Character Generators for T20

[Kevin Livingston]

Are there any decent programs for generating Characters for T20? If so what's the URL for them?

 

[Borodin]

Well, someone (can't remember who) has an Excel spreadsheet for keeping track of chargen at http://www.angelfire.com/music3/lfm/t20/t20.htm. There isn't much in the form of automation for it though.

Unfortunately, everytime someone posts anything about making a chargen program for T20 along the lines of the Character Generator program included with the 3E DnD players book, people start going ape about copyright violations around here. I don't understand why, personally, I think they're a little off with their concern, but that's just me. I was toying with the idea of making an Excel spreadsheet of my own to automate the process, but I don't know nearly enough about spreadsheet design.

Not to scare you for asking the question, but if you start hearing drums in the distance, it probably IS a war party coming to scalp you for even broaching the subject.

 

[Reginald]

If you can develop a program while abiding the Open Game License then you're in the clear.

Just don't refer it as a d20 program, nor slap that little square logo on your program. Simple as that.

Otherwise, wait for Quiklink to develop a program.

Oh, one more thing: "T20" and "Traveller" are trademarks owned/hold Quiklink and Far Future. You may want to check with them when using these and other trademarks they own/hold in your program.

 

[cphonx2]

I'm writeing a web based character generator for t20 right now. When it gets to be useful, I'll post a link and ask more about what I need to do to keep the copyright holders happy.

 

[sandman]

OK, so they're not character generator per see, but they're great

http://www.mad-irishman.net/pub_traveller.html

PDF Character forms. Unfortunately you can't save 'em if you only have Acrobat Reader

 

[grendelttroll]

Originally posted by Sandman:
OK, so they're not character generator per see, but they're great

http://www.mad-irishman.net/pub_traveller.html

PDF Character forms. Unfortunately you can't save 'em if you only have Acrobat Reader

Sure you can. Just right-click on it and choose the "save target link as.." section.

 

[clementk]

Originally posted by Grendel T. Troll:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Sandman:
OK, so they're not character generator per see, but they're great

http://www.mad-irishman.net/pub_traveller.html

PDF Character forms. Unfortunately you can't save 'em if you only have Acrobat Reader

Sure you can. Just right-click on it and choose the "save target link as.." section. </font>[/QUOTE]I think what he meant was you can't type in chracter information into the form fields and then save that version of the pdf. Unless you have Adobe Acrobat.

Also the form version doesn't have page 3.

Casey

 

[sandman]

Originally posted by Casey:

I think what he meant was you can't type in chracter information into the form fields and then save that version of the pdf. Unless you have Adobe Acrobat.

Also the form version doesn't have page 3.

Casey

Exactly... Although I've done page 3 with forms (got Acrobat on my laptop at work I`ve sent it to the Mad Irishman in hope for it to be included with his sheet to have a single file. (would be better than having to make my own forms for the other sheets)

I think I'll drop him an e-mail to know if He'll do it or to forget it altogether...

 

[Reginald]

Why do we need a worksheet in PDF Forms version?

 

[sandman]

Originally posted by Reginald:


Why do we need a worksheet in PDF Forms version?

Nobody *NEEDS* a PDF Form worksheet.

But I find it nice to have when creating characters. I can then send the whole thing to either the GM or the player (as for my upcomming One-Shot). Since it details the XP awards for survival/commision/Bonus/etc, you can double-check the whole thing and if the player don't have a background ready, the GM still have a broad sense of that character's past.

It's the same thing as why would someone want a PDF Form Character Sheet.

 

[Reginald]

That assume your friends have a $200 Adobe Acrobat, so they can save the forms data.

As for me, the worksheet is used to draft my character, usually by hand. Once I have the completed it, I then fill it in the character form and have it printed as my final stat.

 

[TKalbfus]

What would really be useful would be a program that generates animal encounter tables complete with stats for the animal encounters. You would just enter the perameters of the planet and it would generate animal encounter tables for each terrain type. A program That would generate a polyhedral world map that could be printed out would also be useful. The map should be convertable to bitmap and JPeg format so the referee and alter and customize it as needed. The program should also be able to generate random mainworlds, polyhedral maps and animal encounter tables on the fly. Creating all that info is very time consuming on the Referee, especially mapping each planet.
Presently I roll a ten-sided die for each hex on the world map, if the result is the world's hydrographic digit or less, then that hex is water, otherwise it's land. The continents generated by that method are very stringy and planets typically end up with lots of canals and strips of land. I have to consolodate the hexes generated to make the land forms look more realistic, but I keep the total number of land hexes or water hexes the same. It would be nice if a computer could do this job. We also need NPC generators as well. All random stuff.

 

[Reginald]

Now, you're talking about a different kind of generator program, a world/planet builder.

Perhaps we should rename this thread, "Helpful Generator for T20."

 

[TKalbfus]

Yes good idea. There are programs that use fractal geometry to construct natural landscapes. Such a program could do all the mainworlds in the spinward Marches. Perhaps the could be stored on a CD Rom and sold as a resource. It would start as a Sector grid on your computer screen. You would click on a subsector and that subsector map would then fill the screen. Click on one of the hexes with a world in it and you would get system information plus a polyhedral map of the main world with all of its basic info. Including encounter tables for various terrain types on that particular planet. Since all this information can be generated randomly on a computer, most of the work goes into creating the program that generates this data, and the program itself can be sold as a referee resource.

 

[theSea]

Originally posted by Tom Kalbfus:
What would really be useful would be a program that generates animal encounter tables complete with stats for the animal encounters. You would just enter the perameters of the planet and it would generate animal encounter tables for each terrain type.

Wish granted:

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/encounters.html

A program That would generate a polyhedral world map that could be printed out would also be useful. The map should be convertable to bitmap and JPeg format so the referee and alter and customize it as needed. The program should also be able to generate random mainworlds, polyhedral maps and animal encounter tables on the fly. Creating all that info is very time consuming on the Referee, especially mapping each planet.
Presently I roll a ten-sided die for each hex on the world map, if the result is the world's hydrographic digit or less, then that hex is water, otherwise it's land. The continents generated by that method are very stringy and planets typically end up with lots of canals and strips of land. I have to consolodate the hexes generated to make the land forms look more realistic, but I keep the total number of land hexes or water hexes the same. It would be nice if a computer could do this job.

Another wish granted:

http://www.downport.com/~ferris/HEAVEN_&_EARTH.htm

They're not *pretty* but they are easy to generate. You can do the whole system if you want and output to text w .gif's or html

We also need NPC generators as well. All random stuff.

Two out of three ain't bad (Notice that nobody ever bothers to do the math and figure out that 2/3 = .66 or 66% which is a "D" - not what I'd call a good grade at all heh heh heh)

HTH

 

[theSea]

P.S.

Some of the H&E links are borqued - the correct download link seems to be:
http://www.downport.com/~ferris/Traveller_Heaven_&_Earth.ZIP

 

[Rover]

My Dear theSea,

I just downloaded H&E and it's amazing.

Thank you.

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

I hear that, milord Rover! Heaven and Earth is one fine program... between that and the High Guard Shipyard, it doesn't look like I'll be leaving the house anytime soon, what?

I wish they had these back in the day...