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Shadowrun Character Generator program

by Paolo Marcucci (thatpaolo@home.com)

This is an updated version of a character generation program written for Shadowrun 2nd edition. It is released as freeware for public use.

The current version is: 2.8a of 10 July 1997

System requirements
How to get the program
How to install the program
How to get support
How to add things to datafiles
Archive contents

System requirements

This is a Windows application. It was written in Microsoft Visual Basic 3.0, and thus makes use of the vbrun300.dll library. If you don’t have this library, click here to download it.

There are no special requirements other than a copy of Windows 3.1 (I believe this program won’t work with Windows 3.0) and a reasonable amount of memory. For reasonable, I’d like to think of almost 4Mbytes. Actually this program runs fine on my laptop, an HP Omnibook 300 with 4Mbytes of RAM.

How to get the program

Just click here to get the full copy of the program. Then click here to get the latest release of the executable, unzip and install it over the original srcg.exe. If you want to try the older, DOS-based version click here.

How to install the program

Unzip the program in a selected directory and copy the files srcg.ini and all the *.vbx in the \windows\system directory.

Then edit the file srcg.ini to reflect the program’s directory. If you don’t do this, nothing will work. You are warned.

How to get support

Well, I’m not (at the moment) a commercial enterprise, so users (you, in this case) should be kind with me for bugs and delays. After all, I’ve a real work to do, sometimes…

I’ve tried to compile some lists of users, bugs, missing features and future improvements.

SRCG bugs

None, of course :)

SRCG missing features

Printing. Well, not really missing, but it is half implemented and should be completed.

How to add things to datafiles

Gear

In this file are stored all information about available gear. As the other .DAT files, the GEAR.DAT can be expanded by the GM with new items and definitions, and, as always, I will be very pleased to hear from you about additions you’ve made. Thank you for your cooperation.

Here is the structure of the GEAR.DAT file:

!GEAR.DAT - Gear data file - PM 941118
!-------------------------------------
! Types:
!-------
0-1|Edged weapon|7|Concealability|Reach|Damage|Weight|Availability|$Cost|Street Index|
0-2|Bow and crossbow|7|Concealability|Str.Min.|Damage|Weight|Availability|$Cost|Street Index|
!----------------------------------|----------------------------------------------
1-Weapons
2-Melee weapons
3-Edged weapons
4-* Ares Monosword                 1|3|1|(STR+3)M|2|4/24hrs|1000|1|
4-* Centurion Laser Axe            1|2|1|(STR)S|5.2|6/48hrs|3500|0.5|
4-* Combat Axe                     1|2|2|(STR)S|2|3/24hrs|750|2|
4-* Combat Axe Thrusting Point     1|0|0|(STR+2)L|0|NA|0|1|
4-* Survival Knife                 1|6|0|(STR+2)L|0.75|3/6hrs|450|1|
4-* Katana                         1|3|1|(STR+3)M|1|4/48hrs|1000|1|
4-* Knife                          1|8|0|(STR)L|0.5|2/4hrs|30|0.75|
4-* Fineblade Knife (short)        1|8|0|(STR)M|0.5|5/72hrs|800|3|
4-* Fineblade Knife (long)         1|5|0|(STR+1)M|0.75|8/72hrs|1500|3|
4-* Sword                          1|4|1|(STR+2)M|1|3/24hrs|500|1|
3-Clubs
3-Pole arms/Staffs
2-Communications

Lines beginning with an ! are, obviously, comments.

Every line begins with a digit, if this is 0, the line is a type definition, if it is greater, it is the indentation level.

In the example above, the selection tree will appear as:

Weapons                        <- level 1
  Melee weapons                <- level 2
    Edged weapons              <- level 3
      Ares monosword           <- level 4
      Centurion laser axe      <- level 4
      :
      :
    Clubs                      <- level 3 again

etc…

Lines that have a * followed by a space at column 3 are selectable objects, rather than headers. Every thing that can be selected and used should have an * on column 3.

These lines (* marked) have another peculiarity: at column 36 (exact numbers, please :) a definition of the properties of the object begins.

This is a generic gear file, so we want to have some flexibility on the definition of the properties. For a weapon, we should have damage codes, that are useless for an armor jacket (under the standard rules :). So I came up with type definitions. On column 36 begins a number, that end with a |. This number is the index in the array of types declared at the beginning of the file.

Type definition lines begin with a 0-, then, at column 3, the type id number follows. Then the type description and the number of properties for that type is given. I’ve planned a max of 10 properties. Don’t make more, or the program will blow itself out of the window (the real one near your desk).

It is not necessary to make a type definition for every kind of object you’ll put in this file. Edged weapons, clubs and staffs, while under separate headers, share a common structure of properties, so they can all be inserted into a single type definition.

Take as a guideline the tables at the end of Field of Fire to get a hold on type definitions.

That should be all. There is only one more thing: gear has a price. And while the street index can be ignored at character creation, the cost of every piece of equipment has to be subtracted from the available money. How to recognize which field is the cost in the type definitions? No sweat, chummer. Just add a $ in front of the field you want to be considered as the item’s cost (always in the type definitions section).

Whew, hope this all is clear :)

Cyberware

Bioware

Spells

Skills

Totems

Physical adept powers (or talents)

Archive contents

Archive:  srcg.zip
 Length  Method   Size  Ratio   Date    Time   CRC-32     Name ("^" ==> case
 ------  ------   ----  -----   ----    ----   ------     ----   conversion)
Defl:N   27225  58%  04-28-93  00:00  19e9d0ba  ^threed.vbx
Defl:N    7985  55%  12-30-93  16:26  2b06e28e  ^tabbed.vbx
Defl:N    8553  62%  04-28-93  00:00  cf28db05  ^spin.vbx
Defl:N   12764  47%  04-28-93  00:00  40b589ee  ^msoutlin.vbx
Defl:N    9011  52%  04-28-93  00:00  0f04dd76  ^cmdialog.vbx
Stored      39   0%  01-09-95  19:56  e8a7a2b4  ^srcg.ini
Defl:N   25896  66%  01-09-95  20:02  39739a36  ^srcg.exe
Defl:N   45841  54%  11-11-93  12:00  688a28fa  ^commdlg.dll
Defl:N     176  58%  07-05-94  15:35  87f025fa  ^totems.dat
Defl:N     780  82%  07-30-94  15:05  74fd31f6  ^spells.dat
Defl:N    1398  65%  05-20-94  20:28  5de902bf  ^skills.dat
Defl:N     522  70%  07-26-94  16:11  d6d6c978  ^powers.dat
Defl:N    1848  57%  01-06-95  17:40  ecc3ad7f  ^gear.dat
Defl:N    1856  75%  09-12-94  18:30  5799f244  ^cyber.dat
Defl:N     855  69%  11-16-94  18:53  e65c1e7b  ^bioware.dat
------          ------  ---                              -------
346770          144749  58%                              15