So I’m still on my character creation kick, carrying on from last week’s post. Seems only natural, as we’re inching up to the starting line for a 4E campaign over here…

I’ve been thinking of writing a few simple computer utilities for running and playing my upcoming campaign. Time is tight, though, so I sure don’t want to reinvent the wheel. On the other hand, I can easily come up with all these pie-in-the-sky wish lists that go way beyond what some of the existing tools do. The only problem is that first I have to reinvent that particular wheel, and then I have to take it further, and if I run out of steam along the way, all I’ll have to show for it is a bright and shiny re-invented wheel. Rats!

OK, some of that is a lie. In particular, I really don’t go around looking for D&D tools, so I have no idea what the possible wheels are to begin with. I was surprised (though I shouldn’t have been) to see that Random’s already checked out three or four 4E character sheets. People are a-moving out there!

I don’t really want to use a laptop during play: I’ve find it more a distraction than a help in the past, though maybe that will change. More likely I want it to help with adventure planning and book-keeping, and my big needs come down to character creation for both NPCs and enemies, and monster encounter creation.

I’ve spent some time musing about what I’d want in a character management system, and the answer is the cryptic title of this week’s post: dCharacter/dt. Here, those little d’s don’t refer to dice, but to differentials as per your beloved high school calculus course. I’m talking about tracking the evolution of the character, and using that as a basis for a creation and presentation system.

As always, I like to separate the data from the view. What we normally consider the “data” of a D&D character is really more of a snapshot in time, how that character is right now. This is more apparent in characters than monsters or NPCs, especially if your campaign treats the latter as speed bumps, but it’s true for all. You can fully describe your character in a chronological series in events, from abilities to race and initial class, though all the various leveling-ups and item acquisitions.

Sure, you mostly will only use the “now” character for play, but I’ve always kept a notebook full of “earlier” versions of the character to refer back to. My, how he’s grown! Now imagine having a scrollbar that allows you to instantly move back in time to any part of your character’s history, and see or print out that sheet. Whoa!

Now imagine being able to go forward in time to plot out future levels and feats and skills. You know you’re doing it anyway! Sure, reality will change as you get there, but if you ever wanted to see how your master plan is going to look level by level, there you go.

Now imagine the same tool for NPCs, maybe this one shows that value of all the character possessions and compares it to some benchmark for that level. Imagine being able to start by saying “I need an eighth level ranger”, and later revisit the same guy and promote him to 12th level for when the party runs into him a year later.

Finally, imagine the “view” being configurable, too, so you can choose to output to a one-page or two-page sheet, or just a small card for minor enemies, with different layouts (and allocation of space) provided for different classes and the like. That would be pretty sweet.

I think it would take a lot of data to drive such a system. And a lot of that data might run afoul of the 4E license, whatever that specifically entails. But it’s fun to think about, and I might try a couple little experiments to see how it works.

Meanwhile, I’d love to hear what D&D computer tools you folks have been using, presumably in 3.5, and what you’re wanting most for 4E.