Software, Computers, Video Games and D&D UtilitiesGeneral discussion on computer software and hardware, PC and console games, and RPG utilities such as eTools, PC GEN, etc.
OK, let's try a little information gathering. This thread is seeing a good amount of traffic, I'd like to see what everyone has to say!
What do you NOT like about the pbp system that you're currently using?
What restrictions would you like to overcome?
What enhancements would you like to see?
Is there something that works, but it could work better?
What would you want to get rid of?
Are there items that could be improved?
Are there tools that would make things easier?
What is your least favorite feature/tool?
Is there a feature/tool that you would change the functionality of?
What DO you like about the pbp system you are currently using?
What is your favorite feature/tool?
What makes the current system so special?
What would make the system unbearable if a feature/tool was removed?
Just some things off the top of my head.
I know it's kind of shameless, but feel free to spread the word about this thread. The more input the better
Dndorks.com has been adding to their rpg tools a bit recently; try checking there for inspiration!
I'll try to answer a few questions with some ideas, but just so you know I'm taking this solely from a D&D 4e point of view!
A die roller is a must, so that the player's can roll right on the forum, and the natural die roll and the modifier can be looked up. Using Invisible Castle is kind of a pain, although it's better than nothing.
Have a space for information that the players have gathered on their journey that the DM can add to and the players can bounce around ideas on. I think this will make it so that a DM won't ever have to repeat who an NPC is.
For characters, you're ideas seem to be right on target! If you want to aim for multiple systems, you have to make it versatile. You could take the easy route and just make it so that the players post their characters in a normal thread, or if you have the sources and ambition, you can make templates for the more common systems.
Just a few ideas! My own two cents. =) I would like to see this developed, be sure to keep us updated!
Take a look at Althai, my D&D 4e campaign setting, and The_Heroes of Althai, the dramedy of the heroes who did and will affect Althai. (Both on the backburner for now.)
Dndorks.com has been adding to their rpg tools a bit recently; try checking there for inspiration!
Will do! Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Camelot
I'll try to answer a few questions with some ideas, but just so you know I'm taking this solely from a D&D 4e point of view!
Honestly, the systems aren't that different. Powers are kinda like Feats, Feats are kind like the enhancer (like that give +2 to a skill) Feats of 3.5.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Camelot
A die roller is a must, so that the player's can roll right on the forum, and the natural die roll and the modifier can be looked up. Using Invisible Castle is kind of a pain, although it's better than nothing.
That's the primary feature
Quote:
Originally Posted by Camelot
Have a space for information that the players have gathered on their journey that the DM can add to and the players can bounce around ideas on. I think this will make it so that a DM won't ever have to repeat who an NPC is.
I'm a big fan of Wikipedia. Using BBCode, I think that adding a link to a specific NPC page (or something like that) should be pretty easy.
I'm taking a lot of faith in BBCode. Each "Game" will have it's own BBCodes that the GM can set up, along with a "Generic List" (swear words, abbreviations, etc). Something like [Fzoul Chembryl] will link to a "Thread" on Fzoul that people can post about.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Camelot
For characters, you're ideas seem to be right on target! If you want to aim for multiple systems, you have to make it versatile. You could take the easy route and just make it so that the players post their characters in a normal thread, or if you have the sources and ambition, you can make templates for the more common systems.
I received a lot of ideas for this type of layout from work. The form will have all the needed options in a table and everything will lay out pretty generically based on the system chosen by the GM.
My philosophy, "Work smarter, not harder."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Camelot
Just a few ideas! My own two cents. =) I would like to see this developed, be sure to keep us updated!
I've been thinking about the temporal nature of the pbp Forum and decided that I'll have some kind of a Calendar System.
As previously noted, the posts will need to be temporal in nature. This is especially true if going into a "turn based initiative" and also when dealing with resting. The GM can also pass time by adding an "action" that advances the clock.
Here are my questions:
How accurate do you want the calendar to be?
The Gregorian calendar is a fickle creature. I won't get into the specifics, but it can be read here. If a true Leap Year is to be added for a revolution of an uneven amount of days in a year, then I'll need to create some kind of function that will count out time.
If every year is exactly 365 twenty four hour days, then this is not really a concern.
How will you use the calendar?
If the calendar is just used to mark the passing days, there shouldn't be an issue with "going forward." If the calendar is more complex, then how will bouncing back and forth in time be tracked?
How will special days be represented?
