Request for Input: Initiative Tool
Moderators: dorpond, trevor, Azhrei
Request for Input: Initiative Tool
Do we need a tool for tracking initiative? I have looked around online and had a hard time finding one that was very good. My current gaming group is using DMGenie, but that tool is always causing problems. If we created a tool under the RPTools umbrella, eventually it would integrate with MapTool.
An initiative tracker is a cool tool, but I'm using DM Genie. While I agree that DMG is less than optimal in combat (espoecially for large encounters), the auto-calculating modifiers and stuff, plus the SRD monsters, make it worth it for me. People still using pencils and paper would probably love an init-tracker though.
For me, its not just tracking init order, but to-hits, bonuses, HPs, experience, etc that are important.
Hopefully RPGX GM Tools will be smoother.
-Mike
For me, its not just tracking init order, but to-hits, bonuses, HPs, experience, etc that are important.
Hopefully RPGX GM Tools will be smoother.
-Mike
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Emryys
- Dragon
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I found this Free DnD 3.5 Combat program
Screen shot
Download
Looks ugly, but seems pretty good and has been worked on recently...
Screen shot
Download
Looks ugly, but seems pretty good and has been worked on recently...
Game On!
init tool features
All it would need to be would be a gm set order of one player acting at a time, or just the GM, with a button to advance the order on the active player and the GM, who could move at any time, just like they can move any token, and also skip the active player if they suspect that the player had walked off with the program running.
I'm color blind now
Someone take away that developers use of 16 bit colors.
Something like this would be nice developed by the rptools folks. The hooks into the SRD are nice. Perhaps something along these lines where the dm could assign monsters to tokens and display combat stats.
After that nice bit of db work have a character database (ala roleplayershome) that displays character combat stats.
After that second miracle, allow the character to chose a token to attack with a selected weapon and have the results displayed in the map chat window.
But: I would rather see the dice tool with a chat enabled function first.
Something like this would be nice developed by the rptools folks. The hooks into the SRD are nice. Perhaps something along these lines where the dm could assign monsters to tokens and display combat stats.
After that nice bit of db work have a character database (ala roleplayershome) that displays character combat stats.
After that second miracle, allow the character to chose a token to attack with a selected weapon and have the results displayed in the map chat window.
But: I would rather see the dice tool with a chat enabled function first.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the RPTrolls are readying another attack of proposed functionality on the developers.
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trevor
- Codeum Arcanum (RPTools Founder)
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Re: I'm color blind now
Just out of curiosity, would you rather see the chat panel in MapTool be able to call out to dice tool ? That is, you can set up all your dice rolls in dicetool, then in the maptool chat you could type something like 'I roll [dt:broksattack]' and it looks up 'broksattack' in dicetool, rolls it, and returns the result.rkathey wrote:But: I would rather see the dice tool with a chat enabled function first.
Dreaming of a 1.3 release
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Emryys
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- Location: Beneath the Aurora Borealis
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I would rather have the Chat panel on the dicetool as a different tab.
I eluded to reasons here... http://rptools.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=17
If the chat tool is in the dicetool, you could have preprogrammed buttons that contain macros of preprogrammed text/dicerolls that would have roleplayingish output. It would also be collapsable and these preprogrammed buttons could be set for each player/GM in his own Dice/chatool, and talk about the savings on the typing
The output could be sent to the other dice/chatools, or to the maptool that is somewhere not intrusive. I like the thought of it being a little IM type item I could make bigger or smaller depending on what is going on in the game. It may be a heavy dialogue time in the session and I want to be able to read multiple lines as they come in (especially the GM), or it's combat, and I only need to see the results of my sword/laser strikes, and would rather watch the map
I eluded to reasons here... http://rptools.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=17
If the chat tool is in the dicetool, you could have preprogrammed buttons that contain macros of preprogrammed text/dicerolls that would have roleplayingish output. It would also be collapsable and these preprogrammed buttons could be set for each player/GM in his own Dice/chatool, and talk about the savings on the typing
The output could be sent to the other dice/chatools, or to the maptool that is somewhere not intrusive. I like the thought of it being a little IM type item I could make bigger or smaller depending on what is going on in the game. It may be a heavy dialogue time in the session and I want to be able to read multiple lines as they come in (especially the GM), or it's combat, and I only need to see the results of my sword/laser strikes, and would rather watch the map
Game On!
