Character Sheet Phase 3 (Savage)

Context: HL Kit … Authoring Examples … Savage Worlds Walk-Through 

Overview

In this phase of developing the character sheet, we'll begin work on the right column of the sheet. This side is a bit more complex than the left side, containing both detailed sections (e.g. powers, weapons, and armor) and some interesting relationships between the different sections.

Logos

At the top of the right column of the character are the logos for both HL and the game system. These are handled automatically in the Skeleton files and there is nothing we need to do. If we wanted to stack the logos instead of placing them side-by-side, we could do that by simply configuring the orientation within the Position script for the sheet. However, we're trying to keep things compact in this character sheet, so we'll stick with the default behavior.

Eliminate Portrait Handling

The first thing we need to do for the right column is eliminate the character portrait. The Skeleton files include the output of a character portrait at the top if a portrait is specified for the character. In the interest of squeezing all the important information into the one-page sheet, we'll remove it from the sheet.

Unlike the way we handled the "Health and Power" material previously, we won't completely delete the logic for handling character portraits. We'll likely want to include the portrait in a different character layout in the future, at which point we'll want to use the logic that's provided by the Skeleton files. For this sheet, we'll simply eliminate the reference to the portrait, thereby removing it from this particular sheet without actually deleting it from the data files.

All of the logic for the portrait display resides within the "oPortrait" template. In order to remove the portrait from the character sheet, we simply need to eliminate the reference to this template from the "oRightSide" layout. This consists of deleting the "templateref" and the line of code from the Position script that places the template. Once we do that, the portrait is no longer included in the character sheet.

Edges

The next thing we need to worry about on the right side is edges. At this point, you're probably wondering why we're concerned with edges on the right side, since we already output them on the left side. The reason is that a highly complex character might not be able to fit all the edges on the left side. If there are more than will actually fit in the space at the bottom of the left column, only those that fit will be output. If that occurs, we still need to output the rest. One option for handling the extra edges is to use the second "spill-over" page for that purpose. However, edges are very important and should ideally be shown on the main character sheet, so we should output any extras at the top of the right column.

Outputting any remaining edges is actually quite easy. When generating the character sheet, HL automatically keeps track of which picks are actually output to the sheet. Each pick is output only once, which eliminates the need for you to worry about which edges have been output and which ones still need to be output. By simply re-using the existing edges table on the right side, any edges that have not yet been output will be included.

If all of the edges are properly output on the left side, then the table of edges on the right will be empty. By using the auto-place mechanism, an empty table is completely omitted (automatically) when rendering the character sheet. So the behavior we want is handled for us automatically.

This means that all we need to do is reference the existing edges table from within the "oRightSide" layout. Doing that requires adding a "portalref" element for the table and placing the portal properly. The revised layout should look like the following.

<layout
  id="oRightSide">
  <portalref portal="oEdge2"/>
  <portalref portal="oGear"/>
  <position><![CDATA[
    ~position the various tables appropriately
    perform portal[oEdge2].autoplace
    perform portal[oGear].autoplace

    ~our layout height is the extent of the elements within
    height = autotop
    ]]></position>
  </layout>

If we wanted to be truly paranoid, we could do the same with hindrances. Theoretically, if a character has enough skills and hindrances, the list of hindrances could overrun the available space on the left side. However, the feasibility of such a character in practice is unrealistic, so we won't bother.