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Post by kaemaril on Jan 10, 2010 1:57:53 GMT
Not sure whether to put this here or game content. Here is probably best. I think. Mods will, I'm sure, move if necessary  I'm designing a character sheet. My very first ever, since I've always used 'official' sheets in the past. How does this look for a beginning?  As you can probably guess, I've had extensive training in graphical design (NOT!) and possess comprehensive software suitable for the task (also NOT!). I do also possess a legal copy of deviant strain (TRUE!) This was done in an old version of Fireworks I've had hanging around the place doing nothing for quite some time. I thought I'd do something similar for the skills (it may not cover areas of expertise, but then neither does the official sheet...) Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Is it too 'busy'? Not busy enough? |
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Post by Null and Void on Jan 10, 2010 2:09:40 GMT
Not sure whether to put this here or game content. Here is probably best. I think. Mods will, I'm sure, move if necessary I'm designing a character sheet. My very first ever, since I've always used 'official' sheets in the past. How does this look for a beginning? As you can probably guess, I've had extensive training in graphical design (NOT!) and possess comprehensive software suitable for the task (also NOT!). I do also possess a legal copy of deviant strain (TRUE!) This was done in an old version of Fireworks I've had hanging around the place doing nothing for quite some time. I thought I'd do something similar for the skills (it may not cover areas of expertise, but then neither does the official sheet...) Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Is it too 'busy'? Not busy enough? Actually, I think it looks quite impressive! Well done... not too busy, no, and it has a sort of Torchwood kind of feel to it. Have some Karma! |
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Post by allenshock on Jan 10, 2010 3:05:39 GMT
looks nice! I hope it retains the while background...my printer did not like printing the official sheet at all.
I have been using a modified version of a sheet that Jason Vey made for my game.
Allen
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Post by kaemaril on Jan 10, 2010 3:16:20 GMT
looks nice! I hope it retains the while background...my printer did not like printing the official sheet at all. I have been using a modified version of a sheet that Jason Vey made for my game. Allen At the moment it has no background - it's a transparent PNG. I'm going to see if I can track down some 'gallifreyan graffiti' and use some of those But yes, the reason I won't be using the official sheet is that it burns through ink like nobody's business - so I'll not be too keen to use massively wasteful background images. |
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Post by Curufea on Jan 10, 2010 9:40:41 GMT
The font seems to include random white outlining - it doesn't go well with the drop shadow. Either get rid of the white, or the shadow IMHO. Otherwise I like it |
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Post by Rel Fexive on Jan 10, 2010 12:55:42 GMT
Yup, good work! Hope the rest of it looks as good |
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Post by kaemaril on Jan 10, 2010 15:27:04 GMT
The font seems to include random white outlining - it doesn't go well with the drop shadow. Either get rid of the white, or the shadow IMHO. Otherwise I like it It's not random at all. It's deliberate and consistent |
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Jason_WPGL
2nd Incarnation
Lord of CthuWho
Live Full, Die Empty
Posts: 152
Favourite Doctors: 2, 4, 6, 8, War, 11, 12
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Post by Jason_WPGL on Jan 10, 2010 21:39:00 GMT
Looks great, this may end up being my character sheet of choice.
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Post by kaemaril on Jan 10, 2010 22:27:12 GMT
I bolted the skills in place.  I think it actually looks a bit better without a dirty great box around anything, and if I can just track down some decent gallifreyan doodles/spiralgraphs (can anyone point out a few?) using them as a background should look nice. I believe that's all the 'numbers', now I need to do column two with the traits/equipment/biodate. Could be ... interesting. Short of bolting in some honkin' great boxes I'm not sure how to approach that Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Offers of money? (Kidding on the last one ) edit: Oh, and I changed the font from Deviant Strain to Deviant Plain. Just to make Curufea a little happier |
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Post by Curufea on Jan 10, 2010 22:39:41 GMT
edit: Oh, and I changed the font from Deviant Strain to Deviant Plain. Just to make Curufea a little happier Thanks - it does! By random, I meant between letters really - "s","n", "d" and "h" having large bottom white borders which made it look odd. |
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Post by Curufea on Jan 10, 2010 22:42:24 GMT
Also a question - how are you going to put areas of expertise on the sheet?
