Free Fillable MRP Character Sheet for Cthulhu Invictus

[dce]

Ave fellow YSDCitizens!

I'm sure by now, everyone is aware that Miskatonic River Press' Invictus PDF, Lux In Tenebras, has now hit the (cobbled Roman) streets. If you weren't aware of this felicitous fact, jump over to http://www.miskatonicriverpress.com/products/lit.shtml to read all about it (and buy the PDF if you like what you read).

What people might not be aware of, is that one of the many MANY various things included in Lux In Tenebras is a brand-new double-sided Invictus character sheet designed by yours truly. It looks like this:



Due to a range of factors -- not least ensuring that the size of the download wasn't impossibly large -- the version of the sheet included with Lux is slightly lower in resolution than the native rendering of the file, and (more importantly) is a flat page rather than an interactive, fillable, PDF form.

Should folks be interested in obtaining the high-res fillable version of the sheet ... MRP (being the ever-reasonable company that they are) have allowed me to make it available *for free* over on the Cthulhu Reborn blog. Just follow this link: http://cthulhureborn.wordpress.com/2...-shines-forth/

Many MANY thanks to Tom Lynch, MRP President, for generously making these files available to the community for free.

In addition to the (actual) MRP Invictus sheet, the Cthulhu Reborn page also includes a download link for a not-terribly-serious version of the sheet which seriously upsizes the Roman-ness (is that a word?) of the sheet, by completely replacing all Arabic numerals with Roman numerals. Great for making players' eyes bug out in disbelief Here's a snippet of what it looks like:



I hope that folks like the new Invictus character sheet ... In addition to being a cosmetic step-up from the version included in Chaosium's books (IMHO), it is a functional improvement in a number of areas (including reinstating a skill accidentally left off the Chaosium sheet!).


Dean (from Adelaide)

[CAThompson]

I think the not-serious one is by far more fun. Either way it's a thing of beauty. Well done.

[fojo]

What obviously calls for...

[Emrys]

Lovely work.

It's a shame that the ultra Romanised version won't allow characteristics to be filled in Roman numerals too (to completely screw with players' minds!) - so I can't, for example, enter STR 14 as XIV. Mind you, I can appreciate that this would make calculating Idea, Luck and Know a little tricky.

[dce]

Lovely work.

It's a shame that the ultra Romanised version won't allow characteristics to be filled in Roman numerals too (to completely screw with players' minds!) - so I can't, for example, enter STR 14 as XIV. Mind you, I can appreciate that this would make calculating Idea, Luck and Know a little tricky.

I agree that would be cool ... but even contemplating scripting up a Roman numeral parser in Javascript and getting it to work well inside a PDF makes my hair curl.


Dean (from Adelaide)

[Emrys]

even contemplating scripting up a Roman numeral parser in Javascript and getting it to work well inside a PDF makes my hair curl.

I do appreciate that - and suspect that even considering it qualifies you for a II/IIdX+I SAN roll.

[tlynch999]

I do appreciate that - and suspect that even considering it qualifies you for a II/IIdX+I SAN roll.

LMAO (and no, that's not a number)! You guys crack me up. Thanks, Dean, for posting this.

[Xipuloxx]

That's really cool, Dean. I have LiT and was going to print out the character sheet from it cos it's much better than the Chaosium one (IMO), but this is even better! Thanks! And thanks to Tom as well, of course.

One question; if I don't fill out the form and print out, say, the Roman numeral one, will those purple circles appear in the corners as they appear on the screen? Because if so, a non-fillable version would be nice, so I could just print it out and then fill in everything in Roman numerals! Not that I don't appreciate what you've done already, of course...

[dce]

That's really cool, Dean. I have LiT and was going to print out the character sheet from it cos it's much better than the Chaosium one (IMO), but this is even better! Thanks! And thanks to Tom as well, of course.

One question; if I don't fill out the form and print out, say, the Roman numeral one, will those purple circles appear in the corners as they appear on the screen? Because if so, a non-fillable version would be nice, so I could just print it out and then fill in everything in Roman numerals! Not that I don't appreciate what you've done already, of course...

Clearly I underestimated people's desire to inflict the full-on Roman Numeral experience on their players ... I guess CoC Keepers must just be an evil bunch

Far be it from me to discourage such nefarious intents ... indeed I can offer some minor assistance: I have uploaded a version of the Roman numeral sheet which disables the auto-calculation altogether and widens some fields to make it possible to enter long stat values (SAN = LXXXVIII, anyone?). You can get this from the same page as the normal sheets (i.e., http://cthulhureborn.wordpress.com/2...-shines-forth/).

