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So I'm kludging along in 3.5 because it has E-Tools.
I don't like what 4E did with classes, but I must admit their Adventure Tools utility makes me drool.
I'm barraged with recommendations to switch to Pathfinder ... but other than plug-ins for 3rd party tools that I've never gotten much use for, there's no computer support that I can see.
I know this question must have been asked, but a search of the forums didn't turn up anything ... so here goes.
Is there/will there ever be a suite of gamemaster software for Pathfinder? Something that can build PCs, NPCs, and monsters without requiring a whole lot of tweaking ... but preferably -allowing- a whole lot of tweaking if the GM so desires? (Like custom races, custom classes, that kind of thing.)
I'd really, REALLY like the answer to be "yes" on this one. Pleeeease?
Thanks. :)
-The Gneech
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To me, this seems like an inevitable development. Especially considering Paizo's offices' proximity to Seattle/WotC/A-LOT-OF-COMPUTER-NERDS/FOLKS/COMPANIES. I would love a software suite for Pathfinder that could do the things that you listed. In the meantime, I have and will be using a wonderful Excel sheet found here:
http://chargen.us.splinder.com/
So I'm kludging along in 3.5 because it has E-Tools.
I don't like what 4E did with classes, but I must admit their Adventure Tools utility makes me drool.
I'm barraged with recommendations to switch to Pathfinder ... but other than plug-ins for 3rd party tools that I've never gotten much use for, there's no computer support that I can see.
I know this question must have been asked, but a search of the forums didn't turn up anything ... so here goes.
Is there/will there ever be a suite of gamemaster software for Pathfinder? Something that can build PCs, NPCs, and monsters without requiring a whole lot of tweaking ... but preferably -allowing- a whole lot of tweaking if the GM so desires? (Like custom races, custom classes, that kind of thing.)
PC Gen has been around forever, provides a lot of that support, and it's free. To do the more advanced customization requires some more advanced knowledge, but making NPCs, tracking combat, and generating treasure and the like is a breeze. I don't know if they've finished implementing the Bestiary, but it does have the dataset for the main rulebook, the bonus bestiary, and OGL traits.
HeroLab's tools are great for some of that as well, although I don't know how much of a GM Tool it is (as in: I really don't know; I don't use it for Pathfinder).
If RPGXplorer ever comes back from the dead, it would probably provide a great deal of that as well, as they had planned to make their software work for Pathfinder. Cross fingers that they get their problems worked out and that they will be able to update their software.
There's a thread around here that discusses all three programs in detail if you'd like to know more.
The guy making Redblade REALLY needs to make it OpenSource. But in lieu of that, you are probably going to be stuck having to pay orknow how to program in program-specific Java without instructions (PC Gen). At which point you might as well make your own.
Which reminds me I need to stop being lazy and start working on a character creator again. The only problem with creating a character creator for Pathfinder is how unique the classes are relative to each other compared to how they were in 3.5. All the different details and such. Maybe I should rethink my background design...
Well, as followup, I've been looking into HeroLabs for PCs, and it looks promising. Still no equivalent for monsters, tho. Lots of little freebie utilities that will add HD and such, but no full-blown tools.
I'll keep looking ... but gee, I sure wish some prominent and respected publisher would come along and build it. *cough, cough*
-The Gneech
You do not have to know Java to use PCGen.
Currently the Pathfinder Core Rule Book, the Bestiary, the Bonus Bestiary and the Web Enhancements Traits books are supported (not quite 100% but close). Some of the modules are in the program also.
If you want to add something not in one of the books, we have an active Yahoo Group, PCGenListFileHelp, which will walk you through creating the text (LST) file(s) for personal stuff, as well as a Help function in the program that also contains much information on doing this. The main Yahoo Group is PCGen and you are welcome to talk about the program, make requests, report bugs, etc.
-- david
Papa.DRB
Moderator, Admin Monkey, and minor Data Monkey for PCGen
ps. The old Pathfinder BETA rule set is in the program, as well as the SRD (3.0), RSRD (3.5), Modern and many other company source books.
But in lieu of that, you are probably going to be stuck having to pay or know how to program in program-specific Java without instructions (PC Gen). At which point you might as well make your own.
I never got anywhere trying to customize PCGen. Redblade is easier to customize, but it is seriously dated and has some irritating quirks. And it was easier to just start writing my own program than figure out how to make PCGen do what I wanted.
Let me know when you have it done, or even in Alpha stage. I'd love to test drive it and provide feedback. *Especially* if you have a combat tracker that is easy to use and handles spell effects.
