The Mutant File - Android character generation application for Android

[Mathew Robert Ignash]

I am an old BASIC programming from the days of C64 and Amiga, and I wanted to try to learn how to make an Android application, so I recently started a project to help me learn to make an pplication

 

The basic idea is to make something that helps a GM or player in character generation using an Android tablet or phone, by automating random table rolls, while using a seed number either input by the user in the keyboard or by scanning a barcode.

 

So I started by picking a very simple character generator, the random mutant generator from The Mutant File by Sean Fannon.

 

Right now it's a simple application that you input a seed number, and it uses that number to generate a much longer string of numbers which generates the character. I want to eventually work in a barcode scanner, allowing people to generate characters from picking up household items (magazines, bags of chips, toy boxes), simply scan them and a character pops out.

 

I hope to use this application for either the GM making background characters, or  one off games, where everyone walks in with a candy, magazine, anything with a barcode, and gets the character based on the seed number it generates.

 

Here is a screen shot of the earliest version.

 

Eventually I want to support multiple books. You simply change books by scanning the new book's bade code (for instance, you scan the book Mutants in Orbit from Palladium Books, and the application switches to generating a random orbit mutant).

 

Suggestions? Comments?

[Beast]

it is a strat

[Mathew Robert Ignash]

Yes, I figure I'll add any charts and utilities I need as I go. I'm also adding support for character generation from other game systems, but translate to Champions rules. For instance I started work on a character generator for Mutants in Orbit, but making it Champions rules based.

[Mathew Robert Ignash]

Here is a screen shot of the early Mutants in Orbit character generator, with built-in notes for Champions RPG rules.

 

You can change between The Mutant File and Mutants in Orbit by either choosing book 1 or 2 in the initial prompt or by scanning the bar code of the book in question.

[Mathew Robert Ignash]

Okay, I ran a test with my app, scanning the Mutants in Orbit book, then scanning the barcode on a friend's composition notebook. It generated a mutant baboon from the moon base with enhanced sense of touch, who is trained as an energy specialist scientist and owns a suit of power armor. So I would say successful test.

 

Now I need to add support for other games, and make the interface friendlier and better looking. Maybe allow it to save character sheets to a file or print them.

[Mathew Robert Ignash]

I continue to expand the number of attributes that are defined by the seed number, including stats presented in Palladium and Hero RPG terms. It actually generates them in Palladium, and then uses a formula converting 3-18 to 1-20 to make the Hero stats.

 

I also added support for non-number seeds. You can now enter letters, words and even sentences, which are converted to ASCII values then used as seeds for character generation.

For instance here is a Mutants in Orbit character generated using the seed word "Optimus Prime".

[Burrito Boy]

The programming stuff is over my head. But I love the idea of creating random characters by scanning bar codes. It reminds me of the old Monster Rancher game generating monsters when you put random CDs into the PlayStation.

[Mathew Robert Ignash]

I was actually inspired by the old Japanese game called Barcode Battler, but same idea.

 

Right now the game allows you to generate characters based on any of the following...

 

1. A number or word you input.

2. Barcode scan.

3. Your GPS location. (Your character changes based on where you are standing! Go back to a location and you can get the character from there!)

4. A random number of the app's creation, which is puts on the top of the character sheet. This means if you want to recreat that character, simply type that same number in.

 

 

[Mathew Robert Ignash]

Here is another function, a random post-apocalypse loot generator, based on modules from the old Gamma World RPG. There are currently 200 items on the loot table, which are picked randomly, and the list is growing.

 

[Mathew Robert Ignash]

I just added another Champions related function to my application. Now it links to my web site, and you can call up lists of premade characters. For instance here are screen shots of me calling up my Kingdom of Champions character sheets on my phone from the app!

 

Here is the code:

Championspremade:
cls:array.delete chars$[]:array.delete urls$[]:chars$="":urls$=""
Dialog.select sel3,universes$[], "Which series?" 
if sel3=1 then series$="chargen-kingdomofchampions.txt"
if sel3=2 then series$="chargen-lostprotectors.txt"
text.open r, file_number, series$
do
text.readln file_number, charname$: if charname$<>"EOF" then chars$=chars$+charname$+","
text.readln file_number, charurl$: if charurl$<>"EOF" then urls$=urls$+charurl$+","
until charname$="EOF"
Split chars$[], chars$, ","
Split urls$[], urls$, ","
Dialog.select sel4,chars$[], "Please choose character." 
browse urls$[sel4]
return

This call up a .txt file which has the character name on one line, and the url of their character sheet on the next line, and splits them into two arrays. The first array is used to generate the dialog.select, the second is called up by the browse command to view. 

 

I just click on Champions, then Premade Characters, then Kingdom of Champions, then Silver Shadow! The PDF of the character sheet, which is at my web site, is called up.