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Post by kaemaril on Jan 10, 2010 22:53:57 GMT
edit: Oh, and I changed the font from Deviant Strain to Deviant Plain. Just to make Curufea a little happier Thanks - it does! By random, I meant between letters really - "s","n", "d" and "h" having large bottom white borders which made it look odd. That's the random lines that appear in Deviant Strain also getting the white treatment. Every single text element had the same white outline and shadow effect, but I guess it looked a bit weirder with the lines due to the font.  |
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Post by kaemaril on Jan 10, 2010 22:54:54 GMT
Also a question - how are you going to put areas of expertise on the sheet? Same way the official sheet does ;D |
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Post by kaemaril on Jan 11, 2010 0:46:13 GMT
Incidentally, is it me or are some of the spaces on the 'official' character sheet a bit of a waste of space?
I'd certainly consider putting most if not all of the 'biodata' on the second side of the sheet, and put things like the success levels, more space for traits, etc on the first page instead.
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rsaintjohn
2nd Incarnation
The Threefold Man
Posts: 77
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Post by rsaintjohn on Jan 11, 2010 0:58:12 GMT
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Post by BadCatMan on Jan 11, 2010 1:02:49 GMT
Looks nice. You've really got new series aesthetic, without being as so busy looking.
One minor quibble: is your Story Points hexagon for the maximum number, or do you plan for it to hold current and maximum values? If the latter, it might need to be bigger, possible shifted to somewhere else.
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Post by kaemaril on Jan 11, 2010 1:10:10 GMT
Whoa, nice. Though the latter look a tad too busy. Mind if I use the first and/or second? |
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Post by kaemaril on Jan 11, 2010 1:11:24 GMT
Looks nice. You've really got new series aesthetic, without being as so busy looking. One minor quibble: is your Story Points hexagon for the maximum number, or do you plan for it to hold current and maximum values? If the latter, it might need to be bigger, possible shifted to somewhere else. Hmm. Good point ... |
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rsaintjohn
2nd Incarnation
The Threefold Man
Posts: 77
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Post by rsaintjohn on Jan 11, 2010 1:14:15 GMT
They're not mine, I can't recall where they came from (I think the production art was the BBC site). So maybe use as examples to make your own, but no permission from me needed!
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Post by kaemaril on Jan 14, 2010 2:10:36 GMT
OK, I've been working a bit more on this. Progress has been slow, as I've been a) busy b) getting to know scribus, after deciding doing the entire character as one bitmap wasn't working to well  1) Put in a background of gallifreyan scribbling. Very, very pale (possibly too pale?) and also a bit of a crop job. You can't see it here, as since it's not my image (it's one of the ones mentioned upthread) I've removed it. Copyright an' all. 2) Crappy logo Hey, I don't need the real thing and it gets the job done. Also added Name and player sections. To be done: 1) Equipment, traits, 'biodata'. Still not sure all the biodate on the front page of the official sheet is worth the space, frankly. Might be worth putting more space into traits, and telling the players to use the rear for all their biodata needs Thoughts? Suggestions? Criticisms? |
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Post by Curufea on Jan 14, 2010 3:12:58 GMT
Looks nice and clean
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Post by kaemaril on Jan 14, 2010 6:26:19 GMT
Moving on ...  Things to do: 1) Improve logo 2) Keep Character/player text blue or make red? Or make all text black? Hmm ... 3) Add 'biodata' on page 2? Is it worth it? 4) Attempt to add success chart (text too small?) 5) Eliminate 'bottom' lines on traits/equipment? Possibly keep but make dotted ... Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Additional things to do? (It looks really nice with the background, btw ) |
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rsaintjohn
2nd Incarnation
The Threefold Man
Posts: 77
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Post by rsaintjohn on Jan 14, 2010 7:34:55 GMT
Why not try using the Assiduous font for "Doctor Who"? That's similar to the Industria typeface used on other DW products.
