D&D/RPGs charactersheets and the iliad?

GavinK151 · 04-20-2008, 10:59 AM

Hi all!

Has anyone tried using the Irex iliad for their Character sheet for an RPG (such as D&D)? I was thinking maybe it would work quite well for taking notes etc etc....

If so, is annotating a blank PDF character sheet the way to go? (cant test as I dont have an iliad!)

cheers!

axel77 · 04-20-2008, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GavinK151

If so, is annotating a blank PDF character sheet the way to go? (cant test as I dont have an iliad!)

Yes, why not. But IMHO you'd better design a character sheet which page size is explicitly comforting the iLiad.

carandol · 04-20-2008, 05:49 PM

I've tried this, but it's not as easy as it looks. Most character sheets are quite small when shown as a full-page PDF, and it can be quite difficult to write small enough to fit in the boxes. You could turn the page sideways and fill in half the sheet at a time, then turn it back the right way up to refer to in a game, But I don't actually see the advantage over old fashioned paper at this point :-)

From a GM's point of view, it's not so good for referring to PDF rulebooks, either, because it's not easy to find the page you want in a hurry. But the thing I've found it good for is with scenarios I've written myself. I write on the PC, then save the text as a PDF at iLiad page size, but as one column, leaving the other side blank. Then when I'm running the game, I can have the scenario on one side of the screen and make notes on the other half, keep track of combats etc

GavinK151 · 04-21-2008, 06:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carandol

I've tried this, but it's not as easy as it looks. Most character sheets are quite small when shown as a full-page PDF, and it can be quite difficult to write small enough to fit in the boxes. You could turn the page sideways and fill in half the sheet at a time, then turn it back the right way up to refer to in a game, But I don't actually see the advantage over old fashioned paper at this point :-)

From a GM's point of view, it's not so good for referring to PDF rulebooks, either, because it's not easy to find the page you want in a hurry. But the thing I've found it good for is with scenarios I've written myself. I write on the PC, then save the text as a PDF at iLiad page size, but as one column, leaving the other side blank. Then when I'm running the game, I can have the scenario on one side of the screen and make notes on the other half, keep track of combats etc

Hi guys thanks for replying!

Hm ok it sounds like the only way to make it work well is as you say (axel77), to make a custom PDF character sheet of the right dimensions. I will look around and see if its been done and if not might have a crack at it... I guess the sheet could just be a few A5(ish) pages in total.

I like your DMing idea for taking notes.

Also, not sure if its going to look OK (no iliad yet) but I found an HTML version of the D20 SRD docs and converted this to a mobipocket file. This might be good for looking up rules etc As all the hyperlinks are maintained. I have no idea how easy it is to search mobipocket files on the Iliad though for keywords etc....

Will report back when I try it!

cheers.

Martijn · 04-21-2008, 07:55 AM

I have the SRD from TheRaven and stephenh from http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/ on my iLiad in HTML.
It works pretty well with the iLiad HTML viewer since a lot of the stuff is hyperlinked.
Unfortunately the creators did not process every part of the SRD, so some large HTML files remain and those are a pain to read on the iLiad.

I haven't really tried any of the other SRD's on that site, they might work better.

Anyways, I'm not sure of the use of the iLiad at the gaming table. It's an expensive device and I don't feel very comfortable putting it between the drinks and other foodstuffs.
Since it is a lot easier to carry than all my gaming books though, I usually have it with me in case I want to look something up, but I leave it in my bag otherwise.

As far as character sheets go, for our D&D campaign we put up a small wiki with PDF export possibilities, so I simply have a little wget script that updates the PDFs on my iLiad.
This is mainly as a backup though, since I find that the pen&paper variants work a bit easier.

axel77 · 04-22-2008, 01:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martijn

we put up a small wiki with PDF export possibilities

Interesting, which wiki do you use that can do PDF export?

GavinK151 · 04-22-2008, 08:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martijn

Anyways, I'm not sure of the use of the iLiad at the gaming table. It's an expensive device and I don't feel very comfortable putting it between the drinks and other foodstuffs.

hehe yeah I can see this is a worry for me too! Our D&D sessions usually also involve beer or wine and I have quite a few stained character sheets already

carandol · 04-22-2008, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GavinK151

I have no idea how easy it is to search mobipocket files on the Iliad though for keywords etc....

