Developer's Notes

With default settings in place, this generator produces PCs roughly comparable to those from a well-optimized pass through the 4e life path system: starting attributes of C with 3 net increases, 10 levels of skills, and 4 specialties. Equipment is slightly more generous than the 4e default because I'm reusing a lot of code and tables from my earlier v2.2 character generator - and I like detail in my gear lists.

Name pools for some nationalities are rather shallow at present. For a more robust character name generator, try Behind the Name (my preference) or Seventh Sanctum.

All ranks are given as US Army ranks, even if the character background indicates another nationality or branch of service. This is a limitation of my willingness to spend a day coding the text parsing around such a fringe issue.

What do the settings do?

Nationality: Affects weapon tables, languages, clothing origin, and possible types of body armor and snivel/sustainment gear. By default, random nationality is weighted toward those which would reasonably appear in Poland circa 2000. Selecting the "random, unweighted" option will turn off the weighting.

Background: While this generator doesn't use the 4e life path system, it does take a cue from it, using a set of custom tables to produce semi-logical prompts on which to hang a character history. Use this control to set a starting point.

Campaign Starting Season: Affects the seasonality/weight and camouflage patterns of the character's attire and the mobility gear table.

Character Gender: Sets appropriate pronouns in the history narrative.

Allow Dump Stats: By default, the generator may reduce a starting attribute from C to D if none of that attribute's skills have any points (but random allocation of attribute increases may raise these dumped stats again). Set this to "no" if you don't want to risk having a D in anything.

Enable HSLD: When this is active, special operations and field intelligence characters receive up to 3 extra skill ranks, 1 extra attribute level, and 1 additional specialization.

Distribute Skills: This generator's skill allocation runs in four phases, with each phase assigning 2 or 3 skills. This function prevents duplication during each phase, ensuring that no character is overspecialized at the expense of overall utility. However, this does make B skills rather rare and A skills very rare. Disable this setting for a greater chance of having one or two higher skills.

Expand Equipment List: When this setting is enabled, the generator equips characters with items from an expanded list of weapons and gear, providing a more generous allocation than the 4th edition rules. When this setting is disabled, characters receive a lower equipment allocation which (with the exception of personal effects) includes only items found in the 4th edition core rules.

Gratification: Enables or disables the retro loading sequence.