Using PCGen: An Overview
General note: If at any time a frame in PCGen does not appear or is too small, you can
resize it by dragging the divider bar to the left/right, or up/down, as
applicable.
Loading
Campaigns
- When PCGen starts up, you
will be on the “Source Materials” tab, [Tabs for source selection and tools
- and individual character tabs - default to the bottom of the screen.] where
you will see four panes in the main window (after the splash screen
disappears). In the upper-left
frame of this tab is a tree of publishers.
- Clicking the “+” sign
next to a publisher will expand the tree and show the subgroups for that publisher. If, for instance, you wanted to create a
character for the dominant d20 fantasy game, you would expand “Wizards of
the Coast”, then expand “Core Rules”, expand “Core”, and select the main
sourcebook for that game. [The remainder of this guide assumes you are
creating a character for this game.
If you are not, don’t panic.
Most of the tabs are the same, but some of the options detailed
(such as selecting an alignment, and making choices on pop-up dialogs) may
be missing.]
- Select a source of interest,
(information about the source appears in the lower left frame) and click
the “>” button at the top of the upper left frame to add it to the
upper right frame. You can also
double-click the source to add it.
Do this for every source you need to build your character. If the character you want to build requires
information other than that found in the core players’ book, (i.e. it
comes from a specific campaign world, has a prestige class from a
supplemental book, or equipment from a magazine article) you will need to
load whatever source has this additional information.
- Once all the sources you need
are in the upper right frame, click the “Load”
button in the lower right frame.
This will load all sources in the upper right frame.
- You now have the ability to
create a new character.
- (Optional) Before creating a
character, you may wish to examine and/or modify the settings PCGen uses
for all characters. This allows
certain common “house rules” to override official rules for a system.
Creating
a Character
- Choose the File/New menu item
to create a new character, or File/Open button to load a previously
created character. You may also use
the “new” and “open” buttons in the button bar below the menu bar.
- The Summary tab appears. [Tabs
for character creation process default to the top of the screen.] This tab
contains several useful basic fields such as Name, Alignment, and
Race. You may also add character
levels here. However, it’s a good
idea to roll up your character’s ability scores before adding levels, so just
fill in a character name (and player name) for now.
- Select the Race tab. Here you must select a race for your
character. Clicking a race in the
upper left frame shows information in the upper right frame. Once you have chosen the race for your
character, click the “Select” button.
You can also double-click the desired race. [You could have selected a race on the
Summary tab, once you had selected an alignment (if applicable).]
On the bottom of this tab are Templates.
If you have a template that you need to apply to your character,
you can do it now, or you can come back later.
- Select the Abilities tab. Here you can click the “Roll” button to
generate a set of ability scores for your character. If the scores displease you, you can
click “Roll” again to generate a new set.
If the scores only need a little bit of tweaking, you can lower one score to put points in your pool to
raise another. [If you want to put in a set of stats you rolled by hand,
just click the “Unlimited Stat Pool” checkbox and modify to your heart’s
content.]
If you prefer to use the purchase method to build a character worth a
certain number of ‘points’, click the “Purchase Mode” checkbox and then
modify the ability scores so they are worth whatever total ‘point value’
your referee has assigned for characters.
You will also see a Languages field.
You can select the additional languages your character knows due to
high intelligence now, by clicking the “Other” button and selecting them,
or come back later when you have selected a class. Some classes allow extra language
options above and beyond those allowed by your character’s race. If you take ranks in the Speak Language
skill, you can choose languages granted by that skill here.
Below the Languages field is a Special Abilities field. This currently shows any special
abilities granted by your character’s race. As you gain levels in classes, the names
of special abilites granted by the classes will
show up here.
- Select the Classes tab. In the upper left frame you will see a
list of classes available for use. Initially
some of these will be red, as you do not qualify for them yet. The first reason your character doesn’t qualify
for several classes is that you have not yet selected an alignment. In the lower right frame is an alignment
dropdown. Select an alignment for
your character. Now click a
class. You will again notice that information
about the class is displayed in the lower left frame. Either click the “>” button or
double-click a class to add a level of it.
The level appears in the upper right frame. With your first class level, you will be
asked to select a set of clothing (which you get for free), and may be
asked to make other selections.
[When making a choice (or choices) from a pop-up dialog, you will see how
many choices you have remaining at the bottom of the popup. Click an item of interest from the upper
frame, and click the “Add” button to add it to the lower frame of the
dialog and decrement your number of choices by one. (You may also
double-click an item in the upper dialog to add it to the lower frame.) You
may then continue to make choices if you have some left (such as for feats
that can be taken multiple times), or you can Close the dialog saving some
choices for later.]
Once you have added your first class level you will notice that the
information in the lower right frame has changed. It now tells you how many Hit Points
your character has, how many skill and feat selections it has remaining,
what your base attack bonus is, and what your saving throw values are. [You
can adjust your Hit Point total by clicking the “HP” button and adding or
subtracting hit points as desired.
All characters gain maximum hit points at first level, but
thereafter PCGen randomly assigns hit points per level. If you roll dice by hand, you can adjust
the hit die gained for the level to match what you rolled.] This section
also designates your XP total. If
you advance your character past first level by adding another level, PCGen
will automatically set your XP total to the minimum required for that
level. If you add XP to your
character later with the “Adj XP” button, PCGen
will tell you when you have earned enough XP to gain a level.
