Generic Card Game Framework -Version 1b
Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 9:51 pm
This Framework has been replaced by N-State Framework available in post http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=24006. Support for this old framework has been discontinued.
Here is Version 1a of my Card Game Framework.
The framework can be used for all kinds involving multi state tokens (such as rolling dice, flipping coins, cards, etc) but its defaults are set up for Card Games tokens.
Framework Features:
The framework supports the following default states (you can easily add more states if other states are needed)...
- Moving a card (token) between states: Draw, Hand, On Table, On Table Tapped.
- While s card (token) is in the Draw state, the card's face down (back) image is shown to all.
- While a card (token) is in the Hand state, the card's face up image is visisble to the owner and the card becomes invisible to all other players.
A marked in the player's color is added to the card so that the owner can tell cards that are in the Hand state from other cards on the virtual table.
- While a card (token) is in the Table state, the card's face up image is visible to all players.
- While a card (token) is in the Tapped state, the card's face up image is visisble to all players and the card is rotated 45 degrees.
The framework supports the following operations (all implemented as Campaign macros):
[[ - Moves the selected cards (tokens) to the first state (this is the Draw state where the cards are face down).
Prev - Moves the selected cards (tokens) to the previous state (see order of states above)
Next - Moves the selected cards (tokens) to the next state. This is the most commonly used macro since it usually switches the cards (tokens) to the next logical state.
Untap - Moves the selcted cards (tokens) to the second last state (Table state). Commonly used to changed all Tapped cards to Untapped (for games like Magic The Gathering).
]] - Moves the selected cards (tokens) to the last state (Tapped state). Commonly used to change all Untapped catds to Tapped (for games like Magic The Gathering).
Sick - Adds a Sick overlay image to the card. Commonly used in games like Magic The Gathering to indicated summoning sickness.
Roll - Animates the rolling of the selected card/die (token). Basically moves the token in an somewhat upward direction as it randomly chooses states. Commonly used with die tokens to roll dice.
Group - Remembers the currently selected cards. Either used to re-select the group later (Use Group) or to stack cards into a pile (Pile)
Pile - Moves all cards that we marked with the Group macro (see above) to the location of the currently selected card (token). Select the desired cards, select Group, select the destination card, select Pile.
Use Group - Reselects all the cards (tokens) that were marked with the Group macro. Commonly used to reselect specific cards (in games like Magic The Gathering) so that a state operation, like Untap, can be performed on them.
HP+ and HP-: Usable player tokens only. Increases or decreases the hitpoints (life) of a player. Used for games like Magic The Gathering and Vampire. Starts at 20 but can easily be changed. Visible on Portrait view.
C+ and C-: Usable on player and card tokens. Increases or decreases a generic counter. Visible on Portrait view.
P+ and P-: Usable on player and card tokens. Increases or decreases a second generic counter (using used for Poison in games like Magic The gathering). Visible on Portrait view.
Light Shuffle, Regular Shuffle, Heavy Shuffle: Shuffles the selected cards (tokens). The three different versions indicate the intensity of the shuffle.
Init: Used to initialize tokens when they are first added. Used only once after all desired tokens are added. Then this macro is no longer needed.
Claim: Allows a player to choose on of the player tokens. This player token will retain infromation about the player such as HP, Counter, Poison, number of cards in hand and color. Using the macro a second time releases the player token.
CheatCheck: Players must connect to MapTools as players and NOT GM. Otherwise they will see other player's cards when they are in their hand. This macro lists all the connected players and their type (Player or Spectator).
Spectators (people watching but not playing) can connect as GM so that they can seel all hands. This macro generates little icon to make it slightly harder for a player fake the result.
In addition, to prevent the players from associating token names with specific cards, the token names are automatically randomly changed making such associations almost impossible.
How To Use The Framework:
1. Open the provided Campaign File in MapTools.
2. Drag and drop card tokens to the map (you can use the default ones provided in MapTools or your own)
3. Change the name of each token to a unique number (no text).
4. Change the shape to Top Down.
By default the card tokens will use the Handout image of Lib:Support (provided in the Campaign file) for the Back image, use the token's own image for the front image, and use the token's own portrait for the portrait image. This can be adjusted by editing the token's properties. If you want to change this, do it before using the Init macro.
