Excel chargen? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Excel chargen? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Samaritan1975
04-30-05, 04:20 PM Hi all-

First time poster... long time role-player. So, forgive me if this isn't the place to ask... but I'm trying to find a decent Excel character generator that includes Eberron races, and classes/feats from the Complete and Races series of books.

Anybody know where there might be one floating about? Primarily, I'm interested in an Eberron-flavored sheet, the others would just be icing. Tried Google and RPGSheets.com, nothing really caught what I what I was looking for...

Thanks in advance all!
jonthegm
05-01-05, 12:12 AM I'm just warning you in advance that what you're asking for is technically illegal.
Samaritan1975
05-21-05, 09:39 PM Really? I only thought that was so if it was a sheet that reflected info from books I didn't own... I certainly don't want to get anybody in trouble!
ORC_Paradox
05-21-05, 09:59 PM There is no such character generator. If there is, it would be illegal because Eberron is IP, not open game content.
Edymnion
05-21-05, 10:03 PM Yeah, it would be illegal because you could extract all of the mechanics for the feats and classes from the file, and that would be bad. Sorry :(
scissors
05-21-05, 11:12 PM Hm, so is E-Tools illegal? It doesn't have Eberron, but it has Forgotten Realms and pretty much every source book imaginable.
Edymnion
05-21-05, 11:27 PM Hm, so is E-Tools illegal?No, because E-Tools paid to be able to use the information. Part of the money you pay for the program is going into WotC's pockets. Its the whole putting copywritten material in the program for public distribution without permission of the original owner thing thats the no-no.
koxler
05-22-05, 10:12 AM E-Tools also has an Eberron dataset available as well. So if you are looking for a tool to help create Eberron characters I would look at E-Tools or PCGen. Both have datasets that you can purschase from the CMP website.

http://www.codemonkeypublishing.com/
Lurkalot
05-22-05, 11:57 AM Really? I only thought that was so if it was a sheet that reflected info from books I didn't own... I certainly don't want to get anybody in trouble!

I think the only legal route would be to write your own. It wouldn't be too hard from scratch, particularly if you were basing it on a spreadsheet with built in language support such as Excel or Open Office. It would take a couple of afternoons though, so maybe you could look at extending an existing chargen utility that covered only the core books. That would be a much quicker job.

Regarding the illegality itself though, it's hard to imagine many people saying "Well, I've got something that spits out lots of numbers now, I don't really need all that artwork, background, explanation and conveniance that I'd get from buying the book."

Shame as a nice Open Source D&D tool would be fun to work on. Then I'd have something that worked on my Linux box as well as Windows ;)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Samaritan1975 04-30-05, 04:20 PM	Hi all- First time poster... long time role-player. So, forgive me if this isn't the place to ask... but I'm trying to find a decent Excel character generator that includes Eberron races, and classes/feats from the Complete and Races series of books. Anybody know where there might be one floating about? Primarily, I'm interested in an Eberron-flavored sheet, the others would just be icing. Tried Google and RPGSheets.com, nothing really caught what I what I was looking for... Thanks in advance all!
jonthegm 05-01-05, 12:12 AM	I'm just warning you in advance that what you're asking for is technically illegal.
Samaritan1975 05-21-05, 09:39 PM	Really? I only thought that was so if it was a sheet that reflected info from books I didn't own... I certainly don't want to get anybody in trouble!
ORC_Paradox 05-21-05, 09:59 PM	There is no such character generator. If there is, it would be illegal because Eberron is IP, not open game content.
Edymnion 05-21-05, 10:03 PM	Yeah, it would be illegal because you could extract all of the mechanics for the feats and classes from the file, and that would be bad. Sorry :(
scissors 05-21-05, 11:12 PM	Hm, so is E-Tools illegal? It doesn't have Eberron, but it has Forgotten Realms and pretty much every source book imaginable.
Edymnion 05-21-05, 11:27 PM	Hm, so is E-Tools illegal?No, because E-Tools paid to be able to use the information. Part of the money you pay for the program is going into WotC's pockets. Its the whole putting copywritten material in the program for public distribution without permission of the original owner thing thats the no-no.
koxler 05-22-05, 10:12 AM	E-Tools also has an Eberron dataset available as well. So if you are looking for a tool to help create Eberron characters I would look at E-Tools or PCGen. Both have datasets that you can purschase from the CMP website. http://www.codemonkeypublishing.com/
Lurkalot 05-22-05, 11:57 AM	Really? I only thought that was so if it was a sheet that reflected info from books I didn't own... I certainly don't want to get anybody in trouble! I think the only legal route would be to write your own. It wouldn't be too hard from scratch, particularly if you were basing it on a spreadsheet with built in language support such as Excel or Open Office. It would take a couple of afternoons though, so maybe you could look at extending an existing chargen utility that covered only the core books. That would be a much quicker job. Regarding the illegality itself though, it's hard to imagine many people saying "Well, I've got something that spits out lots of numbers now, I don't really need all that artwork, background, explanation and conveniance that I'd get from buying the book." Shame as a nice Open Source D&D tool would be fun to work on. Then I'd have something that worked on my Linux box as well as Windows ;)