Of course the Caveat Emptor here is that you will now need to calculate Idea, Luck and Know by hand and type in the (Roman Numeral) values. Still ... I guess that's why we all memorized those "V times tables" back in school. You know, "I times V is V; II times V is X ... XV times V is LXXV ...". Once you've mastered that, you'll be creating stat blocks like this in no time:



And, Xipuloxx, to answer your question about the circular markers -- well, they are actually just PDF annotations on top of the basic sheet. So, if you open the PDF up in Acrobat Reader (or probably any PDF reader), click on a circle to select it and hit "delete", the circle should just disappear. If you do that three times, you'll have a nice clean sheet for printing.


Dean (from Adelaide)

[Emrys]

Ah.

Both of the "Hardcore Roman" links are linking to the same file (mrp_invictus_sheet-2sided-hardcore-roman.pdf
) and that file's not working as intended - I now get the message "This document enabled extended features in Adobe Reader. The document has been changed since it was created and use of extended features is no longer available. Please contact the author for the original version of this document." when I open it.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

[dce]

Ah.

Both of the "Hardcore Roman" links are linking to the same file (mrp_invictus_sheet-2sided-hardcore-roman.pdf
) and that file's not working as intended - I now get the message "This document enabled extended features in Adobe Reader. The document has been changed since it was created and use of extended features is no longer available. Please contact the author for the original version of this document." when I open it.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Thanks Emrys,

Bad News? Hardly ... I'd much rather find out about minor issues like these, rather than have broken stuff staying up there on the web.

The link problem is an oversight on my part when I was rushing the update the blog entry ... it has been fixed: the two "hardcore roman" links now point to the correct PDFs. BTW, there are also links to all the various versions of my sheets (and scenarios, etc) on the blog's "Downloads" page ...

The error message from Adobe Reader ... hmm, it'd be useful to know what version of the Reader software you're using -- it opens without error on the test machine I tried it on (PC with Reader 9), but I have certainly seen weird messages like this come up before when making Reader-enhanced forms. The way that Acrobat does this stuff is unnecessarily convoluted, TBH. Also if you are willing to spend a few moments (and a few MBs) testing out another few versions -- point your Reader at http://cthulhureborn.files.wordpress...-roman-rc2.pdf and http://cthulhureborn.files.wordpress...-roman-rc3.pdf and PM me to let me know if either of these works better for you ...


Dean (from Adelaide)

[Xipuloxx]

Clearly I underestimated people's desire to inflict the full-on Roman Numeral experience on their players ... I guess CoC Keepers must just be an evil bunch

Far be it from me to discourage such nefarious intents ... indeed I can offer some minor assistance: I have uploaded a version of the Roman numeral sheet which disables the auto-calculation altogether and widens some fields to make it possible to enter long stat values (SAN = LXXXVIII, anyone?).

Thank you so much! I don't know that I'll really inflict it on my players, but it's so cool, I'd like to give them the option at least to have genuinely "Roman" character sheets. (But in English, obviously, cos we're not fluent in Latin and besides, is there a Latin word for "mythos" that doesn't just mean "myths"?)

Let me put it this way: if I were playing I'd want to use it, at least as an experiment. And if it's too confusing there's nothing to stop the player pencilling in the numbers in Arabic numerals, after all!

Actually I quite like the idea of telling them I'm going to insist on them using these sheets, just so I can see the look of sanity loss on their faces!

Of course the Caveat Emptor here is that you will now need to calculate Idea, Luck and Know by hand and type in the (Roman Numeral) values. Still ... I guess that's why we all memorized those "V times tables" back in school. You know, "I times V is V; II times V is X ... XV times V is LXXV ...".

I do wonder how the Romans coped! I guess they didn't do much multiplication. Or used abacuses a lot. I wonder if teachers used to complain that abacuses made kids today lazy, and none of them could remember their VIII times tables?

And, Xipuloxx, to answer your question about the circular markers -- well, they are actually just PDF annotations on top of the basic sheet. So, if you open the PDF up in Acrobat Reader (or probably any PDF reader), click on a circle to select it and hit "delete", the circle should just disappear. If you do that three times, you'll have a nice clean sheet for printing.

Ah right, cool. Yep, that works. Thanks again!

[tlynch999]

is there a Latin word for "mythos" that doesn't just mean "myths"?

Did the Romans even have myths? For them "Roman Mythology" was their religion! I wonder what kind of myths Roman society had. Anyone?

[jake]

Did the Romans even have myths? Anyone?

You may want to check out Metamorphoses by Ovid, an Augustan era writer. The Oxford World's Classics version is a very good translation and cheap.

[cjearkham]

Did the Romans even have myths? For them "Roman Mythology" was their religion! I wonder what kind of myths Roman society had. Anyone?

Do you mean myths in the sense we talk about "the Roman myths"? That is, other people's mythology? Or are you asking what part of their own culture did they no longer believe to be the way the universe worked?

For the former, I'd imagine the religion of any culture they encountered, no matter how much they absorbed it into their own practice, they'd treat as "mythology". See Caesar's description of Gaulish religion, for example. (I seem to recall they thought the ancient Etruscans were all demon-worshippers, even though the Etruscan pantheon is just an intermediary step between the Greeks and their own.)