Agreed about getting rid of the "bottom" lines
Blank works just as good as biodata. I wouldn't bother.
This last one is a bigger change, just a suggestion. I find it a little hard (at a glance) to match the hex boxes with the labels. I really like the staggered hexes, though. Suggestion: what would it look like if the text labels were also a bit staggered accordingly, especially for skills? That is nudge "convince", "fighting", "marksman" etc a bit (one space?) to the right?
Perhaps change Story Pts/Tech Lvl to "Other" or "Misc", or get rid of it entirely (leave the space). I'd say the header is redundant.
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Post by Curufea on Jan 14, 2010 9:25:23 GMT
Yeah, a bit too many lines. Need some to take up the whitespace to stop it looking sparse, but not fence in the text.
I just had an idea for a very radical character sheet too... hmm..
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Post by kaemaril on Jan 14, 2010 10:41:57 GMT
Yeah, a bit too many lines. Need some to take up the whitespace to stop it looking sparse, but not fence in the text. Version 3 ...  Got rid of the bottom line, converted the whole thing to black/white, reduced the 'logo' (I hardly think it deserves the term ) and thinned down the lines in the right hand column. It looks a bit sparse without the background image, but with it I think it looks quite nice (PM me and I'll mail you a copy, if you'd like to critique the whole thing ) |
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Post by kaemaril on Jan 14, 2010 10:53:13 GMT
Why not try using the Assiduous font for "Doctor Who"? That's similar to the Industria typeface used on other DW products. Hmm. I might give Assiduous a try over the weekend - though if it works I might as well pick up Industria, which (judging from myfonts.com) seems to be quite inexpensive and a nice font to have They're gone Pretty much my thought ... though I was toying with the idea of some really big staggered hexes for them Yeah, tried that originally - it really didn't look good  I think generally the eye prefers blocks of text to be neatly aligned, which is why I took great care to align everything down to the pixel (I hope! Let me know if I've missed one or two ...) I might consider some very narrow lines underneath each bit of text 'leading' to the relevent hex, but that's going to be tricky to do - especially for somebody of my limited graphical ability I'll ditch the story/tech header, I think, if I need more space to perhaps try and put a success level chart in that column. As you can see, the main 'header' has been tweaked |
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Post by kaemaril on Jan 14, 2010 12:10:59 GMT
This last one is a bigger change, just a suggestion. I find it a little hard (at a glance) to match the hex boxes with the labels. I really like the staggered hexes, though. By the way, I don't know if you noticed ... it's not just a list of skills and attributes with a bunch of hexes to the right. Each individual chunk of text (e.g. 'Strength') is aligned with the centre of its respective hex. It might not be noticeable, but I just thought I'd mention it 'cos it took me ages to do ;D |
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PathfinderAP
2nd Incarnation
Reason for Everything, Always a Way
Posts: 28
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Post by PathfinderAP on Jan 14, 2010 15:09:54 GMT
Hey not bad, I like how it stacks,
You're right its a crappy logo, maybe you could use the logo from this site? (with permission)
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Post by kaemaril on Jan 15, 2010 2:15:38 GMT
Why not try using the Assiduous font for "Doctor Who"? That's similar to the Industria typeface used on other DW products. Tried it. I'll pass, I think. It's a bit boring |
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Eternally Lost Zeppo
3rd Incarnation
The Lonely God
Posts: 246
Favourite Doctors: David Tennant, Matt Smith, Peter Davidson
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Post by Eternally Lost Zeppo on Jan 15, 2010 6:26:15 GMT
Like how this is developing. Not much advice to give design-wise that hasn't already been said, though as to the question of having 'Bio Data' on page two, I would tend to be more in favour of it as having sections for it there on the sheet encourages players to think about it a bit more.
Not that the GM isn't just going to motivate them to do it anyway, but every little helps. At the very least I would say have it as an optional second page. It's a nice thing to have on the sheet, but not 100% essential.
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I think generally the eye prefers blocks of text to be neatly aligned, which is why I took great care to align everything down to the pixel (I hope! Let me know if I've missed one or two ...)
