Kickstarter - Dungeon Master Pro: Online Character Sheet
 

Here is something RPG related that is not a game, but still might be of interest to you. Dungeon Master Pro is a tool that allows you to manage your character sheets online from a PC or mobile device.
More information.

I'm sorry, but this sounds like a pure money grab. This is a very simple app.

I was thinking exactly the same thing….

you would be surprised how many people spend hoards of their cash on mindless mobile applications.

Nope. Many people are idiots, but I at least like to warn them first :D

Worthwhile to improve your game?
 

Anything that can help my game is worthwhile to look into no?

The introduction video is funny.

Guy cant not be faulted, he has a sense for business
A backlash from so called RPGers coming from video games.

When players think that, why not bank on it?

As a sidenote, one game advertized in the KS is PathFinder, which allows to slip in the ReaperMiniatures kickstarter, offering awesome deals for any mini lover:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/…-of-gaming-min
Be sure to join!

there's a few that exist already - some for free

This is a FREEMIUM model
 

I have been looking for a cool character sheet online app like DNDSHEETS.net I believe, but they all suck. That is why I am hoping this one really does the job and is well thought out.

So far all the online ones suck!
 

Well that is the problem. All the ones I have seen like dndsheets.net suck. Hopefully this one will be functional, easy to use and constantly getting better.

Honestly, the only full featured, fully supported, and well designed piece of software that does this is Hero Lab. And if you've ever priced Hero Lab you would welcome some more competition in this area.

It's going to be hard for them to compete with official character builders like the D&D character generator. The app will not be able to include any copywrited information, like names and effects of feats, classes, and spells, while the official versions have all of that at your fingertips, and automatically do all calculations for you.

well this is pathfinder and not D&D. I believe they have similar licensing that the original OGL had.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x…lfaq/20040123i

http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questio…der-core-rules

http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questio…-computer-game

of course, game rules themselves aren't actually something that can be protected, but that doesn't seem to stop companies from trying to litigate.

All the ones I have seen online for free, like dndsheets.net SUCK. No one has done this right yet. Depressing. I hope this one works and is as solid as it promises.

Making a solid system
 

Well it seems like their initial pitch is just the begining of full blown software system like Hero Forge. With an open API, they can allow users to input rules dbase from other game systems without infringing on copyright, assuming they don't sell it. No one really has done this yet online. They could be the first. DnDsheets.net is out there but that one sucks.

With the current wave of free virtual tabletop applications being entirely system agnostic and lacking character sheets, this application *is* somewhat handy. That said, I have some of this functionality in my overpriced bloated old VTT, Fantasy Grounds. This'll be handy for people using Roll20 and whatnot. Currently, I believe people tend to use shared google documents. Not an optimal solution, but I'm sure it works fine.

And yeah, this is not 4e related. Pathfinder is the #1 RPG system out there right now, regularly beating 4e D&D in sales. Nobody is playing 4E so who cares about the D&D character generator? :) There are two apps for generating Pathfinder (and other) characters on your PC these days, Hero Lab and PCGen. PCGen is a nightmare, but free. HeroLab is fantastically easy and amazing but can cost a fortune. I've been slowly amassing my HeroLab library so I'm pretty stuck there. But I'm ok with that. FG+HL = my idea of fun. But other people want other things!

Dungeon Master Pro is a cool project and I wish them all the best. Unfortunately InKarnate RPG Toolset (also on Kickstarter) blows this out of the water in every way imaginable. A similar idea but more fully-featured, with map functionality, high production values, and a great artist on board (a guy from Blizzard). But this also carries a much higher funding goal so who knows if they'll ever get funded.

The key thing that seems to separate these from the many virtual tabletop solutions out there is that it's meant be used around a real table, not necessarily online-only.

If I were to pledge to one of them I'd probably go with InKarnate because it seems more interesting and ground-breaking. Also the people involved have some kind of track record / reputation.

The lame comedy skits had me fastforwarding, but once the real information started flowing I was more optimistic. I have used a number of these types of programs, free and paid, and just ended up coming back to my simple excel spreadsheet for characters and managing combat and all that. I do like the programs tho, and feel that there is a great potential to be filled by one of them - able to create/access anywhere, on any device, your rpg characters from whatever system. I've needed spontaneus characters before, gettting together w/ friends, it would be nice to have if it worked.

If there was just one that used the Pathfinder SRD completely accurately, neatly and easily, and not be prone to crashing and bugs, I'll line up for a copy. Is this going to be the program that can do that?

Inkarnate looks good for the D20 3.5 OGL needs, if it comes out like that I'll be potentially interested in that as well. The DM tools such as the "Map Builder" look awesome too.

It looks like if you just had the art assets from a typical RPG, and some coding skills to make an interface, it would be kinda easy to throw something like this together. Relatively easy, of course ='.'=

I will vouch for the, shall we say, *quality* of the WoTC character tool for 4th edition. But who plays 4E? That's like having a great set of alloy rims for a tractor!

I hope the InKarnate people aren't relying on kickstarter as a make-or-break portion of their funding. Given the owner's background I suspect they'll have the funds to make it either way unless they were relying on the kickstarter demonstrating enough interest to get investment capitol. The way its going right now, it doesn't seem like they'll come very close to their goal at all unless they make some significant changes somewhere.

It sounds like its got a lot of potential and while I'm kind of turned off by yet another subscription service, the suggestion that you retain access to all the content previously released if you cancel makes it a little more appealing. Keep paying if you like the kind of content they churn out and care about the online functions, or cancel it after a few months if you don't find you use them without losing local functionality and access to the content released up to that point.

Game rules are not, but books are. So if an app uses words taken directly from a book (ie descriptions of spells, feats or classes) then companies certainly can litigate. Game rules can also feature names or concepts that are the intelectual property of someone else. Even under the open gaming system, you couldn't use anything that was specific to a game world, which could include spells, monsters, or classes.