The ARM random character concept generator

[Gimfalisette]

OK, as I mentioned in another thread, brytta.leofa and I have collaborated to write and code a random character concept generator for ARM, and it has turned out pretty nifty. (It's really fun just to push the button and see what wacky combination comes up.) I want to provide this for folks to use, but I have no place to host it myself. Would an ARM player like to host it somewhere, at least for an interim period? The page consists of just HTML and Javascript.

Editing for clarity/update: The character generator is live and on the web now at http://gimfalisette.googlepages.com/home .

[RogueGunslinger]

Awesome! How about on this page? I have no idea who all has access to it, but it seems as good a pace as any.

[Gimfalisette]

I have no idea who runs that site. What I need is for a site owner to volunteer to host the page for the moment. I have no idea if a bit of javascript is allowable to plunk into a MySpace page or anything, but maybe I'd go make a page for that purpose if someone enlightens me that it's do-able. So, suggestions for a decent free spot for me to slap it up are welcome as well.

[Mood]

Maybe it could be hosted on zalanthas.org?

[Gimfalisette]

GooglePages! Mmm...

Here it is for y'all's perusal and fun: The ARM Random Character Concept Generator

It's pretty self-explanatory to use. The "Day Job" and "Life's Ambition" items are there to help spark imagination about non-coded stuff for characters to be doing and goals they might have. Suggestions for those categories are welcome.

[amish overlord]

My next char will be a female mul krathian who lives in luirs and works as a tavern wench and goal in life is to have 20 lovers. Maybe ghost will be one.

Ya baby.

Amish Overlord 

[Eukelade]

My favorite was the female half-elven pickpocket from the labyrinth, who spends her days farming, and whose life's ambition is to become a senior aide to a noble or a templar.

Good luck, sweetheart.

[Southie]

That's really cool. Good job, you guys.

[Cutthroat]

A desert elf from Allanak... 

But hey, this is a pretty cool tool. Added to my bookmarks. 

[Maso]

Aha. Awesome!

[Maybe42or54]

Not desert elf friendly, but what is?
It is the idea of it giving ideas that gives me an idea.

[musashi]

Herm ... a male c-elf from Allanak who's a burglar by day, whore by night, and wants to invent something world changing ... ...

I can run with that. 

[brytta.leofa]

Not desert elf friendly, but what is?
It is the idea of it giving ideas that gives me an idea.

I believe "Byn trooper" is implicitly included in the "kill one of every animal" option.

[Marauder Moe]

Male half-elf stone elementalist gossipmonger from Red Storm who's life ambition is to have twenty lovers.

Somehow I don't think that's going to work out... but it might be fun to try.   

[Pale Horse]

Hmm...A male human elkran, 'rinther, who's day job is gambling and who's life ambition is to have 100,00 in the bank..

Funny how things just turn out right, sometimes

[Hot_Dancer]

Human 'rinthi Void elementalist, day job hunter.. life's ambition: have twenty lovers..

[spicemustflow]

Heh, very cool for when you're out of ideas. But, I don't want to raise three children to adulthood...

[Gimfalisette]

Not desert elf friendly, but what is?
It is the idea of it giving ideas that gives me an idea.

If you have specific suggestions for day jobs or ambitions that would fit DEs better, suggest away.

How to use for DEs, I was thinking for example: You roll a DE with starting location "Tuluk." Obviously you can't start a DE -in- Tuluk, but you can start one near Tuluk and play ATV. Likewise there are DEs who make their homes closer to Luir's, and some (I believe) who make their homes closer to Allanak / Storm.

But yeah, overall, the idea is just to spark ideas. Not every single random combination will be truly playable, though YMMV for the very adventurous or challenge-o-holic

Glad y'all are enjoying it

[Agent_137]

FANTASTIC.

Immortals: this simply MUST go on http://www.armageddon.org/original/showType.php?type=Links

[Agent_137]

ooh i got a cool one:

Female Dwarf Rinthi Rukkian who's day job is a physician but her focus is to learn to read and write.

[manonfire]

Half-giant psionicist? Codedly impossible, I say.

[Morgenes]

FANTASTIC.

Immortals: this simply MUST go on http://www.armageddon.org/original/showType.php?type=Links

The original authors can post it as an original submission and it will.

[Gimfalisette]

It's likely that the URL for the link will be changing since brytta and I have another little treat or two we're working on. But I will submit it after the location is settled.

[Elgiva]

It clearly wants me to play mages only. From ten tries none ended as mundane role.

[Hot_Dancer]

It's a great little tool, just take one or two lines from each gen and substitute other stuff to your fancy. I'd like to see how long staffers stay logged in when the current sway of pc's are looking to attain 20 lovers though.

