Question before purchase - COMBAT

[Loggahead]

How much does FGII do for you? I downloaded the version 1 demo and the combat tracker is very unlike the online manual for version 2. I would primarily like to know exact how a combat round works with FGII, starting with initiative rolls. I would also like to know how you assign logins to characters to tokens so that players can only fiddle their token. Here are some primary questions I have:

1. How do initiative rolls work?
2. The manual says it automatically puts them in order for combat turns?
3. How do he combat turns work?
4. Will FGII roll against the AC automatically or will the GM have to manually calculate a hit?
5. Does the GM have to manually deduct hit points?


Note: Our group will be purchasing FGII to use with C&C.

[richvalle]

Howdy.

1. First you drag and drop the character portraits from the top of the screen to the init tracker. This puts them and their stats into the tracker. Next you ask them to roll for init and then drag and drop (or just type in) each value into their init slot. The tracker will auto sort by init number.

2. Yes, see above. As you assign values for the 'bad guys' it all gets sorted out.

3. Start clicking on the 'next character' button at the bottom of the tracker. Each time you do the arrow on the left of the tracker will move to the next entry down. If it is a player character it will put that character's name into the chat window. That person then takes whatever actions they want. When they are done you click the next character button. When it hits the bottom it cycles back to the top and advances the round number by 1.

4. It is against the rules WoTC have created for combat values to be auto calculated so its up to you (and your players).

5. You can drag and drop the damage from the chat window to the wounds entry and it will auto add them each time. You can also do healing the same way but hit the Cntrl key down as you drag to make it a - number.
Note: if you like you can make the wounds value the same as the HP and then reverse the above so the wounds value counts down to 0.

Hope that helps.

rv

[Loggahead]

Yes, thanks so much for the lengthy reply. That does help a lot.

Can you expound point number 4? What is against WoTC's rules to have the attack rolls auto check against an enemies AC? It is possible for a players roll to autocalculate against an enemy though? I guess it's really not that crucial in reality as its a simple greater than / less than scenario to determine the hit.

We were just thinking that it would be failry streamlined if a player could declare which enemy he was making an attack roll against and then the d20 roll would automatically adjust any modifiers and declare success or not. Like I said earlier, it seems the damage roll will be the more crucial roll to keep the gm from constantly adding/subtracting.

[Sorontar]

In regards to the modifiers:
You will find that it is the player who normally stacks up the modifiers before he rolls. Therefore what you get as a GM should be a straight check.

There are various ways that modifiers are stacked by the players using hotkeys etc.

[Elf]

...
Can you expound point number 4? What is against WoTC's rules to have the attack rolls auto check against an enemies AC? It is possible for a players roll to autocalculate against an enemy though? I guess it's really not that crucial in reality as its a simple greater than / less than scenario to determine the hit....

Yes the Open Game Licence specifically disallows automatic resolution of die rolls by the software; that is determining whether a hit is scored or a skill check was successful.

[joshuha]

Yes the Open Game Licence specifically disallows automatic resolution of die rolls by the software; that is determining whether a hit is scored or a skill check was successful.

The above is true. I believe the intent was originally to dissuade MUDS and MMOs from using the OGL and having to get a license to do so. However, it unfortunately also applies to VTTs as well. Thats not saying its impossible to do via scripting but it would take some work and need to be a for your use only type of thing.

[Valarian]

Why bother? The automatic die rolling scripts roll the dice for you, or the drag and drop functionality, and a quick glance at the chat window tells you whether the attack hits or not. Pretty much like on the real tabletop.

[joshuha]

Yeah but some people want it to roll against a specific enemy (figure out their actual AC), calculate the hit, roll the damage, apply the damage, etc. This is the type of automation that Wizards really doesn't want to let happen as at some point you just have a video game (which they want to control the licenses too).

[Sigurd]

Well some people should either play a video game or support an RPG with more generous licenses.

For me automating it would be terrible because I'd feel excluded from the strategy process. You wouldn't have to know anything about the object you are attacking just highlight and press "bash". Dungeonhack here I come.


:D :D :D :D

Of course everyone should play their way. Even the multiple role playing games that arent published by WOTC......


Sigurd

[Loggahead]

I see all your points. I don't want to totally automate anything either, that's what Neverwinter Nights is for.

I now understand more of how the program works. The dragging and dropping die rolls into slots for wounds, etc. is clutch. Especially seeing that the attack roll is a simple greater than / less than scenario.

I was stuck in a Klooge mindset when I came into look at FGII. I already own a full set of licenses for Klooge that we used for HARP (lite version of Rolemaster). In that instance, since HARP is very very chart intensive for everything, it was crucial to time to have Klooge do the crossreferencing for us. Now we have gone simple and are absolutely loving the C&C setting (we've been playing for several months with real pen'n'paper)

We bought FGII yesterday and got mainly as a second avenue of rolling for when we can't all gather somewhere.

[richvalle]

Another thing in FG that is nice is the condition tracker. If someone is blind for 4 rounds you can set it up to count down for every round and after 4 it will pop a message into the chat window letting you know the condition has passed.

At lower levels you can use it to keep track of per round spells that the party casts as well. I've found that at higher levels it is easier to let the party members keep track of it on their own.

rv

[Loggahead]

I noticed the round tracking feature and thought it to be most excellent. I can't wait till we get our first session with FGII !