News Archive

13th Apr 2005 - New update and datasets ( v4.4.2)

12th Mar 2005 - New update and datasets ( v4.4.1)

This is a follow-up update to the release on 24th Feb. If you haven't read that news (just below), I recommend that you do. This update further enhances features from that release, and any other reported issues from the support forum, and from personal e-mails to me.

Once again, there are improved features for players, DMs, and people creating and maintaining datases. tHere are the main points:

• Dataset Skills feature: new "VM_ForceClassSkills" list variable to designate certain skills as class skills for all classes.
  
  
• Dataset domains/skills feature: Different way of building list selections for things such as Clerical domains, which allow for simple combining of different datasets.
  
  
• Monster Character classes : some important work to support the new "race levels" concepts, for playing and advancing monster characters. One of the key features is to support gaining of certain abilities as race level progresses, with extra flexibility for controlling how things such as HD, feat and skill points advance - on the way.
  
  
• Advanced Character Sheet : notes/graphics section now also included.
  
  
• Mapping Features:
  
• Fixed issue with hide/reveal mode in the mapper.
  
  
• Better automatic selection of creature pictures when dragged and dropped onto the mapper.
  
  
• Simplified creating a new map, with instant availablity of setting a background image from a file, copy/paste, or from the library of available images. You can also go immediately into full edit mode.
  
  
• more mouse click options on creatures, such as "to back", "to front", and "remove from map".
  
  
• <>Fixed minor issues with targeting opponents on the map (for attacks, skill checks etc).<>      

24th Feb 2005 - Update v4.4.0 is available, with great new features for everyone

Lots of goodies in this update, whether you're a player, a DM, or you create and manage your own datasets. Get the latest program update, and also the latest core rules dataset that you play with (either 3.0 rules, or the revised 3.5 rules)

There are numerous changes, but the main ones are listed below.

• Features for the player :
• The most obvious feature here is the new advanced character sheet. This great new character sheet lets you choose how much detail you would like in your official looking character sheet. You can stick to the basic details, or get extra detail on feats and abilities. Spell casters can even have a complete spell book printed that includes full spell descriptions.
  
  
• There's also been plenty of work on calculations for encumbrance, non-weapon proficiencies (for all race types), and you can also select an image that can be used in the graphically enhanced mapper.
  
  
• Features for the DM:
• A cleanup of the datsets, with particular attention to non-weapon proficiencies.
  
  
• Lots of work on the graphics, for mapping generally, and for representing creatures. You can have an extensive library of graphical "symbols", and all these will now be included as part of an export for things such as datasets, adventures, or NPC lists. If you use mapping at the gaming table, you'll find point-and-click targeting for attacks and opposed skill checks very quick and easy.
  
  
• The windows meta file (.emf and .wmf) is recommended above .bmp and .jpg if you use a graphic for a map background. They zoom nice and cleanly, so if you have any maps in something like CC2 (Campaign Cartogapher ), be sure to use them as .emf files!
  
  
• You can always select individual creature pictures for your NPCs and monsters, which will be automatically used when you drag them onto a map, but you can now also select a general picture for a race, which is automatically used if you don't select an individual one.
  
  
• The new mapper is more fully utilized now. You'll find that you can do edits directly when you first add a new map, which is especially great for those that don't use a background bitmap. Also, the Adventure window map preview, and the adventure printout, now actually print the mapper file you've created, rather than just the background bitmap (if you happened to be using one).
  
  
• Features for the dataset creators:
• I've finally fulfilled my ambition to fully utilize the generator tables for various types of lists defining races and classes (especially for things such as class skills, weapon proficiencies, compulsory equipment, random feats, random equipment and random treasure). Creating or editing these generator tables will now automatically update the appropriate races and classes, which have been reworked to operate more quickly when generating or recalculating creatures.
  
  
• The Race and Class screens now have an "Update" button which allows you to quickly and easily recalculate the effects of all tables involved.
  
  
<>I've moved much important script code from the main script file into the database "Game Rules" scripts. This is important, because it allows you to fairly easily use script redirection to replace core scripts with specialized versions of your own dataset. An example of this would be the different scripts for the 3.0 rules and the 3.5 rules, which calculate things such as magical item creation costs differently.


• Technical background stuff :
• I've done away with my recent "packages" innovation, which stored files (especially graphics) in zip files. I've moved this into a new database table, which makes it is much easier to include necessary graphics in exports.
  
  
• The new database graphics file manager is both fast and space efficient. Only files which benefit from compression (such as .bmp files) are actually compressed (for maximum speed). Now there is no need to use .jpg files instead of .bmp files for things such as creature graphics. The background transparency works with the .bmp files, and you can now have a massive graphics collection without it gobbling up huge amounts of disk space.
  
