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July paused & next big step for MPMB
🕑 Added 2022-07-05 11:37:50 +0000 UTCTL;DR: (Too Long; Didn't Read)
- There is no recurring charge for July.
- There is no new version yet, but one is in the works with the missing content.
- I want to overhaul most of the sheet’s (code) fundamentals, but it's going to take time. I'm even considering moving the sheet to another platform (e.g. web-based), but that would take even more time.
- I want to ask your input before making these far-reaching decisions. Expect a survey!
- If work starts on the overhaul, new feature development will come to a halt, but new content and bug fixes will still (again) continue.
It has probably not gone unnoticed, but you haven’t been charged for July 2022. This is because I paused my Patreon for a month. I decided to do this only on the 30st of June and planned to post about it on the 1st of July, but this did not happen until now because of several reasons (busy weekend, not getting the words right, procrastination). Please accept my apologies for any potential confusion.
Please be aware that even though my Patreon is paused, any new pledges will still be charged in full. This is how Patreon works and not something I can change. If you feel this is unfair, you can contact me for a refund.
I haven’t gotten to making the latest releases work with the sheet because I’m hitting some (mental) roadblocks and as such I figured it would be only fair not to keep charging you. On top of that, I have holiday plans for a couple of weeks in July / August, so there will be even less time to work on the sheets. As things stand now, it is very likely that August will be paused as well.
This doesn’t mean that I’m not still working on the sheets or that both July and August will see no progress, just that I am stopping Patreon from charging you as I feel that your support should go rewarded and I haven’t made good on that promise.
A new version is in the works, but it won’t have any new features. Just new content and bug fixes.
It seems that the poll was a good thing, as there were many differently opinionated comments on how something like this should be implemented. It is an understandably difficult and splitting decision not to adhere to what Wizards of the Coast does.
The votes clearly favour adding the new races as options next to the older versions, which is what I was expecting. You also overwhelmingly want the races added before the new feature, but this is something I have to admit I’m not really good at. Working on new features is much more fun than transcribing content and I haven’t been able to help myself stick to the priority that you voted for. This will change, I promise!
All your responses just made me enthusiastic for working on the new race pop-up selector and had me looking into making a one-size-fits-all solution for the rest of the sheet’s drop-down boxes, e.g. feats, magic items, backgrounds, etc.
This, however, is where the age of the code rears it ugly head. Pop-up dialogs in Adobe Acrobat are one of the most code-intensive parts of this project and making one that does something so different than the current framework has opened my eyes to how much needs to change for it to work properly.
Going forward, I will make sure to first add the missing content before working on features. I also still have a ton of unfilled Sorcerer and Soothsayer tier rewards to get to, so plenty of content to transcribe.
We are coming up on the 8th anniversary of D&D 5th edition this month (Lost Mines of Phandelver, 2014/07/15) and I have been reflecting on the mayor changes in my life since then and how my little hobby project to help my own group move from 3.5e to 5e has become something I had never envisioned. D&D has become more than just a hobby and I’m very grateful for this opportunity. The first version of MPMB’s Character Sheet was posted on reddit in November 2014 and has seen constant development (dare I say improvement?) every since.
Your continued support shows me that I must be doing something right with these automated character sheets and I would like to make them even better. I have a lot of ideas for improvements, like the race selection dialog and moving away from regular expressions to make custom additions easier, but implementing that has me stumbling on some roadblocks in the code. The improvements are constrained by time, mostly, but secondly by the basis of the sheet’s code, as well as the format the sheets are in (form-fillable PDFs).
Back in 2014, I was still very new to coding and this project was my first real dip into the deep. I have learned a lot since then, but the sheet still relies on a bunch of stuff I wrote/borrowed way back when I didn’t know any better. As a result, not everything works as well as it could or should, and changing this will require overhauling some fundamentals.
It has gotten to the point for me that adding content feels more like a chore and no longer brings the sense of accomplishment it used to. Perhaps it is the fact that I’m currently not playing any IRL games, so I’m not even using my own sheet, or the fact that I (still) go back and forth often on how to write things in the clearest way while using as little space as possible (i.e. being a perfectionist is hard work). But certainly, a big part is due to the fact that adding new content always brings me face-to-face with the limitations of my old code.
