No Gen Con 2025 Report / Exciting Character Builder Updates

Gen Con 2025

Unfortunately, Gen Con 2025 didn’t happen this year. 

It came down to the hotel room. When I go to GenCon, I run 3-4 events, and they are prop-heavy. I usually run Friday night, Saturday afternoon, then Saturday evening. It’s difficult to lug my books and props with me all day - especially Saturday - along with whatever stuff I purchase in the vendor hall. For that reason, I would prefer a room connected to the convention center. This allows me to drop things off between events, not to mention get some rest and do some last-minute game preparation. If I don’t have that hotel room, I'll also have to rent a car and commute to and from the convention center throughout the day. This means I have to lug my stuff to the prepaid lot, which is a long walk or short shuttle ride away. Then, I have to get to my car, go to the hotel, do whatever, and finally drive back to the lot. After that, I take the shuttle/walk back to the convention center. It’s a real pain in the ass. If I weren’t running events, I would just suck it up. But I am running events, and also being old, it’s just too much hassle. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good lottery number for the housing block this year (or last year). The closest hotel I could get was 12 miles away. That pretty much ruled out running events, and that’s basically all I do at Gen Con. 

I suggested to GenCon that they reserve a block of rooms for GMs, but I doubt that will happen. 

Sooooo maybe next year. 

Character Builder Updates

I’ve made many updates to my character builder since my last post! In addition to more O.C.C.s and races, there have been many bug fixes and the following new features:

  • Push-button generator

  • Backstory generator

  • CSV Export

Push-button Generator

This is experimental and under active development. It’s simple: you select the character’s Race, O.C.C., and level range. Push the button, and it will generate a character for you in under 15 seconds. It’s really cool, but it needs some refinement. For example, the skill selection needs to be smarter. It will follow the Related and Secondary Skills rules for the O.C.C., but it doesn’t understand context. As a result, you could send up with a level 4 Gunslinger who has W.P. Torpedo and Lore: Sea Creatures. I’m exploring ways to smarten it up. 

I also had to figure out how to deal with languages and weapon proficiencies. When it randomly selects skills, it pools all of the available/applicable skills and randomly selects from that list. The problem is that there are so many language and literacy skills that it overshadows the rest of the skills. As a result, the generated character would have a disproportionately large number of language/literacy/W.P. skills. To avoid this, I instructed the generator to select, I think, up to 1D4 additional language skills above and beyond what the O.C.C. grants. That appears to have helped. I applied a similar solution for W.P.s.

Here is how it looks:

Generate Random Character menu

Backstory generator

I have been working on this one for a while. It was working months ago in my local dev environment, but I struggled to get it to work on the live site. It was a security issue involving exposed API keys, but I have resolved that. Now, when you build your character, you can click the “Generator Backstory” button on the Rounding Out page. Wait about 10 seconds and you’ll get your backstory.

It is a context-aware generator; it knows the Palladium universe. It will read your character’s alignment, age, O.C.C. race, and sentiments you’ve defined (there’s a generator for those too now), and write a couple of paragraphs. For example, here is a generated backstory for a Principled level 7 Grackle Tooth Cyber-Knight:

“Sir Gould, a Grackle Tooth cyber-knight, emerged from the chaos of his upbringing as an orphan in New Town 'Burb, a melting pot of cultures bound together by the tenuous threads of survival. Raised by a loving but disparate community of mutants and misfits, his formative years were marked by the vibrant stories and struggles of those different from him, instilling in him a deep empathy and a steadfast belief in peace. The radiant ideals of the Cyber-Knights resonated with him from a young age; he felt an undeniable calling to protect the innocent and serve as a bridge between divergent beings.

Now, at 43, Sir Gould stands resolute in his mission, driven by a fusion of tradition and destiny. His principled nature compels him to advocate for those marginalized by the oppressive Coalition States, all while navigating his own confusion about the supernatural entities that often cross his path. Despite his cautious stance on the black market, he finds a kinship with mutants, drawn to their resilience and valor. Though he struggles to fully understand the supernatural realm, Gould’s heart beats for harmony. His journey is one of unity, driven by the hope that compassion can foster understanding between the myriad beings of the Rifts.”

Not bad! 

CSV Export

One user asked me to create a CSV export option for the character. Now, on the character display page, you can click “Export Character (CSV)” and it’ll provide the export for you. 

Other Character Builder Updates

There are a few other bells and whistles I’ve added/improved:

  • Enhancements to the Cyborg UI

  • Units of distance and weight now include both imperial and metric (Palladium seems to prefer that.)

  • Spirit West fetishes and totems are now included

  • Fixes to the Atlantean tattoo selection

  • In progress: Advanced Training option (from CS: Heroes of Humanity)

That’s all for now, folks! I’ll update more this fall as I prep for TotalCon this winter!

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