  
• I've started using a more powerful database manager than before, which gives me much greater flexibility when upgrading database structures for putting better features into RPM. It works well, and you should find that your database structures are automatically upgraded when you get the latest version, no matter what particular version you had before.
  
  
• If you upgrade, you may see a couple of messages about missing a core export script. This will happen once, and is harmless.
  
  

23rd Nov 2004 -Latest update (v4.3.4), and Core 3.5 dataset

The latest program update is available, and there is also an extensive update of the Core 3.5 dataset.

• A new scripting facility is available to help those  who create their own datasets. You can now redirect scripts. For example, the Revised 3.5 dataset using a different script to calculate the prices of enchanted weapons and armor, from the script used to do standard Core 3.0 calculations.
  
  
• The new mapper is looking pretty good. There's a lot of power there, and future updates will make becoming aware of that power more obvious (with a more intuitive interface).
  

7th Sep 2004 - New features: Now, and the on-going development

Well it may be obvious that something like work and business trips have consumed my life these last few months, but I do actually have some very good stuff ready, and some even better stuff on the way.

• Right now, I'm just about ready for the next release of RPM, which has a strong focus on making life easier for those whi frequently update their RPM program, and especially those that use other datasets for different campaigns or genre (such as sci-fi or Modern). As well, there are little touches with features such as hyperlinking information.
  
  The new process for updating RPM, where you don't need to backup and restore your personal information, is especially important to the 1000+ members of the unofficial yahoo fan-site - who have produced many, many import packages.
  
  
• The other upcoming big thing is the new mapper I'm working on. The idea is to bring together several very important RPG features, including:
  
  
  • Works with the old mapper system, where you can continue to use maps you've already created.
  • Advanced map editing features, with full pen, colour, simplified layering, bitmap objects (for players and monsters), object libraries etc etc.
  • Ability to use bitmap textures and support full zooming in and out to any required level, which gives you intelligent redraw and font scaling, as with advanced GIS mapping systems.
  • Fully enabled for a local network or the internet - giving you a constantly updated and shared map amongst several computers. The DM can easily control player visibility of map portions, and everyone can easily move their own players around. Full chat facilities are included, along with appropriate RPG features, such as the ability to communicate privately to the DM and others.
  • The possibility of implementing an RPG directory service,  similar to instant messaging, where you can easily get hold of your RPG buddies on the internet at game time.

27th June 2004 - Looking after your computer

It sounds so obvious: "Make sure everything on your computer is backed up!". Sometimes though, this is less simple than it sounds.
My life-long lucky struck streak finally ended, and I got stung - losing my disk drive.
In my case, its not just a question of backing up data, since I use my machine for software development. Putting a disk drive back together is about restoring data, e-mail repositories and a whole bunch of installed applications that often need to be re-registered.
Its taken just over a week to finally put everything back together.

Which brings me to a point relevant to RolePlayingMaster and backups. Please, back up your roleplaying data regularly! Also, if you've registered RPM, make sure that you have a copy of your registration code handy.
During a typical week, I get a handful of e-mails from people who need to rebuild their disk drive for one reason  or another, because they have lost all their e-mail, and their registration key along with it. With all the spam and virus problems in today's computer world, it  happens so easily. In my case, I lost my drive just after applying a Windows update to my computer to avoid virus problems! Go figure...

15th June 2004 - Updates for datasets, RPM, and a better way to do program updates

16th Mar 2004 - Generator examples with the latest features

29th Feb 2004 - Message board and new update

19th Feb 2004 - Message board and new update

6th Feb 2004 - Improved services and some issues

I'm putting together a brand new, super duper forum, to make it a lot easier for the community to discuss things, request features and seek guidance.
My old bravenet forum was okay-ish, and I find the yahoo forums difficult to read.

I wanted something that was modern, has different forum areas for different reasons, allows people to post without having to register, and is just generally more fun.
I think I'll offer the RPM yahoo fan moderators moderator status in this new forum. The yahoo fan community might find it easier to manage their files on yahoo, but meet and discuss on the new forum.

Its not properly set up yet, but please feel free to visit a leave any comments that you feel appropriate by clicking here.

Some issues to be aware of.  A couple of things have crept  in and been uncovered. I'm working to get an update out to address these issues, and that should give the result we're after with the recent quality efforts.

• Strange mouse movement/freezing behaviour. when using the wizard to add PCs: Simply ensure that you already have the creature window open before you start the add PC wizard. The [Alt+C] hotkey will do that for you in a single stroke.
  
