PCGen 5.8 Released

HunterD writes "PCGen, the premier Open Source D20 RPG character generation application has released it's new 5.8 version. The 5.8 release of PCGen comes from over a year of hard work adding new features such as the ability to preview characters, a new plugin system, and the ability to use pcgen to run games over the internet via the new networking plugin. Eleven new datasets in this release mean that there are now almost 100 free data sets for Pcgen, which represents a substantial percentage of the available D20 books on the market. Usability has increased dramatically, as countless bugs have been fixed to increase stability and application speed."

Comments

Do people still play...

[GypC]

... those stupid PnP RPGs?

(If so, I'd love to get in on a game in the North Dallas area) :-)

Re:Do people still play...

[Anonymous Coward]

> Leftists have aligned themselves with Islamofascist theocracies that are the direct antithesis of their purported values

Raising a stink every time some neocon wants to "bomb dem sand niggers back to the stone age they came from" isn't "alignment".

Full release notes...

[tcopeland]

...are here. They weren't kidding about lots of bugs getting closed with this release!

So are any of the data sets Useful yet?

[Vaevictis666]

I recall looking into PCGen a few times over the past few years, but decided that it was mostly useless for the stuff I wanted to use it for.

My point in looking it up was in an attempt to find some way to collate all the data available in the books my gaming group had, mostly for Grand Lists of spells and feats.

While it was possible to filter to just the books in our collection, and get a list of spells, that was it. Just names. Not even a brief summary of what they do, if I wanted to figure out the difference between spell X and spell Y, I would have to go to the books themselves to find even the most basic of beahviour.

I know that due to licensing restrictions I'm never going to get all of the data on a spell available, but at the very least a description of "1d4+1 fire damage" vs "1d6 fire damage" would be enough to allow me to eyeball a comparison...

Sigh... Ahh well. I'd actually download it and check, but the full zip file doesn't seem to be propagated to d/l mirrors yet or something.

Re:So are any of the data sets Useful yet?

[Anonymous Coward]

that's specifically because of threats of lawsuit. Seems WoC was rather bent out of shape when this was introduced to them a couple of years ago. At one time it contained spells, items, even images that could be checked into. Reference existed to tell you about spell effects and the like. A Cease and Desist took care of that. Problem is, most spells too closely resemble WoC material. So in order to avoid getting more trouble, the erred on the safe side.

Some spells, items or weapons had all the details you mentioned needing, others didn't. To get those, you had to add the data sets, or make your own, or find stuff on Kazaa that had the non WoC approved datasets homebrewed. Or, you kept using an older version. But try adding all the datasets and see how things look.

Re:So are any of the data sets Useful yet?

[lukeduff]

I use http://www.d20srd.org/ during play as a quick hypertext reference. He has spells alphabetically, by class/level, and by cleric domain.

It's also handy for looking up monsters, feats, conditions, etc. I use the encounter calculator to add up xp at the end of every session.

Re:So are any of the data sets Useful yet?

[Vaevictis666]

Yea, it's a great resource, but again, useless for the purpose of collecting data from a bunch of books, as all it has (and will ever have) is stuff directly from SRD.

Which means I'm out of luck on any of the class splatbooks, or any third party publishers (we use a decent amount of swords and sorcery stuff).

I've been (very) slowly working on a homebrew solution for this, but again due to license restrictions, would be unable to redistribute any of it. Some of the books I could reproduce all the relevant spell/feat details, *except* the name, but that's just totally useless :P

Re:So are any of the data sets Useful yet?

[HunterD]

We specifically had to do that becasue of legal reasons. I would love to offer more information for the players, but most publishers are uncomfortable with that. We have been in discussions with some to try to precure rights to include more information in books that have been out for a while.

Devon Jones
PCGen Board of Directors

Re:So are any of the data sets Useful yet?

[HunterD]

Actually, we ahve almost 100 books available for free, and the splatbooks and such are sold but an unaffiliated company called Code Monkey Publishing. We would love to offer then for free on the project, but WotC simply will not let us do that.

As for Sword and Sorcery, we have Relics and Rituals, The book of eldritch might, the book of hallowed might, Book of Eldritch might 2, complete book of eldritch might, If Thoughts Could Kill, and Demon God's Fane.

S&S publishes books from a number of smaller companies, so it's possible we have a number of other S&S books.

We also have quite a few more that one can track down that are incomplete.

Devon Jones
PCGen Board of Directors

Re:So are any of the data sets Useful yet?

[gnalle]

Is Code Monkey Publishing going to produce datasets that work with the new version of pcgen? The last I heard was that they had forked pcgen 5.6 to create their own client.

I think that Code Monkey Publishing could boost their sales by making such information easier to find on the website.

http://www.codemonkeypublishing.com/

Re:So are any of the data sets Useful yet?

[HunterD]

http://www.codemonkeypublishing.com/modules.php?op =modload&name=News&file=article&sid=238&mode=threa d&order=0&thold=0

Specifically they state:

"Direct download links for PCGen 5.8.0 can be found in the above-mentioned Release Notes page down under the "Read the doc!" sub-heading of the Installation section. We'll also be updating our Downloads section to point to the new version just as soon as we release data sets that are compatible with it ;)

-The CMP Team"

Devon Jones
PCGen Board of Directors

Screenshots

[HunterZ]

I managed to dig up some screenshots here: http://www.legolas.org/pcgen/docs/

The timing of this announcement is very auspicious, as my roommate and I were talking just last night about starting a d20 Star Wars campaign :)

hmmmmm.........

[tdmg]

Half the fun is the pen and paper. I'll give it a try, but it sounds a little impersonal.

It's not compatible with existing character files

[Len]

From the release notes:

Be warned that neither the old character files (.PCG) nor the old data files (.PCC and .LST) will work properly with 5.8.0.

So I won't be upgrading any time soon.

Re:It's not compatible with existing character fil

[RogerWilco]

Hmm, I've just made my first character with 5.8, and it's about 10x faster as the old 5.6.1. The new features are realy nice, although I've found the first bug already.