Mad Brew Labs

Venture Captain

I have finally opened up the online Pathfinder PRG character generator beta testing to the public. You can find the generator at VentureCaptain.com. I was surprised the domain name was available (considering all the “make money for nothing” schemes found on the web). I actually plan on expanding the site to host a suite of utilities for use with the Pathfinder RPG including a dice app I’ve been tinkering with that uses true random number generation, courtesy of Random.org. You can also follow Venture Captain on Facebook and on Twitter.

TECHNOLOGY

The character generator is a plain web app. It runs XHTML 1.0 Strict (every page but the contact page validates), CSS2.1, and JavaScript/jQuery. So it should display and render fine on most standards compliant-ish web browsers. The generator exports characters as a small PDF (~40k) file, so whatever platform you are using must support PDFs.

I’ve built the app according to how I plan on using it. I run Chrome on Windows 7 have no issues. Chrome renders JavaScript blazingly fast, but I’ve also tested it on Firefox 3.5/3.6 and it runs fine. On IE 7/8, the generator performs a bit on the sluggish side. I haven’t tested it on mobile devices, because quite frankly, there is just too much information to try to display effectively on such a small screen.

THIS IS BETA

I must stress that the generator is in BETA. There are obvious things missing, as well as ton of undiscovered bugs waiting to be squashed. I am working on tying up loose ends with the current implemented features before slaying the bigger dragons of Equipment and Spells. Oh yeah, and the only guy writing code for this app is me.

Some things I’m working on now is expanding the class feature information presented on the character sheet (displaying bloodline powers, school powers, etc.) as well as creating an interface for missing elements such as being able to choose what Mercy you get when you take the Extra Mercy feat.

This being said, if you find anything missing, improperly formatted, not compliant with the latest Pathfinder RPG rules, or have a general suggestion please do not hesitate to contact me via Twitter, Facebook, or using the VentureCaptain.com Contact page. I want this tool be the best it can be, so everyone’s feedback is important to me.

FEATURE ROADMAP

Below is how I think feature implementation will roll-out. I’m naming the builds after cities in Golarion, with the first build belonging to capital of the oldest empire.

v1.0 [Sothis] Feature Implementation (bold items are finished; italicized items are in development):

• Ability Scores (point buy, tier points, racial adjustments)
• Core Classes (alignment restrictions, favored class bonuses, selectable class features)
• Skills (class skill training bonus, skill focus bonus, racial bonuses, ability modifiers)
• Calculated Combat Stats (BAB, CMB, CMD, AC, Touch AC, Flat Footed AC, Saves, HPs, Speed, Initiative)
• Feats (Racial, class granted feats, full prerequisite validation)
• Equipment (calculate wealth, calculate encumbrance, attack/damage bonuses, highlight proficiency, equip to slots)
• Spells (select known spells, select memorized spells, calculate DCs, calculate dice/bonuses)
• Portraits by 60+ Terrible Portraits
• Save to PDF (complete with calculated values, racial & class features, custom landscape layout)

v2.0 [Oppara] Feature Roadmap:

• Prestige Classes
• Traits
• Language Selection
• Custom Magic Weapon & Armor
• Random Bio Generation (Name, Homeland, Age, Height, Weight, Hair, & Eyes) based on Race & Gender
• Aging Affects validation based on Age in Bio
• Rules Info (overlays with PRD definitions for class features, feats, etc.)
• Pathfinder Society legal character validation
• Save to HTML

v3.0 [Egorian] Feature Roadmap:

• Advanced Player’s Guide Update
• Non-core free entry for class, feats, traits, skills, equipment, & spells.
• Pre-calculated Combat Maneuver & Spell sheets
• Storage Solutions

IT’S FREE!

Did I mention this web app is free? Yeah, creating characters with Venture Captain costs you nothing (except whatever you pay to access the internet already). It will continue to be free for as long as I feel like covering the cost of hosting and development. There may be pay features in the future (storing characters in cloud?), but only for convenience services, never for content.

If you like it, please follow @Venture_Captain on Twitter and spread the word, like Venture Captain on Facebook, or even blog about it.

Venture Captain Online Pathfinder Character Generator

The online Pathfinder RPG character generator that I’ve been tinkering with in my free time over the last couple of months is quickly approaching open beta testing. I currently have all the validation implemented for core class features, feats, and skills. The sole remaining elements to work on involve displaying character information effectively in the PDF export. Just need to figure out how I want to render class features and feats and it’s ready to go.