Special days like Thanksgiving in the US is on a variable day in a month (last Thursday). Will these be necessary or can they be glossed over?
Here's my original thoughts on the Calendar. This is just one idea that can be used. I'm open to other suggestions.
The way I see it, different calendars are used in different ways. For example, the Gregorian Calendar is different from the Faerunian Calendar (360 days with five "special days") which is also different from the Eberron Calendar (which uses an excessive amount of moons for different reasons).
As a result, I'm going to allow the Calendar to be dynamic. You'll start out with a blank canvas.
Decide on how many months and give names.
Add how many days per month (some can have 30, others 20 or even 50).
Each day is broken to days of the week (Monday, Tuesday, etc.) and named.
The Hours/Minutes/Seconds will determine the duration of a day.
Additional days can be added to a month at an irregular interval (ex, February 29th every 4 years).
Each Date can be given a name (ex, 1/1 = New Years Day).
I'm mostly interested in the basic framework at this time. This piece can be expanded and upgraded at later points without making the core framework invalid. But they are important questions to ask.
I've been thinking about some of the replies with a regard to "subforums". While actual subforums are easy enough to do, I wanted to toss out the idea of "inclusion".
A little background. Each User has the option to start a game (in this case, "Star*Drive PL 6"). At that point, they create their own "Forum" within the overall framework. The User (now referenced as a GM) will have the ability to create any thread within the forum of their game. Within the Threads, users can create "Posts" where everyone can see all the action.
However, these posts are special. When creating a post, different submission boxes or submission methods are available. If you enter something into the "In Character" area, the submission shows in both the Thread and the subforum below it ("IC Only"). If entered in the OoC box, it will show up in the thread and "OOC Only" area. If an IC text is typed and an attack Action is created, the IC and Action will show in the Thread, and the IC will be "IC Only" and attack in "Actions".
Here's an example layout:
PBP Forums
Uncle Jimbo's Eberron
Star*Drive PL 6
Introduction
Character Creation
Zholin Zhou
Level 1
Level 2
Current
Jack "Cueball" Hardell
Episode 1: Black Starfall
IC Only
OOC Only
Actions
Personal
GM Area
Campaign Info
Episode 2: Red Starrise
LotR: The Dawn of Man
With the appropriate table design, any depth can be added. Permissions can also be added so that only specific areas are viewable by certain users. As an example, lurkers can only view the IC Only area. Players cannot see the "GM Area" and the GM can see all areas except the "Personal" area of a player. Ideally, this can all be optional and not visible if the GM doesn't want it.
I'd like to hear your feedback on this. It's mostly brainstorming at this point. If it doesn't sound like something that would be used, it can be ignored. If the option is something that may be useful, it warrants review.
Just wanted to post regarding Combat Maps in the game.
I'm planning on basing this on some existing code that I did some time ago. You can see an example here. This is a basic example, the concept that will be included in the pbp Forum will have database integration.
The concept behind the example is to represent the field of battle. As you can see, there's a map background, personal "icons" scaled to size for each combatant, an initiative map, a "Current Round" indicator, and a "Dead Pool" for fallen gladiators.
More complex features would be:
Adding a "template" for movement that will show available areas to move. The user would click on a cell to map out the movement from cell to cell.
Clickable icons that show available options to you (ex, attack, aid, talk, etc).
"Fog of War" for illumination.
Of course, this concept requires a map be created. Although I have ideas for a different project, there are multiple options available. For example, an open source SVG image maker called Inkscape is a free utility that could function like a map maker. Create the map, export as BMP, JPG or PNG and you're ready to go!
I haven't nailed down anything specific for this feature, just going off old ideas. What kind of features would you like to see? What features would be useless to you?
While the pbp Forum will do the majority of die rolls, there is likely a need for outside of game die rolls.
Here is a die roller that I made some time ago. While it doesn't store the die rolls, it does have a bit of functionality.
Total Results = shows results and a total
Drop Lowest = Rolls the desired number, but drops the lowest (ex, 4d6, drop lowest)
Wild Die Explode = From the Star Wars RPG, if the last die is a 6, it rolls until the die is no longer a 6.
Hero System = Stun and Body Damage per the Hero System rules.
Designate the number of dice, add a modifier if needed, and click on the die that you want to use.
Of course, you'll want to store the die roll somehow. So, a user account would be created. Possibly some kind of description is included. A referral link can be sent by the GM for the players to roll their results (to store in the GM account and player account).
