A few questions

[Blakpyre]

Hi all – and if you are reading this thread thanks for the attention :D
A couple of questions later, first a little background, which may help you understand just what I am looking for.
Stumbled across this site as a reference from someone on another board. (Wow guys you really have to advertise this software somewhere – its underground :) )
My friend and I have been playing PnP RPGs and tactical games since the late 70’s, incorporating some friends we made along the way, with various people floating in and out throughout our gaming, enjoying many years of fun.
With life moves etc in the years, we had no way to play together until the mid 90’s – when the Mmo (a la EQ) hit the scene. We have played various Mmos throughout the years, but always heaved a sigh and remembered the days of multi-dimensional fun of the PnP days. Mmos always seemed to become more of a job than a social gathering, too linear and a LOT of money.
Now I find Fantasy Grounds and think “hey – great to cover that distance!”
What I would like to do is create a campaign based on Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, that you could eventually play a game of Warhammer Fantasy Battles when the characters ‘level’ enough.
A couple of questions though :
1) Is FG easily adaptable to any other “Not D20” system?
2) Does it have the capacity to do the visual on a tabletop tactical game- ie can it have multiple icons representing units etc?
3) How do you guys/gals attract or hook up with other players?
If it can do these things, I may just be in love :lol: 8)
Thanks!

[richvalle]

Howdy and welcome!

1. Yes it can but not sure if it easy. You would need some xml skill and knowing your way around graphics would help as well.

Look around some more and you can see some screen shots of work some folks have done for Star Wars, Adventure! and... some Oriental game. Cool stuff.

2. That sould work. You can drop any image in and share it. Make tokens for what ever units you want and you can drag and drop as many on the screen as you like (I'm sure there is some upper limit).

3. Currently it is either you email/talk to folks you already know, post a message here, post a message at adventuresomedreams.com, ummm, there is another FG game matching website that I don't know the address too, and finally Smiteworks/FG says they are coming out with some sort of game matching service as well.

Hope that helps.

rv

[Blakpyre]

Much thanks richvalle -
I am not proficient at coding etc. :oops: so I will run a check through the other forums to see if someone there has come up with a RPG system that also has a platform for some sort of 'adapatable' mass combat system.

I am not even opposed to using D&D RPG or some other D20 system, but to my knowledge there is not a D20 'mass combat' tabletop system that I could use for further adaptation.

You know- serf progresses to warrior progresses to general. It gave our games an "my character can affect the world" feel as well as being a nice little break from the traditonal RPG atmosphere.

hmm maybe I'll pick up "XML for dummies" and see if a conversion is workable - but then again there is copyright issues as well I suppose. :P

Thanks again for the help - pointing my friends to the site and they seem very intrigued! :D

[Ram Tyr]

Welcome Blackpyre.

I did a search for "warhammer" in the forum. (Up there /\ near the login / logout link.) Got 13 results. Do the same at Adventuresome Dream. Talk to the folks that have shown interest in the past in warhammer.

Other than that, I think rv covered the bases.

I hope you have fun gaming.

Later.
Ramza

[richvalle]

Much thanks richvalle -
I am not proficient at coding etc. :oops: so I will run a check through the other forums to see if someone there has come up with a RPG system that also has a platform for some sort of 'adapatable' mass combat system.

I am not even opposed to using D&D RPG or some other D20 system, but to my knowledge there is not a D20 'mass combat' tabletop system that I could use for further adaptation.

You know- serf progresses to warrior progresses to general. It gave our games an "my character can affect the world" feel as well as being a nice little break from the traditonal RPG atmosphere.

hmm maybe I'll pick up "XML for dummies" and see if a conversion is workable - but then again there is copyright issues as well I suppose. :P

Thanks again for the help - pointing my friends to the site and they seem very intrigued! :D


Hmmm. There used to be a dnd table top combat system. Battle...something. Not sure if they updated it to d20 or not.

Ignoring the char sheet issues I think this is doable. Just about anything you can do at the table you should be able to do in FG. Put the map in and share it, add a grid and you can get exact ranges by dragging lines. AOE effects can be covered by the circles and stuff you can drag on the map.

You have the dice... you guys would just have to roll them and know what the results are, just like we do for D20 dnd game. Nothing in FG is automated combatwise.

rv

[Craw]

Skirmish rules for D&D minis are pretty good for bigger battles. They simplify things pretty well. There is an additional level of abstraction for mass battles in the Miniatures handbook. However, it begins to diminish the RPG aspects of the game pretty severely at that point. Of course, the focus of big tabletop battles is usually the battle tactics themselves, not the RPG aspect.

A free program called Vassal is available for miniatures battles over the net.

[Snikle]

I dont think this would be that hard of a conversion really, main issue would be changing the character sheet to reflect an 'army' with multiple units. Since the software is really independant of the rules (minus the character sheet), game play would not beeffected if the sheet issue could be resolved. Main thing I would see a problem with would be in determining how many units could be placed on each Army Sheet, it would have to be set in stone because I do not think you could edit it so that you could add more units on the fly. Not sure if that was clear or not, but I think this would be a great system for a tabletopn strategy game!

[Blakpyre]

thanks for the continued input :)
I dug out my old Battlesystem (D&D mass combat) box - not sure how compatable it would be with D20 but I am going to check into it. Also going to check out Vassal.
As Snikle said I dont think that it would be too hard to adapt FG - but I just want to be sure it CAN be worked before I rework my old campaign material.
I was just a little hesitant to jump onto FG - it seems very D20 dependant and that has never been one of my favourite (combat/magic -seems too 'superhero' to me) systems. The FG interface and ease of use are great, but lacking the skills to change the code away from D20 and into a Warhammer/Rolemaster type system.
I want to be sure my buddies are really 'into' trying this out before I go to the work of changing camapign mechanics and stuff to better suit the D20 system.It seems it would be easier for me to change the material I have to D20 than it would be to adapt FG to my material if we decide to go that way.
Thanks agianfor the help - have to say a great community here :D