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imolit
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Forbidden Lands Companion App

Mon 08 Jul 2019, 02:07

Hello everyone,

As a hobby project I wrote an application that helps players create new characters, as well as manage their player characters in an ongoing campaign. As a DM, I also find it quite useful for quickly prototyping new character concepts.

Since I think it turned out quite well, I figured I should share it with my fellow Forbidden Lands players. Please try it out, and feel free to use this thread to give feedback, report bugs, or request new features you think might be useful.

You can find the app here: Forbidden Lands Companion



Features
  • Helps you create new characters, keeping track of the rules (age, skill points, talents, starting gear etc) for you
  • Create new characters quickly from templates
  • Helps you manage characters you play, calculating experience points when increasing skills/talents, encumbrance, attribute damage etc
  • An XP tracker, so you can create a new character of approximately the same power level as that of the other players, should your current character meet their untimely demise
  • Inventory manager with item templates
  • Multiplay
  • Dice roller, and dice rolling assistance on skill rolls
  • Swedish and English, with translations for Brazilian, German and Spanish made available by the community
  • Fully responsive; no matter whether you use the app on a phone, tablet or computer, it will adapt itself to your screen size
  • All data is stored locally on your device; this means you won't have to login and all of your data is private to you
  • Can be used offline; it's a Progressive Web App so you can opt to install it on your device and it will remain usable even if you have no network access


Planned features
  • Data sync with Google drive/Dropbox
Last edited by imolit on Sat 24 Jun 2023, 18:57, edited 4 times in total.
 
Bud
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Joined: Fri 22 Sep 2017, 06:23

Re: Forbidden Lands Companion App

Mon 08 Jul 2019, 08:02

Thanks, this is amazing. Great work!    :D
 
Ayathor
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Re: Forbidden Lands Companion App

Wed 10 Jul 2019, 23:05

Great job, this is awesome.

I have been trying the app in both my laptop and phone (macOS Mojave v10.14.5 and iOS 12.3.1), both in Safari, and it works well. I also created a character in one device, exported the file and imported it in the other one, no problem at all (although I got a message saying that any other data would be deleted, so I don't know how to approach that, say I wanna import two different characters from two different files or so). 
As you said, it is pretty self explanatory. I noticed when I was creating a character that I could only add points based on the standard character creation, and then I needed to activate the character and only after I could put more points in skills and so. I like it, so new players understand the character creation but that made me think about the Legends and Adventures booklet. I think that would be an amazing feature to add; that is, make some sort of random generator based on the character creation from the booklet, or simply allow free xp distribution with like a check box or so. 

The only "bug", if you can call it like that, is that the portrait gallery scrolling runs a bit stiff in my phone, and I don't know if it is due to Safari or just because the screen is smaller or I don't have a mouse. 

You said I can install the app, but I can't figure out how. I checked if it works online from saving it in my bookmarks and it works, so if that's what you meant, it works!


I think that covers all of it. Overall, crazy good! I hope you get permission to publish it with their art since it is lovely. I will for sure use this all the time, thank you.
 
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imolit
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Re: Forbidden Lands Companion App

Thu 11 Jul 2019, 11:04

Thanks for the feedback guys, I appreciate it :)

(although I got a message saying that any other data would be deleted, so I don't know how to approach that, say I wanna import two different characters from two different files or so).
I was planning on adding the ability to import/export individual characters. However, with such a feature there is the risk that people will end up with many different setups of characters on different devices, i.e., the portfolios will go out of sync so to speak, so I'm not sure it's a good idea.

But if you want it, I'll build it :)
...but that made me think about the Legends and Adventures booklet. I think that would be an amazing feature to add; that is, make some sort of random generator based on the character creation from the booklet, or simply allow free xp distribution with like a check box or so. 
Well, the purpose of the app is partly to make it so easy to create a new character that you won't need templates. I'll look into it, but porting data/tables/stuff from the PDFs into the app is tedious boring work since copy/paste never works as you would expect, so we'll see when I find the time to do that. Otherwise, if you want to help out, you could always extract the data into a computer-parseable format for me (CSV, YAML or JSON, e.g.); that would speed up adding such a feature significantly. :)