What about "edits"? Should these be allowed?
Should the player be able to see the result before submission?
How about "cheating" by revising the post?
There was references to Invisible Castle earlier. I've never used the service, but I have an idea of what it's about.
What is the major draw for Invisible Castle?
How could it be better?
What kind of dice options would make it more desireable?
Removing what feature would make it useless to you?
For the most part, the dice will be included with the player's actions. However, if there are so few sites out there like Invisible Castle, would it be more beneficial to have this functionality available to the public?
As always, comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated!
As far as I know, InvisibleCastle is the only site of its kind (although I'd love to be proven wrong; it does go down sometimes!), i.e. where you can roll dice and get a permalink to the result. It's also very important that it's searchable, so if you're a player in my game and you just spam rolls until you get a 20, I can catch you on it by searching for rolls under your name. I would sorely miss the notes field if it weren't there, too. Campaign and character name are nice, but I could get by without them in a pinch.
For an in-forum die roller, if players had the ability to edit the post afterwards... I can't see how that would work with die rolls. Obviously you don't want them editing the value of the raw die roll itself, but I could see a case being made for editing the modifiers, if it could be done safely. Can the player edit the post to add another die roll? Can they delete an old die roll that they belatedly realized was unneeded? How would the forum tell the difference between adding a new die roll and editing the modifiers on the old one?
One die rolling function that IC doesn't provide that I'd like is the ability to do attack and damage rolls for 4e area attacks, where you roll one attack roll, say 1d20+5, for each target of the attack, but everyone that gets hit takes the same damage. In IC, I either have to make 2 rolls, or do something like this, to attack 3 monsters: 1d20+5;1d20+5;1d20+5;2d6+4. It would be nice to write, say, 3x1d20+5;2d6+4. Or 3.times(1d20+5), if you want to get all ruby about it. Syntax doesn't matter terribly much.
Another thing that's kind of painful to do in IC is initiative rolls, where you have to type something like 1d20+13;1d20+16;1d20+12;1d20+15;1d20+15;1d20+13;1d 20+14. I don't have any good ideas what to do about that, though.
It's also very important that it's searchable, so if you're a player in my game and you just spam rolls until you get a 20, I can catch you on it by searching for rolls under your name.
So, if this was assigned to a GM/Game profile, the GM could look up any rolls for a given PC? The GM/Game Profile would be the "bucket", the rolls being the stones, and the PC being the "tosser". The PC would also be able to see what dice he threw, but only his/her rolls.
Quote:
Originally Posted by covaithe
I would sorely miss the notes field if it weren't there, too. Campaign and character name are nice, but I could get by without them in a pinch.
What do you/they use the notes for? Is this for "Attack Roll" or "Saving Throw" or "Athletics Skill Check"? Or is there a larger purpose to the notes?
Quote:
Originally Posted by covaithe
For an in-forum die roller, if players had the ability to edit the post afterwards... I can't see how that would work with die rolls. Obviously you don't want them editing the value of the raw die roll itself, but I could see a case being made for editing the modifiers, if it could be done safely. Can the player edit the post to add another die roll? Can they delete an old die roll that they belatedly realized was unneeded? How would the forum tell the difference between adding a new die roll and editing the modifiers on the old one?
I'm still working on the ideas behind the posts, so I can't say right out. However, the concept of associating die rolls with a post are on the Post ID. So, if you add any amount of die rolls, they'll show there.
I was thinking that editing a post will retain the old information while updating the new. Similar to how a Wiki works that you can "roll back" to a prior version. The GM would have the option of this. If they were to edit a post, "remove" the Attack Roll and replace it with a Skill Roll, wouldn't just the modifier be the affected piece? So, in the end, the Forum should look to see if that Die Type (d4, d20, d100, etc) has been rolled and "latch onto" that one.
Modifiers normally would calculated at the time of the roll, but does pose an interesting situation. Maybe allow the GM to modify the modifiers...
Quote:
Originally Posted by covaithe
One die rolling function that IC doesn't provide that I'd like is the ability to do attack and damage rolls for 4e area attacks, where you roll one attack roll, say 1d20+5, for each target of the attack, but everyone that gets hit takes the same damage. In IC, I either have to make 2 rolls, or do something like this, to attack 3 monsters: 1d20+5;1d20+5;1d20+5;2d6+4. It would be nice to write, say, 3x1d20+5;2d6+4. Or 3.times(1d20+5), if you want to get all ruby about it. Syntax doesn't matter terribly much.
