Character Sheet Size

[Zhern]

Looking through several of the existing rulesets, it seems most of the character sheets average around 550px x 650px or so. What is the preference for size? I'm tempted to enlarge that to be more digest size, say 6x9 or so. Thoughts?

[Nickademus]

While I have no real opinion on the CS size as long as it looks good and is organized (I loath the drop shadows, but they're here to stay sadly), my previous investigation leads me to believe that any size up to the size of the Party Sheet is fine.

[Zacchaeus]

I'd echo Nickademus; the main thing is clarity. Also you need to think about chaps who have very little screen space such as those working on laptops. What might look great on some Monster monitor might be a huge problem on a 14" screen.

[damned]

If it doesnt fit on the screen that FG launches by default I wouldnt do it. A reasonable number of people use that size dcreen either through older equipment or through the /scaleui feature for readability. And that means not just fits, but you can still see at least chat and the sidebar as well.

[Zhern]

I'm giving it a look with it being 800px x 500px wide. The PS window is 830px x 500px in 3.5 so I figured I'd shrink it just a bit and see how it turns out. I want to make sure it is still usable for those with little screen real estate.

[damned]

Also if you are layering on the CoreRPG CharSheet some of those tabs require a goodly amount of rework if you adjust the width.
In MoreCore I have lengthened the sheet as much as will fit on the standard window.
<size width="525" height="740" />
Ive left it so the player can make it longer but not wider.

[Zhern]

Hmm, okay, that is something I need to consider then. The tabs have been something I've been considering lately and I'm not sure how I feel about them. I think they are great for 5e and the other flavors but with Swords & Wizardry, I'm trying to go for as simple as possible on a single sheet. I was going to include a tab for inventory and for spells but no others. Instead of making the sheet wider, I could go longer. I'll have to try several and let you all see shots of it to give feedback.

[Zhern]

I'm also torn on whether or not I should work multiclassing in now or wait. I'm thinking wait but I wanted to make sure there was space available on the character sheet to list up to two additional classes and the xp for each.

[Nickademus]

I'm no professional, but my philosophy for development is to plan for everything in the interface upfront and add things one-by-one to the execution. It's better to have a gray-out option at launch than to have to redesign a UI. Best to discover all the interface issues you didn't predict prior to an initial launch.

[Zhern]

Yeah, that is what I'm hoping to do, Nickademus. I don't want to have to refactor the UI when I add functionality. I'd rather just remove the comments around the field or have it greyed out and an entry in the release notes that it is forthcoming functionality.

[vodokar]

I agree. Put everything on the character sheet that is going to be there even if it isn't functional yet.

[leozelig]

I love the no tabs idea. You would have to keep everything very streamlined, but I know I would appreciate the simplicity of it.

[Zhern]

I'm working on the no tabs version right now. That is one of the things I really love about S&W - it is very minimalist. You could really have your entire character sheet on a note card if you wanted to (and your writing was readable, unlike mine).