Are there currently any plans for any sort of electronic character building aide? While it is one of the more simple systems to build a character for I am the kind of person that likes to build tons of characters to experiment with combinations (I.E. the D&D Character Builder).

Please review the forum and perform a search for threads such as the following:

A lot of fan-made resources are linked here in one concise list!

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/85616-compiled-resources-list/

Excel Character Builder

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/78244-excel-character-builder/

Form Field PDF

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/86822-edge-of-the-empire-form-field-pdf/

Does not answer my question and I knew about a good number of these. I'm talking about an official Fantasy Flight character generator program to roll characters/NPCs/enemies/etc. Not player and community generated content, not to diminish some of the excellent aides out there, but again; not what I asked.

Then what is it you're looking for? NPCs aren't built like PCs. You just give them whatever traits, skills and talents you think they should have. No Talent Trees to follow, no XP requirements.

Are there currently any plans for any sort of electronic character building aide? While it is one of the more simple systems to build a character for I am the kind of person that likes to build tons of characters to experiment with combinations (I.E. the D&D Character Builder).

Does not answer my question and I knew about a good number of these. I'm talking about an official Fantasy Flight character generator program to roll characters/NPCs/enemies/etc. Not player and community generated content, not to diminish some of the excellent aides out there, but again; not what I asked.

I see nothing in the OP mentioning your desire for an official character builder, unless you mean your ending aside about the "d&d character builder". I doubt very much that FFG will release an official program since the system is pretty easy to build with and not very calculation heavy. Who knows, they might, but it hasn't been announced yet.

Why your concern with an official versus fan-generated?

I thought my reference to the D&D Character Builder would have been enough but I guess not. I'm just looking for a program that you can drop information into and it spits out a character sheet with info on it. Something like the old Core Rules for 2e D&D or eTools for D&D 3.5 or the Character Builder for 4e. An electronic character generator not unlike the form fillable PDF, which is quite exquisite. Something that will adhere to build rules and XP limits and be updated with additional content as it is released and maybe allow some custom rules. Jebus. I feel as if I'm being chewed on here, it was an innocent enough question right? lol

Odds are that if FFG hasn't come up with an official online character build program at this point, they're probably not going to.

The simple fact that FFG can't even sell PDFs of their Star Wars RPG books (sadly, a long-standing tradition that they've inherited as part of the license due to the way that Lucasfilm subsidiaries are set-up) is a pretty hefty strike against them being able to create a character gen program. Heck, there was plenty of surprise when it was announced that FFG was going to have a dice roller app back when the Beta rulebook was released, given the past history of electronic media and the Star Wars license.

I thought my reference to the D&D Character Builder would have been enough but I guess not. I'm just looking for a program that you can drop information into and it spits out a character sheet with info on it. Something like the old Core Rules for 2e D&D or eTools for D&D 3.5 or the Character Builder for 4e. An electronic character generator not unlike the form fillable PDF, which is quite exquisite. Something that will adhere to build rules and XP limits and be updated with additional content as it is released and maybe allow some custom rules. Jebus. I feel as if I'm being chewed on here, it was an innocent enough question right? lol

My apologies if my response was terse or seemingly combative. It was not intended to be such.

Is there a reason for a preference of Official over Fan-made? There are a lot of talented programmers who may be interested in creating exactly what you are looking for. I know I myself am not one of them, but they are out there.

Innocent enough question, true, but your response to the first poor dude to reply came off as possibly a bit harsh. He was only trying to help!

Having said that, an online tool like the character builder for 4E is a pretty cost-intensive proposition. It requires constant upkeep, editorial review, technical maintenance, etc. There are few companies besides WotC and few product likes besides D&D that can afford that kind of overhead.

While it's possible that FFG might do something official for Star Wars, I haven't heard anything, and I suspect the answer is "no"... unless they did one for Warhammer (in which case they already have some of the necessary staff and infrastructure in place).

Another thing to consider with 4E as opposed to, well, almost any other game, is that by nine months in, it was almost impossible to explore all the options in 4E without online support. Most RPGs don't have the sheer amount of data that 4E does (at last count, I think there were 18,000+ powers!). Dozens of books, in addition to two online magazines, cards, and other sources... offering the character builder was, arguably, a necessary evil for WotC if they didn't want to alienate more of their audience.

Innocent enough question, true, but your response to the first poor dude to reply came off as possibly a bit harsh. He was only trying to help!

Having said that, an online tool like the character builder for 4E is a pretty cost-intensive proposition. It requires constant upkeep, editorial review, technical maintenance, etc. There are few companies besides WotC and few product likes besides D&D that can afford that kind of overhead.

While it's possible that FFG might do something official for Star Wars, I haven't heard anything, and I suspect the answer is "no"... unless they did one for Warhammer (in which case they already have some of the necessary staff and infrastructure in place).

Another thing to consider with 4E as opposed to, well, almost any other game, is that by nine months in, it was almost impossible to explore all the options in 4E without online support. Most RPGs don't have the sheer amount of data that 4E does (at last count, I think there were 18,000+ powers!). Dozens of books, in addition to two online magazines, cards, and other sources... offering the character builder was, arguably, a necessary evil for WotC if they didn't want to alienate more of their audience.

Yikes, did it really get that big? I jumped out of D&D after 3.0, and it sounds like I should be happy I did so.

Yikes, did it really get that big? I jumped out of D&D after 3.0, and it sounds like I should be happy I did so.

Yeah, the system bloat in regards to 4e was pretty insane.

Though to my opinion, 3.5 wasn't much better in terms of tracking everything as it had the same issue of "too many sourcebooks in rapid succession," though perhaps not quite as rapid as 4e's "new official content every month!"

This is why, when I eventually got into D&D, I got into D&D Essentials. It was the accessible, newbie-friendly streamlined version of 4th edition, but it still had a lot of depth. I had fun with that.

Like D&D Insider, I would gladly pay for a subscription for online content for Edge of the Empire, including a char builder. If they put out monthly content and a good builder, I think it would be well worth their time (since we would be providing some of the money).

Like D&D Insider, I would gladly pay for a subscription for online content for Edge of the Empire, including a char builder. If they put out monthly content and a good builder, I think it would be well worth their time (since we would be providing some of the money).

I agree.

Obviously one of the flaws of the monthly payment scheme is, as someone pointed out, you got monthly content from Wizards. I believe that watered things down too much and I agree there were WAY too many source books. I'd rather pay a flat $10 or something like I paid for the dice roller app and have a PC character generator I can use to pump out builds easily.

That makes sense as well. But I like monthly content, even if I don't use it all, I like having the option out there for new builds, adventures, species, etc. You could even do like WOTC does and FFG pay writers to have contributions like in their online magazines.