Faqs - PCGen Documentation

# Pages in Faq

## Character Creation Issues

Why can’t I make a (insert Prestige Class Name here)? Well I know you are all keen to play the (insert Prestige Class Name here), so here goes: Make sure you have chosen all the prerequisites. Not just some of them. This may include needing levels in a particular class, ranks in certain skills, a particular feat, particular spells in your spell book and more. You can check how you are doing by clicking on the class (in the Classes Tab) you want to get to, in the bottom left hand corner it will show you the class and what pre-reqs you are missing (in red) Why isn’t my character proficient with (insert Weapon Name here)?

## Community

- Community - Main website - Documentation - Forums - Bug reports and feature requests - Mailing lists - Email - Live chat - New: HipChat - Old: IRC - Contributing to the project - Development Last updated: 2015-07-19. There are many places where you can: Find out more about PCGen Talk to the PCGen developers and other users Participate in PCGen development Main website The main website for PCGen is at pcgen.org .

## Data Sources Questions

What is the System Reference Document (SRD)? It’s basically a Open Gaming License subset of what’s in the PHB, DMG, MM, Epic Level Handbook and the Psionics Handbook, the real difference being that what Wizards of the Coast has declared as Product Identity (PI) or Closed Content. That means the deities are not in there, some monsters, character names and places are omitted, and spell names may have been changed. See WotC’s declaration what is not Open Content here: SRD Legal Information All non-SRD material (e.g.

## I Want to Help to Make Datasets

How do I get started? First do you have the current version of PcGen running on your system. If you do then you have Java installed and are ready for fun. If you need help, open a command box and type: java -version And you should get something like: java version "1.5.0_06" Java™ 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_06-b05) Java HotSpot™ Client VM (build 1.5.0_06-b05, mixed mode, sharing) If you don’t, you need to get it from Sun Systems.

## Index : The PCGen FAQ

Welcome to the FAQ for the PCGen from the PCGen Team. Here we’ll try to answer some of the questions that appear most often from PCGen users! Important Notice: This FAQ is Tongue in Cheek, complaints about the style can go to /dev/null , or go talk to Karianna, same diff ;-) Please bear with us, if this FAQ doesn’t answer your question or appears to be incorrect, we have done this on purpose to enrich your experience and make you think harder.

## Other Issues

PCGen is so slow! How can I make it run quicker? Well we decided that people needed to take time and chill out over their PC making, so we’ve deliberately put a delay in for each action you perform. If you want to make PCGen run faster, you should only load the modules you really-really need. e.g. Don’t load Fantasy Flight Games books if you are not using any options from them.

## Out of Memory Issues

How do I increase my memory? For Windows Users: You increase the memory allotment by editing the pcgen.bet file. Open the pcgen.bat file Find and change the following code: From: java -Dswing.aatext=true -Xms128m -Xmx256m -jar pcgen.jar To: java -Dswing.aatext=true -Xms256m -Xmx512m -jar pcgen.jar Note: -Xms256 assigns starting memory for PCGen to 256Mb of RAM and should be enough memory for pcgen to run with lots of sources loaded. Note: -Xmx512 assigns a maximum of 512Mb of RAM to PCGen and should be enough memory for pcgen to run with lots more sources and characters loaded.

## Output and Printing Issues

How do I get the character sheets to only print out the skills my character has? There is a list box in the lower right hand corner of the Skills tab that determines which skills show up on the character sheet (called “Include skills”). All - includes all skills. Untrained - includes skills with ranks and untrained. None - should include only those with ranks. How do I get my familiar’s stat-block to appear on my wizard’s character sheet?

## PCGen Monkey Teams Explained

Who does what? In the “About” box of PCGen, you’ll quickly notice the PCGen has a monkey theme. Bryan McRoberts chose “Chief Code Monkey” as his title when he first made PCGen available to the public, and later adopted the title of Benevolent Dictator. Other teams formed to focus on different aspects of PCGen, and all have taken to referring to themselves as monkeys. In the About box we try to list everyone who has contributed to PCGen in chronological order, and the monkeys are grouped into Code, Content, Test and Engineering.

## Skinning PCGen

Introduction: This document explains how to find, download and install “skins” for PCGen to provide a different “look and feel” to the interface. These “skins” are provided by third parties not related to the PCGen team or Code Monkey Publishing. Enabling skinning capability in PCGen Download the skins.zip file from the following location: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=25576 Unzip the file into the \pcgen\lib directory. Finding some “skins” Merton Monk has provided several links on the yahoo!

## Startup and Installation Issues

Where do I download PCGen from? You can download the latest version of PCGen from: http://pcgen.org/ , see the “Get PCGen” tab which will answer all of your questions on this! How do I unzip the zipped up files? Some of the install packages are zipped up. Those types of downloads must be unzipped to the same directory / folder . Unzipping is done differently on different platforms (don’t ya hate that?).

## Submitting a Feature Request for PCGen

The purpose of this document is to provide a walk through of how to properly submit a feature request at Source Forge for PCGen. Please read the Bug vs. Feature to make sure that what you want to submit is a feature request. Before you attempt to submit a feature request, visit the PCGen Yahoo Group message boards ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pcgen ), and describe your feature request. Feature Requests are often referred to as FREQs on the board.

## The JIRA issue tracker

- The JIRA issue tracker - Submitting an issue - Account creation and log-in - Sub-projects - Determining your PCGen and Java versions The PCGen project uses a system named JIRA , located at jira.pcgen.org , to track bug reports and feature requests ( issues ). This page explains how to submit bug reports or feature requests for the PCGen project. Note: JIRA has replaced the previous issue tracker at SourceForge, which is no longer used.

## The whole WOTC/OGL/SRD/D20 Thing

Can you explain to me the whole WOTC/OGL/SRD/D20 Thing? When 3rd edition came out in 2000, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) also created the Open Gaming License (OGL) . This would allow 3rd party publishers to use Open Game Content (OGC) as long as they followed the rules laid out in the OGL. WotC took most, but not all, of the material in the PHB, DMG and MM and created the System Reference Document (SRD).

## Yahoo Groups and Helping PCGen

The Yahoo Message Boards Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pcgen/ Here there are 5000+ users to help you, good eh! Post whatever PCGen related questions, comments etc you have (but please report bugs and feature requests as described below). Very, very rarely does a post go unnoticed, in fact you will be overwhelmed with help most of the time. Please be aware that post to the yahoo groups gains you the attention of Karianna, s/he may or may not decide to take you soul, your risk.

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