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Quick question for anyone using Ultimate Campaign to generate characters. I am writing a quick script to automate this on my website, the Archives of Nethys. I had a few ideas for some of the options that I wanted to run by you:
1. I will be allowing gender as an option, currently including Male, Female, and Random (Random in all of these categories picks from all available options). Do you think other genders should be allowed, such as Transgendered? If so, what do you think the percentage should be? What options would you expect?
2. Race will be an option. Should I stick to just the core races, or include others? The problem here is that only the core races have respective 'homeland' tables, so each of the non-core races would need to inherit from that. How would you expect that to work? Pick a non-core race, then pick a homeland table to go off of? Also, if random, how often do you think a non-core race should come up?
2A. There are some 'subraces' for the various races (basically specific alternate racial traits). Should these be used? If so, how often should they come up on a random selection?
3. Class will be an option. Should archetypes be included? What percentage of the time (if random) should an archetype pop up?
4. Religion will be an option. Should non-core religions (Demon Lords, Empyreal Lords, etc.) be an option? What percentage? Should preference be given to Dwarven Pantheon over Core if a Dwarf?
As I think of more things to add, I may try to mine some ideas from this.
Oh, and don't think of anything as being relegated to a d100. This is code. I can do d100, d353, d14538, whatever.
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1. I've been meaning to dig up accurate numbers, since I've got an at-home random set of tables for stuff like gender, class, and alignment. Currently, the gender numbers are set at 01-50 female, 51-99 male, 100 other (women slightly outnumber men in overall population). I'd happily do some digging to see what kinda of accurate population numbers overall we could expect for transgendered and intersex.
2. Include the others, please, but maybe as an opt-in/opt-out system, in case some groups don't use ratcatfolktengus or ifrits or drow or whatever?
3. Archetypes might be better suited to "pick for the PC/NPC/etc." I'd hate for a random result to make a character unplayable/useless/etc. Also, that's a lot of extras to be adding. Aren't there, like, 20,000 class archetypes now?
4. I think if it can be done with some sense of accuracy in regards to alignment and race, sure. But you'll have to figure out how "common" empyreal lord X is compared to Y, demon lord X to Y, etc. Could be a lot of guessing.
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Simulating difference in gender, gender identity, and sexual preference might get kinda hard, BTW. Will the random tables be able to take, say, a female character, determine transgender status, then pick sexual preference based off accurate representations of transgender sexual preference?
Also, do you have any idea how boring reading census data is? :P
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1. This is where I need the most help. I could easily do something like 1-50: Female, 51-99: Male, and 100: Other, with Other including anyone Transgender, Transsexual, etc. I am only half-enlightened in this regard and honestly don't know how many possibilities really exist, nor what the percentage should be. Keep it simple and make it an all inclusive 1%, or go all out? That's what you all are for. :)
2. Good idea. Random (Core Only), and Random (All) will be options.
3. Fair enough. There *are* a lot of Archetypes, so I'd only be creating more busy work for myself.
4. Yeah, that was my fear. Initial thought was to assign each race a 'favored' pantheon if available. Humans would be Core, Half-Elves would be Core 50% of the time, Elf 50% of the time, Dwarves would be Dwarven, etc. Then make it something like: Roll on 'favored' chart 75% of the time, roll on all other charts 25% of the time.
5. Alignment is one of the easier things to randomize. Only 9 options really, and the CP system used isn't difficult.
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SO many possibilities, Blake. So. Many. POSSIBILITIES.
I think "simplifying" the list to the major brackets may reduce total headache load. Some cultural groups, like the Hijra, are part cultural, so adding them to a random sampling could yield odd results (like making a Kaer Maga-specific racial/cultural profile and applying it to all of Varisia).
It might be easiest to say 50/49/1, with one subcategorized into applicable intersex and transgender groupings; maybe allow a roll to then be defined by the player. So transgender-haters will just ignore it, and gender studies majors can dig into some really esoteric corners.
I'll check intersex numbers real quick, and see if anything solid pops up. We can build from there.
All other points sound solid.
