Another Character Generator

By OggDude, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

Maybe I missed it, but it would be great if you noted on the "Official Races", that they are official. That way GMs like me who only want to use RAW materials can easily know. Maybe have them sorted on the drop down in two sections. Official races alphabetized and then a line with unofficial races alphabetized?

Otherwise, just amazing!

I suppose I could have some sort of "Official" flag show up, but technically, you're supposed to own the Core Rulebook when using the generator :) And if you do, you'll know what the official species are (there's only a handful of them). In other words, I'm trying my hardest not to antagonize FFG and King George with this generator, and adding a feature that would specifically help people that don't have the rule book might raise some eyebrows. More than likely, nobody would really care either way, but I'm trying to play nice.

I get it. I do own it all. I'm also thinking as the other for books come out and as more unofficial races are made the lists are going to get long. A flag or divider/separator of official races at top then unofficial listed below would be helpful. Thanks for your response and hard work.

Actually, I think you hit on a great idea: have some sort of cue as to which rule book a particular species can be found it. That would promote the purchase of the books and make FFG happy. It could be listed under species abilities or something like that, such as " Location : Edge of the Empire Core Rulebook" or " Location : Custom Species". Of course, I'd probably have to come up with a better term than "Location" :)

Out of curiosity, has anyone had problems merging their data files with files modified by other people?

This would be a great feature, but I wouldn't worry too much about adding it. There is usually just one person in a given gaming group willing to go to the trouble of using the Data Editor. I added all the skill descriptions and pictures for the gear and stuff, and just tell my players to copy my Data folder over theirs. This will work for 99% of gaming groups I would guess.

Don't get me wrong it's a cool idea and would be great, I would just rather see an NPC or Vehicle app first :D

Oh, I'm not agonizing over it or anything. In fact, I'd rather not do it at all :) I think you're right; a majority of people who'd use the generator probably couldn't care less, and as it will be a royal pain to implement, there probably wouldn't be that much bang for the buck in adding it. It's just something to think about...

I've been working on adding more capabilities to the editor. So far, I've got editors for Specializations, Obligations, Class, Hooks, Careers, and I'm currently adding Talents, which are rather complex. After the editor is finished, I'll probably start on vehicles and starships next.

Also, whats the difference between "Add" and "Purchase" when buying equipment?

Add does just that it adds it to your character regardless of the cost. Purchase means you have to be able to afford it and the cost is subtracted from your credits.

Tried it some more, and I noted that one of the fields for either Motivation or Obligation wouldn't allow me to write more than one letter at a time into the description before the field got "unselected". Anyone else experienced that?

The solution was of course to write everything somewhere else and then ctrl+v it in as the one character allowed.

Also just some thoughts: I see skills can increase beyond 2, which is fine if you're houseruling, but maybe we could have a flag or something telling them that the RAW says that the limit at creation is 2?

Also, whats the difference between "Add" and "Purchase" when buying equipment?

Someone else mentioned the typing problem with Motivations and Obligations. You can avoid it by just not clicking on the description control. It'll be fixed in the next release.

As for the skills, I wanted to avoid having a "new character" flag and just give everyone the freedom to do whatever they wanted to. You can even add characteristic points whenever you want to as well.

And that leads to your next question: I also wanted you to be able to do whatever you wanted to do with equipment as well. That's why there's an "Add" and a "Purchase" button (as well as "Sell" and "Remove"). The difference is that "Add" will just add the equipment to your list, while "Purchase" will dock your credits for the purchase price. If you find something in your adventures, or if your GM just gives you something, you don't have to lose credits in order to add it to your character. Likewise, "Remove" will just remove the item, while "Sell" will allow you to get credits back for selling it. For "Sell", I even included the standard discount rates you'd more than likely encounter when selling goods, such as 25% or 75%, and I also allow you to enter in whatever amount you want to as a selling price. Again, I wanted this to be as flexible as possible.

Oggy, were you able to see we the official stats from AoR for Duros, Gran, Ithorians, Mon Calamari, & Sullustan?

Not sure if the Beta has a NDA or not. Thanks

Edited by archon007

Oggy, were you able to see we the official stats from AoR for Duros, Gran, Ithorians, Mon Calamari, & Sullustan?

Not sure if the Beta has a NDA or not. Thanks

There's no NDA on the AoR Beta. If you've paid for the book, you're welcome to participate.

I did send him a PM with those stats for a future update.

As for how to differentiate between "official" and "custom" material, my thought would be to stick with "EotE pg##" or AoR Beta pg##" for the official stuff, but simply list the custom material as "unofficial" where you'd put a page number. I think most of the custom resources, such as species and what-have-you, are already documented in the "Compiled Resources Thread" on this forum, so that would give folks a place to start looking.

