Lesson #3: .lst - Races (Part 1) - PCGen Documentation

# Lesson #3: .lst - Races (Part 1)

By Professor Chris Chandler (Barak).
Updated by Aaron Divinsky (boomer70).

File(s) Covered: *races.lst

Tags used:

`OUTPUTNAME , SIZE , RACETYPE , RACESUBTYPE , TYPE (TYPE is deprecated: Replaced by RACETYPE and RACESUBTYPE) , MONSTERCLASS , HITDICE , MOVE`

This is the beginning of several lessons that will be necessary to cover the creation of a race file. There are many tags, and some of them will take some seriously long explanations, so get some munchies and a drink, get comfortable and we’ll get started.

Since the race lines can get exceedingly long, and yahoo will wrap my lessons, I’ll also post a file that may be perused as you’re reading this. (Be sure to turn off word-wrap on your text file reader!)

I’m going to develop a file that contains two races. One will be from the System Reference Document (SRD) so you can see how to do an already existing race and the other I’m going to make up on the fly and use to demonstrate every tag I can remember. :p

One thing to note is that these will be considered “monster” races. Towards the end of the lesson i’ll go back through and create a player character only race.

We’ll do a Solar and, ummm, I know! Ninja Monkeys! :) The lessons will follow the format of a standard monster write up. A sample monster write up for our Ninja Monkey race is presented below so you can follow along (in RSRD format)

Ninja Monkey

Medium Monstrous Humanoid

Hit Dice:

4d8+8 (26 hp)

Initiative:

+8

Speed:

30 ft. (6 squares), climb 20 ft.

Armor Class:

20 (+4 Dex, +2 Natural, +2 Divine, +2 Leather armor), touch 14, flat-footed 16

Base Attack/Grapple:

+4/+7

Attack:

Claw +7 melee (1d4+3) or dagger +7 melee (1d4+3)

Full Attack:

2 claws +7 melee (1d4+3) and bite +2 melee (1d8+1) or dagger +7 melee (1d4+3)

Space/Reach:

5 ft./5 ft.

Special Attacks:

—

Special Qualities:

Darkvision (60’), DR 3/-, immunity to poison

Saves:

Fort +3, Ref +8, Will +6

Abilities:

Str 17, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 11, Wis 15, Cha 10

Skills:

Balance +8, Hide +8, Jump +7, Listen +7, Move Silently +8, Spot +7

Feats:

Alertness, Improved Initiative

Environment:

Forests

Organization:

Solitary or Gang (2-4)

Challenge Rating:

2

Treasure:

Standard (double bananas)

Alignment:

Usually Chaotic Good

Advancement:

By character class

Level Adjustment:

+2

Skills: Ninja monkeys have a +4 racial bonus to Balance and Jump checks. Ninja monkeys have a +2 racial bonus in forested environments.

Ninja Monkey Characters
— Automatic Languages: Common and Monkey, Bonus Languages: Elven, Goblin, Sylvan.
— Favored Class: Monk

First, a couple of general rules: Every tag needs to be separated with tabs. Spaces may be used within names, etc, but never at the beginning or end. There should never be a space-tab or a tab-space combination as this will make the parser choke and die.

Although any text editor will do, a text editor that can do syntax colorization is also a good idea. I use a program called TextPad. You can also use UltraEdit and I believe there is one called Crimson. You can find a number of these syntax files on the Yahoo! Group PCGen_experimental .

I’ll use “mystuff_races.lst” as the file name. This conforms to the new naming convention adopted by the PCGen lstmonkey crew recently. Basically it is in the format of “source_filetype.lst”.

Update to RSRD
These classes were originally written using the SRD (3.0 rules). Throughout you will find sidebars like this one with notes on the differences between the 3.0 rule set and the 3.5 rule set as found in the Revised System Reference Document (RSRD).

Race Name

The race file is currently a lst file that has one racial entry per line. The first thing on each line is the race name. There is no tag for it, the program assumes that whatever is there is the name of a race.

One thing to consider when entering the race name is grouping (all demons together, etc). A Solar is a celestial, and we’d like it to show up with other celestials, so the name I’m going to enter will be “Celestial (Solar)”. On the next Line I’ll enter “Ninja Monkey”.

Update to RSRD
In the RSRD the Solar is listed as an Angel not a Celestial. Therefore we would name it “Angel (Solar)”.

`OUTPUTNAME`

Now, “Celestial (Solar)”, while making it easy to find in the race list with the other celestials will look kind of funny on output, so we’ll use the OUTPUTNAME tag to change what will appear on output (if the user has the preference checked to use it).