-- david
Papa.DRB
I never got anywhere trying to customize PCGen. Redblade is easier to customize, but it is seriously dated and has some irritating quirks. And it was easier to just start writing my own program than figure out how to make PCGen do what I wanted.
If I ever got around to it, it was just going to be a simple character creator.
I really hope rpgxplorer comes back, as it had the ease of use and level of customization I prefer. PCGen seemed too cludgy for my tastes.
EDIT: Never mind! I got PCGen to work, so far, I like it.
Further edit: I liked it, until I couldn't get the source files to load... argh! This is crazy!
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Well, as followup, I've been looking into HeroLabs for PCs, and it looks promising. Still no equivalent for monsters, tho. Lots of little freebie utilities that will add HD and such, but no full-blown tools.
I'll keep looking ... but gee, I sure wish some prominent and respected publisher would come along and build it. *cough, cough*
-The Gneech
The Hero Lab guys are working on adding the Bestiary and new classes.
http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=9481&page=4
What I find interesting about adding the Bestiary to it, is that if you use d20Pro, you can export stuff to a format d20Pro will import. Will definitely make inputting monsters to a game much quicker.
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I'd like to add that if you haven't tried out Hero Lab for Pathfinder stuff, take a look here:
http://www.wolflair.com/index.php?context=hero_lab&page=pathfinder_role playing_game
Download the demo and play with it... I usually go for free software over commercial, but its a really great tool for character and NPC generation. You can knock one out in minutes. I picked up a copy on cd for $22.49.
The support forums are run very well. If you've got a question, they usually answer within a day. That kind of support is partially why I went with them.
Oh and as for GM tools, there is a 'Tactical Console' for automatically calculating initiative and tracking damage/healing, and a pretty good dice roller.
My recommendation after that would be PCGen. Not quite as intuitive and easy to use, but has good Pathfinder support.
Well, I'm working with Hero Labs right now, and it does the job for building characters, even if adding in house rules is something I wouldn't wish on non-programmers. (Adding a Kensei-style prestige class took me three days and a lot of posting to the HeroLabs forums for help.)
Still looking for a monster builder. :)
-The Gneech
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Well, I'm working with Hero Labs right now, and it does the job for building characters, even if adding in house rules is something I wouldn't wish on non-programmers. (Adding a Kensei-style prestige class took me three days and a lot of posting to the HeroLabs forums for help.)
Still looking for a monster builder. :)
-The Gneech
There should be an announcement from Lone Wolf regarding this within the next couple of months... apparently they're not saying anything until they've talked with Paizo a bit more.
But barring that, again PCGen does have the Bestiary in it... its just a pita to figure it out the first time around due to poor UI design.
Well, I'm working with Hero Labs right now, and it does the job for building characters, even if adding in house rules is something I wouldn't wish on non-programmers. (Adding a Kensei-style prestige class took me three days and a lot of posting to the HeroLabs forums for help.)
Still looking for a monster builder. :)
-The Gneech
There should be an announcement from Lone Wolf regarding this within the next couple of months... apparently they're not saying anything until they've talked with Paizo a bit more.
But barring that, again PCGen does have the Bestiary in it... its just a pita to figure it out the first time around due to poor UI design.
We just got clarification from Paizo on some important details last night, so we're finally able to get things wrapped up and released here shortly (i.e. over the next few weeks). You'll find an update about our Pathfinder plans on our support forums at the URL below:
http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=9854You'll also find the same info repeated in the thread covering various character creation tools for Pathfinder here on the Paizo forums.
I'll keep looking ... but gee, I sure wish some prominent and respected publisher would come along and build it. *cough, cough*
-The Gneech
Yeah, wouldn't it be great if Paizo put together a downloadable software package that could be updated with future books as they came out for a reasonable price? Us GM's would sure love it, especially if it had was to input homebrew stuff into it :) Oh wait, should I have not mentioned them by name? O.o
Yes, if you use html. What I do is save the output sheet to an html file, open it in my browser, print preview, set it to landscape, futz with the font size and then print that.
If you are asking about pdf, I do not know how to "switch" lanscape and portrait styles.
-- david
Papa.DRB
is there a way to get PCGen to print in landscape format ?
Currently the Pathfinder Core Rule Book, the Bestiary, the Bonus Bestiary and the Web Enhancements Traits books are supported (not quite 100% but close). Some of the modules are in the program also.
Longtime PCGen user for 3.5. I just installed the Pathfinder files. Works well for me so far. Thank you. I'll probably grab some of the files for the APs next.
EDIT: Never mind! I got PCGen to work, so far, I like it.
Further edit: I liked it, until I couldn't get the source files to load... argh! This is crazy!