I might add a widget in the 'Create new character' view toggle free editing. Meanwhile, if you deactivate a character and then view it, you can edit it freely.
The only "bug", if you can call it like that, is that the portrait gallery scrolling runs a bit stiff in my phone, and I don't know if it is due to Safari or just because the screen is smaller or I don't have a mouse. 
Not sure what I can do about this; it Works Fine on my Machine™ :P I will see if I can reproduce it on some low end device.
You said I can install the app, but I can't figure out how. I checked if it works online from saving it in my bookmarks and it works, so if that's what you meant, it works!
In Android Chrome you get a little popup asking you if you want to add the app to your home screen. Tapping yes adds a launcher with an icon, and guarantees that you can use it offline. Android Firefox has a similar function, and I thought iOS Safari would work the same. I'll look into it, maybe something else needs to be done in order to add the installation prompt for Safari.
 
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lupex
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Re: Forbidden Lands Companion App

Thu 11 Jul 2019, 17:31

Oh wow, this is brilliant. Well done.
YZE Bestiary - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/320924/The-Servants-of-Memory

My Blog - https://is-it-a-monster.blogspot.com/

Instant Session - https://perchance.org/fl-session-generator

Monsters - https://perchance.org/fl-monster-generator
 
Ayathor
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Re: Forbidden Lands Companion App

Thu 11 Jul 2019, 20:35

if you want to help out, you could always extract the data into a computer-parseable format for me (CSV, YAML or JSON, e.g.); that would speed up adding such a feature significantly.
I would actually don't mind helping you out. The only format I am familiar with is excel and google sheets (I assume CSV then). Are we talking only text (i.e. tables with descriptions and values) or some type of conditional formatting or similar? (the latter would take longer for sure)
I also made a Treasures and Finds random generator ( viewtopic.php?f=79&t=4275&start=20 ), if you ever want to use that for an update/app, feel free to do so. The more we have the better!
 
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pellejones
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Re: Forbidden Lands Companion App

Fri 12 Jul 2019, 11:47

This is awesome! Great work! Two features I would love is:
1) Using the adventure booklet to create a character
2) Choice to randomize every aspect (a random button at every choice)
 
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faun
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Re: Forbidden Lands Companion App

Fri 12 Jul 2019, 21:38

a version I checked out had experience, but on my PC (chrome) it wasn't there. is this gone now, I see it is crossed out.

Although on my android it is working great
EDIT: noticed I had to save then make active, on my screen it was hidden because of my zoom. figured it out.
Last edited by faun on Thu 01 Aug 2019, 23:28, edited 1 time in total.
 
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faun
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Re: Forbidden Lands Companion App

Fri 12 Jul 2019, 21:47

on the dice roller is there a way on the first roll you could put a layer over the banes that it is 'potential' or something, many new players think that those first rolls can damage or hurt the player. an then after the push remove that so they know that it is damage they need to account for.
 
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imolit
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Re: Forbidden Lands Companion App

Sat 13 Jul 2019, 04:08

I would actually don't mind helping you out. The only format I am familiar with is excel and google sheets (I assume CSV then). Are we talking only text (i.e. tables with descriptions and values) or some type of conditional formatting or similar? (the latter would take longer for sure)
I also made a Treasures and Finds random generator ( viewtopic.php?f=79&t=4275&start=20 ), if you ever want to use that for an update/app, feel free to do so. The more we have the better!
That's a nice generator, I can't imagine how you managed to muster the patience to enter all that data. I'll gladly accept your help! We're only talking about the raw data from the tables in the booklet, I can deal with the rendering logic.

But seeing as you obviously possess the technical skills to produce the generator, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you could actually enter the adventure booklet data straight into a JavaScript file :P I've created two skeleton files where all you need to do is fill in the blanks; PM me your email address and I'll send them to you.

@pellejones, all right, I hear you. :) With Ayathor's help the the task wouldn't be so daunting, and if I get the data I'll be sure to add an alternative way to create a new character from templates, where each aspect can be randomized (or picked manually).

If you're feeling bored some day, you are of course very welcome to help with adding the Swedish flavor text for the childhood/formative events from the booklet. ;)

@faun, I'm not sure I understand your problem exactly, but you can only add experience if your character is active. Good suggestion on indicating that banes for non-pushed rolls have no effect, I'll add that feature.

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