The OUTPUTNAME tag can be used in a couple of different manners. You can completely change the name of an object (as far as output is concerned) and not reference the real name at all, or you can use part of the real name. A special string was developed to grant access to only the text contained in parentheses. That string is “[NAME]” (no quotes).

So, if we wanted the name on output to be “Celestial, Solar”, we could do it two different ways. 1) OUTPUTNAME:Celestial, Solar or 2) OUTPUTNAME:Celestial, [NAME]. I don’t like either one of those… I just want it to be called a “Solar” on output, so I’m entering the tag like this:

> `OUTPUTNAME:[NAME]`

The name “Ninja Monkey” is just fine as it is, so we’ll skip an OUTPUTNAME tag on this one.

`SIZE`

Every creature has a size. The size tag uses the first letter of each size category, so the possible choices are F (Fine), D (Diminutive), T (Tiny), S (Small), M (Medium), L (Large), H (Huge), G (Gargantuan), and C (Colossal).

The Solar is a Large creature so on that line we’ll enter a couple tabs and then put “ `SIZE:L` “. The Ninja Monkey is man-sized (Medium), so we’ll put “ `SIZE:M` “ on that line.

`RACETYPE/RACESUBTYPE`

After the creature’s size the next information is the race type. For the Solar it is listed as Outsider (Good). The information in the brackets after the type lists all the subtypes for the monster, in this case Good. We will enter “ `RACETYPE:Outsider` “ put in a tab and enter “ `RACESUBTYPE:Good` “.

For the Ninja Monkey we have to enter just the type with no subtypes.

> `RACETYPE:Monstrous Humanoid`

Update to RSRD
The Solar changes subtypes in the RSRD to Outsider (Angel, Extraplanar, Good). Therefore we need to change our subtype entry to read `RACESUBTYPE:Angel|Extraplanar|Good` .

`TYPE`

Note: This use of TYPE has been deprecated and is replaced with `RACETYPE/RACESUBTYPE` .

We use the TYPE tag to indicate what type of creature the race is (Aberration, Undead, Animal, Monstrous Humanoid, Magical Beast, etc.).

The Solar is an Outsider so our tag would read “ `TYPE:Outsider` “.

The Ninja monkey is a Monstrous Humanoid so our tag would be “ `TYPE:Monstrous Humanoid` “.

`MONSTERCLASS`

The MONSTERCLASS tag is used by the program when the “Default Monster” setting is off. It tells it how many and which monster class levels to give the race (as opposed to using the HITDICE tag when in “Default Monster” mode).

The tag takes the format of MONSTERCLASS:<monsterclassname>:<levels>. For PCGen distribution files the class name is *usually* the type of creature and the number of levels is usually set equal to the number of HD the default creature has. An exception to this is when the racial description says they are spellcasters… “cast as 18th level sorcerers”. In that case we create a special class (in a class.lst file) to grant the race the appropriate spellcasting levels.

The Solar is an Outsider with 22 HD, and he casts spells as a 20th level cleric, so his tag would be “ `MONSTERCLASS:Solar:22` “

For the Ninja Monkey, he’s a Monstrous Humanoid and has 4 HD and no spellcasting ability, so the tag for him would read “ `MONSTERCLASS:Monstrous Humanoid:4` “.

`HITDICE`

Note: The PCGen data team is moving away from using the “Default Monster” setting. Default Monster Kits are being used instead.

This is the tag we use to indicate the die size and quantity of hit dice a race gets. The program uses this when the “Default Monster” setting in the preferences is on. It takes the format of HITDICE:<quantity>,<size>. This information is found at the top of each race listing.

The Solar has 22d8 hit points, so would have “ `HITDICE:22,8` “ for this tag.

The ninja monkey has 4d8 hit points, so would have “ `HITDICE:4,8` “ for this tag.

`MOVE`

To define a race’s movement modes and rates we use the MOVE tag. The format is “MOVE:mode,rate,mode,rate”. You can enter as many movement modes and rates as you want.

Looking at the Solar in the SRD, they list “SPEED:50ft,fly 150ft”. The first number is always their “Walk” (otherwise known as “Base”) movement rate, except for those races that can’t walk like some plants. So on the Solar’s line we will enter (remember to put a tab or two between the last tag and this new one):

> `MOVE:Walk,50,Fly,150`

I’m going to give the Ninja Monkey a walk rate of 30 and a climb rate of 20, so the tag for his line would be:

> `MOVE:Walk,30,Climb,20`

I’m going to end this lesson at this point. If you have questions, please post them to the Yahoo! group PCGenListFileHelp .

The example file for this lesson can be found at the LSTfileclass Yahoo Group in the files section here .

Barak
LST Chimp

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