5. Select all the added tokens and press the Init macro. Only one player needs to do this and it can be done in advance of the game. This macro converts all the token image references (such as IMAGE:SELF, PORTRAIT:SELF, etc) to actual MapTool assets.
6. When each player connects AS A PLAYER (NOT GM), have them click on one of the player tokens and press the Claim button. This associates the player with a token and all infromation for that player will be displayed on that token. This includes the number of cards that the player has in his/her hand (since these cards will not be visisble to others). This information also includes the player HP for games that use hitpoints/life.
Now you are ready to play. Usually the initial startup would be something like...
7. Select all the card tokens.
8. Select Group (the first part to stacking cards)
9. Select one of the cards
10. Select the Pile macro. All cards will be stacked on the same spot.
11. Select them all (if neede) and use the Shuffle macro to shuffle the deck.
To move cards, just click and drag them like any other token in MapTools.
To switch a card between the draw pile, your hand, the table and tapping use the Next macro. The sequence of states is set up in a logical order (Draw, Hand, Table, Tap) so that in most cases all you will have to do is use the Next macro. However, in some odd cases or odd games you may have to use the Prev macro to switch to previous states. Trying to switch to a previous state before the first (Draw) state will result in the card staying at that state. Using the Next macro when at the last state (Tapped) will cause it to go to the 3rd state (Table). Thus allowing the Next command to switch between tapped and untapped cards.
As I said, the default settings in the Campaign will allow new tokens to work as listed above. However, the framework is actually very flexible and can easily be modified to add new states, create dice like tokens from tables, change effects like what state the tokens go to when moving past the last state or before the first state and so on. I will explain these options in a later post but they are all visible on the token properties. These properties allows you to indicate the image, portrait, owner, facing and overlay-states for each of the tokens states. The properties use String Lists so the token can actually have any number of states (as can be seen with the sample D20 token). It is important to note that changes (at least for image and portrait references) should be done before using the Init macro because the Init macro takes the image references and translates them into actual asset references (making them hard to follow after using the Init macro).
If you find problems using the framework, please let me know so I can attempt to fix it.
Edit: Made some small fixed to fix bugs.
Here is Version 1a of my Card Game Framework.
The framework can be used for all kinds involving multi state tokens (such as rolling dice, flipping coins, cards, etc) but its defaults are set up for Card Games tokens.
Framework Features:
The framework supports the following default states (you can easily add more states if other states are needed)...
- Moving a card (token) between states: Draw, Hand, On Table, On Table Tapped.
- While s card (token) is in the Draw state, the card's face down (back) image is shown to all.
- While a card (token) is in the Hand state, the card's face up image is visisble to the owner and the card becomes invisible to all other players.
A marked in the player's color is added to the card so that the owner can tell cards that are in the Hand state from other cards on the virtual table.
- While a card (token) is in the Table state, the card's face up image is visible to all players.
- While a card (token) is in the Tapped state, the card's face up image is visisble to all players and the card is rotated 45 degrees.
The framework supports the following operations (all implemented as Campaign macros):
[[ - Moves the selected cards (tokens) to the first state (this is the Draw state where the cards are face down).
Prev - Moves the selected cards (tokens) to the previous state (see order of states above)
Next - Moves the selected cards (tokens) to the next state. This is the most commonly used macro since it usually switches the cards (tokens) to the next logical state.
Untap - Moves the selcted cards (tokens) to the second last state (Table state). Commonly used to changed all Tapped cards to Untapped (for games like Magic The Gathering).
]] - Moves the selected cards (tokens) to the last state (Tapped state). Commonly used to change all Untapped catds to Tapped (for games like Magic The Gathering).
Sick - Adds a Sick overlay image to the card. Commonly used in games like Magic The Gathering to indicated summoning sickness.
Roll - Animates the rolling of the selected card/die (token). Basically moves the token in an somewhat upward direction as it randomly chooses states. Commonly used with die tokens to roll dice.
Group - Remembers the currently selected cards. Either used to re-select the group later (Use Group) or to stack cards into a pile (Pile)
Pile - Moves all cards that we marked with the Group macro (see above) to the location of the currently selected card (token). Select the desired cards, select Group, select the destination card, select Pile.
