Using Excel for Traveller?

[Mako]

Seems to me that a lot of GM/Referee work, as well as solo gamer prep can be done using Excel, so I wanted to inquire if people have created various spreadsheets, and/or random generators for use with the CT, T5, and other variants of the rules.

I'm really surprised in today's "computer age", with laptops, tablets, and phones, that more tools for gaming with Traveller aren't available. Perhaps they are, and I'm just unaware of them.

Excel would be a great tool for Character, NPC, and World/Star System/Star Sector Generation, designing spacecraft, random event and encounter tables, trading, etc., etc., etc..

Perhaps a lot of people are already using it as a tool for their gaming, for the above, so thought I would inquire about it.

If you are, and would like to share how you're using it, please do, with examples, and/or links, since I suspect I'm not the only person that might find them useful.

About the best one I've seen is one person's "Referee Screen", which is a huge spreadsheet with lots of stuff included on it, including spacecraft weapons tables, world descriptions, stats, and even weather, NPC info, etc., etc.. It is huge, and I've just seen a glimpse of it. It's about two full 8.5" x 11" pages, side by side, I suspect, with no clear break in between, so I imagine the person is probably using it with a tablet, or laptop PC to help run games.

It looks awesome, but due to concerns over copyright, sadly can't be shared, at least currently.

Would love to see some stuff like this included in the T5.1 release, or as an option, separately, since it would be great to help people running games.

Clearly, using Excel for merchant trading would be ideal, since that's pretty much what it's designed for, e.g. keeping track of numbers, stats, and data.

Please share how you use Excel to aid your Traveller gaming, when/if you have the time, and/or if you've run across others that appear to be doing so well, like the person I mentioned above, who has their own very detailed, Referee Spreadsheet/Game Aid.

Perhaps, if there's enough interest, this could be made into a "sticky" topic, since it might even encourage people to create Excel products for Traveller players to use for their gaming needs.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

It's easy to make a spreadsheet, it's much more work to make an understandable and user-friendly spreadsheet.

This is a HG'80 ship design sheet (.xls, no macros):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vle61cw7vqoa0k9/CT%20Ship%20Template.xls?dl=0

It's only made for my use, I don't really expect anyone else to be able to use it effectively. I can't guarantee that it is correct or bug-free.

Only change values in grey cells. Start with TL top left. Columns are added together at the top, green good and red bad. Empty space is allocated to Cargo.

Drop tanks can be added as a percentage of the ship including the drop tank, drives will be based on the total size including the drop tank.

You should be able to get more weapon rows by copying an entire row and inserting a new row. (Or blocks of rows for Mixed Turrets and Fixed Mounts.)

If you need more rows insert entire rows, not just a few cells.

Red numbers means something is wrong...

Use a negative number in column "#" to get LBB2 drives.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

And a HG'80 damage sheet:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gu4vk1jt0kgz46j/HG%20Damage.xlsx?dl=0

It can handle 100 identical batteries, or a single spinal.

It is recalculated every time a cell is changed, just change an empty cell for each round of combat.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

It looks awesome, but due to concerns over copyright, sadly can't be shared, at least currently.

You just answered why there is no glut of such software for Traveller.

 

[agorski]

Seems to me that a lot of GM/Referee work, as well as solo gamer prep can be done using Excel, so I wanted to inquire if people have created various spreadsheets, and/or random generators for use with the CT, T5, and other variants of the rules.

About 7 years ago I did a HG ship design spreadsheet in Apple's Numbers spreadsheet. It's available over on RPGGeek:

https://rpggeek.com/filepage/57088/high-guard-ship-design-spreadsheet-v1

The zip file contains an exported version for Excel.

 

[The Pakkrat]

Excel Helps Companies Through Wars

During the Fifth Frontier War campaign we played, the Excel program was used to track our mercenary-troubleshooting company Artemis Group expenses, pay to bridge crew (the main characters), repairs, starship weaponry and stats, cargo and each lot's Trade Codes, departure and destination Trade Codes, smallcraft, dirtside vehicles, mounted weaponry, scientific laboratory stats, track discovery progress of Ancients artifact(s), keep up with characters who were ill or put into isolation, store looted weaponry (Swordies, Zhodani, Imperial and Darrian gear), illustrations and pics, character skill progression, designated staterooms on the current starship, special ammunitions for missile racks, placement of gunnery turret robots and finally to track given and accepted mission tickets.

The Excel sheet was put on a Google Drive and shared to all players so each could track their characters. This became especially helpful when one or more players were allowed to generate a second character when the Artemis Group expanded into exploratory and scientific tickets as well as considered registering a company charter in the Spinward Marches.