Sadly, there's no seach facility in Mobipocket on the iLiad (yet). I hope this changes.

axel77 · 04-22-2008, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GavinK151

hehe yeah I can see this is a worry for me too! Our D&D sessions usually also involve beer or wine and I have quite a few stained character sheets already

http://www.justread.de/shop/product_...485eq9otq1ste1

genius idea if you ask me. I love it for reading in my bath

daudi · 04-23-2008, 04:32 AM

Oh my goodness! I didn't know about this. And great timing: I have a birthday coming up soon ... I now have something to put on my wish list

axel77 · 04-23-2008, 05:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daudi

Oh my goodness! I didn't know about this. And great timing: I have a birthday coming up soon ... I now have something to put on my wish list

But take care, if the beer glass falls on the iLiad the screen might break nevertheless..

Martijn · 04-23-2008, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by axel77

Interesting, which wiki do you use that can do PDF export?

It's mediawiki combined with the pdf-export extension from http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Pdf_Export.

Installation was quite simple:
- It requires that htmldoc is installed on the server, so this might be tricky. I run my own server so this was not a problem for me.
- The internationalization file (PdfExport.i18n.ph) didn't seem to work right; it always selected the last language entry in the file, so I moved my language to the last position.
- I replaced the

Code:

passthru("htmldoc ...."

line with:

Code:

passthru("htmldoc -t pdf14 --size 122x150mm --fontsize 10 --top 6mm --bottom 5mm --left 5mm --right 5mm --textfont helvetica --charset iso-8859-1 --color --quiet --jpeg --webpage '$mytemp'", $returnStatus);

to produce iLiad friendly PDF files based on the standard feedbooks template for the iLiad.

The results look ok. The only problem is tables that are too wide will get cut off.

04-20-2008, 10:59 AM	#1
GavinK151 Enthusiast Posts: 33 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2008 Device: none	D&D/RPGs charactersheets and the iliad? Hi all! Has anyone tried using the Irex iliad for their Character sheet for an RPG (such as D&D)? I was thinking maybe it would work quite well for taking notes etc etc.... If so, is annotating a blank PDF character sheet the way to go? (cant test as I dont have an iliad!) cheers!

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04-20-2008, 05:49 PM	#3
carandol Evangelist Posts: 423 Karma: 2153430 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: BeBook	I've tried this, but it's not as easy as it looks. Most character sheets are quite small when shown as a full-page PDF, and it can be quite difficult to write small enough to fit in the boxes. You could turn the page sideways and fill in half the sheet at a time, then turn it back the right way up to refer to in a game, But I don't actually see the advantage over old fashioned paper at this point :-) From a GM's point of view, it's not so good for referring to PDF rulebooks, either, because it's not easy to find the page you want in a hurry. But the thing I've found it good for is with scenarios I've written myself. I write on the PC, then save the text as a PDF at iLiad page size, but as one column, leaving the other side blank. Then when I'm running the game, I can have the scenario on one side of the screen and make notes on the other half, keep track of combats etc

04-21-2008, 07:55 AM	#5
Martijn Connoisseur Posts: 68 Karma: 855 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Netherlands Device: iLiad	I have the SRD from TheRaven and stephenh from http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/ on my iLiad in HTML. It works pretty well with the iLiad HTML viewer since a lot of the stuff is hyperlinked. Unfortunately the creators did not process every part of the SRD, so some large HTML files remain and those are a pain to read on the iLiad. I haven't really tried any of the other SRD's on that site, they might work better. Anyways, I'm not sure of the use of the iLiad at the gaming table. It's an expensive device and I don't feel very comfortable putting it between the drinks and other foodstuffs. Since it is a lot easier to carry than all my gaming books though, I usually have it with me in case I want to look something up, but I leave it in my bag otherwise. As far as character sheets go, for our D&D campaign we put up a small wiki with PDF export possibilities, so I simply have a little wget script that updates the PDFs on my iLiad. This is mainly as a backup though, since I find that the pen&paper variants work a bit easier.

04-23-2008, 04:32 AM	#10
daudi Addict Posts: 281 Karma: 904 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Kent, UK Device: iRex iLiad, Psion 5MX, nokia n800	Oh my goodness! I didn't know about this. And great timing: I have a birthday coming up soon ... I now have something to put on my wish list