Re: [pcgen] Looking into PCGEN

Wow, a very well written assessment that hits all the points.

@Paul you should recruit Steven to the PR team!

As a long-time developer with the project, I concur with Steven. PCGen does a lot, it takes abuse and for the most part we include most of the mainstream books. However, you get what you pay for in terms of support. Only a handful of us are around to kick the tires and grease the rails.

If you want something included, the best  bet is to ask for help and give it the old college try first.

Yes, it is still kicking along as a project, but at the pace of the available volunteers, which is not much... But hey, if more people join up and contribute anything could happen.

Andrew (Retired BoD, Data Chimp and more)

On 11/18/2020 4:04 PM, Steven High wrote:

Like any community-managed and committee-built application, it has its strong points and its weaknesses.

I consider it the best character management software extent.

For those who love the bleeding-edge, or those who cling to the little box of stapled booklets, it is no doubt disappointing. Trying to cram every single source ever thrown together by anyone will absolutely break it. Stripping it down to the basre essentials sometimes produces unexpected results---the "where did that come from" effect. 

Sometimes things break. Usually, the guys fix them. Sometimes, that takes a little time.

As far as cost-benefit analysis goes, if you're not one of the half-dozen people pouring their life into the project, it is an insane bargain. You won't find anything else that can do what PCGen does for an ask.

Working the edges can put some burden on the GM---using unusual classes or combinations of classes can sometimes find a seam in the code. But usually, PCGen can take a remarkable amount of abuse and still kick out a character sheet with good numbers on it.

Like many old-timers, I have evolved my own system. All I had to do to make it work was beat on the source files---not trivial, but not Nemean Lion, either---and the engine cranks out my character sheets. I have an "additional" save (I call it Clarity), I use a To Cast roll for Spellcasters, and I rationalised the number system (being a wargamer at heart). PCGen took it all in stride.

Hope that helps.

Steven High

On Wed, 18 Nov 2020 at 15:13, michal.gordon via groups.io <michal.gordon=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:

Hi everyone. 

I'm looking into getting PCGN. Any thoughts about it?

 

Thanks, 

Michal