RPTools.net

Hello,

I've just started playing the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying game, which uses a dice pool mechanic including d4 through d12 dice. To help play this in MapTools, I created a simple stand-alone campaign file with "dice tokens", or digital dice that you can play with like you would physical dice. I figured I'd throw it up here in case anyone wants to play around with it.

Dice Token Campaign File

Screenshot:

The file includes some sample dice tokens in a few different colors. Just make as many copies of them as you need for each person. You can select one or more dice, then click the buttons in the Campaign macro button panel to roll those dice, step up their size (so d4 -> d6 -> d8 -> d10 -> d12) or step down their size (as before, in the reverse order) to whatever die size you need. I have the Roll campaign macro set to the F2 hotkey, so you can also just select the dice to roll and hit F2 if you prefer keyboard shortcuts to button clicks.

Regarding the dice colors / textures, you can easily have whatever dice colors you want (as long as the black text for the rolled number will show up on them). I use gray dice for the Doom Pool, red for complications and stress, white for assets, and have the players each pick a color for the their character's traits. To have a new color, you need an image editing program that can save .png files with transparency. Just make a 100 x 100 px or 200 x 200 px square image, fill the entire image with the color or texture you want, then delete the outermost 5 pixels on each edge and leave that transparent. (You don't have to delete the 5 pixels around the edge, but if you don't it will sometimes bleed through as a narrow border around the state overlays in MapTools). Drag the .png file into MapTools as a token, and edit its Token Properties, go to the Config tab and set the Properties drop down to DiceToken, set the Ownership tab to All Players if desired, and give it a name.

Because Marvel HRP doesn't use d20 dice, I didn't include them, but they could be easily added if needed. If anyone wants to do so, you'd just need to add states for numbers 13-20, plus another state for the d20 die shape with a white background, black lines for the die face edges, and the internal die faces transparent so the token's background color is visible for the faces. Oh, and the center face showing the number rolled would need to be large enough to display the numeric result states. The macros on the library token would need to be tweaked to handle stepping up from d12 to d20 too, but they are fairly simple macros.

It is possible to combine these dice tokens with another framework, but it might take a little bit of work. You'll need the Lib:DiceTokens library token, the four campaign macro buttons, and in your Campaign Properties you'll need the DiceToken token properties and the 12 numeric states and the 5 dice overlay states. I forget whether the images for the states can be exported with the campaign properties, or if you'd need to have the original graphics to recreate the states. If necessary, I could put up a zip file with them.

If anyone has any feedback, or wants to make any improvements, feel free!

Thanks Lind,

I did a quick mock up using some Marvel art from breakout just to get a sense of what things might look like.

I do get an error when roll a decent sized dice pool. I've been adjusting the stack size but am curious was size stack you're using.

Work in progress, obviously

Cheers

Hi,

I use a stack size of 4, min memory of 64 and max memory of 256. I can roll 20+ dice without any errors. If you are running into problems with a stack size of 4+, let me know the exact error, how many dice you are rolling, and what version of maptools you are running.

I will say that I'm actually using an updated version of the library token, but I am also using it in the Java 7 compatible dev version of maptools that Lee has been making available in the past few months, not the official maptools b87. And because campaign files loaded in the dev version can't be opened in b87, I can't simply share it for use in b87 any more. I'd need to set up Java 6 on my computer again, then rebuild the campaign file from scratch in b87. Not a huge deal, but I don't want to do it unless I need to.

Also, I'll throw out that I've actually got a much more extensive framework now. It still uses the dice tokens, and you can play with just the dice tokens if that is all you want, but it also includes character tokens with full character sheets, and you can just select the traits you want to roll in a pool from your sheet, click a button, and it builds the pool and rolls the dice tokens for you. I've been planning to post it for others to use, but again this version is only available in Lee's dev version of maptools, not b87, so I've been holding off until the devs come out with the next real version that works with Java 7, etc.

Screenshot:

If anyone really wants a copy of it now, and is using Lee's dev version of Maptools, let me know. Otherwise, I'll hold off until the official b89 (or whatever) comes out and then make it available.

Lind,

I just spent hours trying to find dice images (using Google, Bing, etc) before I came across your thread (and for the exact same reason too, MHRP).

If you export your tokens and Campaign Macros to individual files, other people should be able to "reconstruct" your framework in the current release of MT. Can you export and post those files?

PS. Torg? Sweet!

PPS. Just noticed how you're doing the dice. States is pretty neat trick (I would have gravitated toward table images).

PPPS. For your MHRP FW, if you could export the Campaign Properties (yes, the states import/export fine), Campaign Macros and your default map, I'll definitely try importing those into B87 (actually, it's Rumble's 4e LOS build) and post here with my results.

Hi DevoDog,

I'll either get a b87 campaign file, or at least export all the pieces so you can put it together yourself. I'll try to get to it later today, but it may be tomorrow.

I played around with table images first, but it didn't give me the same flexibility. I wanted different colors, and for each color it would take 4 d4, 6 d6, 8 d8, 10 d10, and 12 d12 stand-alone images, so 40 images per color of dice to do it that way. That was too much of a pain, and I'm not good enough in gimp/photoshop to somehow automate it. So instead I went with one image per die background color stored in the table, then have 5 states to overlay the die shape, and 12 states for the specific numbers 1-12. All total it was less than 25 images required. Then I just overlay the shape and the number on the designated background color, and you have a working die token of any color you want (with sufficient contrast for the black numbers). It works really well. And I planned to have alternate numbers in white, so they could go on darker background colors, but haven't gotten around to it. It would just take 12 more states with the numbers in white, then a tweak to the code to specify whether it should use the white or black numbers depending on which table image is used for the background. Jut never got around to it.

Anyway, I'll post either a campaign file or the pieces-parts of one in the next day or so. Gotta run some errands right now.

Cheers,
Lindharin

Thanks! I look forward to trying it out.

I have created a new thread in the User Creations forum to have the full MHRP campaign file (b87 compatible), so this thread can stay for just the stand-alone dice tokens.

The new thread is at: MHRP Custom Framework

Cheers,
Lindharin