Character Creation and other GM electronic tools

[jwlovell]

Ok - I don't know about other "GM's" out there, but being 49 years old, a working stiff, kids, an about a million other parts of life that eat up free time - can someone PLEASE spend a little time and energy to produce a tool for making characters??? I have been sitting on 2300AD for months, because wrapping my head around making a character is a big chore. Trying to write up NPC's and encounters is almost maddeningly too time intensive when creating adventures.

I see other fine tools for character generation out there for other games, but those aren't the games I want to run / play.

 

[Infojunky]

Software I can't do, I can give some suggestions.

1st off for NPCs I would use the point buy system, and with that give them only what they need to fill the role.

I tend to write the Npc role out on the top of an index card and only fill in the specific bits i need in game mechanic terms.

Years ago I ran all of my Traveller games out of a box of index cards, each encounter fit on a single card, each significant npc, Pc, system, world, region got a card. From that I now use a program called TheBrain which allows me to link all of these in virtual cards that are thematically linked.

 

[TrippyHippy]

2300AD has a few additional rules and add-on technicalities that make character generation a little bit more involved than standard Traveller. I would probably also favour using a point buy system if you’re getting bogged down a bit. I struggled at the start - but I’ve since had a few practices at it, and have got a bit more proficient at it. It does all make sense when it clicks.

All that said, I wish there was an electronic Traveller App.

 

[jwlovell]

I'm sorely tempted to ask Oggdude how much he would charge to make a Traveller variant of his Star Wars FFG character and GM tool. Character and NPC generation is a snap, and the character sheets are beautiful.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

You need a license to give out Traveller chargen software.

 

[sideranautae]

You need a license to give out Traveller chargen software.

Yep. Unless you do a complete rewrite using the SRD or pull an OSRIC.