Ruleset Functionality question

[Belizan]

So, I've done some minor tweaking of rulesets to date, and pieced together tid bits other people have put out, but recently I've found I wished I could add a few more extensive features. Before getting really deep into learning how the system works well enough to make them, though, I thought I would check to see if it was even possible.

What I was looking to add were two things. First, I wanted to add a sort of "level record" sheet, that would record on a level by level basis, how many hp the player gained, skills bought, spell learned, etc. Preferrably in a fashion where they could be editted, updated and switched, as well as collated to a master "total".

Second, I wanted to create "dossiers" on my players starting with a job application form that each player would fill out in-game in person, but which I would get to keep a copy of in some parallel to a personalities collection. Once submitted, players would not be able to edit them, etc. Or even look at them.

Are these features implementable? And if so how difficult are they likely to be?

[Archmage]

Both sound plausible to me. Lua and XML are both meant for data manipulation, and that seems to be all you want to do.

The first idea would be a matter of creating a custom sheet to display the data, and then writing it to the campaign database so it can be recalled in later sessions. You could use a windowlist to create a separate item to contain the data for each level, and then have a script total the values from the appropriate fields of each list item.

The second idea would involve work similar to the first, except that you'd want to keep the control for opening the sheet on the DM side, and make it shareable. That way you could open a sheet, share it with the appropriate player, have them make the edits, then close it when they're done. At least I think it could work that way. Never tried it myself.

[Foen]

It is pretty much like Archmage says. For the dossier, it is possible to maintain the data on the character sheet, but only display it to clients when the GM wants to: the same way magic item descriptions are selectively displayed in the d20 ruleset when the GM clicks the 'identified' checkbox.

Stuart

[Bidmaron]

Foen, is there a way to make what you share editable by the sharee though? I haven't seen this done, and that's what this guy wants to do.

[Foen]

If there is only one recipient, plus the GM, then you can enable editing by setting the Owner equal to the recipient. The GM can always edit, and a single nominated Owner can (that's how character sheets work) but you cannot have more than one Owner.

You can have multiple Holders, but they only have read access.

Is that roughly what you need? If you want multiple clients to have edit access, you need to do horrible things with code and shadow copies.

Foen

[Bidmaron]

Thanks. That is a good trick in setting the user to the owner. When the editing is done, guess you could then set the owner back to the GM.

[Foen]

I think you can clear the Owner status using addHolder(username,false), but it is safer to use addHolder(gmname,true).

Cheers

Foen