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Intersex itself can be up to 1.9% of total population numbers, depending on how/what you count. Perhaps we'll have to bite some kind of simplification bullet and make it go:
Physical Gender (50% female/49% male/1% intersex)
Gender Identification (will find numbers accurate for male/female physical gender; intersex transgenderism may be too unstudied to accurately profile)
Sexual Preference (IIRC, female is 95.5% heterosexual 1.5% homosexual, 3% bisexual; male is 95.5% heterosexual, 3% homosexual, 1.5% bisexual; transgendered numbers I dunno off the top of my head)
Some of the statistically smaller figures may have to be broad enough to let folks do their own digging. I dunno if I can accurately map all intersex variance. There is a lot of it.
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D'aww, crap. Forgot the asexual numbers. Something like .5 to 1%, I think.
Right now, someone on my sharing, caring, extreme liberal team is loading a word-gun to blow holes my broad categorizing and general setting aside of third-wave feminist ideals for a random PC generator. If I die, tell my family I love them.
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Current Thoughts on hard numbers:
1 (Gender): 49.5% Female, 49.5% Male, 1% Intersex/Other. Sexual Preference... maybe? Not sure if I want to add that in, though it would be fun.
2 (Race): 95% Core race, 5% other 'human-like' non-core race. Aasimar, Tiefling, Suli, Dhampir, etc. will be in here, and generally go with the "Human" region for purpose of Homeland/Family stuff.
3 (Class): Randomly select between all classes, ignore archetypes. Each class has equal chance.
4 (Deity): Assign each Race a 'favored' deity. If Human (or non-core human-like), use Core. If Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, or Halfling, use respective pantheon. If half-breed, 50/50 of human side or other side.
75% chance character worships something from favored, 20% chance worship something from any other pantheon, 5% chance no worship anyone (me speak good). Will also keep to the 'one step' bit as a general rule (an NG guy won't end up worshiping a demon lord).
5 (Alignment): Allow user to choose reaction to moral conflict after background is rolled and pick alignment OR choose alignment/reaction randomly.
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I advocate simplicity on the question of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation options. Probably best to do something simple and let the creative players override it as they like.
It would be interesting and fun to have a best-effort random background generator that included the more complicated options. But probably shouldn't be what you do here.
And in any case, such an effort would have to grapple with a couple fundamental difficulties. (1) We don't have good numbers and won't for a long time if ever. And (2) culturally-dependent! a lot of the complications (gender and sexual identity especially) depend on cultural factors that probably can't be cleanly identified and are liable to be different in a fantasy culture (and between fantasy cultures) than in whatever culture you like off of 2013 Earth.
Not saying it wouldn't be worth doing, but it wouldn't be straightforward.
For what you're doing, though, you're probably best off with a male/female binary that the player can override (just decide they want something different) or with a male/female/other and letting the player fill in the blank for "other".
One of the problems with that are the Height/Weight charts are male/female. As for the other races I just used a modified Human Settle ment chart for randomizing those.
Seems weird to roll for sexuality, I'd just keep it at the XY or XX level.
I do +1 the suggestion that non-main races can be included or excluded. That'd be cool. Or maybe even decide which specific races you want it to roll among.
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I asked a number of my LGBT friends on Facebook and came to the conclusion that "Gender" will have Male, Female, or Genderqueer as options. Sounds like the last one is the preferred catch-all. Randomly picking one will give equal 49.5/49.5 ratios to Male/Female, with a 1% chance of Genderqueer.
That might do. I'm a bit leery, still, since gender identity is so culturally dependent and "genderqueer" is very much of our current time and place. "Other" might amount to the same thing with less of the culturally specific baggage. (Let me say that I know I'm not the most well-versed with matters of gender and sexuality but I do try to be sensitive. I belong to the 'G' there, but my undergrad was at a Baptist college where matters of gender and sexuality were very much not on the curriculum. So I defer to those more acquainted with these ideas.)
Seems weird to roll for sexuality, I'd just keep it at the XY or XX level.
Small point about terms. "Sexuality" might not be what you mean here. If I've understood my friends correctly (see disclaimer above), then XY and XX would be sex, but that's different from: sexual expression (what you do), sexual orientation (what you're interested in), gender identity (how you think of yourself / how you identify socially). Karui Kage's suggested male/female/queer sounds to me like gender identity; my inclination would be a sex (male/female) binary (or maybe male/female/other) and then leave expression, orientation, identity up to roleplaying (for a number of reasons).
