Crit Crank
A D&D 5e character sheet for Playdate. Pick an ability, save, skill, attack or spell, then turn the crank to roll 3D dice. It hits you with a DJ air horn on a natural 20 and a sad trombone on a natural 1.
Try the browser demo → · Read the manual →
What's in here
| Path | What |
|---|
charsheet/ | The Playdate game (Lua). Prebuilt heroes, 3D dice, dice pools, rests, resource tracking, and rule text on the pause screen with a scrolling Rules viewer. |
charsync/ | Rust CLI (macOS/Windows/Linux) that imports your D&D Beyond characters onto the device over USB. |
site/ | The GitHub Pages showcase: an in-browser port of the game on a Playdate-shaped frame, and the full manual. |
AGENTS.md, .github/skills/ | Notes and skills for AI coding agents working in this repo. |
Quick start
Requires the Playdate SDK (3.x), with PLAYDATE_SDK_PATH set or ~/.Playdate/config present.
cd charsheet
make run # build with pdc and open in the Simulator
To play on hardware, download crit-crank.pdx.zip from the latest release, and sideload it at play.date/account/sideload.
To bring in a D&D Beyond character (it must be set to Public), download the matching charsync binary for your operating system from the latest release. Make it executable on macOS/Linux (and clear the quarantine flag on macOS), then run the command for your platform:
chmod +x charsync-macos && xattr -d com.apple.quarantine charsync-macos # macOS; Linux: chmod +x charsync-linux
./charsync-linux import https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/<id> # Linux
./charsync-macos import https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/<id> # macOS
.\charsync-windows.exe import https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/<id> # Windows PowerShell
See the charsheet README for controls and rules, and the charsync README for everything it converts.
Development
# Lua lint (luacheck on Lua 5.4)
charsheet/tools/lint.sh
# Game build
(cd charsheet && make build)
# charsync
(cd charsync && cargo fmt --check && cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings && cargo test)
# Site preview
(cd site && python3 -m http.server)
A Taskfile wraps these and other common jobs. Run task --list to see them all:
| Task | What it does |
|---|
task check | Lint, build and Rust checks (everything CI runs) |
task lint / task build / task rust | One check at a time |
task sim / task sim:stop | Take the Simulator lock, build and launch / quit and release |
task device | Build, copy to a USB-connected Playdate and launch it |
task device:screen -- out.png | Screenshot the device |
task charsync -- import <id> | Run charsync from source |
task site | Serve the docsite at http://localhost:8000 |
CI runs the lint, build and Rust checks on every pull request and push to main. Changes under site/ on main redeploy GitHub Pages.
Releasing
git tag v0.2.0 && git push origin v0.2.0
The Release workflow sets version in pdxinfo from the tag, builds the game, and publishes a GitHub Release with crit-crank.pdx.zip and native charsync binaries for Linux, macOS and Windows attached. The site's download button always points at the latest release.
License
MIT, except the bundled Playdate system fonts, which belong to Panic, Inc. (see charsheet/source/fonts).
Not affiliated with Panic, Wizards of the Coast or D&D Beyond. Dungeons & Dragons is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast.