Actually, I think you hit on a great idea: have some sort of cue as to which rule book a particular species can be found it. That would promote the purchase of the books and make FFG happy. It could be listed under species abilities or something like that, such as " Location : Edge of the Empire Core Rulebook" or " Location : Custom Species". Of course, I'd probably have to come up with a better term than "Location" :)

How about "Source"?

Oggy, were you able to see we the official stats from AoR for Duros, Gran, Ithorians, Mon Calamari, & Sullustan?

Not sure if the Beta has a NDA or not. Thanks

There's no NDA on the AoR Beta. If you've paid for the book, you're welcome to participate.

I did send him a PM with those stats for a future update.

As for how to differentiate between "official" and "custom" material, my thought would be to stick with "EotE pg##" or AoR Beta pg##" for the official stuff, but simply list the custom material as "unofficial" where you'd put a page number. I think most of the custom resources, such as species and what-have-you, are already documented in the "Compiled Resources Thread" on this forum, so that would give folks a place to start looking.

Thanks for sending him the info. I like calling it source and page #. My suggestion was more how the info is organized. For example the species is a drop down, I thought it would make it user friendly to list the official races first, then the user content. Or an option to excluded user content kind of like how the DnD character builder works.

That way there is an easy way for players to know what content the GM is allowing. Just a thought and wish list item.

How'd we miss this? On the options for character background, you forgot the "Outsider" option.

Also, is there an easy way to transfer custom items and descriptions into an updated version? I can't see a way to do that without possibly transferring errors (like if a weapon has the wrong data).

How'd we miss this? On the options for character background, you forgot the "Outsider" option.

Also, is there an easy way to transfer custom items and descriptions into an updated version? I can't see a way to do that without possibly transferring errors (like if a weapon has the wrong data).

I just didn't see it on the page :) It'll be in the next release.

If the release notes don't mention that an item XML file has been updated, then just don't copy it over to your Data directory. If it has, I'll mention exactly what's been modified. Yeah, you'll need to copy and paste the changes over.

As I wrote previously, doing this automatically would require merge code, which can be quite complex and cumbersome (and I don't really want to do it right now). However, if we have anybody out there proficient in XML and XSLT, maybe we can talk them into creating a transform that will combine and merge the various XML files. Might be a fun project for someone. I'd look into it, but I'm busy working on the generator :)

The latest release is now avaliable. This one adds a number of editor dialogs, as well as a bunch of minor tweaks and bug fixes.

Release 1.0.0.6
  • Fix a strange issue where clicking on the descriptive text in obligations and motivations would cause the text box to lose focus after each character typed.
  • For obligation size, now using a numeric up/down control to validate for numeric entry only. Before, adding a non-numeric value for Size would crash the program.
  • Added a checkbox to the Equipment pane called "Show Purchasable Items Only". If clicked, the current equipment grid will only show items that you can purchase with your current number of credits. This checkbox does not affect item attachments.
  • On page 4 of the character sheet, modified the weapon grid. Added the following columns: DAM (damage), CRIT (critical number), RANGE (range). These numbers are the same as the ones used on the first page and reflect the weapon's attributes as wieled by the character. That is, all attachments, talents, etc., have been factored in.
  • On page 4 of the character sheet, modified the armor grid. Added the following columns: SOAK (soak value), MDEF (melee defense), RDEF (ranged defense). These numbers are only what the armor contributes to your thresholds, including any mods such as Superior Armor.
  • Fixed a problem with the Tinkerer talent. If you chose a piece of equipment to add HP to, then chose another one, the first would still have the HP. The count would also say "-1", assuming you only have one rank in Tinkerer. It will now properly modify the HP of your equipment.
  • Added editors for Obligation, Class, Hook, Specializations, Careers, Motivations, and Talents.
  • Since you can now modify talents, I changed the way special choices work for talents. Depending on the talent, you can choose new career skills (e.g., Well Rounded), choose a set of skills for some specific purpose (e.g., Deadly Accuracy), choose a characteristic (e.g., Dedication), or add HP (e.g., Tinkerer). Before, it only supported one of these at a time. It will now support all of them in a single talent (assuming you want to create some balance-shattering super talent). When you click on the "Play" button, it will cycle through all of the choice dialogs you've configured. Also, the tool tip of the "Play" button will reflect all choices.
  • When editing items in the data editor, the descriptions would be set back to their defaults. It will now save the previous description.
  • Changed the default description for species to follow the format in the Core Rulebook. It will now default with stubs for Physiology, Society, Homeworld, and Language. This should make entering the description easier, as you won't have to copy text from another species.
  • The editor will now verify that user skills, specializations, and talents aren't being referenced by other items before allowing them to be removed. If they're used elsewhere, it'll tell you where they're being used so you can remove the reference(s) first. This will help ensure data integrity.
  • In the editor, each time you modified an existing item, it would give it a new key. Now it will retain the original key. Added items will still get a new key.
  • When editing Motivations and Species, the editor will now attempt to keep all option choice, option, and specific motivation keys that were already in place. Before, when you edited Species (the Motivation editor is new with this release), each option choice and option would get a new key each time, which usually differed from the original stock key. As long as the name of the various items remains the same, the same key will now be used. This will also be useful for editing the description for specific motivations within a particular motivation.
  • Updated the documentation to include the new editors.
  • Added "The Outsider" to Classes.xml
  • Re-added Cathar.xml back to the Data/Species directory. I had fixed it (it had the wrong descriptive text), but then forgot to include it in later releases.
  • Added the following additional species (from Menagerie 2.0): Noghri, Ortolan, Quarren, Ryn, and Selkath.
Data File Changes:
Modified Classes.xml to include "The Outsider" class
Replaced the following Species file under Data\Species:
Cathar.xml
Added the following Species files under Data\Species:
Noghri.xml
Ortolan.xml
Quarren.xml
Ryn.xml
Selkath.xml
Added the following image files under Data\SpeciesImages:
NOGHRI.png
ORTOLAN.png
QUARREN.png
RYN.png
SELKATH.png

