- Since its debut in the 1970's, Dungeons and Dragons has attracted millions of hard-core and casual fans alike with its promise of mythical adventures in legendary lands. The joy of finding treasure and discovering arcane spells was muted by the complex rules that accompanied the game. Over time, the rules became more streamlined and playing the game was made easier, especially for those who did not like the structure and constraints of earlier versions. Still, while the gameplay has been greatly simplified, there was no workable solution to quick character generation until the advent of the Internet, and the productivity of fans allowed for several random character generators to be proffered online.
- The most recent iteration of the Dungeons and Dragons rules is the 4th edition which debuted in 2008. The character generation and skill sets, as well as feats and backgrounds, were changed dramatically, which only made the character generation process take even longer. Luckily, there is a website which uses a Javascript program to randomly generate all a starting player needs to begin playing the 4th edition rules game (see Resources, below)
- Prior to the 4th edition rules, a revised version of the 3rd edition rules provided a more sophisticated version of the 3rd edition rule with some tweaks and fixes that were only discovered after the 3rd edition had gone to print. Still, the process of character generation was time-consuming, so another enterprising fan created a v3.5 character generator for use online (see Resources, below)
- For some fans, the new rules are a corruption of the game they knew and loved and so steadfastly remained loyal to the 2nd edition rules. Even more arcane than the 3rd or 4th edition rules, the 2nd edition had racial limits and weapons rules that required either intense memorization or constant shuffling of pages. Either way, character generation online was made possible (see Resources, below) by another dedicated fan who was tired of the delays associated with character generation.
- The longest part of any Dungeons and Dragons gaming session is the generation of characters. The rolling of dice and consulting player handbooks for equipment and starting feats, skills, and spells can consume the entire first night of the game, if not more. Luckily, there are several places to be found for your character generation needs no matter what version of the rules you are playing.
