2300AD Character Generator                   February 11th, 2002
Version 1.3 FAST and SLOW
Copyright  2002 Kevin W. Clark - All Rights Reserved.

Far Future Enterprises requested the following disclaimer:
This item is not authorized or endorsed by Far Future and is used
without permission. The item is for personal use only.  Any use of
Far Future's copyrighted material or trademarks in this file should
not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks.
In addition, this item cannot be republished or distributed without
the consent of the author( Kevin W. Clark).

Written in Turbo Pascal, the executable is a DOS program.
It will run under a dos window in both Win3.11 and Win95.

This zip file contains two versions of the program.

23char3f - FAST is for machines with fast processors ( 200 MHz or faster)

23char3s - SLOW is for machines with slow processors ( under 200 MHz).

SET UP DIRECTIONS:

  Copy the contents of zip file to a directory.

    README   TXT         4,729  02-11-02  6:22p readme.txt
    23CHAR3S EXE        68,816  02-11-02  6:22p 23char3s.exe
    23CHAR3F EXE        58,960  02-11-02  6:22p 23char3f.exe
    CAREERS  DAT        26,950  02-11-02  6:22p careers.dat
    CAREERSX DAT        26,950  02-11-02  6:22p careersx.dat
    CLNYLIST DAT         9,369  02-11-02  6:22p clnylist.dat
    EARTHNAT DAT         4,695  02-11-02  6:22p earthnat.dat
    LANGS    DAT         3,456  02-11-02  6:22p langs.dat
    SKILLS   DAT         3,968  02-11-02  6:22p skills.dat
    SKILLSX  DAT         3,968  02-11-02  6:22p skillsx.dat

  To run program:
    change to the directory you put it in.
    then type 23ADChar and press enter to run it.


OPERATION INSTRUCTIONS:

  Follow the instructions on the second opening screen.
  Other reminder instructions are provided on each page.

  Move up and down menus with the respected arrow key.
  To select from a menu press enter[ or return] key.

  When in the skill/language selection menus.
    Up/down arrow moves the selection bar.

    GREEN  are primary skills
    YELLOW are related skills
    RED    are unrelated skills

    Star(*) after a skill/name means it has been modified by you this term.

    The first number is the cost to purchase the next level

    The second number is the current level

    Right arrow increases the skill( picks language) if you can afford it.

    Left arrow  decreases the skill( unpicks the language) if you
    modified it already this term (has a * after the name)

    When you are done selecting for that term press Q or E to finish
    selecting skills/lang( asks for confirmation Y/N).

  Then you are asked if you want to continue in the career,
    change ( once) to a new one, or finish/stop at this age.

  It then shows you PART of the character sheet, don't worry the entire
  thing will be in the output text file.
    When through looking at it press any key.
    The program will make a beep, to let know it has written
    the character to the output file, then quits after you press return.

The output character sheet is appended to a text file ( created if not
present) called 23adchar.txt

The character sheet is designed for non-proportional printing, so use
Notepad ( in Win3.11 or Win95) or a word processor that will print that way.


CONTACTING THE AUTHOR:

For the latest version of the software, visit my 2300AD website:

Pentapod's World of 2300AD
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/2303/

Any questions, feedback, ideas for improvement, etc. are welcome.

You can e-mail me at:    kevinc@cnetech.com
                      or pentapod@geocities.com

REVISION HISTORY:

Versions 0.91 Beta to 0.9B Beta:
- Development for my own personnal use in my campaign.

Version 0.9C Beta: First release to the web/internet.
- Doesn't handle Academic or Coreworld specialty skills.

Version 1.0:
- Fixed printout generation overflow problem
- Fixed some spelling errors

- Added selection of Academic and Coreworld specialty skills.
- Added user rolled/entered term lengths.
- Added option of using expanded career/skill list from Nyotekundu Sourcebook

Version 1.1 BETA
- Fixed one spelling error.

- Added Aurore Sourcebook careers and some skills to the optional expanded
  Database.

- Added the Texas Ranger career, from the adventure module "Ranger".

Version 1.2 BETA
- Fixed the startup "runtime error" crash that machines 200 Mhz and higher 
  were getting when the program starts ( the compiler manufacturer never 
  dreamed machines would get so fast, so soon).

Version 1.3 FAST and SLOW
- Updated the disclaimer, now that FFE has purchased the rpg from 
Tantalus, Inc ( who had purchased it from GDW, Inc.).
- Fixed a few spelling errors in the colony file.
- Both versions ( FAST and SLOW) are now in the same zip file