You sure you arent a super charged worker droid Oggy? I keep getting impressed with all this amazing work you do is such short time! :)

*ignore this* awesome work :)

Edited by Valdier

*ignore this* awesome work :)

Hehe... you had me looking through the book for "knife" in the basic equipment table. I knew I had put "Combat Knife" in the weapon list, but I thought I had missed some sort of basic utility knife or something. I scanned it three times before I saw your edit :)

You sure you arent a super charged worker droid Oggy? I keep getting impressed with all this amazing work you do is such short time! :)

Thanks :) I'm trying to tie up some loose ends with the current functionality before I tackle starships and group sheets. I'm hoping with this release, most of the annoying little problems will be fixed. I still have a couple of editors to make as well.

Forgot another suggestion last time. :\

The attack page should have an entry for unarmed attacks (or claws, for some species).

Just wondering if I could get some suggestions...

I'm starting to plan out GM tools for the app, and I'm pondering over how I want encounter sheets to look. These will be sheets that will display the various adversaries for a particular encounter, including places for the GM to keep track of wound, strain, initiative, etc. There's a couple of examples of different formats for displaying adversaries in the adventure in the back of the Core Rulebook, in the "Long Arm of the Hutt" adventure, etc. They're all a little different, and I'll probably end up with my own design, but how would you guys like adversaries to be displayed? How much detail do you want? Do you want just lists of, say, comma-separated skills (along with the dice pool), or do you want them laid out in a table? Same goes for talents, force powers, random abilities, weapons, armor, and other equipment.

There's pluses and minuses to various approaches. For instance, a table layout for talents, much like what I have in the character sheet, would be easy to read and less confusing than having just a list of comma-separated talents and their descriptions. However, tables take up a lot of real estate and you will probably want bad guys to be listed out concisely so you can get as many of them on a single sheet as possible.

From my design processes so far (which I've only been working on for about an hour), a comma-separated list of skills actually isn't so bad. You see the skill, it's rank, and it's dice pool, something like this:

Skills : Athletics 1 ( uu ), Melee 2 ( u u u ), Ranged—Light ( u u u ), Coercion ( u )

It's fairly easy to differentiate between the different skills. Talents, on the other hand, are much more difficult to decipher, even if I format the name differently (such as with italics and underlines):

Talents : Adversary 2 (Upgrade the difficulty of all combat checks against this target by rank.), Crippling Blow (Increase difficulty of next combat check by 1. If it deals damage, target suffers 1 strain when he moves for remainder of encounter.), Inspiring Rhetoric (Improved) (Each affected ally gains n for a number of rounds equal to ranks in Leadership.)

To me, that looks like a whole bunch of complicated text that I don't want to read through, especially if I'm in the middle of running a combat encounter.

Anyway, if anyone has some creative ideas that they'd like to share as to how they'd personally want an encounter sheet to look (especially concerning adversary listings), please share them.

I like the idea of a GM utility that you select a bunch of NPCs and it will spit out a nice formatted encounter.

Obviously could use a nice huge space for notes.

Personally I would love some form of "The List" outlined in episode 7 of the Oder 66 podcast:

http://d20radio.com/content/The%20List.pdf

Something I could fill out in free-text each subject within the list that would apply to the encounter in question.

