Warhammer Character Sheet Templates

This is one of the things that's confusing me.

I'm trying to produce a Custom Character Sheet Template, a form, which I can share with a player who will then fill it in with the details of their character. But there seems to be a blurred division of responsibilities in the way these sheets are described, that suggests that the player needs to edit the template to change it as needed. So, in effect, there is no point creating a form I might as well just tell my players to create their own character sheet.

e.g. If the solution to every problem is 'Change the Template' and edit the form, then why bother with it in the first place?

I'm not sure if that's just me misunderstanding the process, but I've tried finding a tutorial that walks through character creation and haven't found one yet.
That's basically what I'm doing. Or at least trying to do.
I've started creating a Customcharacter Sheet for my game and I'm trying to test it in a test game. But so, far I'm stuck at the first varible length input field 'Siblings' Which needs to list a variable number of the characters siblings, and I'm aware that unless I can solve that issue then I won;t be able to provide variable length input fields for Skills, Reputation and Inventry either. So, i really need to understand if it possible to do it and if so how.

My go to solution for this would be to provide an amount of fields that you think will suffice for now. Say 5-10 for each category. Then tell your players that if they run out to let you know.
You can then go into their sheet and add 5 more fields. I'm assuming this is not something that will come up very often, but only when character advancements are made. (Except for the family fields maybe)

For the structure you can use a table with fillable fields in it. Then you just add another couple of rows when needed.

What you're looking for exactly the way you describe it is too complex to work in these custom sheets, I'm afraid.

In summary; It is not possible, but I think there are workable solutions that are not too cumbersome.

This is what is confusing me.

Because several people have already told me that 'this is not possible using Gamers Plane.

Which is fair enough, it just means that I need to look elsewhere for a solution.

But at the same time, an almost equal number of people seem to be telling me it's easy to do.

So, I'm left confused, not sure if it's impossible or easy. And if it's easy then how do I do it?

At the moment, I can't find any other Customer Character Sheet with multiple entry input fields. Most seem to have a fixed number of dummy entries e.g. Item 1, Item 2, Item 3, Item 4 etc. Giving the player a limited number of entries that they can edit.

So, that seems to support your assertion that it's impossible for Gamersplane BBcode to produce a variable-length input field.
But other people still claim its possible so I'm just trying to fathom out who is right and whether I can actually make it work.

Just to make sure we are not talking past each other, you are clicking on the pencil in the top right of the character sheet and are looking at the raw html right?

I think it's the case of people trying to offer you an alternate solution more than saying it is possible exactly as you want. Because you really can't do it exactly - there are no tags which support "Add new element" buttons like you described. (Some of the old system-specific sheets have that, but these sheets are very old and partially non-functional; maybe someday custom sheets will have it too.)

It is considered pretty usual here to let players edit their sheets manually, which is why most folks advise you to make it an Abilities block or a table instead. It's pretty easy to add into it with the method cowleyc described, and most players usually don't mind doing some editing.
That is true, you can just let players make their own sheet (or pick a template they like from the public repository). Plenty of GMs do that here, actually - although many also like making optional templates for their games.
The templates exist mostly for convenience, really. Not everyone likes coding their own sheets or figuring out how tags works, and sometimes GMs prefer uniformity across all character sheets. Plus it saves time to not build a sheet from scratch, even if you do alter the template significantly.

I think your sibling list would look best and work most conveniently with cowleyc's method. At least if I were a player, I'll probably prefer that! :D

Also, for a visual example, here is how adding into an Abilities block would look:

Thanks for those examples.

I did do a bit more testing yesterday, focused on using the Abilities Tag. Nut didn't make much progress.

I was hoping that the # code would replicate the entry above it in the list. But that doesn't seem to be the case. All it does is start a new entry from scratch with a different heading. So, when I added some structure to the first entry it was replicated when I created the next one. Which means the players would need to code every entry in the list independantly.

I notice in several of your examples, you have simply added the text data into the ability entry header itself e.g. for the Appearance ability entry. I experimented with that, but it seemed a bit pointless to use the # tag code if one is going to type everything in the header anyway.

I was hoping one could put some structure into the drop-down section that would be replicated in each subsequent entry. Like adding a row to a spreadsheet or a line to a table. But it doesn't work like that apparently.

I was intrigued by the fact that you had an input field in the header of the Module entry, but again I tested this and it doesn't replicate for subsequent # tag entries. Though the player may be able to copy and paste the entire entry to create another line. I tried this is the Preview function but for some reason couldn;t create another entry in that box at all.

Yeah, unfortunately there is no replication of elements like this. But considering that it's a list of family members, players probably won't need to add more mid-game, and at the start it's easy to just copy-paste a template entry. Something like
# Sibling name
Relationship - Profession - Age
and the player can just duplicate that as many times as needed by good old Ctrl-C Ctrl-V.

As for the #, I personally use it to be able to collapse ability text so the sheet is more compact. It's helpful for abilities/items with very long descriptions. (Or for rule reminders.)
...Although I prefer spoiler tag to #, it supports more formatting options inside itself.

Edit: in your example it probably doesn't matter, but consider if players wrote long descriptions for the siblings! Like:
# Hyacinth
Sister - Academic - 23
Hyacinth is a scholar-in-training in a college of literature. She is sweet and caring and keeps in contact with all of her family. Recently she ran into some trouble with a rival academic from a different branch. Insert some more text.

Here a collapsible element can be handy!

