and a Mac port being too difficult I kinda hold some grudges against the OOo dev team.
Anyway, just came to post that with SP1, Office 2008 finally loads the Chargen correctly (but is still slower than 2004 through Rosetta (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sarcastic.gif) ).

I'm running the latest version of open office on the latest OSX update and it runs FAST and beautifully. It actually opens the excel file faster than Office 2004 and Office 2008 (pre-SP1).

[mindcandy]

...this spreadsheet already treads a thin line between ok and copyright infringement. If they add too much information (IE: sufficient information to make buying the bbb unnecessary), then the big bad lawyers of the world will descend upon them to force them to remove this ever-so-useful tool.

I hadn't realised that might be an issue. It's been years (literally) since I did much GMing and writing dice rollers and character gen aids in BASIC was all part of the scene back then, I guess times change (god I sound old now!).

Personally I would have thought that it makes more sense to stop the blatant file sharing of the .pdf's via bearshare/limewire etc than hassle the dedicated fans. After all they are just trying to make the game more accessible.

Hell, if the guys at Catalyst put together a character generation aid that printed out results in the same format as the official character sheet - I would buy it.

.M.

[cryptoknight]

Hell, if the guys at Catalyst put together a character generation aid that printed out results in the same format as the official character sheet - I would buy it.

I completely agree... I'd buy it in a heartbeat, especially if I could handle all the gear, initiation/submergence, spending karma and money after creation, etc... I fully intend to pay the $15/month that the other game that is not to be mentioned but has just come out as its own 4th edition version, will require in order to use it's online tools and character generators.

[Cadmus]

I don't know, I'm willing to pay for the program but not a monthly fee for something I can only play once a week ya know? thats the same price as a mmo monthly fee,

[Mickle5125]

I hadn't realised that might be an issue. It's been years (literally) since I did much GMing and writing dice rollers and character gen aids in BASIC was all part of the scene back then, I guess times change (god I sound old now!).

Personally I would have thought that it makes more sense to stop the blatant file sharing of the .pdf's via bearshare/limewire etc than hassle the dedicated fans. After all they are just trying to make the game more accessible.

Hell, if the guys at Catalyst put together a character generation aid that printed out results in the same format as the official character sheet - I would buy it.

.M.

It would make more sense to stop the blatant file sharing, but it's also harder to do that. I'm sure they're trying, but it's definitely a struggle. Dumpshock, on the other hand, is easily monitored. And they definitely know about it (they mention it in their books!), so if they don't like something, or the law sharks see something that breaks copyright... bad things happen.

Not that the people at Catalyst are bad, mean people (Hi guys! Please don't track me down and kill me...). They're just trying to protect their intellectual property and their income.

[HalloranElder]

Ok, so I got bored...

I've modified the Excel character generator to include Arsenal now. As far as I can see, the only additions Arsenal makes to character generation (other than loads and loads of gear) is the Martial Arts Positive Quality and the related Maneuvers. I've added these as another Tab (Martial Arts) and the Martial Arts styles are added into the Positive Qualities, while the Maneuvers are a separate item.

So, if you want to have a look here they are (zipped):

Suitable for Excel 2007
Suitable for earlier versions of Excel

Enjoy
Random

[cryptoknight]

I don't know, I'm willing to pay for the program but not a monthly fee for something I can only play once a week ya know? thats the same price as a mmo monthly fee,

When I compare that cost to the cost of stocking a fridge with soda and buying chips/food and the gas costs for my friends to drive to my home... it's cheaper to pay the $15/month

[masteen]

Ok, so I got bored...

I've modified the Excel character generator to include Arsenal now. As far as I can see, the only additions Arsenal makes to character generation (other than loads and loads of gear) is the Martial Arts Positive Quality and the related Maneuvers. I've added these as another Tab (Martial Arts) and the Martial Arts styles are added into the Positive Qualities, while the Maneuvers are a separate item.

So, if you want to have a look here they are (zipped):

Suitable for Excel 2007
Suitable for earlier versions of Excel

Enjoy
Random

Nice upgrade to the xls generator, but it still has the error where the Type O System quality actually makes Bioware cost 1.5 times more essence instead of half. I think I tracked it down to an incorrect sign in this part of the formula:
IF(Type_O_System,1+Bio_Essence_Reduction
should read
IF(Type_O_System,1-Bio_Essence_Reduction

I think. Been a while since I played with spreadsheets, so I'm not sure if changing that will affect anything else.

[ludomastro]

masteen,

You are correct. I haven't had enough time to digest the rest of the information in the formula but swapping the "+" to a "-" fixed the "Type O" glitch.

[dirkformica]

Any updates for Runner's Companion?