What about forms for character sheets ?
For some of my characters, I use the variable font size format with tables to get a more pleasantly looking character sheet; it is very readeable but not that more usable than fixed-font space-delimited sheets, because all the formatting (bold, italic, centers, etc...) is getting in the way when modifying data.
I have started to think about it, and I think there could be a system of ~xml templates with tables, formating etc... that would form a template for a charsheet, with the corresponding data kept in the database.
For example, a template could be something like (I put out the ending </table> to show the source):
Intelligence | ##data1## |
---|
Strength | ##data2## |
---|
Source:
<table>
<tr><td>Intelligence</td><td>##data1##</td></tr>
<tr><td>Strength</td><td>##data2##</td></tr>
Values for data1 and data2 would be kept in the database.
When a charsheet would be displayed, the ##data1## and ##data2## would be replaced by the corresponding values.
When a charsheet would be in modify mode, the data would be put in html form textboxes.
The GM would be allowed to choose if the players can choose or modify their template.
Data for a template would consist of a list of text values, so it is easy to apply the same data to any template.
I don't know if my explanation is clear enough :) Also, perhaps there have already been a lot of discussions on this subject that I am not aware of. I thought here was the right place to put those thoughts, all comments and additions are welcome :)