Excel Character Generator SR5 Options

[Aria]

An excel character generator that I've been working up since the beginnings of SR5 with help from a large number of people listed on the front page. Hope it's useful!

EDIT: Version .26 available with various bits tidied up and No Future stuff added

<<CG5.26>>

EDIT: Version .25 with a 'pretty sheet' added...let me know what you think!

<<CG5.25>>

EDIT: Version .24 added with Better than Bad crunch

<<CG5.24>>

Version .23 added with Kill Code

<<CG5.23>>

Version .22 added with Street Lethal

<<CG5.22>>



Any comments / suggestions please let me know!

A

[Titan]

I appreciate the amount of work put into this, and that you are sharing it freely.

Is there any instructions on it's use anywhere? I did look through the pages, but didn't see anything.

Maybe I'm not enough of an Excel guru, but it doesn't seem intuitive to me at all.

I don't want to seem mean, but what is the incentive to use this sheet over something like Chummer?
I'm all for options, and alternatives to installed Windows apps are always welcome. But at first glance, it appears the learning curve for this sheet is much steeper.

[Aria]

There might have been instructions once upon a time... but they may have disappeared into the ether... I think the only ones left are on the Priorities Tab which more or less align with CG in the core book, ie steps 1-9, then go through the tabs in turn.

Typically grey boxes with thick black outlines are meant to be filled in (when they turn blue so you can see them more easily) and yellow boxes require player input of values. Eventually the plan was to lock the file so only these could be manipulated so feel free to lock it if it helps? I could probably add these basic instructions in somewhere in the next revision...

I could rename the Priorities Tab to 'start here' or something if that would help? There will always be some manual filling in of the sheet with gear, spells etc as that's where my excel skills fail (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

I've never used Chummer myself, but in the past I found that similar programs were great but didn't offer the rules summaries I've tried to attach to each spell, piece of gear etc. As my knowledge isn't encyclopaedic I found myself missing lots of good stuff just because I forgot about them!

And at the end of the day it's set up for me to use, if it's helpful to others brilliant (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Titan]

And at the end of the day it's set up for me to use, if it's helpful to others brilliant (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

That is a perfectly acceptable answer. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

And with that answer, the sheet becomes more clear to me. I took it as "here is this sheet I made for any who want to use it," which it didn't quite live up to.

As someone familiar (only barely) with spreadsheet coding I was looking at the first page thinking "it looks like I shouldn't change anything here, and yet it looks like I should start filling in these values."

For public consumption, some brief instructions are necessary. Something like

Start with the Priorities Tab.

Typically grey boxes with thick black outlines are meant to be filled in (when they turn blue so you can see them more easily) and yellow boxes require player input of values.

would be a good start.

[Aria]

Fair enough... how about this version...?

<<CG5.19>>

[Titan]

That passes my "newb friendly" check.

The only problem is, I am not a total newb. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

The real test, if you were so inclined, would be to hand a copy to someone who was familiar with Shadowrun 5e, but completely unfamiliar with spreadsheets, and see if they could muddle through making a character on their own.

For its' purpose, it looks good to me though.

[Aria]

Version .20 added with SOTA ADL stuff (thanks Jack) and Complete Trog added

<<CG5.20>>

[mrdred]

I may be missing it, but I don't see any way to add skill specializations via skill-pts at build, or via karma. For the former I'm guessing it would be another column for a specialization point (or multiple if you want to handle multiple-specializations after build). For the latter, I would brute-force it by pulling the list of skills (and auto-striking magic or resonance if the appropriate attribute isn't available) from the skills worksheet & then filling up to 12 (13) boxes to the right with 0's and a karma cost either further right, or left / below, etc.

Still testing other things, but so far this extremely helpful to my laziness.

Thank you!

ETA: I'm an idiot & didn't notice the grey box... too many years of those not being editable I guess. Sorry about that!
Personally, I'd also probably build the increase tables to automatically treat inputs as 0 or 1, or mark with a colour anything other than a 0/1 so people don't give themselves a discount on ability buy-ups. And add auto-colour for trying to put too many skill pts into one skill, using more than allowed attribute pts or 2+ attribs at max, etc. And I don't see if / how you handled aptitude & 13 in a skill, but those are minor quibbles.
-m

[Aria]

Version .21 available with some corrections to karmagen and the techno errata added


<<CG5.21>>

[Aria]

Version .22 added with Street Lethal

<<CG5.22>>

[Aria]

Version .23 added with Kill Code

<<CG5.23>>

[Vicar]

This is cool. I've been spending the last while looking at it.

FYI, sheet 1b Life Module Calcs has some bad cell references.

Specifically, D35:51 should be referencing cells 2 higher than they are. EG: ='1a Life Modules'!D36 should be ='1a Life Modules'!D38

Actually, looking at it, it's the entire column starting at D35 and going to the end that is affected.

[Aria]

Thanks for the spot! I'll amend the file now and re-upload it!

[Aria]

Version .24 added with Better than Bad crunch

<<CG5.24>>

[tete]

I like it alot, its a bit weird at first but I figured it out eventually. The only thing I'd want to see is a prettier print out sheet similar to DKs 4e sheet. It doesnt have to be heroforge or anything.

[Aria]

Fair enough... I tend to use it as a text export for Obsidian Portal but maybe I'll see what I can come up with (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Aria]

Version .25 with a 'pretty sheet' added...Tete, or anyone else, please let me know what you think!

<<CG5.25>>

[Aria]

EDIT: Version .26 available with various bits tidied up and No Future stuff added

<<CG5.26>>