Character Sheet

I’ll add equipment and spell selection during the beta testing, but before that, I want to optimize the validation logic performance. Seeing how sluggish the JavaScript performs on Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3 bugs the hell out of me. Chrome, which blazes through most of the code, hits a bottleneck during skill validation (but only initially).

Class Feature Validation

Features Roadmap

I figured I might list some of the features I have already implemented as well as those I eventually plan on including. For the moment, I am only supporting the Core Rulebook, but as I find time (and motivation), I’ll add stuff from other Pathfinder products (hint: beer money is motivational).

v1.0 Feature Implementation (bold items are finished; italicized items are in development):

• Ability Scores (point buy, tier points, racial adjustments)
• Core Classes (alignment restrictions, favored class bonuses, selectable class features)
• Skills (class skill training bonus, skill focus bonus, racial bonuses, ability modifiers)
• Calculated Combat Stats (BAB, CMB, CMD, AC, Touch AC, Flat Footed AC, Saves, HPs, Speed, Initiative)
• Feats (Racial, class granted feats, full prerequisite validation)
• Equipment (calculate wealth, calculate encumbrance, attack/damage bonuses, highlight proficiency, equip to slots)
• Spells (select known spells, select memorized spells, calculate DCs, calculate dice/bonuses)
• Save to PDF (complete with calculated values, racial & class features, custom landscape layout)

v2.0 Feature Roadmap:

• Portrait selection (using 60+ Terrible Portraits^[1])
• Traits
• Random Bio Generation (Name, Homeland, Age, Height, Weight, Hair, & Eyes) based on Race & Gender
• Aging Affects validation based on Age in Bio
• Rules Info (overlays with PRD definitions for class features, feats, etc.)
• Pathfinder Society legal character validation
• Save to HTML

v3.0 Feature Roadmap:

• Non-core open entries for class, feats, traits, skills, equipment, & spells.
• Pre-calculated Combat Maneuver & Spell sheets
• Export/Import character from database (may charge fee for storage)

Platform Choices

It’s times like these when I begin questioning the platform choices I’ve made. The entire front end uses valid XHTML 1.0 Strict, CSS2.1, and JavaScript. The back end is ASP.NET 4.0 & C#. I also have access to SQL Server 2008 in case future features require data storage.

I passed on HTML5 because I feel like there are too many compatibility issues that need to be addressed before you get a [nearly] uniform experience across browsers. Cross-platform is still ever elusive. Just take a look at percentage of browsers in use on W3C’s statistics page^[2] and cross-reference that with the HTML5 browser readiness site^[3].

There are still a ton of users out there with little to no HTML5 support. Now consider that each browser implements features in slightly different ways and you have a nightmare for a developer wanting to build a robust app and ensure a similar experience across the browsers.

The choice to build upon ASP.NET was easy. I work with ASP.NET in my day job, so I’m pretty handy with it. The .NET library I’m using to generate PDFs is pretty slick and I’m not sure if it would be as easy to implement with another server-side language.

Concerning CB

This line of questioning is especially germane with current hobby events as I saw my Twitter feed recently choked full of bitching and moaning about Wizards of the Coast’s choice in using Silverlight to develop their new online character builder^[4].

All the geek angst seems to originate from a ZDNet article^[5] that cherry-picked quotes from Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC). Someone thinks Microsoft is “deprecating” Silverlight (I could not find a direct quote from the conference that ever used the word, deprecate). And of course, all of the Apple iP* fanatics are sad-faced because Silverlight means it won’t work natively on their iOS devices.

Microsoft quickly cleared up any confusion about Silverlight (within 2 days of the ZDNet article)^[6][7], because there are a lot of businesses out their using the platform. Also, I’m sure you’ve recently seen a big marketing push for Windows Phone 7. Well WP7 is practically synonymous with Silverlight, so it’s most definitely still supported. You can now think of Silverlight as Objective C that benefits from browser plugins.

Listening to: City of Fire – City of Fire – Rising

REFERENCES

[1] 60 (108) Terrible Portraits for Creative Commons Release

[2] W3School’s Browser Statistics

[3] HTML5 & CSS3 Readiness

[4] Wizards of the Coast’s CB FAQ

[5] ZDNet’s Silverlight Article

[6] Bob Muglia, President of the Server & Tools Division at Microsoft

[7] Tim Heuer, Program Manager for Silverlight