I will be the first to admit that I have spent my time poorly this last few months. New content was waiting to be implemented, but I have been busy thinking of how things should work and new possibilities, instead of getting stuff ready for you to use with the sheet as it stands now. I have also fallen prey to the procrastination-monster and rolled poorly on initiative, resulting in many unrelated projects. The good news is that I finally picked back up the DM mantle and am working on getting my pre-COVID game up and running again, moving it from IRL to online as we no longer live close by.
Working on the sheets, all my scrap paper has been used for sketches, lists, and random assortments of ideas. There are some half-finished Adobe Illustrator files, Adobe InDesign files, and many more trial PDFs and JavaScript files than I would like to admit. I want to put this energy and creativity to good use, but that is not as easy as it sounds…
I have been daydreaming about all the things I would do differently if I would start this project again. The frustration with the way it is now, has come to a breaking point and I want to make the big leap of doing something about it.
Working within the Adobe Acrobat framework and revisiting the legacy code has made me realise that a lot more would be possible if I would switch to a more modern format, like a website, even though that would probably require starting from scratch and require me to learn a bunch of new stuff.
I would love to make the ideal character sheet experience that I have in my head come to life, but I’m stuck with the uncertainty if that is something others would also get excited about and be willing to support.
Thus, the first big decision is whether to continue this project as a JavaScript-augmented-PDF, or switch to a web-app that allows for things like mobile-support. The former will be much quicker as I have much more experience with it. The latter would require starting from scratch with almost all of the code, thus taking a lot more time, but would open up a ton of new possibilities.
Before I make a decision on if/how to address redoing the fundamentals of the sheets, and even before I start rewriting huge chunk of code, I really need to know what all of you value in a character sheet. I want to understand what is important to you, so that I can make something that you would want to (continue to) use. When I know that, I can better plan on how to update the sheets and if it is even necessary to overhaul the code as much.
I am working on a survey to help me understand your wants and needs for a character sheet, but a good survey is hard and takes time to write up. I hope to have it ready for you later this week.
In the meantime, you are welcome to leave a comment with why you use my character sheets, what you most (dis)like about it, and what you would like to see for its future development.
Below are some examples of ideas that I have been working on. Most are just that, ideas, and not all might see implementation. This list is here to show you what direction I would like to take the character sheet in.
- Change drop-down fields to buttons that open pop-up dialogs with choices
This would enable things like (better) searching the list and seeing what something does before adding it to the sheet - Merge feats and magic items into a single entry type and expend this with all other optional features such as boons, supernatural gifts, blessings, charms, etc.
- What ‘type’ something is would then be listed in each entry on the sheet (e.g. where it now says “Feat” or “Magic Item” would become amendable)
- Overhaul the hit points section to include conditions, exhaustion
- Add space for AC without armour/shield
- Add a separate space for Warlock spell slots (i.e. not part of the regular spell slots)
- Add a page for summons (with auto-calculation functionality for the summons from TCoE)
- Automate the wild shape pages to work like the companion page
- Make it possible to format the text in multiline fields (e.g. make stuff bold)
- Automatic overflow of text in the class feature section to another page
This is a hard one to implement in a PDF and would basically rely on counting the number of lines a class features take up, something that will have to be hard-coded and thus not idiot-proof - More optional parts of page designs (e.g. switch out some magic items for more attack line)
Don't worry, the sheets aren't going anywhere!
Regardless of the decision to overhaul the sheet, to recreate it on another platform, or to do something else entirely, I fully intend to keep the sheet up to date with new content as it comes out. At least, until the overhaul (or whatever) is ready.
If another avenue is chosen, it will be the development of new features that will be put on halt. New content and bug fixes will continue.
Apologies for the wall of text, there is just a lot I want to share with you!
Comments
James Duke
I did! Hopefully my thoughts were clear, but I'm definitely down for a web format. :)
MorePurpleMoreBetter
I hope you filled that out in the survey as well! If you didn't fill out the survey yet, please do so: https://www.flapkan.com/survey
James Duke
Web-based with an adaptable website format so I can use it on a tablet would be the perfect combo.
