Chummer 5: a Shadowrun character sheet that also tracks the campaign

A character sheet that is also a campaign tracker

Chummer is described as a character creation and management application for the tabletop RPG Shadowrun, Fifth Edition, running on Windows. The interesting part of the description is what comes after the obvious: not only can you create your character quickly and easily, you can also use Chummer during your character's shadowrunning career, to accurately track your Karma, Nuyen, ammo and everything else in one place. That distinction matters for how a table uses it. A character sheet is a form you fill in once. A campaign tracker is a running ledger that gets updated at the end of every session, where the character carries debt, favours, wounds, karma pools and gear changes between runs. Chummer also supports a number of optional rules and house rules, and includes support for critters, which the README says makes it useful for players and Game Masters alike. A Game Master can use it to manage an NPC or a spawned creature rather than only their own character.

Six languages ship in the box, and a translation tool extends them

The localisation story is handled seriously. English (US), French, German, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil) and Chinese (Simplified) files are pre-installed, and additional languages can be added and shared through the project's in-house translator tool. That tool has its own directory in the repository root, next to the Translator-related entries, and the repository also carries a TextblockConverter directory and separate license files for the text and XML assets, which suggests the localisation data is a first-class part of the project rather than a community afterthought bolted on later. For a table where players speak different languages, having the application in your language while the rules stay in the book is a real practical benefit, and the translator tool means a new language does not need someone to recompile anything.

Milestone and Nightly, with the trade-off spelled out

Chummer uses a single tree release strategy with two release channels. Milestone releases are a fixed point for use by living communities and for people who prefer not to update their application regularly; they are considered stable and are recommended for general use. Nightly releases are an automated build created with Appveyor at 0000 UTC daily. They are more likely to be unstable, but they receive new features and bugfixes faster. The recommendation is specific: Nightly is for users with a specific issue from Milestone that was resolved in Nightly, or for people comfortable testing features. The release history shows the Nightly channel in the middle of active work, with tags like Nightly-v5.226.216 from 2026-10-19 and Nightly-v5.226.215 the day before, so the project ships daily. The repository carries an appveyor.yml, which is the CI configuration behind those builds, and the Appveyor build status badge in the README confirms the pipeline is still running.

Windows is the only native target, and the alternatives are all indirect

The requirements table is one line: Windows 7 SP1 or 8.1 and later, with .NET Framework 4.8 or later. The README says Chummer is a WinForms application, so support for other operating systems is limited, and it lays out three routes. The first is Wine, the open-source Windows compatibility layer, which the README describes as usually not for the faint of heart, especially on Chrome OS, but completely free, with the note that you will encounter some additional bugs you would not run into under Windows. The second is CrossOver, described as a hassle-free version of Wine with commercial support, which costs money but has a limited free trial, and which the README recommends if you do not want to mess around with technical details. The third is a Windows virtual machine through VirtualBox, VMware Fusion or Parallels, which needs a valid copy of Windows and a lot of disk space but runs the application exactly as it would under full Windows. The README also notes that virtual machine hosts are generally not available for Chrome OS, though it can still be possible with behind-the-scenes tinkering.

The plugin directory and the hub are the extension story

The repository layout shows a project with a real plugin architecture rather than a single application. There is a Plugins directory at the top level, alongside a ChummerHub directory, a ChummerDataViewer, a CrashHandler, a Chummer.Benchmarks project and a Chummer.Tests project, plus a settings directory and a docs directory. ChummerHub is the piece that matters for distribution, because the docker-compose file in the repository defines a chummerhub service built from a Dockerfile inside that directory, which suggests the hub is a separately deployable component rather than a library the desktop app links against. The presence of a benchmarks project is a smaller but revealing detail: it means performance is measured in the build, and a character generator that loads a large library of custom content is a plausible place for that to matter. The Chummer.Tests project is the unit test suite, sitting next to a solution file, a DotSettings file and a global.json that pins the SDK version.

GPL-3.0, and a lineage back to code.google.com

The licence is GPL-3.0, with the licence file at the root and separate license files for the code, the text and the XML data, plus an mklicese.sh script, which suggests the licensing is handled per asset type rather than with a single blanket notice. The history section is worth knowing because it explains the shape of the project. Chummer is a continuation of work on the original Chummer projects for Shadowrun 4th and 5th editions, developed by Keith Rudolph and Adam Schmidt. Due to the closure of code.google.com, GitHub repositories of their code were created as a marker of their work. The README is explicit that Chummer 4 is considered abandonware, is not maintained by the chummer5a team, and exists solely for historical purposes, with the two older repositories linked for reference. So the current application is a fork of a fork, inherited rather than designed from scratch, and that is visible in the solution structure and the separate Chummer and Chummer5 lineage. The project also lists JetBrains as a sponsor providing ReSharper licences to the development team, and a Discord server and Ko-fi donation link are part of the community infrastructure.

Editorial conclusion

Chummer 5 fits a Shadowrun Fifth Edition group that wants one application for character creation and ongoing campaign tracking, especially one that plays with optional or house rules the core books do not cover. It does not fit a table on Linux or macOS who wants a native app, because the project is a WinForms application and every route there runs through Wine or a virtual machine. Verify first which release channel you want, since nightly builds are automated and less stable than milestone ones, and check the plugin situation if you rely on custom content.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. chummer5a/chummer5a on GitHub
2. Issues
3. License: GPL-3.0
4. README
5. Releases