If you look in the \Data folder (usually, C:\Program Files\Ace and The Dog Unpublications\TravGen-M\Data or C:\Program Files (x86)\Ace and The Dog Unpublications\TravGen-M\Data) you should find two .htm files, TEMPLATE-Character Sheet.htm and TEMPLATE-NPC Stat Block.htm. These are what TravGen-M uses to build the output file for your characters, which usually end up in C:\Users\<name>\TravGen-M.
You can edit them with any HTM editor - even Word, though that tends to produce complicated files!
The key to the whole thing is the Tokens. These will be in capitals and between two "pipe" | characters. When TravGen-M exports a character to the chosen template, these are replaced with the values the character has.
You can alter the files as much as you like or create totally new ones, and as long as the name begins TEMPLATE- and ends in .htm, TravGen-M will make a stab at using them. Below is a guide to the tokens currently available.
| Token | Meaning |
|---|---|
| |NAME| | The name you entered or generated for your character. Defaults to Character McCharacterface if not provided! |
| |RACE| | The race selected from the first pull-down on the Generation screen, eg Imperial Human. More to come! |
| |AGE| | Character's age |
| |ASSIGNMENT| | The character's Career and Assignment at time of muster; earlier ones are listed in the History |
| |RANK| | The character's Rank at the time of muster. Promotions are listed in the History in case you want to know ranks in earlier careers. |
| |HOMEWORLD| | TravGen-M generates homeworld codes as found in MegaTraveller, to allow a homeworld to be picked. You don't have to use this. |
| |PENSION| | Lists any pension the character is entitled to |
| |MONEY| | Displays the cash the character has mustered out with. NB Medical Debt isn't automatically subtracted from this; the player may choose to 'skip' their debt |
| |PORTRAIT| | If you put a .jpg file named the same as the character name in the folder with the output file, it will display that picture |
| |STATx| | Displays the numerical value for the stat numbered x, so |STAT1| displays Strength |
| |STATxBON| | Displays the numerical value for the stat bonus numbered x, so |STAT1BON| displays Strength Bonus. Nothing to do with Bon Scott. |
| |STATxNAME| | Displays the 3-letter code for the stat numbered x, as defined in the Race file (see below) |
| |STATxBOXES| | Displays one O per point of the stat numbered x, seperated by space every 5, for a damage track. Supports 1-3 obviously. |
| PSI | Not supported so far. |
| |ALLIES| |CONTACTS| |RIVALS| |ENEMIES| |
Displays number of Allies, Contacts or whatever; details are in the History |
| |SKILLS| | Displays a list of skills actually held to Level-0 or better in one line seperated by commas. |
| Individual Skills | Single skills eg |ADMIN| produce the value of the skill. For skills with subskills use eg |PILOT*| and it will list the subskills instead, indented. If you have created skills and added them to the skill tables and subskill lists in the Race file, this will pick them up as long as you spell them right. |
| |BENEFITS| | Lists the material benefits the character rolled. Skills and Stat improvements will already have been applied to the character. |
| |NOTES| | This doesn't actually do anything yet, but may one day export something useful! |
| |HISTORY| | Lists the character's generation history, in a table, one row to a Term |
| |TRAITS| | Traits listing for non-human characters |
The names of these are important. Career files must begin with the race name and a - so for example Imperial Human-Army.ecs; Assignment files must include the previous two, eg Imperial Human-Army-Cavalry.eas. If you don't do this, TraveGen-M won't be able to find them.
These have the suffix .eri for reasons purely historical. They contain chunks of data defining the Race details. Each block either has a number to indicate how many rows the program expects or a fixed number of entries that must be maintained. If the number of lines is wrong somewhere, TravGen-M will probably crash.
Imperial Human
Type=Human
[STATS]
6
STR=2D
DEX=2D
END=2D
INT=2D
EDU=2D
SOC=2D
[OTHER]
Yearsperterm=04
Ageat=34
Baseage=18
All this is fairly straightforward. The number under [Stats] is how many entries below are included, so for Zho for example it will be 7 with PSI=2D added.
[Life Events]
Sickness or Injury: You are injured or become sick. Roll on the Injury Table.
(10 more lines)
These are the Life Events table entries. Most of them have codes at the end after a slash, eg. /ALLY. TravGen-M will pick these up and implement effects - these are coded into the software and not configurable from the data files, sorry. It would have been nice otherwise but really, really impractical.
[Background Skills]
17
Admin-0
Animals-0
Art-0
Athletics-0
Carouse-0
Drive-0
Science-0
Seafarer-0
Streetwise-0
Survival-0
Vacc Suit-0
Electronics-0
Flyer-0
Language-0
Mechanic-0
Medic-0
Profession-0
These are what the character picks Edu Bonus +3 of, and different races may/will have different lists.
[Education]
2
University
Military Academy
This defines which pre-career options will be offered. It currently doesn't do much but once I start on the Companion there'll be more
[Draft]
14
Navy/Engineer Gunner
Navy/Flight
Navy/Line Crew
Army/Cavalry
Army/Infantry
Army/Support
Marine/Support
Marine/Ground Assault
Marine/Star Marine
Merchant/Merchant Marine
Scout/Courier
Scout/Explorer
Scout/Surveyor
Agent/Law Enforcement
Draft options for the race. Note that you need to specify all the Assignment options. These have to exactly match the file names so they can be located in the pulldowns on the Generation screen.