As explained, I'm simply using the Sibling List as a simple test for how I might later solve the more complicated lists like Skills and Relationships and inventory that have a similar issue and are far more complicated and dynamic.

My logic being that if I can't make a Sibling list work, then there is no way I'll manage to sort out the others.
Yes! I figured it might be useful for Skills where you want to name the skill in the header but then write a longer description of what it does in the drop down section.

One other thing I've noticed as I've been experimenting is that clicking the Quill Button on an Abilities list seems to wipe everything thats already in the list and just produces a blank input box.

I noticed this when I was testing the last idea with the structured header for Hyacynth that had input fields for her Career, Relationship and Age. I was trying to determine whether that player could edit the Abilities list and simply copy and paste the entire of Hyacynth's entry into duplicate entries for Poppy and Matigold. But for some reason, when I clicked on the Quill Hyacynth entry completely disappeared. I tried saving the sheet before going to 'Preview', but it still did it.

Hopefully its just a glitch with the 'Preview' option.

It would be a disaster if a player tried to edut their characters list of Skills and completely deleted everything.

I do see your issue where it comes to skills, especially if you're planning to use any math tags with them. I guess it really depends on how comfortable your players are with editing BBcode? I do think most people will be fine with just copy-pasting from example. (Unless the system has very complicated math; I'm not familiar.)

Preview version doesn't save stuff edited into it, so it probably was the preview thing.

If thats the case then my idea of putting the input fields in the Abilities Header and then getting my players to copy and paste the code from one header to the next ought to work.

Clicking on the quill shows the player.

#Name: [_= Enter name] Career: [_= Enter Career], Relation: [_= Enter Enter relationship], Age: [_= Enter Age]

So, if the player can just copy and paste that same code into the next line, then they should be able to replicate the editable header.
That then opens up other solution for Skills and Reputation etc. using copy and paste from one linetothe next.
Yes! Most of my players are probably more Tech-Savvy than I am. I was just concerned that I wouldn't have to get them to create their own character sheet instead of giving them a structured form to fill in.

BTW: How do you make the Abilities Tag wider?

I notice you have one for Appearance that stretches right across the sheet. I can probably find out by checking one of the repository sheets but just curious.

The [ 3column] tag makes it display 3 columns, next to each other. If you want them a little wider, use [ 2column] (or just leave out one of the [ col][ /col] blocks which makes 3 columns into 2), or don't use columns at all.

You can probably also go for a table. Something like:

The players will only need to add a new line in "[name]|[career]|[relation]|[age]" format inside the table tag. Might be a bit faster? Although your method probably will work fine too.
What vagueGM said, it's the 2column and 3column tags (or rather, their absence). By default, with no such tags, the header stretches across the whole page. With them, it becomes smaller to fit the other columns.
They can get a bit wonky on mobile, but I like using them for stat blocks and such. :D

Here is how they all look in comparison (with abilities tags included):

---

Two notes here.

The first is that you should never edit in the Preview mode of a character sheet. It doesn't save anything. There are effectively three modes for a sheet.
• Complete: This is the view where everything looks complete, and gives you the option for the pencil in the upper corner to edit. You can make changes here (editing Abilities or filling in editable lines) that are automatically saved. This is a good mode.
• Editing: This is the view where you have all the BBC code laid out in front of you. Any changes you make have to be saved, at the bottom. This is a good mode.
• Preview: This is the view where you can see the changes you're making in Editing mode. No changes you make in Preview will be saved. It is only for viewing. This is a bad mode.

Second, that absolutely sounds like either a bug or that your editable info is after the closing abilities tag. If you see this again, go an confirm that all of your information is in between the tags. Line breaks are absolutely ok here. It's common to stumble on sheet examples (especially earlier ones) where the abilities tag was used only as a header, and thus did not include the below data into the tags.

---

[abilities=Siblings] ___ [/abilities]

or

[abilities=Siblings]
___
[/abilities]

What's determines the difference between Complete and Editing?
How do I mark a character sheet as complete?
And is a Character Sheet locked for further editing once its complete?

That might be a neater solution especially if I can put it inside a spoiler or some sort of drop box so it doesn't use a lot of space on the sheet.

This is what I call Complete. You can tell because it doesn't offer a save button, but it does have the editing pencil in the upper right corner. It's not locked here. Anything editable (usually

[_=]

fields) can still be edited, and the changes will be automatically saved. You can also edit Ability tags by clicking the quill icon.



This is what I call Editing. For obvious reasons. Whether you're in Editing or Preview, Save will save the progress. Save and Exit will save the progress and bring you back to the Complete view.

I'm not saying that the sheet is complete, but rather that it's a complete view of the sheet.

---

You had asked about editing with the quill in the Complete view. This is what it looks like! The player or GM can just edit the lists on a whim.

I feel like this needs further clarification. There isn't a mechanical way to mark a sheet as complete - what cowleyc is taking about are differences between editing mode and a saved sheet. You can edit your sheets as much as you want whenever. Just avoid messing with them in preview mode, that usually doesn't work well.

Also, I don't know if you've seen it, but there is a guide for the site's BBcode - you might find handy ideas for your sheet there while looking at tags. :D

I've read through Adams guide from top to bottom umteen times. In fact, I usually have it open in another window for reference when I'm working on my sheet. It's very good, but lacks the explanation of how to use the BBcode to produce a functional sheet. So, I've been trying to find Custom Sheets in the Repository that show sheets that do more or less what I want to do with mine and then plagiarising their BBcode.

I just couldn't find one that had a variable-length list function. Which is basically what triggerred my initial question.