Why race matters
Originally written on Dec 12, 2016. Edited on Dec 18, 2022. Original blog available at: https://theexcelrpg.wordpress.com/
Day 2 of this project/timesink/futile attempt to escape the futility of life. If you’re still here because I’ve been incessantly messaging you the link to this blog – cheers, I appreciate it. If you’ve somehow stumbled upon this hidden gem your life has changed more than when Déagol stumbled upon the one ring. However hopefully unlike him you won’t be brutally murdered by a cousin.
Anyway, the duplicates thing was surprisingly easy to fix – sadly it wasn’t a perfect solution, but it did the job. So the previous duplicates fixed involve the formula: =IF(COUNTIF(‘Character_Sheet’!5:10,A1)>=1,””,ROW()) . This was dragged down for the other entries in the Ability_Calc workbook, which was used for the data validation. If you’re confused by what this formula does I suggest you read the link from last time, which is where I got it from. I just introduced a new formula in column D, =COUNTIF(1:6, A1), which for column A = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1 – would return 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2. I then altered the earlier formula to =IF(COUNTIF(‘Character_Sheet’!5:10,A1)>=D1,””,ROW()) . This was then replaced, and the data validation began to work properly.
Now I’ve told a few friends about this blog, and we’ve spent some time discussing the setting and the story and the genre. I don’t really have a clue, but I’m going to work on races today. You may ask – and rightfully so – how on earth can I pick races if I don’t have a clue about the setting. And that is true, it doesn’t make it easy. However, something I’ve noticed in all my years of gaming and reading, is that while the races themselves may differ, the actual traits themselves stay the same.
Now this post won’t have much Excel, but it’ll have a fair amount of discussion on fantasy and science fiction tropes. There’ll be the longer lived race where everyone is wise and attractive, they probably have some tragic history, and they have an affinity for magic. This could be Tolkien’s elves, Mass Effect’s Asari or even Warhammer 40K’s Eldar. Then we’ll have the super strong race who is better suited to melee combat, like Dragon Age’s Qunari, or TES’s Orcs. Obviously there’ll be humans, who tend to be short lived, breed like rabbits and have no particular affinities, but no particular weaknesses either. Dwarves seem to be a trait more common to fantasy, and I’m really struggling to find a relevant scifi equivalent.
But ignoring that for now, let’s create some races.
Now human is going to be the only named race, but then I’ll create a few others based on common archetypes that the races seem to share. I discussed this with a few mates as well, and the ones we settled on were human, strong barbarian, long lived magic user, and crafty craftsman. All of these can be renamed to fit any setting, so then I decided to program them into the spreadsheet. The races will also provide bonuses other than ability modifiers, but I’m not sure what just yet.
I chose the racial ability modifiers as seen above, and then did some cheeky data validation to get the racial selection screen to work.
However, I’ll need to program in a hidden sheet which has a copy of all the character data in, except its protected. Otherwise the race and abilities could be changed during the game, which obviously shouldn’t happen.
Aside from creating a save state, the race entry is pretty much done. Now I think race should effect your character in other ways as well, but I’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
Now we’ve got our abilities, we’ve got our race – next post I think we’ll move onto other character traits. I don’t know if I want to include class elements, but I think I may go for the standard trinity of Warrior, Mage, Rogue.
Anyway, if you’re still reading thanks for carrying on thus far, and feel free to recommend this to anybody who may be interested. I think its a nirvana for either nerds, geeks or both.
Over and out.