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

  1. 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.
  2. 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.]
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. You now have the ability to create a new character.
  6. (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

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. [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.

  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. Click the Resources tab.  This tab is for managing familiars, animal companions, and followers.
  13. 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)
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. 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).