Random character generator

[SAbel]

Just a though for when people show up with out a diretion for a character or just to throw in something interesting. What if there was a random character generator with in the program.

Just a thought

[Colen]

SAbel wrote:
>
>
> Just a though for when people show up with out a diretion for a
> character or just to throw in something interesting. What if there was a
> random character generator with in the program.


Unfortunately this is a lot harder than it sounds. For example, let's
say we randomly generate the 6 ability scores, from 10 to 30, and come
up with 29/12/10/17/19/23. We've just randomly generated a character
with a very high strength... but no dexterity or constitution, and very
good mental ability scores.

Now we need to randomly generate some feats and powers, but some of them
will be very inappropriate for this character. A Mighty Strike power
would be good, but what are the chances of having that get picked
randomly? And he'd need some protection with that low constitution score...

Effectively, what we'd need is a set of "recipes" for characters, so you
could select (for example) "create a random bruiser character". It would
then select abilities (maybe strength from 25-30, dex from 15-20, con
from 20-25, low int/wis/cha, mighty strike power, etc). Except that most
of the characters it would create would be almost identical copies of
each other, apart from maybe one would have super-speed, and another
would have burrowing, and another would have flight.

These random characters wouldn't be very interesting, or indeed very
random, because they'd have to be pretty restricted to be effective at
all. What's better is if we supply a few pre-constructed "bruiser"
archetypes, and then for a random character, you can simply make some
minor changes to it. That way it'll fit in with your campaign better -
instead of having a random non-sequiter character, you could make
everyone the PCs fight have a specific set of powers to group them together.

That's why we haven't added a random character generator so far, anyway.


--
Colen McAlister, colen@wolflair.com
Chief Engineer, Lone Wolf Development

[SAbel]

OH so thats why and I thought that you guys are just alien planted super intelligent robots ment to create software that has subliminal mind control placed in it and that would not work if you let it randomly create a character. Never thought of the it a lot of things to think about line LOL!

I had a feeling that "random" might only be limited catagory selection and that true random would not work well with in the system.

What if it was set up to just generate a set of powers (say my party needs a ----a Tank, a magic type or a mental power hero then leave the points assignments to the play/gm to set out and pick things such as atributes (maybe), skills, feats and play with power levels.

If given a choice I rather have content (such as instant heros, ultimate powers book ect.) before time spent on this idea.

Over all I was just wondering what it would look like if it had been thought of and what it would take.

Thank you for the fast responce.

Sean

[Colen]

SAbel wrote:
>
>
> OH so thats why and I thought that you guys are just alien planted super
> intelligent robots ment to create software that has subliminal mind
> control placed in it and that would not work if you let it randomly
> create a character. Never thought of the it a lot of things to think
> about line LOL!


Hey, keep the alien thing on the down-low, ok? We don't want that
getting out...


> I had a feeling that "random" might only be limited catagory selection
> and that true random would not work well with in the system.
>
> What if it was set up to just generate a set of powers (say my party
> needs a ----a Tank, a magic type or a mental power hero then leave the
> points assignments to the play/gm to set out and pick things such as
> atributes (maybe), skills, feats and play with power levels.
>
> If given a choice I rather have content (such as instant heros, ultimate
> powers book ect.) before time spent on this idea.
>
> Over all I was just wondering what it would look like if it had been
> thought of and what it would take.
>
> Thank you for the fast responce.


We considered it for d20 in the past, but passed on it for the same
reasons - it would be a lot of work and the payoff wouldn't be that
great. Instead, we worked on Hero Lab's "stock hero" capabilities to
allow you to easily add a number of 'stock' heroes that can be quickly
modified to fit your needs.

We definitely want to add a random hero generator at some point, but
it'll be radically different for each game system because of how the
different rules work. We'll keep you posted once we start working on it.


Thanks!


--
Colen McAlister, colen@wolflair.com
Chief Engineer, Lone Wolf Development

[SAbel]

Thank you guys for the hard work I hope to see you at Gen Con & I promise not to tell anyone about the alien thing (it will be our secret

[Luirru]

Could this issue be resolved with the recently released Gamemaster's Kit? It contains a lot of details on random characters

[Luirru]

Still no comment about my suggestion of using the new Gamemaster's Kit, is this forum no longer being looked at by the developers?

[fillerbunny_x1]

Integrating the GM Kit random generator would probably involve a LOT of work, on top of permissions they would have to get from Green Ronin to utilize it in the program (probably rendering it a paid expansion for Hero Lab, like Ultimate Power was for 2e).