Again, I'm not claiming to really understand the intricacies of human sexuality and gender. We're complicated creatures and I know a bunch of folks more acquainted with the nuances (as best we understand them) than I am. And it can definitely be a sensitive area. So I don't want to insist on anything here. But I think my general point is clear enough and worth considering.
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I personally wouldn't do anything other than "other" for a random sex, and I wouldn't really do anything with sexual preferences either. If someone wants to play a LBGT character, they could make the needed changes to their character.
If you want it randomized, leave it as an option that people can turn on or off. As much as I am personally tolerant and supportive of my LBGT friends I wouldn't play a LBGT character, and I know plenty of other people who would rather not as well.
Besides that:
2) Include all of the ARG races. The Core races would have standard percentages, while the featured and uncommon would be roughly 1% or less.
2a)I would leave those off. No need to add too much complexity to this, especially if you don't have enough information to come up with percentages.
3)See 2a
4)Sure, why not. Look at what is in the Gods of Golarion book and Inner Sea guide and have the demi-god and lesser known gods be something like 5% while all the gods mentioned in other books be about 1%.
Honestly, I'd avoid gender and sexual preferences. It's honestly a complex, hard to define, and even changing subject and you will never adequately cover it.
Also, archetypes and subraces would be difficult to tackle. I think that should be left up to the player after all the background cards are down. You know, like "hm, my half-orc is from the underground. There is a subrace for that."
Also, I'm not sure that religion should be rolled for. Someone might end up with CE because they murdered a school bus (or whatever), so they are definitely not following any god outside of NE, CE, and CN. Even if you take that into account, I think this is something that should be left up to the player.
For religion, I'd also do a core/all switch. And please do include Demon Lords and such! For weighting I'd assign flat categories according to sourcebook.
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Physical sex, I'd go with male/female/other; other might be lots of things, both transgenders and eunuchs. But it's probably better not to get bogged down in specifics, a list of "Other: [some suggested possibilities]" is probably more convenient than giving a specific one.
Sexual orientation, I'd make that an optional one; some people are decidedly uncomfortable playing something different than their own orientation. There's also quite a few possibilities. One thing to note about the percentages: the results of surveys into this vary WILDLY. Homo/bi-sexuality gets estimated between 5% and 20% depending on what survey you're reading. I'm afraid this is an area where people have a hard time keeping their politics out of their research.
One more thing to keep in mind here is that later on, during the "previous love affairs step", your terminology should be flexible enough so that homosexual characters don't get saddled with a long string of girlfriends by no boyfriends. Maybe better to refer to significant others, or some other term with a bit of wiggle room.
Gender is tricky, too. It's very tied up with culture and therefore very game-world or nation-specific. Some cultures have more different gender roles than others.
As for races, I'd definitely want a toggle between standard races only and "the whole kitchen sink" of weird races. Maybe even the possibility to add homebrew races or remove races the GM has excluded.
As another point: should race be determined before sex? I think all current races have the same number of different sexes - no races with three different sexes for example.
With regard to alignment and religion - matching god and alignment in most cases is okay, but it's not a hard rule; someone can worship a god even with a very different alignment, although the individual is probably confused, worried or heretical. So maybe a probability spread here?
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Gender: When it comes to gender identity, sexuality, whatever, I decided I am going to keep it simple. There will be a single option for Gender, and it will consist of Male, Female, Transgender/Genderqueer, or Random. If Random, the percentages are similar to the above (49,50,1).
I could go the route of just using 'Other', but it does mean a lot to some of my LGBT friends to have it actually said in the tool, instead of just lumping it under an Other tag.
In the end, it's three options in gender. Either the user can pick what they want, or genuinely don't care and can take a roll. More than likely they'll still get male/female anyway, but every once in a while you end up something different.
ANYHOW, beyond all that.
Race: Using Core races and non-core races that are still human-like, or could come from human-like communities. This allows me to still use the human region/family table when it comes to them. Some (like Goblins/Catfolk) I didn't include as it seemed like their backgrounds would be much more than your typical farming community with parents and two siblings, heh. However, my ideas on what to include was just based off of my own memory and a quick read, so I may change what's available over time. Random will let you choose between Core Only or All.
