HM4e Compatible Character Sheet

Looking to create a sheet for my HAH game system. It would also be a sheet compatible with old HM4e (HackMaster 4e). -Foundry_Dwarf

ARGHive said: Looking to create a sheet for my HAH game system. <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Building_Character_Sheets" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Building_Character_Sheets</a> should help you get started. There exist an extremely old Sheet for 5E that might work as an starting point, but it might be better idea to start with something else as a template <a href="https://github.com/Roll20/roll20-character-sheets/tree/master/HackMaster_5E" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/Roll20/roll20-character-sheets/tree/master/HackMaster_5E</a>

The debate in my head is whether to use the HM5e sheet or an AD&amp;D 2e sheet. The issue with ADD2e is whether or not the sheet has percentiles for any stats and whether the skill handling would work (might be fewer tweaks). Still gathering intel and looking at both options :) (and hoping somebody tried creating an unofficial one in the past and sees my posts) -Dwarf

Looking to convert the AD&amp;D 1e character sheet, but I am trying to figure out how to replace the "Advanced D &amp; D TM" portion. I have not yet found such text in the HTML or CSS code. I think changing that to "HAH" or such is a good 1st step as then it won't get accidentally confused. Printed out the HTML &amp; CSS to figure out how to add COM and HON stats (so can be used for HAH or HM4e) and am working on that in the "game" I created for such purpose, aka " HM4e Character Sheet Design Party " -Dwarf

I figured out how to change the Banner: Line #6 of the ADD 1st Edition character sheet stated something about an imgur file&nbsp; ( &lt;img src=" <a href="https://i.imgur.com/" rel="nofollow">https://i.imgur.com/</a>..") ,&nbsp;so I created some text to create a new "Logo" for the banner, took a screen shot, dumped that into Paint, created an imgur account, loaded my new image up there (as hidden), tried linking to it .. and the Banner on the character sheet was replaced with an "image not found" icon. Found out the hard way I needed to use a direct link (click on your image, you should get "view &amp; edit posts" with a series of coding for "Image Link", &nbsp;"Direct Link", "Markdown Link (for Reddit users)", "HTML Link", and so on .. use direct link). Banner was large so I scaled the ODT file down to 2/3rds size, and repeated the above, but with a lot less swearing this time. That worked. Printing &amp; Saving Code to hard copy I am an OLD computer programmer, so I like hard copy in case I mess up by the numbers (it can also make it easier to see errors). So I created a "Word" document (I use Libreoffice Writer) with a Numbered list "1) ", clicked in the code, selected "select all", then pasted the code into my "Word" document making certain the first, last, and at least one other line had the correct line numbers. Savd &amp; printed. Now I can draw on the paper and line up code and still see the line numbers accurately :) Reusing the "Word" document to track changes (color coding, adding in documentation of the changes made, etc). Changing Ability Order Stats in "Heroes &amp; Henchmen" is compatible with HM4e, so I altered the order the stats were in by copying the code lines for Dex &amp; Con above Int. Worked fine, no noticeable issues. Altering the Substats I was able to do a few minor tweaks, but as HM4e has 6 substats for Strength, Con, &amp; Int and 5 for Wis I tried to shorten the printed text a bit. I was able to safely change the Strength substat of "Encumberance:" to "Wgt:" and the "Open Doors" button to "Doors" but when I tried to change "To Hit:" to "Hit:", "DMG Bonus:" &nbsp;to "Dmg:" or even "Bend Bars" button to "Bars" weird stuff happened and things seemed to go all over the place. Am I missing something? Does the text to be printed on the sheet get used in variable names somehow? (I was careful NOT to mess with any variable names .. yet) Given my programming experience I would preview each change before accepting it so I did not even do any semi-permanent damage, but now I am concerned about what other changes I can or can not make. Some advice would be appreciated. -Dwarf&nbsp;

post script: Given my experiences, would you like me to do screen shots of various steps for an improved Building a Character Sheet guide? Maybe a guide to modifying an existing character sheet? I was a programmer, miniatures manager, etc, and already see where your current document appears a bit .. lacking -Dwarf

ARGHive said: Printing &amp; Saving Code to hard copy I am an OLD computer programmer, so I like hard copy in case I mess up by the numbers (it can also make it easier to see errors). So I created a "Word" document (I use Libreoffice Writer) with a Numbered list "1) ", clicked in the code, selected "select all", then pasted the code into my "Word" document making certain the first, last, and at least one other line had the correct line numbers. Savd &amp; printed. Now I can draw on the paper and line up code and still see the line numbers accurately :) Reusing the "Word" document to track changes (color coding, adding in documentation of the changes made, etc). I assume you know this, but just in case, and for anyone else reading: if you're using a word processor to save your code in, make sure you make that only one way. Don't copy from the WP back into your code, because the word processors 'smart' features will have messed up a lot of code. Quotes, for example, will now be smart quotes, and wont be recognised properly anymore. Personally, I prefer to save into a text editor that recognises code, and have been using Visual Studio Code for a year or so now.&nbsp; ARGHive said: Altering the Substats I was able to do a few minor tweaks, but as HM4e has 6 substats for Strength, Con, &amp; Int and 5 for Wis I tried to shorten the printed text a bit. I was able to safely change the Strength substat of "Encumberance:" to "Wgt:" and the "Open Doors" button to "Doors" but when I tried to change "To Hit:" to "Hit:", "DMG Bonus:" &nbsp;to "Dmg:" or even "Bend Bars" button to "Bars" weird stuff happened and things seemed to go all over the place. Am I missing something? Does the text to be printed on the sheet get used in variable names somehow? (I was careful NOT to mess with any variable names .. yet) I'm not familiar with the sheet you're editing, but if you just changed the visible text, and not special variable names (which always start with attr_ or act_ ), your changes will be invisible to scripting side (sheet workers can only respond to those kinds of attribute names). Without knowing what you mean by "weird stuff happened" its hard to be precise, but my guess is you altered something needed for the CSS to display the sheet properly. before and after screenshots would be helpful.

