Preface-- New digital character sheet is awesome. Love it. Love the improvements and the great responsiveness of the DDB team to suggestions. Very happy with how that's going.
However, it turns out that one of my groups relies heavily on the pdf exports. They love using DDB to make characters, but, for various reasons, it's easier for them to print out the characters and use them at the table.
With the character revamp, the export improved radically. Going from 'almost not worth using' to 'not bad!' But as this particular group uses them more, we're gradually accumulating ideas for things that would make it even better. I know the DDB team have it somewhere in their plans to provide alternatives and improvements, though they are understandably focused on digital right now. That said I have a couple questions:
1) Are improvements and additional options for the export something that is in the near term radar (as I've not seen mention of it in recent developer updates)?
2) Would it be useful for the team to have a stickied thread that compiles requests for the export (rather than have them buried in the massive character revamp feedback thread that is primarily, and understandably, focused on digital)?
OK. I'll just list some of my suggestions. Disclaimer: I'm aware that some of these things are already on the roadmap and that the pdf formatting is a challenge. But I'll still list what would improve it. I completely understand that some of these things might be quite challenging to implement.
1) Option to include more spell info on additional pages (e.g., spell cards)
2) Option to have cantrips and prepared spells grouped together somewhere for easy reference. I like the system of having all the spells in the book there and being able to fill in the dot. But for higher level clerics and wizards the long list gets unwieldy enough that having a 'commonly prepared' section that has the ones currently prepared on the digital sheet would be nice.
3) Readability and organization of the Actions and Features sections. First I want to acknowledge that, given what I think are the current limitations with creating the pdf, I think you've all done a remarkable job. But it would be nice for certain iconic class features to get a more customized look. In fact, maybe there's an argument for class-subclass specific sheets? Like Rogue Sneak Attack really feels like it should be more up front and obvious on the sheet. And it would be awesome for the Battlemaster to have a section to check off superiority dice and a nicely organized and formatted list of maneuvers. This might also address the spell issue with higher level wizards and paladins. I can imagine a Rage feature section for barbarians or a wildshape section for Moon Druids.
That's it for now. I might have more suggestions later (for example I'm pondering whether there's an argument for grouping combat, defensive, and other features together for easy reference?)
AD
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Preface-- New digital character sheet is awesome. Love it. Love the improvements and the great responsiveness of the DDB team to suggestions. Very happy with how that's going.
However, it turns out that one of my groups relies heavily on the pdf exports. They love using DDB to make characters, but, for various reasons, it's easier for them to print out the characters and use them at the table.
With the character revamp, the export improved radically. Going from 'almost not worth using' to 'not bad!' But as this particular group uses them more, we're gradually accumulating ideas for things that would make it even better. I know the DDB team have it somewhere in their plans to provide alternatives and improvements, though they are understandably focused on digital right now. That said I have a couple questions:
1) Are improvements and additional options for the export something that is in the near term radar (as I've not seen mention of it in recent developer updates)?
2) Would it be useful for the team to have a stickied thread that compiles requests for the export (rather than have them buried in the massive character revamp feedback thread that is primarily, and understandably, focused on digital)?
Cheers,
AD
OK. I'll just list some of my suggestions. Disclaimer: I'm aware that some of these things are already on the roadmap and that the pdf formatting is a challenge. But I'll still list what would improve it. I completely understand that some of these things might be quite challenging to implement.
1) Option to include more spell info on additional pages (e.g., spell cards)
2) Option to have cantrips and prepared spells grouped together somewhere for easy reference. I like the system of having all the spells in the book there and being able to fill in the dot. But for higher level clerics and wizards the long list gets unwieldy enough that having a 'commonly prepared' section that has the ones currently prepared on the digital sheet would be nice.
3) Readability and organization of the Actions and Features sections. First I want to acknowledge that, given what I think are the current limitations with creating the pdf, I think you've all done a remarkable job. But it would be nice for certain iconic class features to get a more customized look. In fact, maybe there's an argument for class-subclass specific sheets? Like Rogue Sneak Attack really feels like it should be more up front and obvious on the sheet. And it would be awesome for the Battlemaster to have a section to check off superiority dice and a nicely organized and formatted list of maneuvers. This might also address the spell issue with higher level wizards and paladins. I can imagine a Rage feature section for barbarians or a wildshape section for Moon Druids.
That's it for now. I might have more suggestions later (for example I'm pondering whether there's an argument for grouping combat, defensive, and other features together for easy reference?)
AD