As for NPC stat blocks. Definitely go for smaller space when possible. Comma-separated in alphabetical order is probably the best. I still don't have all the skills memorized, so if you don't include dice pools, then please include what characteristic that the skill is typically associated with.

I like the idea of a GM utility that you select a bunch of NPCs and it will spit out a nice formatted encounter.

Obviously could use a nice huge space for notes.

Personally I would love some form of "The List" outlined in episode 7 of the Oder 66 podcast:

http://d20radio.com/content/The%20List.pdf

Something I could fill out in free-text each subject within the list that would apply to the encounter in question.

As for NPC stat blocks. Definitely go for smaller space when possible. Comma-separated in alphabetical order is probably the best. I still don't have all the skills memorized, so if you don't include dice pools, then please include what characteristic that the skill is typically associated with.

Space is definitely a premium. Just going through all of the things that the GM needs to keep track of is daunting when it's applied to individual enemies. Looking over the combat rules, I came up with the following:

  • Wound (and Strain for Nemeses)
  • Dice Pool Modifiers (two lists, one for this enemy, the other for those targeting this enemy): Boosts, Setbacks, Difficulty Up/Down
  • Defense, plus or minus (although you could keep track of this in the Dice Pool Modifiers area)
  • Critical Injuries
  • Gear Dropped/Destroyed/Disabled/Out of Ammo
  • Effects: Disoriented, Immobilized, Prone, Staggered, plus rounds they apply

For minions, running as a group (page 390), you only need one such block of info. But for other enemies, you'll need this information for each individual enemy. And it should be in some sort of condensed tabular format to boot.

I'm designing this under the impression that whoever's using it will probably be using plastic page protectors and wet-erase markers to check boxes and the like (say, to keep track of boosts), and then erase the boxes when the effect no longer applies. For wounds and strain, I could have just a blank area, like on the character sheet, or check boxes for each point that you can just check off when they're gone (a la Star Fleet Battles' starship sheets).

My current working stat block for enemies is the following:

Sample%20Stat%20Block.png

I may have to get rid of the fancy graphics at the top, depending on space. Of course, I'll also make a B&W version of this to save ink.

Love it. I prefer Talents the way you have them listed above. Comma separated to me makes the different Talents indistinguishable from one another.

I would also like some space for quick notes, but I wouldn't sacrifice the tracking tools for it. Like you said, there is a lot to keep track of for rolls. Don't forget crits too. I can make notes on Roll20 on the token, but they dont have the sweet tracking software you are writing.

I'm a fan of tables, but I can definitely work with what you're currently doing. :)

What would be helpful, I think, would be a "workspace" area so GM's can keep all their writing in the same place.

I'd like to see larger sections for Wounds and Strain, as well as maybe a checkbox for any talent/ability/etc that can only be used a limited number of times.

Edited by gwek

This is what I'm doing for myself. With this layout , I can fit 6 NPC stat blocks on a page. I cut them up and slot/glue them into my notebook. It is nice to paraphrase a talent's effects as you have done, which I haven't due to a human not being able to write so small :) .

This is what they look like filled in:

2up4b3k.jpg

I noticed you can not add species to the SWCharGenDataEditor. Was going to add Jawa to the list of species you can choose from when making a character. All the icons are non-functional.

I could copy a current species & redo the information into a Jawa using XML, but not that handy with such programming.

I noticed you can not add species to the SWCharGenDataEditor. Was going to add Jawa to the list of species you can choose from when making a character. All the icons are non-functional.

I could copy a current species & redo the information into a Jawa using XML, but not that handy with such programming

The subject of additional species has been addressed. You can read back through the thread to find an answer on this question :D

I came up with a working design for the encounter sheet, which you can find here . The circular icons next to the rows on the table will have some sort of token indicator, such as numbers or letters, to tell you which enemy it refers to. Minions working as a group will have only one such row, plus a minion counter of some sort where you can check off minions as they drop. Minions and Rivals will have the strain column missing, which should free up some space so I can make the text bigger (tiny text is my main concern right now). Nemeses won't have a stat block, since they'll have their own character sheet; it'll just have some indicator to the left with the name and "See character sheet for details", something like that. Also, I'll modify the generator so that characters can have a "Nemesis" flag, so you can filter character selections on characters or nemeses, plus allow you to add random talents, such as Adversary, to Nemeses.

I'm using check boxes for wound and strain mainly because of space constraints, but also because it's easier to just check a box off than keep writing and crossing off numbers. If you guys like this idea, I may even modify the character sheet so it uses the same method.

Anyway, let me know what you think. I want to make this as useful as possible for everyone.

Oggy