pregen

Pregen is an abbreviated term for pre-generated, used to describe content, data, or entities that are created before their point of use rather than produced on the fly. The concept appears in several fields, including gaming, software development, and data management, with the common goal of ensuring certain characteristics, such as balance, consistency, or speed, through pre-made material.

In tabletop role-playing games, pregens refer to ready-made character sheets, including statistics, abilities, equipment, and backstory. They allow players to join a session quickly or to study an example of game mechanics. Pregenerated characters can be balanced by designers and are often provided in adventure modules or starter kits. They trade customization for convenience and predictable outcomes.

In video games, pregens can describe pre-made assets such as fully developed characters, missions, or questlines that come with a game. These assets support narrative structure, pacing, and quality control, ensuring a consistent player experience. They may also be used in early access or promotional materials to showcase gameplay without relying on procedural generation.

In software testing and data management, pregenerated data sets or seeds are created ahead of time to enable reproducible tests and benchmarks. Deterministic pregens help ensure that performance measurements or simulations are comparable across runs and environments, reducing variability caused by random generation.

Limitations of pregens include reduced variability and replay value compared with fully procedural or user-generated content. See also procedural generation, pre-generated characters, premade content, and deterministic seeds.