[UA] Character generator help needed

[listrich at charter.net]

Hey all,

I need a little help with something.  I'm writing a UA character generator/character creation tool.  It's web-based, written in PHP.  

I'd originally intended to write it in such a way that new, user-entered skills would be automatically added to either a SQL skills database or an XML file.  I've decided against that because I think that it would rapidly get filled up with skills that are more or less the same thing (i.e. wrestling, wrasslin', wrestlin', beating ass, whooping ass, kicking ass, stomping ass, etc.).  I tried various methods of preventing such "duplicate" entries, but just couldn't come up with anything that I thought would work consistently.  I don't want this situation to cause issues with hosting space and load times, so I've given up on the idea for now.  

What I'm going to do now is to have a list of skills in an xml file and these skills will appear as selections in a pulldown menu on the generator.  There will also be several blank spaces for people to enter their own unique skills.  

The main reason I want to have a skills source of some sort is for random character generation.  It'll also be nice and useful for people needing some ideas for skills as well.  What I'd like the list's help in is giving me a list of skills that I can use to build the initial xml file.  I already have the skills from the skills section in the main rulebook.  

I would vastly appreciate it if people would send me some skills that they'd like to see added to a character generation tool.  If you send me just a list of skills, that'd be cool, but if you could send them to me in something like this format, that would rock:

body skills:
skill name
speed skills:
skill name
mind skills:
skill name
soul skills:
skill name

Another input I'd really appreciate would be character packages.  This would specifically be for the random character generator.  I'm thinking the best use for that would be if you wanted to generate several generic thugs/ravers/college students/cultists/mallwalkers/etc.  With that in mind, a format like

package name (i.e. Thug)
Stat hierarchy:
Body, Speed, Mind, Soul (in order from most to least important)
Typical skills:
Struggle, Initiative, Crack Knuckles Menacingly, etc.

No real need for obsessions or stimuli.  That stuff will be available for more detailed NPCs.  

Sorry this email has grown so long.  I'd really appreciate any and all assistance that you could give me.  John Tynes has agreed to host the generator on unknown-armies.com.  I have it on my school account, which will expire at the end of May, for the time being.  Once it's in a working state, I'll send a link out to the list.  

Please send anything to c_harkrader at charter.net.  Thanks!

Rich;)

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