  
• Problem with editing skill ranks in the creature grid: I recommend that you use the more correct way of using "Level Up" until the next release.
  
  
• Possible problem with installing RPM with the full install: Please ensure that when you run the full installation program, you install RPM into an empty directory. I've had a few reports of people having a problem if they install a new, full RPM over an old copy. Apparantly, the installer sometimes won't  over-write old DLL files with new ones, even though the date stamp is different. Seems silly (not to mention difficult to track down), but there it is.
  If anyone out there knows why a standard installer should sometimes do this, please feel free to enlighten me!

22nd Jan 2004 - Extensive Updates Available ( program, revised 3.5 dataset, adventures, NPC packs etc)

Looks like we've covered all important issues that needed addressing, and I've decided to do a massive update of all the free add-ons as well. Many thanks to the yahoo fan site, and especially Adam M!

The latest version (v4.2.12), is available as a full install and as a much smaller update.
Be sure to grab the latest versions of all your add-ins as well!

15th Jan 2004 - Latest update is available

Focused feedback continues. The latest full download is v4.2.10, and the latest update is v4.2.11

Please note that you do not import the old 3.5 rules dataset into the latest version. If you are using the 3.5 rules, then please get the latest copy available from the Software Library section.

12th Jan 2004 - Small  v4.2.9a update

For those who are testing out the new 4.3.9 version, here is a small "executable and script file only" update. Just unzip it into your v4.2.9 installation, and check it out. The update is here.
Thanks.

11th Jan 2004 - Stability update (v4.2.9).

I'm currently working on a plan with the yahoo fan site, and doing any littlefixes and enhancements as requested (see yahoo site messages). No need to update if you already have v4.2.8, unless you've experienced a problem that is now likely fixed.

3rd Jan 2004 - Happy New Year!
Another update (v4.2.8). A few fixes, and some very useful new features.

There are some very good features and adjustments made to RPM in this release. Its all about making the program quicker, easier and yet more powerful. I'm very pleased to start off the New Year with this release. I'd also like to thank all those that pointed out issues, and made suggestions  during 2003. I'm very pleased with how its driven the on-going development of RPM into what I believe is the most powerful and useful tool for 3rd edition roleplaying (echoed by many of you!). My thanks, and please continue with the feedback!

• Fix: First up, apologies for an annoying bug in the last release introduced by the new options feature (some had problems creating PCs or creatures). This has been fixed, along with a few other annoyances with options.
  
  
• Generators: Text generators has now being merged with Table Generators, so that one window now does them all. This is actually a powerful synergy, and I advise you try out playing with all the new options. Its great fun! To sum up the changes:
• All generators are now combined, so you can assign them to datsets/sources, and you can make eexport packages out of them.
• The old TableSmith text generators that used to be stored in a "Tables" sub-directory are gone, and are now referred to as "textscript" type generators. These are the generators used to generate things such as names (many different genre), book titles, inn descriptions, rumours and adventure ideas.
• The standard generators (of types like "items", "race", "spells", "feats", "skills" etc) still generate "real" items that you can double-click on to get details. There are currently about 500 generator tables in all.
• There are so many genrator tables in RPM now, that I've increased the filtering capabilities to help you focus in on the most useful stuff. A default  "Main Generator" flag now
• I'd rate this the most powerful RPG generators system available, but there are bigger plans on the way!
  
  
• Grids for User Interface: I've switched all the important lists over to use the new grid component. This gives the following:
• Easy scrolling and quick key typing to search.
• Flexibility with sorting things the way you want them, with simply clicking on column headings.
• A new copy/paste facility, whereby you can select multiple copies of things in a list, and paste them to another list. There are many ingenuous ways to use this facility, for lots of time saving. Use a right-mouse-click to access the new functions. Examples following:
• You can copy a selected list of creature equipment to the equipment list of another creature (and continue to paste to yet others).
• You could do the same with other creature lists, as with their feats or skills (for quick DM preparation).
• You don't have to copy and paste from the same type of list to itself (as with copy from one creatures feat list to another. RPM is smart enough to let you copy from other lists (such as the general Feats maintenance window), and then paste them to other lists (such as the Creature List window, or the actual feat list of a given creature).
  
  
• General Speed: Well, its simply all faster. You'll notice that moving through huge lists of creatures is a lot faster, as is bringing up the Race description window. Creature generation isn't the fastest if you have automatic smart equipment, feat, spell list and personality generation turned on - but then smart genration will take more time. You can, however, generate standard NPCs and creatures very quickly and correctly without all thee fancy options.
  
  
• Other: There are also the usual bits and pieces, small and numerous changes (though important to those who requested them!).