Staff: "...Stupid generator, they're alll mudsexxing again. I'm going to go watch a movie."

[Belenos]

It's a great little tool, just take one or two lines from each gen and substitute other stuff to your fancy. I'd like to see how long staffers stay logged in when the current sway of pc's are looking to attain 20 lovers though.

Staff: "...Stupid generator, they're alll mudsexxing again. I'm going to go watch a movie."

Like that is any different than now? 

[Belenos]

Some thoughts on the generator, these thoughts are not official staff position...

One of the hurdles we have with getting active new players, is getting them to actually try the game.  We have a  number of people who create an account, but never go on to create a character.  It would be nice to leverage technology to get them past that huddle.  One thought was to have a system that would allow a new player to generate a character.

There are upsides and downsides to this approach.  If we are not careful we could end up with cookie cutter characters and degrade the quality of the game. This is always a concern.  I have further thoughts on this, but this is not the appropriate venue to discuss them.

That being said, I'm going to present a couple of challenges if you want.  One, see if you can generate a written background based on the selections.  Two, see if you can do something similar with the description.  The best way to avoid cookie cutters is to have the widest variety of options.

Once again, these are my  ideas, not official staff positions.

[Maybe42or54]

Who has a link to the webpage where the author has a lot of different ways to describe everything, from eyes, to nose, to feet, to skin, to hair, etc... If those can be input also..

What color of eyes?
What color of skin?
ETC.

It would be more awesomer.

[Gimfalisette]

Some thoughts on the generator, these thoughts are not official staff position...

One of the hurdles we have with getting active new players, is getting them to actually try the game.  We have a  number of people who create an account, but never go on to create a character.  It would be nice to leverage technology to get them past that huddle.  One thought was to have a system that would allow a new player to generate a character.

There are upsides and downsides to this approach.  If we are not careful we could end up with cookie cutter characters and degrade the quality of the game. This is always a concern.  I have further thoughts on this, but this is not the appropriate venue to discuss them.

That being said, I'm going to present a couple of challenges if you want.  One, see if you can generate a written background based on the selections.  Two, see if you can do something similar with the description.  The best way to avoid cookie cutters is to have the widest variety of options.

Once again, these are my  ideas, not official staff positions.

This is exactly the kind of stuff I was thinking about, Belenos. The character concept generator originally came to me as a "Show newbies what kinds of things are possible in ARM" idea, in order to encourage engagement with the game.

brytta and I are already working on a sdesc and description generator, as in we've agreed to work on it together, but not much beyond that. It's a little more involved than the character concepts. I'm going to toss in personality descriptors too.

I also wouldn't want to see cookie-cutter characters, but I think with sufficient randomness and an elegant application of technology we can get past that if this is ultimately judged to be helpful stuff.

Anyways, we'll see what we can do.

[FuSoYa]

Who has a link to the webpage where the author has a lot of different ways to describe everything, from eyes, to nose, to feet, to skin, to hair, etc... If those can be input also..

What color of eyes?
What color of skin?
ETC.

It would be more awesomer.

http://web.archive.org/web/20010803151936/http://www.ci-n.com/~darklyn/armageddon/char.html

THere you go!

Brandon

[brytta.leofa]

Anybody want to list some of the Absolutely No-Go combinations?  Not the oh-that's-a-stretch things; those are interesting.  But the ones that just absolutely don't fit the gameworld.

Also, more list items would be excellent, especially ideas for some of the less-common roles (desert elf, for instance).

[Nyr]

Anybody want to list some of the Absolutely No-Go combinations?  Not the oh-that's-a-stretch things; those are interesting.  But the ones that just absolutely don't fit the gameworld.

Any nonhuman race + psionicist:  http://www.zalanthas.org/gdb/index.php/topic,29124.0.html
Mul + any nonmundane guild:  http://www.zalanthas.org/gdb/index.php/topic,28312.0.html  (needs to be a special application)

[Akaramu]

Hahaha, somehow the 20 lovers ambition totally makes me think of the Sims 2. 

Nifty tool though!

[Tisiphone]

Hahaha, somehow the 20 lovers ambition totally makes me think of the Sims 2. 

Shhhhhhhh

[Gimfalisette]

Hahaha, somehow the 20 lovers ambition totally makes me think of the Sims 2. 

Unashamedly, I admit I took inspiration from there.

[Shimrod]

Human Rinth --> Merchant --> Whore --> Military Leader.


Only in Arm could this happen!

[Gimfalisette]

That's like the ultimate Byn character right there.