MorePurpleMoreBetter
Thank you for the very long, thought out response! A lot of comments here are about making it an offline experience, so it will most likely be one of the first things to tackle if the web-based route is chosen. Aurora builder does a good job of character creation, but I would indeed go for a more WYSIWYG design, relying less on wizards you have to click through. As you mention in your "Edit 2", making it so that changing one thing is clearly independent of all other things. Also, a WYSIWYG character sheet would require far less icons to make for everything than stuff like Aurora or Foundry use ;) I haven't considered how the stand-alone app would be distributed, so thank you for the suggestion. Export and import functionality goes without saying. A web-app would most likely end up storing a character in JSON format, so it shouldn't be so hard to make that exportable and importable. PS. Sorry for the late response, it has been a hectic two weeks.
MorePurpleMoreBetter
Thank you for your kind words Fia! I also avoid D&D beyond, not only because I spent all this time perfecting a character sheet just to use someone else's program ;) The main reason for the PDFs being unwieldy is the amount of form-fillable fields that are on them. It would get worse when more are added, which is unavoidable when adding new pages and features. PS. Sorry for the late response, it has been a hectic two weeks.
MorePurpleMoreBetter
I hear of many DMs dictating the use of a particular format for character creation and I am certainly one of them! I can't have someone at my table use another character sheet ;) As for the Google Sheets/Forms, that is a good idea, but I fear that although Google Sheets allow for much more customisation than Adobe Acrobat, it would still be equally limiting to what's possible. Also, it would look nowhere near as good, and as any bard will tell you, looks do matter ;) PS. Sorry for the late response, it has been a hectic two weeks.
MorePurpleMoreBetter
Thank you for the vote of confidence!
MorePurpleMoreBetter
Cross-platform support is the most requested thing for the sheets for sure, not just for Linux, but mobile devices (tablets) and chromebooks as well. PS. Sorry for the late response, it has been a hectic two weeks.
MorePurpleMoreBetter
Thank you for the kind words! A web-app would also open an avenue for many improvements that are currently impossible in the PDF. It should be trivial to make it faster and more lightweight than the PDF, simply because it won't be based on decades old technology from Adobe ;) PS. Sorry for the late response, it has been a hectic two weeks.
MorePurpleMoreBetter
That is very kind of you, but I know from experience that many on this Patreon don't agree with you. Consider it a token of my appreciation for the ongoing support! PS. Sorry for the late response, it has been a hectic two weeks.
MorePurpleMoreBetter
That is very kind of you, but I know from experience that many on this Patreon don't agree with you. Consider it a token of my appreciation for the ongoing support! PS. Sorry for the late response, it has been a hectic two weeks.
MorePurpleMoreBetter
A website would be accessible anywhere you have internet, so that would be a plus over the limited options now. It would also be essential to have the resulting character sheet be nicely printable (to PDF), as that would still be the first intended use, to create a character sheet and print it out for use at the table. An easier way to write the import scripts would be great, but unfortunately something that will have to take a backseat if the web-app approach is chosen. Simply because that will have a new syntax for writing the import scripts. My intention is for that to be a more robust syntax, one that others can more easily design helpers for, thus opening the possibility for easier third-party content creators. PS. Sorry for the late response, it has been a hectic two weeks.
MorePurpleMoreBetter
A web-app should definitely solve that issue, browsers tend not to be made on several decades old technology like Adobe Acrobat ;)
Nova Rose
I'm actually on an older Mac, so it's an Intel processor. I can look more into fixing my problem right now, but my real point is just that web might be less buggy since it's a more universal format that's inherently cross-platform.
MorePurpleMoreBetter
As for your issues with Mac, your problems might be due to Adobe's incompatibility with M1 processors. Check out if this problem is fixed if you run Adobe Acrobat in "native mode", see here: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/apple-silicon-m1-processor-support.html PS. Sorry for the late response, it has been a hectic two weeks.