I've modified my Die Roller to compensate for multiple rolls. So, as in your example, you have Multiple Rolls, Multiple Dice, and a Modifier.
Quote:
Originally Posted by covaithe
Another thing that's kind of painful to do in IC is initiative rolls, where you have to type something like 1d20+13;1d20+16;1d20+12;1d20+15;1d20+15;1d20+13;1d 20+14. I don't have any good ideas what to do about that, though.
For Initiative, I envision an option where the GM clicks a button that creates the initiative ahead of the combat. This would reduce on the players having to post links. Also, the pbp Forum would have all the INI Modifiers available so it can do the actions on the fly.
Thanks for the feedback, it did clarify some things that I hadn't thought of.
One die rolling function that IC doesn't provide that I'd like is the ability to do attack and damage rolls for 4e area attacks, where you roll one attack roll, say 1d20+5, for each target of the attack, but everyone that gets hit takes the same damage. In IC, I either have to make 2 rolls, or do something like this, to attack 3 monsters: 1d20+5;1d20+5;1d20+5;2d6+4. It would be nice to write, say, 3x1d20+5;2d6+4. Or 3.times(1d20+5), if you want to get all ruby about it. Syntax doesn't matter terribly much.
I think that this has been addressed. Of course, I kind of just looked over the functions. I could be wrong. Roll Dice
"each apply X value to all dice
10d10.each(2)] add 2 to every die roll"
What do you/they use the notes for? Is this for "Attack Roll" or "Saving Throw" or "Athletics Skill Check"? Or is there a larger purpose to the notes?
You can see my notes usage in my history at IC, here.
There are two main purposes of the note field for me. First is just to keep track of which roll is which. Without something in the note, it would be hard to tell the giant's attack roll vs. Sarenax, from the cambion's attack roll vs. Orelal. Especially when I'm DMing, I can make many attack rolls in a single post. Second, I use the notes for anything I want to say about the roll, before actually rolling the virtual dice. If I'm rolling multiple attacks, I can say which order the rolls apply, before rolling: e.g., 1d20+5;1d20+5 Note: scorching burst vs. zombie 1 and troll 2. If I'm making saving throws against multiple conditions, I can specify which roll goes with which condition. If there are situational modifiers in play, I can say whether or not the roll includes them, e.g. "includes combat advantage vs. troll". If I'm rolling against a 10% chance to stabilize a dying PC in 3.5e, I can specify in advance what constitutes a success, e.g. 1d10; Ter-raen stabilizes on a 10.
You can see my notes usage in my history at IC, here.
Thanks for the clarification and example!
In my vision, the pbp Forum will include the references that you note in the attack rolls. For example, multiple attacks in the Forum will allow you to choose the target of each attack.
Ex,
Full Attack +10 vs Orc Chief (+1 Bless)
Full Attack +3 vs Goblin Skirmisher (+2 Flanking, +1 Bless)
However, for an online dice rolling program, I can see how these are helpful.
Just throwing options out there, but what if a "Target" was available from a list of combatants/PCs that could be chosen and saved with the results? The GM would add monsters to a campaign and make them "active" for actions.
I've made some modifications to my Die Roller and converted it from JavaScript to PHP (I'm developing this version offline). This will work similar to the Invisible Castle site. I'll need to make more modifications, so it's a bit away from "release".
As a result, I'm opening the flood gates to requests. I'll be adding a registration page so the person can store/see the results. I know there have been posts previous, but I want to start again with a clean slate.
I've been thinking about the current die roller and it's possible limitations. So, in an attempt to generate new ideas, I've created a second Die Roller. This die roller is far from complete (does not generate randoms, no gloss, development mode), but has the basic user interface ready.
Features
Uses a calculator interface, but users can type the results as well.
Supports a more mathematical approach to grouping, using "(" and ")"
Adds additional functions
H = Highest = high()
/H = Remove Highest = remHigh()
L = Lowest = low()
/L = Remove Lowest = remLow()
Exp = Exploding (wild) die = explode()
Her = Hero System = hero()
Avg = Average = avg()
Sum = Sum = sum()
Here are some examples:
If you want 6 rolls of 4d6 and discard the lowest, you would enter 6(remLow(4d6)).
If you want to do multiple rolls with the same modifier (2 rolls of 1d20 + 2), you would enter 2(1d20 + 2).
