I'm digging PCGen

[Mercule]

I've always been a HeroForge user, but I really needed something now to handle some of the house rules I've made. So, I decided to give PCGen another try. I've always found PCGen to be a bit slow and cumbersome so, although I've played with it on and off since the early days, I've never really found it that useful (thus HeroForge).

Well, color me impressed with the current version. I poked at some of the documentation over the last couple of days, mainly on my lunch hour. Then, last night, I started cutting deeply into the data files. In about five hours, including a break to talk on the phone and splitting my attension with Medium on TV, I made quite a few substantive changes.

I set up my own campaign, completely divorcing it from the RSRD stuff that I'm using as a baseline. I added a new game mode. I added Class Defense. I changed all the armor and barding to use the UA rules for "Armor as DR". Cleric and Druid are now spontaneous casters. Swashbuckler is added, as are a couple of campaign-specific weapons. On top of that, I even got the chance to convert my wife's character (Swashbuckler) over to PCGen and create three NPC Druids, and their companions. And all the math was right.

Not to shabby for what was probably a net of 3.5 to 4 hours worth of work. In addition to all that, I'm pretty sure I see how to implement Weapon Groups from UA, spell points, and Warlock abilities.

Now, if there was just a way to get a print-off that looked as polished as HeroForge's.

 

[Henry]

Now, if there was just a way to get a print-off that looked as polished as HeroForge's.

If you REALLY want to get fancy, all the character sheets are is just HTML or .xo files to be used with PDF's - design the sheet you want with an HTML editor, add the keywords to the blanks, and have at it.

 

[Mercule]

If you REALLY want to get fancy, all the character sheets are is just HTML or .xo files to be used with PDF's - design the sheet you want with an HTML editor, add the keywords to the blanks, and have at it.

True. Maybe I should rephrase.... Now, if only someone else would design a character sheet that looked how I wanted it too.

 

[trancejeremy]

Do the newer versions run any better? I simply couldn't get it to run at a reasonable speed...

 

[kingpaul]

Do the newer versions run any better? I simply couldn't get it to run at a reasonable speed...

Yes. Devon Jones, the Code Silverback, has been whitling away at redundant code and memory leaks over the past several versions. As such, PCGen is speeding up quite nicely. There are still complaints on the speed factor, but not as many as there was before. Give the newest version a spin and see what you think.

 

[Mercule]

Do the newer versions run any better? I simply couldn't get it to run at a reasonable speed...

Definitely. Speed was one of my major issues with previous versions of PCGen. The current version runs quite comfortably on my 1.8 Ghz machine, although I image it could be improved on slower machines.

Edit: And there are a few performance dips even on my machine.

 

[Greylock]

I set up my own campaign, completely divorcing it from the RSRD stuff that I'm using as a baseline. I added a new game mode. I added Class Defense. I changed all the armor and barding to use the UA rules for "Armor as DR". Cleric and Druid are now spontaneous casters. Swashbuckler is added, as are a couple of campaign-specific weapons. On top of that, I even got the chance to convert my wife's character (Swashbuckler) over to PCGen and create three NPC Druids, and their companions. And all the math was right.

How, pray tell, HOW does a noob learn to do all this? And can it be done using the freeware Adobe? I downloaded PCGen a while back, loved the look, hated the speed (old PC), but couldn't fathom how to edit any of it to my needs (UA bloodlines).

 

[kingpaul]

How, pray tell, HOW does a noob learn to do all this?

The documentation that comes with PCGen is getting better and more complete all the time. There're also several Y! groups set up for PCGen. One focused solely for lst file questions is List File Help.

And can it be done using the freeware Adobe?

Can what be doing using freeware Adobe? Editing lst files? If that's what you mean, I use Notepad to do my editing.

I downloaded PCGen a while back, loved the look, hated the speed (old PC), but couldn't fathom how to edit any of it to my needs (UA bloodlines).

Did you ask on any of the PCGen board for help? I don't recall bloodline questions floating across. I know I've done a bit of work on UA, and am puzzling out how to do the bloodlines.

As for the speed issue, its been speeding up in the past several releases.

 

[Greylock]

Thanks, Paul. I went through the forums a while back, but mostly just skimmed. I'll grab the latest version and check the available docs more closely. And spend some time at the forum.

 

[Mercule]

How, pray tell, HOW does a noob learn to do all this? And can it be done using the freeware Adobe? I downloaded PCGen a while back, loved the look, hated the speed (old PC), but couldn't fathom how to edit any of it to my needs (UA bloodlines).

Well, it probably helps that I'm a DB programmer, but I don't think it's anything that any motivated person couldn't learn.

Read the documentation. Go to the Yahoo groups. The three I looked at were:

• http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/LSTfileclass/
• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PCGenListFileHelp/
• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pcgen/

The first two were especially useful.

In actually working with things, I made a copy of the RSRD for my campaign. I also created a new game mode, copying the RSRD and renaming it. That gave me a baseline from which to work -- one that I was pretty sure was stable (after I made sure the renaming/relinking was done right). Whenever I modify a .lst file, I rename it (and relink things in the .pcc file) to "albath_xxxxx" (Albathador is my setting name). That lets me keep track of what has some house rules and what is still RAW.

Start small and work up. Believe it or not, changing the Druid to be a spontaneous caster was pretty easy. Replace the "SPELLSKNOWN" tag (and its attributes) with "MEMORIZE:NO" and copy/paste the Sorcerer spell progression.

The speed of PCGen has gotten a lot better. If you like the look then it might be a good time to give it another try. Unfortunately for me, the look is one thing that I definitely don't like -- but I can live with it if it'll let me handle my house rules that easily.