Thoughts On Twin Rose's Campaign Suite

[Knightcrawler]

Was just wondering what peoples thoughts on Twin Rose's Campaign Suite. My gaming group has been using PCGen up until this point but have become disgruntled with recent developments involving PCGen & CMP. Just wondering on its configurability and how easy it is to enter/create classes, races, magic items, etc, etc. I'm really good at creating files from scratch in PCGen but it is a pain and takes some time. Wondering about the ease of use and such. Thanks.

 

[Max]

Campaign Suite is very easy to set up custom classes, etc. As with anything, it may take a bit of time to learn how the program deals with things and then set up if you have a lot of custom data. However, it is much easier than PCGen, IMHO. And if you just want to tweak some existing classes you can do that very quickly.

Twin Rose is close to releasing a fairly major update to Campaign Suite, that includes moving all their data to XML format. It should make it even easier to expand the capabilities of CS down the line, from what I understand. The final Alpha was emailed to the test group this evening, with the idea that a more public beta won't be far behind. One thing the newer version will do, is make it easier to create custom character sheets. The existing sheet with CS is pretty basic, however Twin Rose has some folks working on better ones to include with CSX (the acronym for the new Campaign Suite).

Max

 

[gariig]

Happen to know if it will be a free upgrade?

Gariig

 

[Usurper]

They have a demo for download. Five clicks in it crashed for me. Maybe you'll have better luck.

 

[Max]

Happen to know if it will be a free upgrade?

Gariig

I believe it will be. I don't recall hearing they are charging for it.

Max

 

[Knightcrawler]

Well I'm going to try the demo this afternoon. I use a lot of 3rd party publisher stuff like FFG, Bastion, S&S, Mongoose, etc, etc.. So thats why I was wondering about the ease of putting new classes, races, items, etc into the database.

 

[Twin Rose]

They have a demo for download. Five clicks in it crashed for me. Maybe you'll have better luck.

When was this? I'd hate to think it's crashing on people when I could fix it.

 

[Knightcrawler]

Okay here's what I thought. Started making a character, nice and easy. Leveled up and everything. Didn't like the character sheet though, too big, too many pages. Need to have one that just takes up one page.

During long periods of downtime in the game I give my players extra skill points if they come up with interesting and contructive ideas for what their characters are doing in that time. I saw no way to add feats and/or skills points to a character.

I tried to figure out how to create some basic magic items. Could not for the life of me find out how to create even a basic +1 weapon. That and the windows started malfuntioning. Staying open or just not opening.

I really wanted to like it. But found it just confusing and aggravating. I'll give it another try in a couple of days and see if I can get it working any better. Really needs so sort of pdf manual.

 

[Twin Rose]

Okay here's what I thought. Started making a character, nice and easy. Leveled up and everything. Didn't like the character sheet though, too big, too many pages. Need to have one that just takes up one page.

There is a statblock export, that helps a lot for NPCs. The next version, CSX, has stylesheet character sheets, so customization is very very easy.

During long periods of downtime in the game I give my players extra skill points if they come up with interesting and contructive ideas for what their characters are doing in that time. I saw no way to add feats and/or skills points to a character.

In the "Character INfo" section of the Config editor, you can add a "Free for all" feat. Basically, this is a feat anyone can take. Then, in the affects section, you simply add, "Skill Points 2" affect, or bonus feat "Feat name" affect. Making it 'easy' for people in the past resulted in problems: DM's claiming the program allowed their characters to cheat, etc.

I tried to figure out how to create some basic magic items. Could not for the life of me find out how to create even a basic +1 weapon. That and the windows started malfuntioning. Staying open or just not opening.

Click on the enchantment column of your weapon. You'll get a drop down list from +1 to +5 ... Pick one, and your weapon is enchanted. You can also right-click and choose "Add magical item" from the menu that appears. I've never heard of windows 'staying open' this is very confusing to me ... They should either close, or there should be a GPF of some sort. Naturally, this isn't my technical support forum so I won't be able to help you in-depth like I would normally, but see the support links on my site and I can try and track down your problem (or you can try out the upcomming CSX beta).

 

[Knightcrawler]

Thank you for your help.