Derek you using something other than Sun Java? Most issues that people have had with not loading sources has been because a) they used Linux (like I do) and b) most Linux distro's come with OpenJDK and not Sun.
I'm with Derek. PCGen installed fine, but I can't get the source to load. There's no readme in the 5161_pathfinder_role_playing_game_release4.zip file that tells me where to unzip to. I hate guessing. It gets unzipped into the C:\Program Files\PCGen\PCGen5162\ folder, where it creates the sub-folders \data\alpha, right ?
The help files aren't any, and the FAQ is written in a flip manner along with a statement that complaints about said flip manner with be sent to /dev/null.
Sometimes free stuff costs too much. This might be one of those times.
SEVERE Exception loading files.
java.lang.NullPointerException
at pcgen.persistence.lst.LstSystemLoader.readPccFiles(Unknown Source)
at pcgen.persistence.lst.LstSystemLoader.loadCampaigns(Unknown Source)
at pcgen.persistence.lst.LstSystemLoader.loadCampaigns(Unknown Source)
at pcgen.persistence.PersistenceManager.loadCampaigns(Unknown Source)
at pcgen.gui.sources.SourceSelectionUtils.doCampaignLoad(Unknown Source)
at pcgen.gui.sources.SourceSelectionUtils.access$000(Unknown Source)
at pcgen.gui.sources.SourceSelectionUtils$1.construct(Unknown Source)
at pcgen.util.SwingWorker$2.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
All Done
I actually got things working with the help of some folks on the Yahoo! group for PCGen. Now the biggest trouble I have is the amount of system resources it uses when I have more than one character, or a complex character, open all at once.
(And yes, it was a Java problem - apparently, I had both Sun and Open Java installed. Silly Ubuntu...)
I'm with Derek. PCGen installed fine, but I can't get the source to load. There's no readme in the 5161_pathfinder_role_playing_game_release4.zip file that tells me where to unzip to. I hate guessing. It gets unzipped into the C:\Program Files\PCGen\PCGen5162\ folder, where it creates the sub-folders \data\alpha, right ?
The help files aren't any, and the FAQ is written in a flip manner along with a statement that complaints about said flip manner with be sent to /dev/null.
Sometimes free stuff costs too much. This might be one of those times.
** spoiler omitted **
Don't unzip the file manually, these files are installed via the Tools menu from within PCGen!
Regards,
Stefan.
I'm with Derek. PCGen installed fine, but I can't get the source to load. There's no readme in the 5161_pathfinder_role_playing_game_release4.zip file that tells me where to unzip to. I hate guessing. It gets unzipped into the C:\Program Files\PCGen\PCGen5162\ folder, where it creates the sub-folders \data\alpha, right ?
The help files aren't any, and the FAQ is written in a flip manner along with a statement that complaints about said flip manner with be sent to /dev/null.
Sometimes free stuff costs too much. This might be one of those times.
** spoiler omitted **
After spending forever hunting on the internet, I found it loads the zip file itself.
And is release4 the newest release? While hunting for answers I found a stable release6.Dear PCGen folks - I should not have to Google every question I have about your program. As a matter of fact, if I have to Google such extremely simple things because it isn't clear, you probably need to take another look at your design.
Dear PCGen folks - I should not have to Google every question I have about your program. As a matter of fact, if I have to Google such extremely simple things because it isn't clear, you probably need to take another look at your design.
There's a link on the PCGen homepage to our download page as SourceForge.net which alway has the most current versions for download.
Dear PCGen folks - I should not have to Google every question I have about your program. As a matter of fact, if I have to Google such extremely simple things because it isn't clear, you probably need to take another look at your design.There's a link on the PCGen homepage to our download page as SourceForge.net which alway has the most current versions for download.
1) That site makes me sad. Really.
2) This site gives release 4. This site gives release 6. Site 2 is what you get when you search Google for PCGen, which is what most people are going to do given the general fog surrounding the program at every turn.
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2) This site gives release 4. This site gives release 6. Site 2 is what you get when you search Google for PCGen, which is what most people are going to do given the general fog surrounding the program at every turn.
I have no idea what you're talking about. I visited the link for the site you quoted, plus the two links you mentioned. I find all of them to be quite clear.
I now have PCGen 5.16.2 running with the PF 5.16.2 data set. In fact, when I grabbed the PCGen application, the PF data was already there but I allowed the install process to overwrite the existing files anyway.
I'm bummed that PCGen defaulted to the CDE/Motif L&F though! Way too dark given the colors used for some of the fields.
Of course, I'm on a Mac and Windows users might not have it so easy. ;)