Request, don't know if it's possible. Combat Tracker

We are always looking for new tools to create to help facilitate the table top gaming experience. Let us know if you have an idea for a new gaming tool you'd like to see. (Note: this is NOT for feature requests on existing tools!)

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Dealaka
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Request, don't know if it's possible. Combat Tracker

Post by Dealaka »

I absolutely love Maptool. Got be my favorite RPG resources so far. However, the one thing I could use to help as a GM is a health/energy tracker for combat. Basically something where I could type in the name of all the combatants and type in damage they sustain or energy the use.

Maptool lets me keep track of states so that's not a big deal. Having tons of enemies to fight (even weak ones) means I'm usually left using excel which isn't very user friendly to switch between programs in the heat of battle.

Here's the fields that I think would be really useful;

Maximum Health
Current Health
Maximum Energy
Current Energy
Maximum Initiative
Current Initiative
Armor
Damage Taken - Subtracts from Current Health
Energy Used - Subtracts from Current Energy
Initiative Cost - Subtracts from Current Initiative
Status* - Alive, Wounded, Incapacitated, Dead

*can be handled with maptool but it'd be a plus to the software.

I believe that this tool would provide a good resource to a variety of campaign settings and systems. I know this is probably a lot of work, so I won't get my hopes up for it. As a GM though I'm constantly looking for the best record keeping software possible for my games, and I'm glad I found you folks. Keep up the good work.

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CoveredInFish
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Re: Request, don't know if it's possible. Combat Tracker

Post by CoveredInFish »

Could be done completely in maptool with macros and a frame with a html-table.

If you like describe a little more how you would like to interact with that data. All by hand, just like a excel sheet?

EDIT: oh btw .. do you know of the many frameworks (premade sets of properties, states, macros to help with specific rulebooks) you can find here in the forum? Most of these do some sort of combat tracking and many do automate much more...
Last edited by CoveredInFish on Sat Jun 19, 2010 12:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Azhrei
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Re: Request, don't know if it's possible. Combat Tracker

Post by Azhrei »

Dealaka wrote:I absolutely love Maptool. Got be my favorite RPG resources so far.
Cool! Glad to hear it. :)
However, the one thing I could use to help as a GM is a health/energy tracker for combat. Basically something where I could type in the name of all the combatants and type in damage they sustain or energy the use.
You do know that you can attach numbers to tokens, right? You can create Property Types in teh Edit > Campaign Properties dialog and any token configured to use that Property Type will receive those variables. Then macros can update the variables and set the health bars on the token (the token can have multiple health bars on each side of the token).

Properties and macros can accomplish each of the items in your list. :)

You'll want to check out the MapTool > Macros forum and the Main Page of the wiki for macro writers.
As a GM though I'm constantly looking for the best record keeping software possible for my games, and I'm glad I found you folks.
Trust me, the properties and macros will do the job.

You don't say which gaming system you're using, but there are macro packages already created by the community here for some of the game systems. Check out the User Creations > Campaign Frameworks forum and see if any there tickle your fancy. ;)

And welcome to RPTools!

Dealaka
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Re: Request, don't know if it's possible. Combat Tracker

Post by Dealaka »

I had been using maptool (campaign, settings) for much of the information for the characters already ^_^ but given I'm still new it'll be a bit before I figure out macros.

Thanks for the info, I'll definitely check it out. As for the system, I'm not just a GM but a game designer and created my own dice-less system for figuring stuff out, so it's not much to keep track of. I'd reveal more, but it's at the stage where I tend to be kinda hush hush about it. No offense.

Thanks again guys.

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jfrazierjr
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Re: Request, don't know if it's possible. Combat Tracker

Post by jfrazierjr »

Go to the wiki. On the landing page, there a number of tutorials (I think most written by Rumble) which goes over the basics, including how to get into Macro writing. Also on that site is a list of all possible macro functions and their arguments to make them work.
I save all my Campaign Files to DropBox. Not only can I access a campaign file from pretty much any OS that will run Maptool(Win,OSX, linux), but each file is versioned, so if something goes crazy wild, I can always roll back to a previous version of the same file.

Get your Dropbox 2GB via my referral link, and as a bonus, I get an extra 250 MB of space. Even if you don't don't use my link, I still enthusiastically recommend Dropbox..

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Raoden
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Re: Request, don't know if it's possible. Combat Tracker

Post by Raoden »

Yeah, as a fellow game designer, I can say: MapTool is a far better "Combat Tracker" for your new, personal game system than anything else around. The downside is, you have to figure out how to program your own rules. But that's a small price to pay.
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