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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Luke" data-source="post: 610800" data-attributes="member: 602">HiYa Scott,Thanks for this. You've got curly ones, which is what I need <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />What I have in mind is that you can pass in 2 sets of codes when you call a generator. One set could describe allowable entry IDs, and the other could describe disallowed entry IDs.The point for feats would be as follows:- Allowed IDs would describe feats you qualify for. This would ignore any entries not in the list.- Disallowed IDs would similarly ban items you don't want. In the case of feats this could describe feats you already have (where duplicates aren't allowed). Similar examples would be to ban generation of multiple sets of the same equipment, or more particularly spells appearing more than once in a spell list.- A table could be configured to automatically add generated items to its disallowed list.The approach I describe isn't very specific to feats, which is how I like to design things. I prefer to build frameworks that give you power to apply functionality in creative ways. The challenge then becomes finding intuitive user interfaces that don't restrict the power available <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />I'm weary that this sort of "on-the-fly" fiddling could slow things down, since *lots* of generators could be called to generate a completely random encounter (skills, feats, items, classes etc).A quick test on my 1Ghh processor gave me 1000 monster generations in about 1/2 sec (race only generated), so speed shouldn't be an issue.This would be automatic. The current (private) version of RPM has "OnCreate" scripts behind feats that have SubTypes (eg Skill list for the "Skill Focus" feat, and various appropriate Weapon tables for the weapon subType feats, such as the list of Exotic weapons for the Exotic Weapon proficiency feat).What happens now is that when you add the feat to your character, the script throws up the table for you to select from.What I'm thinking is to have a mode for the list selector function: "manual", or "generate". When you add a character, RPM goes into "manual" mode, and list selctors throw up tables for you to select from.When you generate a random encounter, RPM goes into "generate" mode, and instead of throwing up a list for selection, an entry is randomly selected, according to its weighting.This is one of the interesting problems I was alluding to.Basically, "yes". The races and the classes can all have tables for compulsory equipment, random equipment etc.What do you then do? Add up the various tables to come up with a combined table? How would the weightings make sense across multiple tables? You'd probably want to scale fighter weapon tables much higher than Wizard tables in the case of a multi-class Ftr/Wiz - to the point where the wizard weapons are ignored.This is a whole level of management above my current framework. Is the effort, and possible user confusion, worth doing it? Do you do a "weapons special", perhaps scaling a table's weighting according to its race or class hit dice? This would be on the simplification that higher hit dice indicates a stronger fighting class, and hence more appropriate weapon selection.Its a bit like you've been sitting on questions like these, waiting for a post like this <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />I'm not sure. Currently I just have a concept of items for class and race definitions. Looking back to the top of my original post, only "Weapon proficiencies"  is actually specific to items that are weapons.Should I have specific race and class categories for "Weapons" and for "Armor", and leave "Random Equipment" for other items? Perhaps so. Its very easily done. I originally wanted to limit the number of categories to keep down the configuration effort, but you do make a lot of sense.The beauty of the system is that you can build as many tables as you like, breaking them down as you like.My original thoughts are to simply have a table for each level of each spell casting class.Of course, specialty schools would want quite different lists from each other. Then again, as you suggest, grouping according to attack, defense and other categories could be useful.All this sugegsts an extension of the framework. Whilst  the filter/search capability would quickly auto-fill tables for you, theres still a lot of possible tables, and you need some kind of management system to automatically pick the right table for a given creature.Seems the same as the earlier point to me. We can have tables for Elves, and we can have tables for Bards, but how are we to combine the tables for an elvish bard?Thats a good idea. The tables currently only do the types I listed (items, races, etc).I think I would do management like that as a separate issue, much as races already have ability adjustments, I think I'd put ability ranking lists into classes. I don't think this table structure is tha tplace for that, though.That's definitely the whole point.There are 2 very distinct approaches to this, though:- The very simple approach is the "Jamis NPC Generator" approach, where you just have a list of random feats, skills etc to add.- There's another "super-realism" approach, where you "grow" an NPC up to its final level. The point here is that something like the list of available (qualified) feats grows as you level up. So does the list of available classes that you qualify for.For a lot more effort, you could grow an NPC a level at a time, recalculating the available classes, feats, and even available skills at each level point.I don't know if the demand for such a facility is strong enough to make it worth the programming effort (initially, at least).I have seen requests out there for NPC generators with prestige classes. Its pretty difficult to generate random characters like this without growing them a level at a time. The only other way is to work your way backwards, which isn't ramdom, and doesn't really work.Good ideas there Scott. I think I can see how most of them could be done within a simple framework, although I don't know how people think tables should be combined across different races and classes (such as for weapon selection).Thanks,</blockquote>

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