Class: All classes available, random picks from within. Simplest options here.
Alignment/Religion: User will have the option to pick alignment/religion at the end, or choose both randomly. Considering there is at least *some* tie-in here (it's very unlikely that a LG guy will worship a demon lord without quickly changing alignment), I wanted to make it a 'random both or none' option.
The mechanics of how this will work are not concrete, but I have some ideas on the front.
IF Random, Alignment would be chosen first. The "Morale Resolution" would be chosen randomly, and the total CP assigned. At that point, any of the available alignment combinations would then be randomly chosen.
After that, it would pick an appropriate deity. The alignment of the deity would be based off of your own alignment. High chance, same alignment or 1 step away. Slightly lower chance to be 2 steps away, lower chance to be 3 steps away. Could go 4+, but I feel like for a random selection 0-3 is a good mark.
The pantheon it chose from would adhere to what I set above. Higher chance to pick from a pantheon close to your 'favored' pantheon, lower chance to pick from any other pantheon. Once the pantheon is decided, it will then pick a random deity that matches the chosen alignment (above).
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Gender: When it comes to gender identity, sexuality, whatever, I decided I am going to keep it simple. There will be a single option for Gender, and it will consist of Male, Female, Transgender/Genderqueer, or Random. If Random, the percentages are similar to the above (49,50,1).
I could go the route of just using 'Other', but it does mean a lot to some of my LGBT friends to have it actually said in the tool, instead of just lumping it under an Other tag.
In the end, it's three options in gender. Either the user can pick what they want, or genuinely don't care and can take a roll. More than likely they'll still get male/female anyway, but every once in a while you end up something different.
I suppose the eunuch and non-sexually-reproductive (Construct, Android) special interest groups have been somewhat feeble in real-world society lately, but I do think you should keep in mind that in enumerating the third option as Transgender/Genderqueer, you're actually excluding a lot of possibilities.
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I suppose, though in the end any user can simply add an imaginary "(if applicable)" bit to the end. If Androids don't have a gender, and I include Androids as a race, then technically all the gender options are invalid. If some race exists that is only female, then nothing else matters. I'm not going to cover every specific race/gender combination.
In the end, the options presented are just there to cover the 'majority' of things. If something doesn't apply, just select what does or ignore the option entirely. The "Gender" portion is a very small bit in what will primarily be used to replicate the random tables in Ultimate Campaign, which don't really care about gender anyways.
Before you get too far in this remember that Quests & Campaigns is due out in a few weeks. That should be adding to this with more specific info for Golarion....If I'm not mistaken.
Honestly? Make one for the "UCa" and than experiment by adding more things to the mix.
I would love to see one which just contains the UCa rules, coz that's at most what my players will get to choose from. And I don't think many GM will allow "Everything, and then some."
Also: you could make everything an option whether to "randomize" or "pick"? That way if I wanted a half-elf male, or a female barbarian, it could still randomize the other things?
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Gender: When it comes to gender identity, sexuality, whatever, I decided I am going to keep it simple. There will be a single option for Gender, and it will consist of Male, Female, Transgender/Genderqueer, or Random. If Random, the percentages are similar to the above (49,50,1).
I could go the route of just using 'Other', but it does mean a lot to some of my LGBT friends to have it actually said in the tool, instead of just lumping it under an Other tag.
In the end, it's three options in gender. Either the user can pick what they want, or genuinely don't care and can take a roll. More than likely they'll still get male/female anyway, but every once in a while you end up something different.
You are going to offend somebody no matter what, and sometimes your friends are just flat out wrong on what will offend who. However, I am not going to say that their recommendation will offend anyone. I won't because I can't, mostly because I personally wouldn't be offended by it.
That said, someone above me is right in that you are excluding a wide range of options. You are also using a term that no one has seen and this is going to lead to confusion. I don't know if it is offensive, but it certainly can be misleading even with the suggested "if applicable" tag. Lastly, it is long, especially with the tag. "Transgender/Genderqueer if applicable" is a monster to look at and process.
My recommendation is to have Other and somewhere have a list of possibilities for what that means. I am sorry if you disappoint your friends, and I am sure you trust them more than me, but I just don't agree with them.
So how's this coming along, present day social issues aside?
