When creating non-player characters in my games, I often feel hassled by all the rules. Even if I pick very simple rules like the M20 rules, magic users remain tricky. What spells to pick? I’ll have to take a look at PCGen:
PCGen is a character generator for role-playing games. It currently is aimed at supporting as many RPGs as is humanly possible. The project’s current focus is on OGL games (OGL is Wizards of the Coast’s Open Gaming License). PCGen runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Unix/Linux using Java 1.4/1.5. ¹
I freely admit that the Java part is not enouraging. ;)
NPC Designer, on the other hand, is just what I need. Unfortunately, it is written in visual basic, as far as I can tell, and thus only runs on Windows. And I’d prefer FreeSoftware, of course.
Hm. What to do. Try and reimplement something like it in Emacs? Perhaps it would make more sense to reimplement something like it on the web (using Perl). Hm...
#RPG #Software
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I’ve often been surprised at how little DND software there is for Emacs. I have an extensive character sheet generator I wrote in Emacs which I’ve been using since ... uh.. well, 1st edition. Not much of that one is left in the current incarnation.
I’ve never posted it because the Emacs/D20/DND intersection appeared non-existent and the crowd on the DND newsgroups were all happy with PCGen, or some other windozy thing. I tried out PCGen a few times when trying to wedge the rules into Emacs was too discouraging, and I found PCGen was surprisingly inflexible. You either obeyed all the rules, or you used a piece of paper. “Bah!” I say!
Anyway, for my system, all the data is kept in a wiki (TWiki wiki to be specific), or a text file for “secret” data, pumped through a monster Emacs script which outputs LaTeX. I keep thinking the same thing. Wouldn’t it be great to have it auto-create basic NPCs for me. I’ll get around to it... someday.
If anyone cares, I’d be happy to share. Contact info on website.
– Eric 2007-02-13 17:37 UTC
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Do share!! 😄
And yes, you do have an awesome hobby! -1 for obfuscating your email, however. Then again, +1 for “I always respond to email in rhyming verse.” 😄
– Alex Schroeder 2007-02-13 20:42 UTC
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Which version of PCGen did you use? The last two alpha’s have a very early stages of a random (but weighted) npc creator. It’s at the top next to the “New Character” button. Yes I know it’s the same icon and that’s going to get fixed. But it will design a npc based on what sources you have loaded.
– PaulGrosse 2007-02-22 02:55 UTC
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I have PC Gen 5.10.1 installed. I probably didn’t download any alpha or nightly build. PC Gen does seem to have all the nitty-gritty stuff available that I would have to reimplement in a web service... I’d love to see semi-automatic NPC generation using Free Software.
– Alex Schroeder 2007-02-22 09:04 UTC
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I tried something at home, on my laptop with Mac OS 10.3.9 installed. Unfortunately, there seems to be some kind of version test which it is failing:
lpinobombus:/Applications/PCGen.app/Contents/Resources/Java alex$ java -jar pcgen.jar
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: pcgen/core/Main (Unsupported major.minor version 49.0)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass0(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:539)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:123)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:251)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:55)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:194)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:187)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:289)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:274)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:235)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:302)
– AlexSchroeder 2007-02-25 17:23 UTC
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Sounds to me like it’s either trying to use the version of java “installed” with Open Office or, if you’ve not got that installed, it’s the blackdown version. I’ve seen both barf like that. The best bet is to get the latest JRE from Sun and install that.
So many versions of java, so few reasons to use it. Unfortunately, PCGEN is good enough to be worth the pain.
– GreyWulf 2007-02-25 22:51 UTC
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Hm. I’ll have to investigate. They don’t seem to have Mac versions available for download ¹ and as far as I can tell, Apple is providing me with its own Java 1.4:
Alpinobombus:~/pcgen5118 alex$ java -version java version "1.4.2_12" Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.2_12-270) Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.2-70, mixed mode)
– Alex Schroeder 2007-02-26 06:07 UTC
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Aha! It seems that 5.10.1 works, where as 5.11.8 (alpha) will not. No automatic NPC generation for the moment, but things are looking bright again.
– Alex Schroeder 2007-02-26 06:38 UTC
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Much better! NPC Generator 2 will generate NPCs for you. (There’s an experimental feature to generate PC Gen files, too.) And get this: You can compile it as a Windows application, as a command-line application, and as a CGI script. Awesome! Source is available. Part of the code is GNU Lesser Public license, some is in the public domain. ❤ ❤ ❤
– Alex Schroeder 2007-03-06 21:19 UTC
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I recommend the Dungeon generator too. Jamis Buck rocks!
– GreyWulf 2007-03-06 22:30 UTC
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Hehe. I looked at it some time back, but really, those kinds of dungeons are too simplistic for me. I don’t think I’d enjoy them. I know you’ve used at least one of them as a basis for a “real” dungeon. How did it go? Did your player comment on it?
– Alex Schroeder 2007-03-06 23:14 UTC
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I’ve used them as the basis for entire scenarios quite a few times. They’re good for inspiration and make a great starting point; usually, all that’s needed is a little consistency and logic applied and you’re good to go.
I tend to set to Small width and height, set Sparseness to “A Bit Crowded” and Room Count to “Many”. I also set 100% of Deadends removed. That gives a dungeon with 15-25 interconnected rooms - perfect for your average ruined keep/large tomb/secret temple/whatever. From there I’ll check over the provided monsters, remove the ones which make no sense (wyrmling Black Dragons and the like) and think about the NPCs and critters with classes. I’ll either remove them, or build a story around why there’s a Dwarf Cleric and an Elf Ranger stuck in a 5’x5’ room on their own (oo-er!).
Then, I’ll add critters of my own, taking one of the standard monsters, adding in a few variants and putting them into routes on the map. I prefer giving the monsters routes rather than fixed rooms as it gives the dungeon more life, and me more options. Which is good.
Here's an example dungeon. I’d take out the white and red dragons (and their treasure), make the objective of the scenario to rescue the two elves in Room 13. I’ll add in the real bad guys - Duergar, maybe, and set some Duergar warriors (stat as per SRD) to patrol between Rooms 10, 3 and 8, and another set to patrol Rooms 11, 4, 9 and 7. I’ll generate a few Duergar Sorcerer-3s as apprentice cultists, and a Duergar sorcerer-5 as Big Bad Guy in Room 5. He’s summoned the Lemure in Room 12, and plans to sacrifice the kindapped elves to summon something more powerful next full moon. I’ll say the “dungeon” is an abandoned dwarven tradingpost/temple halfway up a mountain, or whatever.
That would be my starting point, anyhow 😄 All in all, it means I can knock out a passable one- or two-session scenario with minimum advance planning.
My players like this kind of gaming as it means it’s straight hack-and-slash with little chance of politics, emotions or complexities getting in the way. In other words, a welcome change of pace. Heh.
– GreyWulf 2007-03-07 00:56 UTC