Oops, I Did It Again: Random PC Generator

[Cdnwolf]

THANK YOU

[Jonesy64]

Thanks for the generator! Enjoyed both of your books especially the Pacific Northwest,

[therantingsavant]

Savant's back, yes he's back...

This generator is pretty cool, helps fill the void I felt there was in terms of pregen characters in the core rulebook quite well as part of "Starter Set" resources or "the Ammo Box" as I was thinking of calling it. My only comment for improvement suggestion would be to have the ability to select combat +/- non-combat role to help round out starting parties or pregen opposing (or OpFor) parties eg for use in scenario creation - I think the v2.2 generator had this feature.

Mind you this is me with no coding / parsing skill and no idea how much work that would be - it's still amazing don't get me wrong.

And yeah it's been over a year since I visited...

And seems even longer since I posted about anything T2k related over at the 'Rants: https://therantingsavant.blogspot.com/ I realise - apologies, I have just started looking through things and the FB groups and noticed this generator (and Teg's kind comments about my blog back in the day).

Tbh I'm waiting for the Riverine resources so I can start writing posts themed as "Take Me To the River" LOL:

* Cruising Down the Visla
* Smoke on the Warta
* Carry on Down the Oder

Still, all this has inspired me a bit, maybe I should have a look at the old articles and consider 4E versions and commentary like I had originally planned before the pandemic and then the Ukraine war upended things. Or maybe collate all the v2.2k articles into a PDF or PoD for DriveThruRPG even for ease of use Maybe <shrug>

[Tegyrius]

Welcome back!

Unfortunately, the architecture of this one doesn't lend itself well to combat/noncombat selections. In the 2e generator, I used a system combining (background package) + (combat role package) + (support role package) to build the stats, so filtering was fairly easy.

I took a different approach for the 4e generator, though. It steps through (background phase) --> (first adult phase) --> (second adult phase) --> (war phase), with each phase transition having a table of available paths. With that architecture, classifying and filtering each phase transition by combat vs. noncombat is... not impossible, but not easy, and something I'd have to think about how to achieve. There's lower-hanging fruit in terms of incremental improvements to this generator, and I also have a few more sourcebook ideas in the hopper...

- C.

[Heffe]

Teg - out of curiosity, any other ideas for 4e in particular in terms of sourcebooks or anything else, or are you still mainly focused on the older editions

[Tegyrius]

I'm not really interested in working on 4e story or setting material. While I'm coming to appreciate the system (while still acknowledging some significant shortcomings), Free League's setting is not to my taste. Anything I do for 4e in the foreseeable future will probably be along the lines of rules or equipment conversions.

More importantly, I'm profoundly uncomfortable with the current Free League Workshop terms for T2k products. The required copyright statement for every other FL game line in the Workshop leaves original content ownership with the creator. The required T2k copyright statement omits that clause and seems to assign ownership of that content to Free League and GDW (ref: screen shot taken 19 March 2022 for reference, Workshop guidelines article on DriveThruRPG). As a semi-pro author in this industry with 1.1 million paid words in print, I am wary of the precedent of giving Free League rights to any of my work for free. If they want ownership of content I create, I am open to discussing my availability for standard work-for-hire contracts at my usual word rates.

- C.

[Heffe]

Makes sense. Thanks!

[Raellus]

More importantly, I'm profoundly uncomfortable with the current Free League Workshop terms for T2k products. The required copyright statement for every other FL game line in the Workshop leaves original content ownership with the creator. The required T2k copyright statement omits that clause and seems to assign ownership of that content to Free League and GDW (ref: screen shot taken 19 March 2022 for reference, Workshop guidelines article on DriveThruRPG).

This is a big reason I haven't "published" my 4e adventure yet. It's pretty much done, except for layout and formatting. I might have to bite the bullet if I want it to see the light of day. It's basically in limbo, ATM.

-

[Heffe]

I assume you guys have asked FL for comment on it Have they responded with anything

The omission there is clearly glaring, but given the nature of business I wonder if there might a benign reason for the choice to remove it.

[Tegyrius]

I have not. As previously noted, I don't have a lot of drive to write in the 4e setting, so it's not been a priority for me. I understand that other creators brought the concern to Free League's attention at least as early as March, when I took that screen shot.

Thread drift incoming...

I am hesitant to ascribe malice in this industry, as experience has taught me that ignorance or lack of understanding (especially in international business) are much more likely explanations for something that looks sketchy. However, the fact that FL hasn't changed the terms of the license agreement after being contacted by others - and, to my knowledge, hasn't even responded to those inquiries - makes it hard for me to believe that omission is unintentional.

While this is not my primary means of supporting my other hobbies, I've had a number of friends over the years whose RPG freelance work was a significant fraction of their total annual income. So when I see a publisher who's making profit off creators' work and is neither paying them for the rights (which has been the vast majority of my freelance experience) nor allowing them to retain those rights, my inclination is to see it as exploitative.

That's not to say that I have an issue with you or other creators choosing to participate in Free League Workshop for 4e. Everyone makes their own business decisions, and I suspect that many of the creators with material in Workshop are fans who are just happy to put something out there for the community and earn a bit of cash to sink back into other gaming material. But for myself, I've been doing this too long, and have invested too many hours of my life into honing my craft, to put my usual amount of effort into a sourcebook just to hand it over to Free League.

- C.

[therantingsavant]

Welcome back!

Unfortunately, the architecture of this one doesn't lend itself well to combat/noncombat selections. In the 2e generator, I used a system combining (background package) + (combat role package) + (support role package) to build the stats, so filtering was fairly easy.

I took a different approach for the 4e generator, though. It steps through (background phase) --> (first adult phase) --> (second adult phase) --> (war phase), with each phase transition having a table of available paths. With that architecture, classifying and filtering each phase transition by combat vs. noncombat is... not impossible, but not easy, and something I'd have to think about how to achieve. There's lower-hanging fruit in terms of incremental improvements to this generator, and I also have a few more sourcebook ideas in the hopper...

- C.

Yeah so checking the life path system this makes sense. When I made the "Training Packages for Redcaps" article for Ars Magica, I realised you could probably randomise the chunks similarly but the lifepath systems don't really lend to "chunking" as you say without more work sure.

So look I'm patient. But in terms of a GM resource would be amazing.