If you have already examined RPM for its standard 30 day shareware limit, you are welcome, and encouraged, to have another look. Just drop me line...

If you use, or have used, a recent version of RPM (preferably this v4.2.8), please take a moment to let me know what you think of it at luke_jones@roleplayingmaster.com.

Enjoy, and Happy New Year!

17th Dec 2003 - New update (v4.2.7) gets serious with preferences and options - especially for NPC Generators and statblock formats

With all the flexibility and options behind RPM, the key feature behind v4.2.7 is clearly the ability to set up RPM exactly how you want it, and have those preferences saved for you:

• See a quick overview description of the new Options feature here. Its also a reasonable example of the table wordprocessing capabilities in RPM.
• As a consequence of options, you now also have great control over configuring and saving your preferences for NPC generation, and also for how you like your statblocks formatted.
• You'll also find improvement with the latest "quick lookup" features.
• In the creature window, you'll find new options with right-mouse clicking on grids. One improvement is the ability to easily trade equipment between creatures.
• The "(none)" adventure how has some useful note link examples, which actually provide quick and useful commands (such as to generate a random dungeon, or an encounter group).
• On a similar note, check out the new "Preface" section in the Sample Combat tutorial. YOu may find it far more easy and useful as it now utilizes linking (image and text) to demonstrate use of the interface.
• New features have also been added to support the wider RPM community, with their on-going datset and adventure creation work.
• Clicking on the report icon in the PC/Creature window is far more friendly, now offering you a simple choice between the character sheet and the statblock reports.
• Very important news for those with computers running Win95/98 or Me. These older operating systems are not very good with programs rich in using GDI/User resources (having more RAM doesn't help).

Somehow, code I use especially to manage resource usage on those operating systems became deactivated a couple of versions ago. I have now corrected this.
• In general, you'll find RPM much faster now with managing very large numbers of creatures.

4th Dec 2003 - New usability features in v4.2.5

Thankfully a number of people has sent in suggestions recently. This has resulted in some new features for players, and especially for DMs. Look out for:

• Smoother double clicking on list items to get information popups (such as when working with lists of feats or skills in character generation.
• Smoother point spending on skills in Level Up.
• Greater use of the new "super grid", to enable user sorting and incremental key searches in more key areas. Also, quick popup search grid for screens suchas feats and spells.
• Better organization of the Adventure Builder section - convenient creature lists for encounter groups, and other "tidy-ups".
• Other minor issues that were reported.

Thanks to those who have made suggestions. When you add them all up, they make a big difference!

Keep 'em coming!

13th Nov 2003 - New "Consolidation" Update (v4.2.2):

This release is mostly about addressing reported issues arising from the new features in last 2 updates. It addresses reported issues, but also implements some important new features.

• Summary: I'd sum up this release as been a nice "finisher" for those who are after the best RPG tool for doing all the important things they need in a quick and easy way. Its the "stability release" which brings together the quality of advanced word processing, powerful and adaptable generators, sound and music - all with the power of a dedicated 3rd edition (and 3.5) RPG engine.

 
• Various Changes: Thanks to a number of people that made various suggestions. Whilst some of these may seem quick and simple, they can make a large difference to those preparing for their game, or using a computer at the gaming table.

 
• Managing Combat at the gaming table: A bit of key work on the "Execute Action" window. The options to run fully managed combat, and especially standard combat management have been streamlined. The options for "Targeting" and "Review" can now give extremely quick action results - especially for detailing the results of multiple attacks in a round.

 
• The Guide and tutorials are now in the Campaign Encyclopaedia: Given the latest capabilities in the new advanced wordprocessing features, this is a very easy and logical step, for the following reasons:
• Printing from any entry is much improved, allowing you to obtain tutorials, or Guide reports, with a simple mouse click.
• The improved hyperlink capability means that the Guide can do far more, allowing you to (for example) click on commands embedded within a table of described features.
• Its easier to add or modify content. Community effort is a big part of the total RPM picture, and I'd be happy to review any new Guide information or tutorials, for inclusion.

 
• Stability! : Sadly a few issues did creep into the last 2 releases. Whilst you could generally (and safely) ignore those issues, they were certainly annoying, and left many with an uneasy feeling.

Anyway, those issues have been addressed, and thanks to those who reported them.
 
• D20 Designers and datasets: As always, there is the ongoing need and requests to make RPM more flexible for the variations of D20 out there! A number of changes have been made to help this.

 
• Yahoo fansite: Andre Jamke is leading an effort to encourage more community effort for developing resources. Its a great initiative, which I'm supporting with rewards for those making a decent contribution. Check out the fansite if you haven't visited lately.