Nova Rose
I've been having a lot of trouble with the character sheet in Acrobat turning black randomly and stuff like that. I'm not sure if it's a problem with the sheet, with Acrobat, or with my Mac, but it's extremely frustrating. I think a web format would be much more reliable, and it would be great if you could somehow make it responsive to work from a mobile device. I know how hard it is to get used to a new codebase, so I understand it would take a while to spin up this new app if you moved to a web format, but personally I'm okay waiting. Then again, I haven't been using new material for my characters lately, so it's easy to wait when I already have everything I need XD
Forest
Making your own sheets for your players is a great idea! I just send them the .pdf and order them to fill it out lol. I will just say that web app design may be entirely different than pdf creation, that sounds like it's asking too much, but if it could be done, I'd pay more per month to get that webapp. In the meantime, just as an idea, if web-accessibility is your focus, you could probably recreate a really good variation of this inside Google Sheets and/or Google Forms
PancakeJA
Personally I love using these sheets, it's the best one I've used and makes things so much easier as far as character creation. I would be fine with going to a web-based app or website if it can still be accessible from PC and maybe have the option to download sheets to your computer or hard drive. Although if it makes adding Homebrew stuff (ie. races, items, backgrounds, spells, etc.) easier that would be a big bonus.
Definitely appreciate the honesty displayed here! That being said, this sheet is my favourite ever, to the point where, when my players send me their DND Beyond sheets, I typically make up an MPMB sheet for their characters for my own reference. :) For the future, my preference goes to a web-based app, mostly because the sheet feels a little unwieldy at times because of the density of code behind it. Plus, as content keeps getting added, I worry that might get worse. But other than that, love the sheet, wouldn't want to be without it anymore!
Nicole
I agree with MrFluckoff. At the moment I am not even playing D&D and still keep the patreon, to support your hard work. So please accept our money, even if you take a break!
MrFluckoff
Considering the work you're doing, I think you're doing yourself a disservice by pausing payments.
Moonbird
Hi ! My only small gripe about the current pdf, is the size of the files for each character (and the ressources needed on my old Mac when using it, but I should buy a new Mac eventually). That's why some time ago I asked MPMB if it was possible to generate a lightweight pdf just for printing or sharing, without all the Javascript and data needed to level a character. It wasn't possible due to some limitation. If you switched to a web based tool that could print to pdf, that would be perfect for me. Another way of doing it would be to have an app for generating the character sheet in pdf. But having a web based tool makes it easier for you to maintain and debug the code (no cross platform pbs, no automatic download and update process to do etc). You're doing a great job, keep it up !
Nicholas Davis
I support the idea of switching to a "web based" format but only if it was capable of running offline inside something like an Electron container just like Foundry does. That way I have options. I could run the app locally completely offline and self contained, spin up my own local server and connect to it through a web browser, or connect my server to a domain and share it with the world. I’m not sure how Aurora Builder handled its codebase but something like that is how I envision the electron app looking like. Except with a WYSIWYG style I guess. As for mobile compatibility, building an app for each platform would be best if you had a team of people, but as a single dev, I think the website approach is fine. In addition, if you end up creating an electron app, I highly recommend publishing it through Homebrew on MacOS and Linux as that provides a super easy way to publish updates to users and a super easy way for users to get updates. Edit: oh also the ability to export the character data to a csv or json file in addition to printable pdf so if I wanted to be able to download it from my local app and send it to a friend for them to mess around with values and stuff without needing to rebuild the character. Edit 2: I guess thinking back on your original post, one of the best things that I like about the sheet rn is that almost everything I do in the app is "non destructive". I have full confidence that I will be able to remove the level I just added, or change subclasses 7 levels into a character, and it all just works. If I make a character in Foundry, or Fantasy Grounds, then I’m basically stuck with what I have and have to redo the whole character cause I don’t have the confidence that removing a feature or level will recalculate all the numbers that it should be recalculating. Edit 3: the single biggest flaw of the sheet imo and reason a lot of my friends don’t use it right now is it’s reliance on desktop Acrobat. The fact that no other PDF reader can actually run the sheet, even Acrobat’s own mobile port, is incredibly frustrating for them. I have friends that are computer nerds but have sworn off Adobe products, others that only have mobile devices, and others that don’t like the performance of Acrobat and want to use the sheet in Preview or Foxit. While I understand their frustration and reasoning, it breaks my heart that they use far inferior products like Foundry’s character creation or *shudders* DndBeyond even for in person games.
Naked_SoNUshka
Ok, good luck with the overhaul and by the way those character sheet ideas you presented in the post are pretty good. Keep developing these ideas
I would be happy to see a web based version, as I am moving away from Windows, and while I really love the sheet, it does not work in linux.
