Forgotten Futures

Spreadsheet Templates

By Marcus L. Rowland

Several of the Forgotten Futures collections include spreadsheet templates which were originally written for use with Lotus 123 Executive. Unfortunately this is now somewhat elderly, and includes a WYSIWYG add-on that is incompatible with many later programs. They have been rewritten for Lotus 123 without the WYSIWYG add-on, Microsoft Excel, and Claris Works for Windows. Most spreadsheets can read one or another of these formats.

Some of the Claris templates are somewhat less "bullet-proof" than the others, since some logical functions that seem to work well in Lotus 123 and Excel gave problems. There are probably ways around this, and I would appreciate comments from anyone who feels able to improve them. The Excel templates seem to work well; however, they mostly require Excel 3 to 5 for correct operation.

Clicking on the links below should launch whichever spreadsheet you prefer, if it has been set up to operate that way. If this is not the case, start the program and use it to open the files, which can be found in the contents/game/templts/ subdirectory of the CD-Rom. To use most of these files you will need to save them to a writeable disk, eg. your hard disk or a floppy.

Please note: Lotus 123 Executive WYSIWYG accompanies each spreadsheet template (*.wk1) with a separate formatting file, (*.fmt). These files should load automatically if the spreadsheet is accessed. If you are copying them elsewhere, please be sure to copy both files.

Character design template
This is a spreadsheet for character design based on the normal FF rules; it calculates the points cost of characteristics and skills, and shows the appropriate skill levels.

• For Lotus 123 without WYSIWYG
• For Lotus 123 with WYSIWYG
• For Excel
• For Claris Works

Blank character record
A blank character record sheet, with boxes for entering character details. It doesn't perform any calculations. The HTML character sheet accompanying the rules is probably more useful for most purposes, but isn't edited on-screen so easily.

• For Lotus 123 without WYSIWYG
• For Lotus 123 with WYSIWYG
• For Excel
• For Claris Works

Currency conversion
Convert between modern British decimal currency, pre-decimal British currency, and guineas. A very simple small template.

• For Lotus 123 without WYSIWYG
• For Lotus 123 with WYSIWYG
• For Excel
• For Claris Works

Airships - Forgotten Futures 1
This is a list of real-world airships showing performance data.

• For Lotus 123 without WYSIWYG
• For Lotus 123 with WYSIWYG
• For Excel
• For Claris Works

Spaceships - Forgotten Futures 2
This is the most complex of these templates; it designs Victorian spaceships for the universe of George Griffith's "Astronef" stories. The Lotus and Excel versions work correctly; there is a problem that I haven't been able to trace in the Claris version, possibly due to the changes needed to make it work, or differences in the handling of floating point arithmetic, which results in it giving slightly erroneous results. But what's a few thousand pounds amongst friends..?

• For Lotus 123 without WYSIWYG
• For Lotus 123 with WYSIWYG
• For Excel
• For Claris Works

Spaceship Travel Times - Forgotten Futures 2
Travel times for the solar system and beyond assuming steady acceleration, turn over half way through the journey, and steady deceleration.

• For Lotus 123 without WYSIWYG1
• For Lotus 123 with WYSIWYG
• For Excel
• For Claris Works

Zealand Measurements - Forgotten Futures 5
One of the FF5 stories, When The New Zealander Comes, makes several references to various weights and measures used several thousand years in the future. This template handles conversions between Imperial, Zealand and Metric units.

• For Lotus 123 without WYSIWYG
• For Lotus 123 with WYSIWYG
• For Excel
• For Claris Works

Calendar
This is a simple template to generate a calendar for any month in the Gregorian calendar.

• For Lotus 123 without WYSIWYG
• For Lotus 123 with WYSIWYG
• For Excel
• For Claris Works