Starting Bootcamp

[ArielT]

I'm looking to start the players out in boot camp to let them get to know some of the other members of the project and figure out who they want in their squad. Hopefully they're form some attachments and be excited to run into individuals again "on the other side".

I'd really like to have a large, randomly generated roster of other recruits they could encounter. Are there any Morrow NPC generators around that produce interesting results?

Anyone done anything like this and had success?

[ArmySGT.]

We have talked about it.

The details and bits are easy. It is the random generator coding that few of us have any experience with.

There is a few NPC threads in this forum.

Welcome!

[cosmicfish]

I don't have one currently, but if you tell me more precisely what you are looking for I might be able to help!

[ArielT]

Yeah, I do web development for a living, but it seems like laying out the system is actually a bigger issue.

Things characters need: Name, Gender, Age, Race, Team Type, Traits, Ability Scores, Skills

Name
Other people have done the work of pulling census records for a given year, race and sex. Using these details we could randomize an appropriate name for our recruit based on these factors (assuming you also include the year current year).

Gender
50 / 50?

Age
Morrow Project already has this parameter. Run with it

Race
Don't know if it's possible to easy grab a racial makeup in the US for a given year.

Team Type
While they may not end up in this particular team type, most recruits are suited to one.

Traits
Noteworthy bits about the particular character, the meat of making the system really interesting: Son of a high ranking member of (the US Government, a large corporation, etc), (1st, 2nd, 3rd) Generation Immigrant from (Russia, Ireland, Mexico, etc.), Mathematical Prodigy [grants bonus dice to logic], Farsighted [dice penalty to perception], Requested his/her (child, spouse) to be frozen as well, etc.

Ideally any given character has 3-5 or so which are influenced by Team Type (Mars team members are more likely to be Abnormally Large).

Ability Scores
Have a base distribution based on Team Type (recon being balanced, mars leaning towards physical and science towards mental). Modify based on traits

Skills
Would need to figure out appropriate distributions for the available education / jobs already in the book. Ideally team type influences which education/jobs are selected and therefore eventual skills tend to match with ability scores.

[kato13]

I am also a web developer and have already done some of the stuff you listed;

For example http://games.juhlin.com/tools/names.html (i think this is from 1990 census) . If the code (or more likely the data) would be useful let me know.

I actually just got the core rules for 4 (was waiting for my FLGS) and was planning to whip up something like this for the character creation (this is twilight 2013)

http://games.juhlin.com/files/CharGen.gif

I might be able to direct some time to this over the next week. I'll let you know.

[ArielT]

Neat. I figured someone else might already be on this and I didn't want to unnecessarily duplicate work.

[kato13]

In case someone wants the data here is 1990 and 2000 (either for this project or a future one)

http://www.census.gov/topics/population/genealogy/data/1990_census/1990_census_namefiles.html

http://www.census.gov/topics/population/genealogy/data/2000_surnames.html

The 1990 data has count breakdown and first and last names

the 2000 data only has last names but has a racial breakdown of the last names.

I might merge the 1990 and 2000 last name data and then see if I can find a racial breakdown of first names. The reason I quit work on this before was that names like "Suk Gonzales", "Mohammed Wong" and "Jamal Bjorkman" would occur much more frequently than in real life. I know they are possible, (Bernando O'Higgins is one of my favorite names in history,) but if I am spending my time on a tool I push myself to be perfect.

My existing code would probably work for a group of 10 (you can create a fun backstory for for an odd name combination), but the original purpose for my work was to create a database element for every member of my project (from 10k to 50k depending on which version) so I wanted something more accurate.

[kato13]

Some other numbers I put together for my project (this data is like 15 years old so I am open to suggestions). Note this is for the entire project including support. (There might be more dependents in dedicated facilities, but these numbers were to reflect the children at prime and maybe regional bases)

Sex
Male 68.6%
Female 31.17%
Dependent 0.23%

Education
Dependent Child N/A
HS Dropout 0.7%
HS Graduate/GED 5%
Some College 12%
Certificate 12.5%
BA/BS 44.8%
MA/MS 12%
JD/LLD 0.5%
MD/DDS 1.5%
MFA 0.5%
PhD 3%
MBA 0.5%

I explain my high number of doctors and college degrees in general is the project providing tons of scholarships and focusing some of their recruitment focus on those candidates.

Service History
Special Forces* 1.5%
Combat Vet* 3%
War Era Vet* 7%
Military Service 13.5%
Police 3%
Civilian 72%

* Is not included in military service total military service is 25%

Home state
Alabama 1.61%
Alaska 0.23%
Arizona 1.56%
Arkansas 0.94%
California 12.03%
Colorado 1.40%
Connecticut 1.25%
Deleware 0.27%
DC 0.22%
Florida 5.34%
Georgia 2.70%
Hawaii 0.45%
Idaho 0.43%
Illinois 4.50%
Indiana 2.20%
Iowa 1.08%
Kansas 0.98%
Kentucky 1.46%
Louisiana 1.65%
Maine 0.47%
Maryland 1.92%
Massachusetts 2.31%
Michigan 3.63%
Minnesota 1.75%
Mississippi 1.02%
Missouri 2.40%
Montana 0.33%
Nebraska 0.62%
Nevada 0.56%
New Hampshire 0.43%
New Jersey 3.02%
New Mexico 0.63%
New York 6.95%
North Carolina 2.71%
North Dakota 0.24%
Ohio 4.25%
Oklahoma 1.25%
Oregon 1.18%
Pennsylvania 4.61%
Rhode Island 0.38%
South Carolina 1.40%
South Dakota 0.28%
Tennessee 1.98%
Texas 7.03%
Utah 0.73%
Vermont 0.22%
Virginia 2.51%
Washington 2.04%
West Virginia 0.70%
Wisconsin 1.94%
Wyoming 0.18%

[ArielT]

I might merge the 1990 and 2000 last name data and then see if I can find a racial breakdown of first names. The reason I quit work on this before was that names like "Suk Gonzales", "Mohammed Wong" and "Jamal Bjorkman" would occur much more frequently than in real life. I know they are possible, (Bernando O'Higgins is one of my favorite names in history,) but if I am spending my time on a tool I push myself to be perfect.

So the census doesn't offer first names by ethnicity, hrm... Is it possible to get a list of full names?

[kato13]

I have not seen a full breakdown by ethnicity at a national level.

It is possible I could get the information with a request to the census bureau, but if this was easy I expect someone would have gotten it and shared it. There might be some weird governmental hoops to jump through. One time I was looking for oil well production nationally, and when I got to Pennsylvania their Bureau of Land Management told me I had to come into the offices where they would burn me a CD (needless to say it was not worth the 700 mile trip).

The best I have found so far is recent listings (2008+) is top (100?) newborn baby names in New York state by ethnicity. It is something but naming patterns have seen quite a bit of change since the 60s (when I expect some project members might have been born no matter what version you use) so I am keeping that as an option if I don't find anything better.

[kato13]

Did a little more research. You can get full census data for the 1940 census as data is released 72 years after the census is taken. Unfortunately the data is presented in images not data files (There is also no Hispanic breakdown at all).

Found a research paper that had an interesting way building the first-name/ethnicity data. They looked at names on wikipedia and what ethnic categories they were assigned to. Interesting and if I can find the results I will see what I can do with it, but I have only been able to find the abstract so far.