Without direct examples, Excel was crucial to keeping everyone on the same page and informed when it came to company decisions and financial investment in the company by its constituent characters.

With the use of Excel, the Artemis Group weathered the violence, aftermath and fallout of the Fifth Frontier War, its biggest investors able to semi-retire and cash out and depart for their intended recliner on their favorite beach.

 

[infojunky]

Recently I have been pondering a active ship's manifest using Google Sheets, such that it could live on the net and be accessible to a group of players.

 

[ffilz]

Recently I have been pondering a active ship's manifest using Google Sheets, such that it could live on the net and be accessible to a group of players.

My player who is a ship captain has such a thing. I also use Google Docs for campaign information I want shared with the players, including PC stats/skills and such.

 

[Mako]

Thanks for sharing your ideas and spreadsheets.

I get the copyright thing, but ALL the various spinoff rules variants, and adventures/open source licensing for a lot of things seems to belie that concern.

Appears to me it is more of an oversight, or ignored opportunity, than a real issue with copyright.

Some of the stuff being developed for tablets and iPhones seems to show there is a real interest in these types of gaming aids.

 

[whartung]

My player who is a ship captain has such a thing. I also use Google Docs for campaign information I want shared with the players, including PC stats/skills and such.

Google Docs is really great. Everyone can use them, cross platform, no version dependencies, powerful.

Some of the stuff being developed for tablets and iPhones seems to show there is a real interest in these types of gaming aids.

Interest in developing these utilities and interest in using these utilities are a completely different matter.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

If an OGL version of Traveller allows for making computer apps, I'm guessing there is one, then apps will start showing up. The OGL stuff only showed up at the 11th hour, if you look at the entire 40 years of Traveller.

 

[agorski]

Interest in developing these utilities and interest in using these utilities are a completely different matter.

Agreed. I develop for fun. My apps get installed in the low hundreds at best.

 

[flykiller]

Appears to me it is more of an oversight, or ignored opportunity

most here are from the "do 90% of the work yourself" era including the rules. excel tools written by these people are individualistic and tailored to each writer's views. for example "high guard shipyard" faithfully represents hg2, but I wanted something that allowed experimental tweaking without starting over from the beginning and that displayed the results on one page for easy evaluation and that accommodated rule excession, so despite the existence of that program I wrote my own. works great for me, but I doubt anyone else would find it acceptable, let alone pay money for it when they could just as easily write their own sheet for their own purposes.

 

[savage]

T20, MgT both had excel ship builders.

So, don't forget to upload any xls or other useful tools to the File Library.

 

[tvandeloo]

Spreadsheets in File Library

I've uploaded a few spreadsheet tools for CT in the File Library (under Spreadsheets, of course).

Here's the link to the Referee Toolkit

And here's the link to the NPC Generator

And a link to a list of decorations and awards

Hope you find them helpful.

 

[JimMarn]

Open Office 4.1.3 choked, but they loaded using Libre Office 4.2.5.2

 

[sfchbryan]

Agreed. I develop for fun. My apps get installed in the low hundreds at best.

And I am very appreciative of them (Citizens, Mercenary, High Guard, Scouts, and Merchant Prince.)

 

[Mako]

Thanks for sharing.

Sadly, the Referee Toolkit, and NPC Generator files can't be opened by me.

I get an error message when checking into that, saying the files are corrupted. Not sure if that's true, or if they're just incompatible with my low-tech, ancient, laptop computer.

 

[Beerfume]

Hi everyone,

The spreadsheet Mako referred to in his original post has been added to my blog here: Traveller Referee Emulator. The spreadsheet requires Excel 2007 or later. Enjoy!

 

[Kilgs]

I use excel for most things but my efforts PALE in comparison to this fine file:

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=34361

Nervous Dick put this together for his Drinax campaign so it defaults to Trojan/Spin/Corr/Reft sectors but can be easily adapted.

I've hacked it for the Gateway Domain (Milieu 990) and some Rebellion era stuff. It is without a doubt the very most-awesomest-greatest excel tool ever.

Essentially, it imports J1-2-6 maps for the selected world along with all UWP values and descriptors. It then has an entry tab that allows you to put Library Data, Hooks, Patrons and other things into the entries for each world. It draws data directly from TravellerMap.com for images and linking.

Specifically for the Drinax campaign, it allows you to track Attitude scores across the factions and for the specific ports. I've managed to hack that for a Glimmerdrift setting fairly easily.

The creator is also very, very kind in providing assistance! We exchanged a number of emails as he walked me through my excel fumbling. Self-taught, I am, so not very skilled at it. If I can figure it out, anyone can.