Use Group - Reselects all the cards (tokens) that were marked with the Group macro. Commonly used to reselect specific cards (in games like Magic The Gathering) so that a state operation, like Untap, can be performed on them.
HP+ and HP-: Usable player tokens only. Increases or decreases the hitpoints (life) of a player. Used for games like Magic The Gathering and Vampire. Starts at 20 but can easily be changed. Visible on Portrait view.
C+ and C-: Usable on player and card tokens. Increases or decreases a generic counter. Visible on Portrait view.
P+ and P-: Usable on player and card tokens. Increases or decreases a second generic counter (using used for Poison in games like Magic The gathering). Visible on Portrait view.
Light Shuffle, Regular Shuffle, Heavy Shuffle: Shuffles the selected cards (tokens). The three different versions indicate the intensity of the shuffle.
Init: Used to initialize tokens when they are first added. Used only once after all desired tokens are added. Then this macro is no longer needed.
Claim: Allows a player to choose on of the player tokens. This player token will retain infromation about the player such as HP, Counter, Poison, number of cards in hand and color. Using the macro a second time releases the player token.
CheatCheck: Players must connect to MapTools as players and NOT GM. Otherwise they will see other player's cards when they are in their hand. This macro lists all the connected players and their type (Player or Spectator).
Spectators (people watching but not playing) can connect as GM so that they can seel all hands. This macro generates little icon to make it slightly harder for a player fake the result.
In addition, to prevent the players from associating token names with specific cards, the token names are automatically randomly changed making such associations almost impossible.
How To Use The Framework:
1. Open the provided Campaign File in MapTools.
2. Drag and drop card tokens to the map (you can use the default ones provided in MapTools or your own)
3. Change the name of each token to a unique number (no text).
4. Change the shape to Top Down.
By default the card tokens will use the Handout image of Lib:Support (provided in the Campaign file) for the Back image, use the token's own image for the front image, and use the token's own portrait for the portrait image. This can be adjusted by editing the token's properties. If you want to change this, do it before using the Init macro.
5. Select all the added tokens and press the Init macro. Only one player needs to do this and it can be done in advance of the game. This macro converts all the token image references (such as IMAGE:SELF, PORTRAIT:SELF, etc) to actual MapTool assets.
6. When each player connects AS A PLAYER (NOT GM), have them click on one of the player tokens and press the Claim button. This associates the player with a token and all infromation for that player will be displayed on that token. This includes the number of cards that the player has in his/her hand (since these cards will not be visisble to others). This information also includes the player HP for games that use hitpoints/life.
Now you are ready to play. Usually the initial startup would be something like...
7. Select all the card tokens.
8. Select Group (the first part to stacking cards)
9. Select one of the cards
10. Select the Pile macro. All cards will be stacked on the same spot.
11. Select them all (if neede) and use the Shuffle macro to shuffle the deck.
To move cards, just click and drag them like any other token in MapTools.
To switch a card between the draw pile, your hand, the table and tapping use the Next macro. The sequence of states is set up in a logical order (Draw, Hand, Table, Tap) so that in most cases all you will have to do is use the Next macro. However, in some odd cases or odd games you may have to use the Prev macro to switch to previous states. Trying to switch to a previous state before the first (Draw) state will result in the card staying at that state. Using the Next macro when at the last state (Tapped) will cause it to go to the 3rd state (Table). Thus allowing the Next command to switch between tapped and untapped cards.
As I said, the default settings in the Campaign will allow new tokens to work as listed above. However, the framework is actually very flexible and can easily be modified to add new states, create dice like tokens from tables, change effects like what state the tokens go to when moving past the last state or before the first state and so on. I will explain these options in a later post but they are all visible on the token properties. These properties allows you to indicate the image, portrait, owner, facing and overlay-states for each of the tokens states. The properties use String Lists so the token can actually have any number of states (as can be seen with the sample D20 token). It is important to note that changes (at least for image and portrait references) should be done before using the Init macro because the Init macro takes the image references and translates them into actual asset references (making them hard to follow after using the Init macro).
If you find problems using the framework, please let me know so I can attempt to fix it.
Edit: Made some small fixed to fix bugs.