Rolemaster

[Vroomfogle]

Hey all,
I'm new to tabletop RPG software and have been evaluating several of them. Originally one of my players had a Mac but has since said he could get an older PC so Fantasy Grounds is back in the running. I actually purchased a GM/Client copy of klooge because I had pretty much decided to go with it - I made up a basic RM ruleset based on one from HARP but, well the progam is KLOOGY. It's not very pretty, it's slow, it's awkward. So I've started looking at Fantasy Grounds again.

I'm using RMSS and before you state about coding up criticals I'm not expecting to jump right in and have the program to everything for me. In fact I have my own program containing all the RM attack charts and criticals and tracks wounds.

My basic definition file for klooge would have had the basic functionality I'm looking for, at least initially. I'm looking to see if these things are possible to do in Fantasy Grounds.

- Handle Open-Ended High and Open-Ended Low rolls.
- Turn sequencing, movement, targeting, and distance measurement
- Fog of war, obscurement, other standard stuff
- Tracking of Bleeding (HP/rnd), Stuns, and other conditions.
- Tracking of Penalties to manuevers/attacks...but easily adjustable on the fly because not all penalties may apply to every action.
- Ideally I'd like to be able to add a specific wound (i.e. critical) to someone by manually entering in: bleeding, stun, penalty (other conditions may include no parry or must parry results)
- Tracking of Weapon Bonus (OB) and Defensive Bonus (DB)...would be nice if players could instantly adjust their OB/DB to account for parrying round to round.
- Attack resolution would mean adding OB to a roll, subtracting penalties, subtracting target DB, possible accounting for RANGE penalty (for missile weapons) and reporting the final number. I would look up the result with another program then enter into Fantasy grounds the result: Hits, Bleeding, Stun, Penalty, maybe short description (i.e. arm broken).
- In game calender, is there one?

Fantasy Grounds is definitely the nicest looking program of the lot and I'm tempted to go with it now that my group is Mac free.

- Vroomfogle

[Ram Tyr]

Welcome!

I am not the person to give you directions on coding, but just so you get an answer quickly let me reply with some helpful hints. (And, just in case your list proves too lengthy for anyone to reply to...this will let you figure it out.)

First, the current version to Fantasy Grounds allows you to modify it using XML. If you are familiar with XML you can find instructions on lots of different things by reading through these boards. (Including things like changing die rolls.) If you don't want to just read through the thread titles, you can search the forum! :)

Second, if you are looking forward to Fantasy Grounds v. 1.06, then we will be able to modify Fantasy Grounds using Lua. If you search these forums you'll find references to Lua, but since the version is not out yet there won't be instructions on how to do the things you've asked about. You can search the web for Lua. I've seen at least one site that had some detailed information on using Lua.

I know this does not directly answer your question, but it is the best I can do since I haven't tried to do any modifications yet. When Lua gets here...maybe... :D

Later.
Ramza

[Vroomfogle]

Ramza, thanks for the prompt reply!

I'm familiar with XML enough to probably do what I would need. I wrote the XML def file for klooge that I would have used (or will use, depending).

LUA is a scripting language - I don't know it but learning it wouldn't be all that difficult. Sounds like that could really add a lot of useful functionality for things that can't be handled with XML alone.

[Vroomfogle]

Ok, after playing with FG I understand the design philosophy and it makes my question about Open ended rolls completely irrelevant. It can handle open ended rolls by dragging the previous roll to the modifier box! This is so different then klooge which would just automatically roll open-ended and give you the result. You wouldn't actually "roll" the dice more then once.

And I think I can answer most of my other questions. I'm still not sure how to advance the round ...can you increment the round and does that decrement the Durations for the Conditions listed?

At this point I think the most important thing is to get a better and faster way to roll d100. An additional % die would be great instead of having to click on the d10 and choose %. Also the command /die doesn't work with percentiles like with the other dice. (/die d100 doesn't work)

[Sigurd]

Fg is really granular in its approach to gaming. Because it is very close as a gaming simulation - might as well be real dice, shared images, and chat - there is no reason you couldnt play Role Master right out of the box.

Its possible to do anything you can do with published books and rolled dice inside of Fantasy Grounds. It isn't always easier and doesn't always make optimum use of the computer on your desk but that seems to not be its immediate focus.

So long as your players trust you to look up the results of their rolls inside of your publications and you share the same publications I think you can play any dice game in Fantasy grounds. (excluding spelling games like boggle)

That said there is only limited automation and online rule support even for D&D. Before people reject this let me say that I think this is a brilliant design decision. Rather than be like an arcade game that does everything automatically for you FG is like a telephone which doesn't colour your message. You could certainly begin playing Rolemaster with the dice, chat, tokens and shared images supplied by the program. As you play you will discover areas where you can automate, improve or store data you refer to often.

I loved Rolemaster PM me if you get a session running. Its been a while.

[The Wanderer]

Think Sigurd nailed it on this post, captures the spirit of FG VERY well. One other point not mentioned yet would be the FG community being VERY helpful and positive... I've been lurking in these forums for a while and even asking some pretty lame questions but have never heard anyone putting somebody else down for a "stupid" question. THAT was probably the most telling selling point for me.

[Stuart]

I am happy to run a Rolemaster session and would love to be given the impetus to code up a ruleset for it ... character sheets would be a pain however ... anybody else interested in helping launch a Rolemaster group ?

[Griogre]

At this point I think the most important thing is to get a better and faster way to roll d100. An additional % die would be great instead of having to click on the d10 and choose %. Also the command /die doesn't work with percentiles like with the other dice. (/die d100 doesn't work)
You might find this thread interesting for adding a d100: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2970&highlight=d100

[GM Snow]

Heya Vroom

As an Avid Rolemaster fan Myself, I have found a program out there that can give you your crit results automaticaly. Give me a PM with an E-mail and I will send it to you. You can use this program as an aside to the game to get your results.

FYI I am an Oldstyle Rolemaster player. I bought the
Rolemaster stander rules Version, But I didn't like the way they changed Professions and skill deveopement.. so though I did use the tables from Arms and spell law for attack results, I Stuck with the original system for most else.

[Toadwart]

--snip--
At this point I think the most important thing is to get a better and faster way to roll d100. An additional % die would be great instead of having to click on the d10 and choose %. Also the command /die doesn't work with percentiles like with the other dice. (/die d100 doesn't work)

Have you checked out the AutoHotkeys utility? (availble on the Four Ugly Monsters site) it might be able to provide a quick key for rolling the percentile dice, or at least picking them up.

[Toadwart]

I am happy to run a Rolemaster session and would love to be given the impetus to code up a ruleset for it ... character sheets would be a pain however ... anybody else interested in helping launch a Rolemaster group ?

Count me in Stu. I'd love to get into an RM campaign :D