I'm looking for recommendations for a Windows-compatible utility that will assist me with the following:
Random NPC generation (selectable according to criteria) -- stats, classes, levels, skills, feats, equipment -- the more it does the better, although it's not essential that it do all of these things.
Similarly, monster generation as above. Application of templates should be easy.
Configurable -- I run a Midnight campaign. If the utility is already coded to handle MN, fantastic. Otherwise, I need to be able to add new classes (with appropriate abilities, etc.), new feats, new skills, new races, new monsters, etc., and have it all seamlessly integrate with the above. In particular, it needs to be able to handle non-standard spell lists and magic systems.
Relatively quick and simple to use -- I don't get a lot of spare time, so I don't want to have learn a new computer language or the equivalent thereof. I don't mind doing a lot of typing if all I'm doing is filling in forms or formatting text files according to an appropriate template.
If I have to program the utility to get what I need, I'm not going to even bother.
Results from all of the above should be easy to tweak or edit. If I decide I want the NPC to have Power Attack instead of Weapon Focus, that should be easy to change. (Obviously, pre-requisites should be tracked as well when making such changes.)
Usable output. It doesn't need to be fancy, plain text is perfectly OK, as long as it's organised in a useful fashion. Ideally I should be able to suck it into the text manipulator of my choice. I don't care about "real-time" displays; there is no computer anywhere near my game table. The idea is that the end result will be printed out, either direct from the utility or from my word processor/spreadsheet/whatever.
Cost: not really an issue. Obviously cheap is nice, but if I have to pay for it that's cool too. However, a demo version would be necessary -- I don't want to buy sight unseen.
Finally, if one utility won't do all of the above, is there some combination of utilities that will get me the same results in a relatively painless manner?
Secondary request: any nice utilities to set up tables to randomly generate stuff? I'm thinking of random encounter tables, random treasure, that kind of stuff. I don't need the encounters pre-coded or anything like that, just looking for something that will automatically generate the random selections (and sub-entries from follow-on table where required) from any table that I choose to create, rather than have me manually make the dice rolls. I'm thinking that some sort of Excel spreadsheet might be ideal. There used to be a DOS product called "TableMaster" (or something like that) that was designed to do this sort of thing -- is there an updated equivalent?
Random NPC generation (selectable according to criteria) -- stats, classes, levels, skills, feats, equipment -- the more it does the better, although it's not essential that it do all of these things.
Similarly, monster generation as above. Application of templates should be easy.
Configurable -- I run a Midnight campaign. If the utility is already coded to handle MN, fantastic. Otherwise, I need to be able to add new classes (with appropriate abilities, etc.), new feats, new skills, new races, new monsters, etc., and have it all seamlessly integrate with the above. In particular, it needs to be able to handle non-standard spell lists and magic systems.
Relatively quick and simple to use -- I don't get a lot of spare time, so I don't want to have learn a new computer language or the equivalent thereof. I don't mind doing a lot of typing if all I'm doing is filling in forms or formatting text files according to an appropriate template.
If I have to program the utility to get what I need, I'm not going to even bother.
Results from all of the above should be easy to tweak or edit. If I decide I want the NPC to have Power Attack instead of Weapon Focus, that should be easy to change. (Obviously, pre-requisites should be tracked as well when making such changes.)
Usable output. It doesn't need to be fancy, plain text is perfectly OK, as long as it's organised in a useful fashion. Ideally I should be able to suck it into the text manipulator of my choice. I don't care about "real-time" displays; there is no computer anywhere near my game table. The idea is that the end result will be printed out, either direct from the utility or from my word processor/spreadsheet/whatever.
Cost: not really an issue. Obviously cheap is nice, but if I have to pay for it that's cool too. However, a demo version would be necessary -- I don't want to buy sight unseen.
Finally, if one utility won't do all of the above, is there some combination of utilities that will get me the same results in a relatively painless manner?
Secondary request: any nice utilities to set up tables to randomly generate stuff? I'm thinking of random encounter tables, random treasure, that kind of stuff. I don't need the encounters pre-coded or anything like that, just looking for something that will automatically generate the random selections (and sub-entries from follow-on table where required) from any table that I choose to create, rather than have me manually make the dice rolls. I'm thinking that some sort of Excel spreadsheet might be ideal. There used to be a DOS product called "TableMaster" (or something like that) that was designed to do this sort of thing -- is there an updated equivalent?