- Select the Skills tab. Here you can add ranks in skills. As before, the skill names appear in the
upper left frame, their descriptions appear in the lower left frame, the
skills you have added appear in the upper right frame, and you add skills
by selecting them and clicking “>” or by double-clicking the skill. The number of skill points you have left
to spend is shown in the lower right frame.
There are a few other useful options for adding skill points that are
accessed by right-clicking a skill and using the popup menu. One of these is to assign the skill the
maximum possible ranks. If you
change your mind about a skill, you can remove a rank in the skill by
clicking the skill in the upper right frame and clicking the “<” button. You may also right-click a skill in the
upper-right frame to add or remove
ranks from that skill.
If your character has more than one class, you will need to select which
class you are purchase your skills as, then purchase them as listed above.
- Select the Feats tab. Feats you do not qualify for are listed
in red. Feats appear and are selected
just as classes are. The lower
right frame of this screen shows what weapons your character is proficient
with, and includes an “Optional Profs” button in case your character is allowed
to choose a weapon of proficiency due to race and/or class.
- Select the Domains tab. Here you can select a Deity for your
character to worship if desired.
Selecting a deity displays information about it in the lower left frame
as usual, and clicking the Select button or double-clicking a deity will
choose that one as your character’s deity.
If you are a divine spell caster, you will need to select a deity to
receive your domains. Note that
there is an option for the deity “None”, which means you may then select
any two domains. Select your
domains from the upper right frame by highlighting them and clicking
Select, or by double-clicking.
- [spell casting classes only] Select
the Spells tab. The left frame
contains a complete list of spells for each spell casting class you
possess. The right frame displays
spells you “know” (the ones your deity grants, the ones you know due to
class, or the ones in your spell book, as applicable) and are able to cast.
If your spell casting class has a list from which the character can prepare
without a spell book, all spells on the class list will be included in the
Spells Known.
If your spell casting class has a number of spells the character knows and
can cast without preparation, you may choose these from the upper left
frame (info on each spell is displayed in the lower left frame when it is
selected) and use “>” or double-click them to add them to the upper
right frame. Information on the
selected spell casting class from the upper left frame is displayed in the
lower right frame.
If your spell casting class uses a spell book to store spells which you
prepare daily, you can add spells to it in the same fashion, but PCGen
will not limit you in the number of times you can do this.
To indicate which spells you have prepared (for those classes which
prepare spells), (i.e. different sets depending on if you’re in the city
or in a dungeon) you can create additional “spellbooks” by typing a name
in the "Book Named:" text box and clicking on the
"Add" button. Next,
select it in the Book list. When
you do this, you will be drawing now from the “Spells Known” book to populate
the list of prepared spells.
Additionally, if you are a divine spell caster with domains, you
will be allowed to prepare one of your domain spells specifically.
- Select the Inventory tab. Here you can purchase items in the same
way you purchase skills. As you
purchase items you will see the amount of money you have available in the
lower right frame diminish. You can
modify this total by editing the “Gold:” field. Once you have purchased items, you should
select locations for them on the upper right frame. Some items are containers and can hold other
items. Every item your character is
carrying should be marked ‘Carried’ so your encumbrance will be figured
correctly. Armors, weapons, shields,
and magical items need to be marked as ‘Equipped’ so that PCGen gives you
the appropriate benefit for using them.
- Select the Equipping tab. On this tab, you can choose different
configurations of equipment for different situations. [For instance, you
might not want to wear your plate mail to the nobles’ fancy dress ball.] Choose equipment in the upper left frame
and add it to the “Default Set” in the upper right frame. Additional sets of equipment can be
defined by entering the name in the “Equip Set:” text field and clicking
the “Add” button. You may then
select that set and repeat the process of choosing equipment.
- Click
the Resources tab. This tab is for
managing familiars, animal companions, and followers.
- Select the Description tab. Here
you can type in lots of role-playing info on your character. Please do not
use the : character in the bio or description boxes since that causes
problems (this will be addressed in a future release)
- Select the Misc tab. This
is for any magical item and assets the character owns. PCGen can’t apply bonuses to your
character or figure wealth using the items here, but they will be noted on
your character sheet. Again, please do not use the :
character as it may cause your character not to be importable into PCGen.
You can use HTML tags to modify the appearance of the text on a character sheet.
- Select the Notes tab. Here you can make any sort of notes you
like. You can use this as a record
of your adventures, notes on particular NPCs or
locations, or anything else you wish.
Right-click a folder and select “Add” to add an item beneath that
folder. Right-click an item and
click “Add” to add a new folder above that item. With an item selected, you make
any notes you like in the giant text field to the right.
- In the Preview tab you can
select which output template you want to use by clicking on the
"Select a template" button on the bottom-left of the tab (the
character sheets should all be in the templates directory). You can save
the character directly to a file by clicking on the "Export
To..." button, or click on the "Preview" button to see it
in the tab itself (there are problems with any templates which use style
sheets so it may not look like it would in a regular browser). You can
also click on the "Preview in Browser" button to open the
character sheet in a browser.
- Save your character! Use File>Save, File>Save As…, use
the Save icon in the button bar, or right click on the character name tab
(where it says Jimbob the Fghter).