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PCGen website copy
Front Page
1. News
2. Benefits
a. Screenshots
b. Benefits for GM's
c. System requirements
3. Download
4. Help and Support
5. Contribute
6. Donate
7. About
8. Contact
Editorial notes:
"Features" has been renamed to "Benefits" and re-written to de-emphasise a laundry list of features, instead emphasising how the software is going to solve people's problems. This follows the advice in [1] and [2].
"Screenshots" is now a separate page.
"Help and Support" now promotes HipChat and the PCGen Forums as the primary support avenues for the project.
[1]: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2009/12/31/engineering-your-way-to-marketing-success/
[2]: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2009/03/07/how-to-successfully-compete-with-open-source-software/

Benefits

PCGen makes it easier to build and keep track of RPG characters, so you can spend less time on character sheets and more time playing the game.

  • PCGen is for players and GM's

    PCGen helps players create characters, quickly and correctly. PCGen knows all about the rules, so it keeps you from making common mistakes.

    PCGen helps GMs keep track of the creatures and NPC's in the world. You can have many sheets open at the same time. PCGen even gives you an initiative tracker for running combat encounters, and places to write the NPC's back stories and history. More benefits for GMs.

  • PCGen helps you build characters.

    PCGen helps you to create legal character builds, by keeping track of the pre-requisites for classes, feats, spells, and so on.

    Did your GM give you a feat the rules say you shouldn't qualify for? No problem - you can bypass the pre-requisites, and give yourself the feat anyway.

  • PCGen does the math for you.

    PCGen knows how to calculate your character's numerical bonuses, even when you have complicated stacking bonuses and situational modifiers.

    PCGen also knows how to calculate the cost of equipment, your carrying capacity, and all the other things that come up during character creation and play.

  • PCGen supports the RPGs you play.

    PCGen includes support for the core rulebooks of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5e, d20 Modern, and Pathfinder. It's flexible enough to support other game systems, too.

    In addition to the core rulebooks, PCGen comes with as many source books as we have permission to include.

  • PCGen is customisable.

    Have you created some unique stuff for your game? You can code that "home-brew" data into PCGen.

    The data files are text-based and don't need any special tools to edit. Tutorials for data creation are included in every copy of PCGen.

    There is an active community of home-brewers creating things for PCGen, so there's lots of help available if you need it.

  • PCGen is free.

    PCGen is put together by volunteers and distributed free of charge. PCGen will never cost anything to use.

  • PCGen works on all computers.

    PCGen works on all PCs - Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux. It doesn't need a fast computer, either - PCGen will probably work on any PC made in the last ten years. More on system requirements.

  • PCGen has flexible output.

    If you are going to be away for a game session, you can email the GM a PDF copy of your character sheet.

    If you don't have a computer at your game session, you can print your character sheet on paper and take that with you.

  • PCGen is growing.

    PCGen is under active development. New features and new data are being added all the time.

    You can look at our GitHub to see what we've been working on recently.

    Is there something you'd like to see added to PCGen? You can tell us.

    Would you like to help add things to PCGen? We take all kinds of help.

System Requirements

  • PCGen works on all operating systems - Windows, Apple Mac OSX, and Linux.

  • PCGen doesn't need a fast computer, and doesn't need very much RAM. It will run on most computers made in the last ten years.

  • PCGen doesn't take up much space. A full install is 100 MB.

  • PCGen requires Java.

    Lots of other programs also use Java, so most computers already have Java installed. Otherwise, you can get Java from java.com.

    • PCGen currently requires Java 6 or newer.

    • Old versions of PCGen, up to 5.16, required Java 5 or newer.

Download PCGen.

Help and Support

Documentation / help file

Every installation of PCGen includes a help file, located under the Help > Documentation menu.

There's also a copy of the PCGen help file on-line, which includes the latest revisions available.

If your question isn't answered in the help file, please tell us so we can improve the help file for the future.

Videos

A number of Youtube video tutorials are available.

The first video helps beginners using PCGen for the first time, and shows what PCGen can do.

Further videos contain detailed tutorials on how to modify PCGen to include your custom content.

See the full list of videos.

Support

PCGen support is provided by the same team of volunteers who make PCGen.

If you have checked the help file, and didn't find an answer there, you can contact the PCGen via live chat, the forums, or email:

Old support channels

Contribute

PCGen is free software, made entirely by volunteers.

We could use your help to make PCGen better.

The kinds of things PCGen needs help with include:

  • No technical skill required
    • Report bugs (see below)
    • Help support other users
    • Checking game material licenses
  • Some skills required
    • Revise documentation
    • List file coding (data set coding)
    • Public relations (website, social media)
    • General administration
  • Technical skill required
    • Java programming
    • Output sheet programming

If you feel you can contribute, email help@pcgen.org with the subject line "I want to help!". Tell us if there are any areas you are especially keen to work on, and mention any skills or experience that might be relevant.

Report bugs

If you notice something wrong in PCGen, you can help us by writing a bug report. You don't need any technical expertise to write a bug report. You can get onto our bug reporting system from the web browser you are using right now. See the bug reporting instructions.

Clearly written, detailed bug reports make it faster for the team to identify and fix problems, so we can fix more bugs in our limited time.

Support other users

You can help the team by supporting other PCGen users, in all the places you would go if you needed help yourself.

Most support questions are about helping users with home-brew LST files. We would welcome help to answer these LST file questions, which would free up the PCGen team for other tasks.

Information for developers

The PCGen source code is developed on GitHub:

  1. PCGen/pcgen - main code and data development.
  2. PCGen/pcgen-newsources - new source development for official PCGen release.

Pull requests are welcome.

The JIRA bug tracker is located at https://pcgenorg.atlassian.net/.

Development discussion is welcome at the PCGen HipChat channel.

Some development documentation is available on the PCGen wiki.

Donate

PCGen is supported through donations.

We use the money from donations to pay for things which are necessary to keep the project running, and to attract new users to the project.

  • Web hosting costs
  • Domain name registration
  • Representing PCGen at role-playing game conventions, such as Gen Con - raises awareness of PCGen and attracts people into our community.
    • Booth hire
    • Printing advertising materials

The PCGen project accepts donations using Paypal.

About

PCGen is a program that helps make characters for role-playing games, like Dungeons and Dragons. It's free of charge, and always will be.

Our mission is to have PCGen handle all the complicated, hard-to-track parts of character generation, so that you can spend more time playing the game. (More about PCGen's benefits to players and game masters.)

Our goals are to support as much role-playing game material as we can, particularly materials supported under the Open Gaming License. This includes:

  • Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 edition
    • Core rule books - Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master's Guide
    • Expansion books under the Open Gaming License - such as Unearthed Arcana
  • Pathfinder
    • Core rule books (Ed: Could use some help fleshing out this part. I don't play Pathfinder.)
    • Expansion books
  • As many expansion books as we have permission to include.

PCGen was originally a hobby project by Bryan McRoberts. It is now developed and maintained by a team of volunteers from all around the world. (Would you like to help?)

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