I also would like to see this in the dice tool. Another option is a detached window that doesn't show up on the map but is a 'floater' that could be resized as much as needed.
Since you've already got all the communication stuff in maptool, I understand the desire to keep it there. It would be simpler to code and there get to my desktop quicker.
Since you've already got all the communication stuff in maptool, I understand the desire to keep it there. It would be simpler to code and there get to my desktop quicker.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the RPTrolls are readying another attack of proposed functionality on the developers.
There is what looks to be a nice program for d20 games called TurnWatcher but as all the rolls and stats are hard-coded for d20 it doesn't help me much.
For the games I run (DragonQuest) I would need to be able to define initiative differently and would also need to rename the Spot/Listen/Will checks as well as redefine the dice rolls.
For the games I run (DragonQuest) I would need to be able to define initiative differently and would also need to rename the Spot/Listen/Will checks as well as redefine the dice rolls.
Could you tell me how or point me to documentation that wiould tell me how you decide initiative order in DragonQuest? I have been working on the base init tool which I made extendable, but is still specific to DnD right now. I'll add the DragonQuest support to see if the tool is flexible enough.Phergus wrote:There is what looks to be a nice program for d20 games called TurnWatcher but as all the rolls and stats are hard-coded for d20 it doesn't help me much.
For the games I run (DragonQuest) I would need to be able to define initiative differently and would also need to rename the Spot/Listen/Will checks as well as redefine the dice rolls.
I'll send you a more complete set of info but the gist of it is that there are two types of initiative: Unengaged and Engaged.
I'm using figure generically for both PCs, NPCs and monsters.
Unengaged is for those figures that aren't in melee combat with each other. Each side has a designated leader and the leader rolls initiative with the winning side choosing whether they will go first or last. The roll is D10 + Perception + Mil. Scientist Rank. I could live without having this in an Initiative Tool. To implement this the tool would need to have some notion of whether or not a figure was in actual melee combat or not and then would have to know which group a figure belonged to. Spellcasters and archers are considered unengaged unless they are in an opponents melee zone.
Engaged initiative is skill based for each participant in melee combat. It is a fixed value based on Agility + Rank w/Weapon + Perception. Those with a higher Initiative Value (IV) get to go first. Combat is normally resolved in melee groups. If a PC is fighting two Orcs then within that group the attacks would be resolved in Initiative Value order before moving to another melee group. If the tool could support the notion of which figures were engaged with which that would be really cool.
Engaged combatants act first and unengaged go last.
If you really want to make it flexible enough to handle DQ combat then it also needs to allow for two different damage types: Endurance and Fatigue. These are like Killing and Stun damage in other games.
Minimum Features
I'm using figure generically for both PCs, NPCs and monsters.
Unengaged is for those figures that aren't in melee combat with each other. Each side has a designated leader and the leader rolls initiative with the winning side choosing whether they will go first or last. The roll is D10 + Perception + Mil. Scientist Rank. I could live without having this in an Initiative Tool. To implement this the tool would need to have some notion of whether or not a figure was in actual melee combat or not and then would have to know which group a figure belonged to. Spellcasters and archers are considered unengaged unless they are in an opponents melee zone.
Engaged initiative is skill based for each participant in melee combat. It is a fixed value based on Agility + Rank w/Weapon + Perception. Those with a higher Initiative Value (IV) get to go first. Combat is normally resolved in melee groups. If a PC is fighting two Orcs then within that group the attacks would be resolved in Initiative Value order before moving to another melee group. If the tool could support the notion of which figures were engaged with which that would be really cool.
Engaged combatants act first and unengaged go last.
If you really want to make it flexible enough to handle DQ combat then it also needs to allow for two different damage types: Endurance and Fatigue. These are like Killing and Stun damage in other games.
Minimum Features
- Ability to enter IVs for each combatant
- Ability to order them manually or by IV
- Ability to step through the list one by one and track time
- Load/Save Party Lists
- Load/Save Encounter Lists
- Tracking of both Endurance & Fatigue
- One or more user-defined rolls such as the Spot/Listen/Will rolls in TurnWatcher
- One or more user-defined stat/ability columns
- Being able to designate a figure as Engaged/Unengaged
- Being able to apply a group designation to each figure
- Being able to designate which figures were engaged with which and use that to sort by combat group
- Logging of combats
- Track spell or other event durations