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So a few days ago I got a notification on Youtube that there was a new video from PB and it was Rifts Automatic Character Sheet . I was a little surprised because I hadn't seen anything about this in the weekly updates and it was still missing.

Has anyone seen this mentioned? Did I just miss it? Very curious as to when it comes it out.

I have to say it looks good, great for an Excel sheet.

Anyone else seen this, what do you think?

It looks like its available now on DriveThruRpg.com

I'm not envious of the amount of time/energy it took to build that.

Snake Eyes wrote:It looks like its available now on DriveThruRpg.com

Was it a stealth release? I mean nothing on the forums or weekly update just a Youtube teaser and a FB post.

Just bought it, probably try it out this week.

Mack wrote:I'm not envious of the amount of time/energy it took to build that.

I made one that just auto-updated with level the skills and some of the powers and that took forever. My best sheet is a combo MS excel / word but it is glitchy as hell.

A web based character builder is what I have always wanted but I lack anything approaching the skills to do that.

Warshield73
It was kind of a stealth release...Many of Palladium products get waylaid by a number of factors and we wanted to not disappoint, so we held off until the project was ready for release.

Mack
It took about 10 years, with the bulk of it being done in the last 2 years. It started as a simple spreadsheet for me to keep track of characters and NPCs and gradually evolved until I thought I was ready. I talked with Kevin and some other Palladium friends and got massive feedback on it and that's how things got to where they are now.

Warshield73 wrote:

Mack wrote:I'm not envious of the amount of time/energy it took to build that.

I made one that just auto-updated with level the skills and some of the powers and that took forever. My best sheet is a combo MS excel / word but it is glitchy as hell.

A web based character builder is what I have always wanted but I lack anything approaching the skills to do that.

I don't recall attempting anything like this with a spreadsheet/word processor program of any kind. I did something like that using MS Works Database feature in the late 90s (it was no were near as complex or powerful as what's described here either), but that gave way to my own MS Access Database (the biggest time investment so far has been in data entry, not the setup execution). IMHO I don't think I want to try something so complex in a spreadsheet, at that point I'd go with a Database as I think it would actually be easier.

Greg Diaczyk wrote:Warshield73
It was kind of a stealth release...Many of Palladium products get waylaid by a number of factors and we wanted to not disappoint, so we held off until the project was ready for release.

I can understand that, still I would have thought since the teaser went up we would have seen a mention in this weeks update or maybe a special email blast. It seems to be selling well on DT though so not sure it was hurt.

Greg Diaczyk wrote:Mack
It took about 10 years, with the bulk of it being done in the last 2 years. It started as a simple spreadsheet for me to keep track of characters and NPCs and gradually evolved until I thought I was ready. I talked with Kevin and some other Palladium friends and got massive feedback on it and that's how things got to where they are now.

Congrats, mine is almost 20 years old and has been revised a dozen times and still no way anyone else could use it has no automation for creation and only limited automation for level increases.

ShadowLogan wrote:

Warshield73 wrote:

Mack wrote:I'm not envious of the amount of time/energy it took to build that.

I made one that just auto-updated with level the skills and some of the powers and that took forever. My best sheet is a combo MS excel / word but it is glitchy as hell.

A web based character builder is what I have always wanted but I lack anything approaching the skills to do that.

I don't recall attempting anything like this with a spreadsheet/word processor program of any kind. I did something like that using MS Works Database feature in the late 90s (it was no were near as complex or powerful as what's described here either), but that gave way to my own MS Access Database (the biggest time investment so far has been in data entry, not the setup execution). IMHO I don't think I want to try something so complex in a spreadsheet, at that point I'd go with a Database as I think it would actually be easier.

I've done some d-base work for character sheets but I'm not knowledgeable enough on the mechanics to make it work.

The Database situation is also more complicated than spreadsheets, at least from a selection standpoint as there are different types of databases and their setup.

The 1st DB I did for a character sheet was in MS Works, and it amounted to a fill in sheet (it could do skill level calculations after you enter the starting and advancement, along with the Attribute Bonuses, but that was the extent). The MS Access version has grown in capability over the years.

The main drawback to an Access version is you need to either provide a front end (like the old GM Manager) or have Access itself (and that is expensive).