If you wanted to do multiple dice (for example, a weapon with fire damage and STR damage), you would enter 2d4 + 1d6 + 4.
Don't forget, you can also subtract (like in Alternity): 1d20 - 1d12 -2
Multiply: 2d6 * 3
Divide: 5d6 / 5
Have you taken a look at Myth Weavers? It's close to many of the things you have described. Here are some of the features:
Each game is it's own subforum.
The GM can setup subfolders to organize threads.
Players can create their own threads but the GM can move or delete them if he wants.
Dice rolling is done inside the posts with extensive options for modifiers, number of times to roll, etc.
Once a message containing a roll has been posted it can be edited any way you want, but if the roll is altered in any way a warning is included in the post letting everyone know that it has been tampered with.
They have their own character sheets to keep track of all stats.
There are tags that let you make rolls using info from your associated character sheet. For example you can roll a fort save without looking up the info on your sheet, you can also add situational bonuses on the fly.
There is a tag that lets players put secret messages inside posts that only the GM can see, and vice versa.
I looked through the games and found a random one for you to check out. Here is Eyes of Silver. I don't know anything about the game.
Have you taken a look at Myth Weavers?
...
Is this of any help?
Just got a chance to take a look at this. They do have some nice features and it looks like they have a similar concept. I'll have to take a longer look at the site though.
How would immediate actions work when players are posting in "initiative order mode"?
Good question! This can be potentially tricky and should probably provide plenty of options.
Considering the platform, it's difficult to say who is watching at any point in time. In an ideal setting, the database would determine when there was an action for a person (something that it's already doing) and send an email. However, that is ideal and would likely be an enhancement at a later point in time.
Any way you look at it, the person taking the action should at least finish their round. If something adversely affects it, action should be taken after the fact and roll back anything that happened after that point in time.
One way to tackle it is not entirely the most elegent way. Opportunity Attacks and Reactions are tricky because they may be happening when the person isn't watching the thread. As a result, the most appropriate action should be taken.
In either case, an indicator would populate saying that [PersonX] has an action. The person would have the designated amount of time to react. If they don't react, it goes onto the next player. If the next player has not made their action yet, then [PersonX] can still make their action. If the next player does take their action, then the Opportunity Attack/Reaction is lost.
In 4e, you can attack any one combatant only once. In 3.x, you can only do so many AoO. As a result, you may not want to spend that AoO on some peon while the big boss may be coming through. In other games, you need to pay attention all the time (Monopoly, Cribbage, BattleTech). So, it's going to depend on the system, and therefore should have some type of setting.
Maybe this is a personalized setting that follows any time limits established.
Another option is to declare the conditions that would trigger an Action or Reaction. "I use Shield if anyone attacks me." "I attack Bad2 if I threaten him."
Hello All! Just thought I'd pop in and let you know what I've been up to lately.
I've been messing around with the Die Roller option some more. While I haven't hammered out specifics, I've been trying different technologies to see if there is an ideal way. I've come to the conclusion that it's going to require multiple angles.
My most recent idea is to do a kind of "Merge" between my two dice generators (see my signature). I like the aspect of the second die roller (which I never mentioned, but looks a LOT better in FireFox) that I created, but it was missing something. The dice on the first is extremely convenient, but also lacks functionality. While I do have the first one "working" by saving posts, the second one did a horrible job at allowing posting.
So, long story short, I've been throwing around the idea of a "Shopping Cart" type die roller. In a nutshell, it will take the dice icons of the 1st, the buttons of the 2nd, and the "results" of the 1st. You enter your dice on the same "line" so that they can be easily referenced, deleted or modified.
For example in 4e,
You want to roll 4(1d20+5) and 2d6 damage. You'll first start out by creating a new record (process undefined, but I'm sure it will be some kind of "Start" button) to group everything together. What you will do next is click the d20 button and assign a modifier of +5. Add notes if desired. Then, you will assign (undefined function) damage by choosing the d6 twice (total 2d6). When finished, you will close out the grouping (undefined, but likely a button). The results would be:
The differences between the two are that 2d6 in 4e would give each the same value, where 3.x would give an individual 2d6 to each target.
Of course, this is all theory at this point. Considering that South Dakota is getting snow right now, I probably won't venture out this weekend so I'll give it a whirl.
I'm interested in hearing your thoughts. While this is all theory, does it sound like something that would be useful? Does it sound too complicated? Is there anything that you would add to the process? Remove from?
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