Expanding Beyond d20

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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Kuprin
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Expanding Beyond d20

Post by Kuprin »

I'm using MapTool for a test campaign of a game I'm currently developing. Doing this, however, I find that MapTool really lacks good dice functions, and this is an area we should expand on. I'm a Java developer myself, and would be glad to help - I've got a whole list of ideas on what we can add with dice (I'll bet a lot of it is already in DiceTool, which I haven't tried) - I think that would really help MT become a standalone tool.

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trevor
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Post by trevor »

Welcome welcome !

One of the next major steps for RPTools is integration of the tools, both with themselves and with other tools. At some point you will be able to roll something like this:

/dt bobattack

and have it call out to DiceTool, and run the roll associated with "bobattack".

We would love to hear your ideas ! How about starting a new thread in the DiceTool forum and list the thoughts you have. We are very welcome to improvement ideas :)
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Kuprin
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Post by Kuprin »

We totally need XML character sheet support. My group just went up in arms and incinerated all that is OpenRPG. It dies this weekend and we're on hold.

Consider me a new developer, I'm an experienced Java guy and should be able to get what I need up and running shortly. "At Some Point" needs to be within two weeks for me. :p

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Post by RPTroll »

I was thinking today ( a dangerous thing) that a simple character sheet solution would be to allow an xml file to be associated with a token then have those fields available to functions within the new scripting functionality. It seems like this would be a semi-quick fix to the character/monster data sheet issue.

I think for now, to save space and make it easier to add monsters, all tokens from the same base image should inherit the same xml file. This gets to be a pain if you have multiple characters with the same token but really speeds up monster generation.
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trevor
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Post by trevor »

that's kinda what I was imagining, with using Abeille wysiwyg tool to build the front end. That way you could have any type of character sheet front end hooked up to an xml file, that is hooked to tokens. That seems pretty nifty.
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Kuprin
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Post by Kuprin »

I was planning XML as well, actually, so we're all on the same page there. Hooking it up to tokens would be cool, but there will be times when the map is not in use; the sheet should be easy to access from the main screen without having a token in play.

We could also easily code dice macros into the XML sheets, allowing auto-rollers. :)

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trevor
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Post by trevor »

As a side note kuprin, if you start building a character sheet tool, here's the path the tools take:

- Make a stand alone app that is simple and addresses the very specific need of the tool
- Once that is done, integrate it with the other tools

So you won't want to start by adding a panel to MapTool proper.
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Kuprin
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Post by Kuprin »

Reasonable, I guess. It definitely forces more modularity, which is good in my book. I'll still go cruising your source for a UI style guide though - there's no reason the integration should require an interface rewrite.

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trevor
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Post by trevor »

The primary reason is so that people can use the tools they want instead of having to use all of them.

In fact, I've been playing with the idea of ripping the chat panel out into a ChatTool, then have it integrate back into maptool.

For some context, there is rplib which is the cross project general purpose classes. We use TinyLAF for the laf. And, other than that things are pretty flexible.
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Post by Emryys »

trevor wrote: In fact, I've been playing with the idea of ripping the chat panel out into a ChatTool, then have it integrate back into maptool
Having the tools based on function. Maptool works fine without chat, but Chat and dicerolls or character data seeem to go together...
trevor wrote:We use TinyLAF for the laf
We can all use a good laf now and again! ;)
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trevor
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Post by trevor »

Emryys wrote:
trevor wrote: In fact, I've been playing with the idea of ripping the chat panel out into a ChatTool, then have it integrate back into maptool
Having the tools based on function. Maptool works fine without chat, but Chat and dicerolls or character data seeem to go together...
And at the same time, have value in and of themselves :) That's where the synergy comes from, take the individual pieces and hook them together.
Emryys wrote:
trevor wrote:We use TinyLAF for the laf
We can all use a good laf now and again! ;)
[/quote]

har har :)
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Post by RPTroll »

Here's a long post on character sheets (when I was someone else) that talkes about functionality.

http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php ... c&start=44

and again at

http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php ... c&start=46

In fact, that whole topic discusses other character sheet tools and the functionality the users would like to see.
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trevor
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Post by trevor »

Good call, thanks for the back pointers
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Post by RPTroll »

You all probably already have a source for this but here's the rules and monsters in XML format. It has MySQL, MS SQL Server, and Access as well. This was the first page I found when I began looking for online tools which eventually lead me here. So in a way you can blame this guy for me being here. :-)

http://www.andargor.com/

There are some other cool links on this page. I use Jamis Buck's generators to quickly create hack and slash dungeons as well as generate treasure. It has a town generator in there as well.

It also has SRD downloadable html if you want to run it on your server. The MM has the WotC images in there so we won't be the only ones going down for using them. :-)

Regards,
Troll
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Post by dglas »

I have the good fortune to kow a friendly java-geek, and have had Open and Closed rolls incorporated into the chat tool. Now I can run Feng Shui online. I use the map section of the maptools for the shot clock.

There's a big ol' smile on my face.

The group I was involved in had to punt OpenRPG too. Primarily because it kept idle-punting us, which kinda defeats the whole purpose of such a tool.

I want to say, that the buttons over the chat are the cat's ... pajamas (haven't read your forum rules yet).

Wishlist: Cut&Paste in the chat box.

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