[Subskills]
17
Animals
Handling/Veterinary/Training
Art
Performer/Holography/Instrument/Visual Media/Write
Athletics
Str/Dex/End
Drive
Hovercraft/Mole/Track/Walker/Wheel
Electronics
Comms/Computers/Remote Ops/Sensors
Engineer
M-Drive/J-Drive/Life Support/Power
Flyer
Airship/Grav/Ornithopter/Rotor/Wing
Gunner
Turret/Ortillery/Screen/Capital
Gun Combat
Archaic/Slug/Energy
Heavy Weapons
Artillery/Man Portable/Vehicle
Melee
Unarmed/Blade/Bludgeon/Natural
Profession
Belter/Biologicals/Civil Engineering/Construction/Hydroponics/Polymers
Science
Archaeology/Astronomy/Biology/Chemistry/Cosmology/Cybernetics/Economics/Genetics/History/Linguistics/Philosophy/Physics/Planetology/Psionicology/Psychology/Robotics/Sophontology/Xenology
Seafarer
Ocean Ships/Personal/Sail/Submarine
Tactics
Military/Naval
Pilot
Small Craft/Spacecraft/Capital Ships
Language
Anglic/Vilani/Zdetl/Oynprith/Gvegh/Trokh
These are the available subskills for the race, allowing a different mix for different races, to come later, or for house ruled extra skills. You can also add things like different languages to your taste.
[END OF FILE]
Just a marker to indicate the end of the data
These have the suffix .ecf for reasons purely historical. They contain chunks of data
defining the Career details. Each block either has a number to indicate how many rows the
program expects or a fixed number of entries that must be maintained. If the number of
lines is wrong somewhere, TravGen-M will probably crash.
Imperial Human Army
Qualification=Int 5+
Commission=Soc 8+
If the career doesn't have officers, put Commission=No
[Cash]
2000
5000
10000
10000
10000
20000
30000
[Material]
Combat Implant
Int +1
Edu +1
Weapon
Armour
End +1 or Combat Implant
Soc +1
Mustering out benefits. There should be 7 of each. If there's an 'or' in the line, TravGen-M will offer the user a choice when the result comes up.
[Personal]
Str +1
Dex +1
End +1
Gambler
Medic
Melee
[Service]
Drive or Vacc Suit
Athletics
Gun Combat
Recon
Melee
Heavy Weapons
[Advanced]Edu 8+
Tactics (Military)
Electronics
Navigaton
Explosives
Engineer
Survival
[Officer]Com
Tactics (Military)
Leadership
Advocate
Diplomat
Electronics
Admin
Skill tables, straight out of the books. Note that if Commission is No, there's no point putting skills in Officer but you have to put something for it to read and ignore. - on each line is just fine. As with Bennies, a skill line can have "x or y" and the user gets to choose when the result is rolled.
If a skill is shown as eg Pilot=1 that will grant Pilot-1 if Pilot is 0 or below, but if Pilot is 1 or better, will note in the History that the skill was already held, and nothing is added.
[Mishaps]
Severely injured in action (this is the same as a result of 2 on the Injury Table).
Alternatively, roll twice on the Injury Table and take the lower result. /SINJ
Your unit is slaughtered in a disastrous battle, for which you blame your commander. Gain
them as an Enemy as they have you removed from the service. /ARMSLAU
...
Injured. Roll on the Injury Table. /INJR
[Events]
Disaster! Roll on the Mishap Table, but you are not ejected from this career.
...
You display heroism in battle. You may gain a promotion or a commission automatically
/ARMHERO
There must be exactly 6 Mishaps and 11 Events, and you can put anything in that works for your custom career. The flag at the end after the / triggers programmed events in the program. Some things like /PROA and /ADVT are generic, others are specific to the career.
[Medical Debt]
Pay4=75
Pay8=100
Pay12=100
Lists the percentage of the Med Debt the career's employer will pay, based on rolls of 4+, 8+ or 12+
These have the suffix .eas for reasons purely historical. They contain chunks of data defining the Assignment details. Each block either has a number to indicate how many rows the program expects or a fixed number of entries that must be maintained. If the number of lines is wrong somewhere, TravGen-M will probably crash.
The official Careers have 3 Assignments each. The Houseruled careers from TNE have one, while the converted ones from some of our old MegaTraveller careers (like COAFC) have more than 3. There is no reason you can't create extra Assignment files for existing careers - Marine Medic for example - as long as the file names match the scheme above.
Imperial Human Army Infantry
[Progress]
Survive=Str 6+
Advance=Edu 6+
The basic rolls for the term cycle.
[Skills]
Gun Combat
Melee
Heavy Weapons
Stealth
Athletics
Recon
The single skill table associated with the Assignment
[Ranks-E]
Private
Lance Corporal
Corporal
Lance Sergeant
Sergeant
Gunnery Sergeant
Sergeant Major
[Rank-E-Bonus]
Gun Combat=1
Recon=1
-
Leadership=1
-
-
-
The list of Enlisted ranks (for Careers without Commissions, these are the only ones) . These can be - as shown in the books, but if there are - ranks between named ones, resplace the - with the lower rank so it shows until another named one is reached. The second block is the benefits from reaching that rank. TravGen-M displays these as Ex where x is the rank number.
[Ranks-O]
Lieutenant
Captain
Major
Lieutenant Colonel
Colonel
General
[Rank-o-Bonus]
Leadership=1
-
Tactics (Military)=1
-
-
Soc +1
The ranks for Officers. TravGen-M will display these as Ox where x is a the position in this table. The second block is the benefits from reaching that rank.