ARGHive said: Printing &amp; Saving Code to hard copy I am an OLD computer programmer, so I like hard copy in case I mess up by the numbers (it can also make it easier to see errors). So I created a "Word" document (I use Libreoffice Writer) with a Numbered list "1) ", clicked in the code, selected "select all", then pasted the code into my "Word" document making certain the first, last, and at least one other line had the correct line numbers. Savd &amp; printed. Now I can draw on the paper and line up code and still see the line numbers accurately :) Reusing the "Word" document to track changes (color coding, adding in documentation of the changes made, etc). Given my programming experience I would preview each change before accepting it so I did not even do any semi-permanent damage, but now I am concerned about what other changes I can or can not make. Some advice would be appreciated. -Dwarf&nbsp; You say you prefer doing old-school version control and checking on paper, so I'm curious on what text/code editor you use for writing code. I use "Sublime Text" currently as my editor, and used "Notepad++" before that. Do you use version control such as Git? The same version control, highlights &amp; error-checking you do on paper can be achieved with Git. Using online validators for HTML/CSS is a great idea to speed up error-checking and catching mistakes.

ARGHive said: post script: Given my experiences, would you like me to do screen shots of various steps for an improved Building a Character Sheet guide? Maybe a guide to modifying an existing character sheet? I was a programmer, miniatures manager, etc, and already see where your current document appears a bit .. lacking -Dwarf I think this is a great idea, though maybe as a separate page on the wiki. Some pages are protected, we arent meant to fiddle with them too much, and I think that is one of them.&nbsp;

Well, let us see. Got a different error than what I was expecting, so I am going to go back to scratch with it and start over. At least I am in earliy enough to do that ;) Posting image a) to see if I can, and b) to show what the OTHER error I saw was .. .. hmm, Next pass I am going to have to make sure I zoom better on Paint before saving the screen shot to see if that helps. Odd .. now the specific sheet I used is .. missing .. from the list of Community Character Sheets (aka, that you can modify) :/ Still on the list you can use, just not open for customization/modification. Found it .. still on GitHub :) Tried replacing it with the original "1eSheet.html" from GitHub and that is now generating the same errors on preview .. curiouser and curiouser. Now laughing as those errors only show up on Preview and NOT in game :)) -Dwarf

When I say "old" I mean as in I was hired a BAL, CICS, &amp; JCL programmer by Sears back around 1990 ..&nbsp; I am more used to tracking code and figuring out what does what by scribbling on physical printouts with a pencil and using a ruler to make certain C Language code (or html) lines up properly for the &lt;&gt; and corresponding &lt;/&gt;. Yep, I am a "fossil" ;) -Dwarf

OK, I definitely have to do screen shots of everything I do as it seems to be helping it work somehow .. which makes absolutely no sense to me, but still. Only thing I am wondering now is if the spacing is dictated by the column and sets itself to the widest column in the section. If so some more mucking about may help me even that up a bit :) -Dwarf

OK, here is finally an example of the formatting gone wrong. In line 17 all I did was change&nbsp;&lt;td colspan="4"&gt; to&nbsp;&lt;td colspan="5"&gt; Code prior to change: Now the change: The results in preview: Any ideas on why that is happening? Is there something about column widths, where the logo is, or such that may have interfered and caused the chaos?

My suggestion is to not use old formatting methods like tables, and go for CSS Grid or CSS Flexbox. I might be able to figure out your problem, but honestly dont wanna touch any table-related stuff.

Andreas J. said: My suggestion is to not use old formatting methods like tables, and go for CSS Grid or CSS Flexbox. I might be able to figure out your problem, but honestly dont wanna touch any table-related stuff. Funny thing is I had it happen later doing something else and it self-corrected upon refresh :/ I will have to see what you mean about CSS Grid &amp; CSS Flexbox later. For now I will keep plugging along and see how well the 2x4 method works in regards to getting a basic sheet for Heroes &amp; Henchmen :) -Dwarf

ARGHive said: OK, here is finally an example of the formatting gone wrong. In line 17 all I did was change&nbsp;&lt;td colspan="4"&gt; to&nbsp;&lt;td colspan="5"&gt; Any ideas on why that is happening? Is there something about column widths, where the logo is, or such that may have interfered and caused the chaos? Unlike Andreas, i think tables are fine, especially for beginners. If thats all you did, yes, it would cause the tables to be knocked out of alignment. colspan=5 says "this column takes up 5 columns wide" - changing from colspan 4 to 5 will push everything after that by one column. However,&nbsp; your screenshot doesnt really help see where the issue is. What did it look like before? When I suggested screenshots, I meant for the effect on the character sheet. When posting code, always post text not screenshots. Screenshots of character sheets are best taken in the full campaign, not preview mode. Not everything is displayed correctly in preview mode.

GiGs said: Unlike Andreas, i think tables are fine, especially for beginners. Oh, they are fine to use, I'm just gonna skip out on the headache of trying help out someone else fix or improve theirs, other people can do that. I'm just being selective on what/how much time I spend here helping others.

Thats sensible :) They can be a pain.&nbsp; I just don't like the advice to not use tables for novices (without providing a code replacement that works so they dont have to figure it out - jumping from tables to flex or grid is a huge undertaking). What usually happens then is the novice just replaces all the td/tr elements with divs, and end up with a worse design than simply using tables. There's more than enough sheets on the repository like this already. Tables are easy enough to understand, and get working, and making a sheet is hard enough already.