[FiveDisgruntledMonkeysWit]

First go, and here is what I get:
Male.
Half-elf.
Labyrinth.
Assassin.
Former raider.
Life's ambition is to have twenty lovers.

That's the most badass character I have ever heard of, ever. I'm totally making him.

[Cutthroat]

Is this tool still around? Googlepages seems to have taken it down. I remember it being pretty nifty and I was going to suggest it to pyrogaeseus in their post on Player Announcements.

[Gimfalisette]

Yeah, Google took it down because it had "offensive content" or something. ROFL. I haven't figured out what to do about it next. Ideally it would be on the website...perhaps I will attempt to pursue that.

[Agent_137]

i have webspace. IM me.

[Cavus]

Some thoughts on the generator, these thoughts are not official staff position...

One of the hurdles we have with getting active new players, is getting them to actually try the game.  We have a  number of people who create an account, but never go on to create a character.  It would be nice to leverage technology to get them past that huddle.  One thought was to have a system that would allow a new player to generate a character.

There are upsides and downsides to this approach.  If we are not careful we could end up with cookie cutter characters and degrade the quality of the game. This is always a concern.  I have further thoughts on this, but this is not the appropriate venue to discuss them.

That being said, I'm going to present a couple of challenges if you want.  One, see if you can generate a written background based on the selections.  Two, see if you can do something similar with the description.  The best way to avoid cookie cutters is to have the widest variety of options.

Once again, these are my  ideas, not official staff positions.

There is no need to have concept generator or something else to support newbies. All we need is I think:
1. Give newbie player a chance for creating a generic char
2. This generic char has:
a. Simple predetermined description (look, history, and sdesc(this may vary a bit))
b. short life span (they die in lets say 1 week RL time)
3. Print some essential commands and one single example of each command on screen when newbie logs in.(same after lets say 1RL week, no more messages)

[FuSoYa]

There is no need to have concept generator or something else. Al we need is I think:
1. Give newbie player a chance for creating a generic char
2. This generic char has:
a. Simple predetermined description (look, history, and sdesc(this may vary a bit))
b. short life span (they die in lets say 1 week RL time)
3. Print some essential commands an one single example of each command on screen when newbie logs in.(same after lets say 1RL week, no more messages)

What?  No, I think that sounds like a horrible idea.  Give a new player their first character out of a box?  I don't even understand giving the character a short life span.  I don't know... they have the option to make their own background and sdesc and it's rather simple to do both quickly and succinctly if you are just rolling up a character to try out the game and world.

I don't know, I wasn't very eloquent I felt I just had to throw in my thoughts on that quickly.

Brandon

[Cavus]

Brandon, the idea is to give them a chance to taste what it feels like living in Zalanthas. Life span should be totally IG ofc. They may get sicks for example. Or you may force them to be old char(age), etc.

At the end of 1 week trial period, they are still forced to create their own background, sdesc, ldesc, etc.

Imo, this won't have any drastic/devastating effect on realism of zalanthas IG life. In fact, it will make it more newbie friendly and give them more chance to stay in.

Note: Don't forget most people wants to see what they accept in the first very moments. If you buy a game, if u start reading a book, if you start watching TV, if you are MUDing ofc. If start is hard, most does not even try to get over difficulties. But if they get the taste of what expecting them, then they will since they will think that it definitely worths to their efforts.

[FuSoYa]

No way.  Why would anyone want to invest time and work with other PCs when they are just going to get 'sick' or whatever and die within a week.  It doesn't make sense.  I'm sorry I just do not like the idea at all.  Shit, I don't even like this idea but if they had to have something like this I'd rather them make a mirror site for the MUD and let them learn on that.

What do you do if this new character falls in love with the PC they are playing, with the players they met with said PC, the group or clan they get pulled into?

Brandon

[Cavus]

Zalanthas is harsh world. Every day someone dies. It gives anice RP chance for the lover left behind. For the clan left behind.

Also, how long first chars of new accounts live do you think? I strongly believe that it is less than a week (most probably a few hours or a day on average)

Anyway, not every1 has to like someone else idea. So I accept that idea may be bullshit on your side

[Marauder Moe]

I'm totally in support of a random character generator to give newbies (heck, or even bored veterans) a boost in character creation.  It doesn't have to be integrated with the game either.  It can just be a website that spits out a description and background that the player can edit and then submit as a character.

I'm totally against a pre-determined lifespan, though.  Who's to say that a randomly generated character can't be roleplayed spectacularly?  Should people who apply for other player's family roles have a pre-set lifespan too because they didn't think up the character concept themselves?

[a strange shadow]

My first character survived for RL months. I would have been pissed if she'd been forced to die.