20th Oct 2003 - New Update (v4.2.1): Equipment Generator!

• Generators: The spell, feat and equipment generators are now fully functional. Equipment generators are the crowning glory. They examine the race and classes to determine what the most appropriate equipment is (magic and ordinary). Typically the creature level is used to determine the value of equipment, and that money is used to purchase generated equipment. The generation tables associated with races and classes (like all tables), can be very easily configured to a particular campaign setting, or even a different genre (such as DragonStar or StarWars).

New buttons are available on appropriate windows (such as the PC generator wizard and the standard Creature window), to generate different stuff.
Spell lists were never this easy!


• Adventure Building: Fixed an issue with adding items (such as treasure, traps, or features) to locations. Also corrected an issue with cancelling a request to delete an adventure.
  
  
• Datasets: Changes implemented to support datasets such as StarWars and Wheel of Time. Also corrected an issue with exporting the full details for classes and races (such as feats and items).
  
  
• Advanced Wordprocessor: fields with advanced wordprocessing capabilities now have a distinctive cursor, making it obvious that a right mouse-click can unlock advanced features.

Done lots of advanced wordprocessor table editing (such as for tables in skill descriptions). Check out skills such as


• PC/NPC/Monster generation and maintenance:
  Fixed an issue with calculating equipment weight.
  
Also reworked the effects that apply to magic weapons (such as Icy Burst, Chaotic, Disruption,...). You now also get the effects applied even when used without in-game targeting.
 

5th Oct 2003 - "Must have" - great new update (multimedia, hyperlinks, advanced wordprocessing, generators, and more).

• Advanced Wordprocessing - RPM now has very serious wordprocessing capabilties built in to it.
  This is to provide you with the best tool for producing the highest quality RPG work, whether creating adventures, or creating your own world setting.
  
• The new wordprocessing engine, with a simple right click of the mouse, unleashes all the new functionality for things such as the encyclopaedia, adventure notes, or descriptions for PCs/creatures, encounter groups, maps, player and DM location details, skills, feats, spells etc.
• You now have virtually total style control over things such as paragraphs, general text, graphics and tables.
• Tables are a particularly great feature, with capabilities like cell splits, individual cell colouring and formatting, tables within tables, and total border shadowing control etc.
• You can be excused for thinking that you're actually using Word for Windows!
• If you're upgrading your RPM system, note the difference tables make to the readability of skills such as concentration and disable device.
• The new wordprocessing system blends in old text, the old rich-text format, and the powerful new text format capability, in a seamless and trouble-free way. The numerous tables from the 3.5 rule encyclopaedia are suddenly nicely formatted, and very readable, as well as print friendly.

The blended results are particularly nice when you print an entire note set from the encyclopaedia, to generate reports or web pages. Not only does it all come out nicely, and a lot faster, but you also get your graphics coming through now - even for your old rich-text format notes!

I've been advised in the past that even on its own, the Encyclopaedia would make a great and useful product. Well, it just got a whole lot better!  

• Multimedia - you can now add real atmosphere in-game, with sound, music and video! Your installation comes with a collection of background music ranging from the eerie, to the chase, to the boistrous tavern, but you can easily add your own files (such as mp3, midi and wav). With sound, you can now hear the dice rolls RPM makes (which you can still, of course, edit with your own dice rolls), and you can hear the swish of weapons, along with cries when damage is dealt.
  By default spells have a mystical tinkle as they are cast, but you can get specific with spells, such as the explosion sound for a fireball.
  
  
• A Player Window has been added to RPM. This is something that is particularly useful if you DM, and have a second monitor. With a quick button press you can show the Players a snapshot of the BattleMap, and also the player description for the current location.
  
  
• You can also copy/paste any other piece of text or grahic into the player window, making it useful to store things such as pictures in the adventure notes. You can also do things such as click on any available monster graphic in the race screen, and paste the picture for the players to see.
  
  
• Hyperlinks get serious attention in the new release, and are useful for much more than simply jumping around. Any wordprocessing note can now link to webpages, encyclopaedia notes, adventures notes, and also to NPCs/creatures, music, sounds and even little scripts. For example, you may wish to create links to prepared speach or sounds in a map location, encounter group description or even a specific NPC/creature.
  
  
• Generators are finally appearing in RPM in their most useful form! These are generators for things such as equipment, feats and spell lists. I've gone to a lot of trouble to produce sensible results that can be *easily* configured to your own campaign setting.
  
  
• There is also the more "mundane" (less revolutionary) set of typical improvements in this latest version. They include:
• A much better character record sheet - now displaying any available graphic of your PC/NPC, and displaying extra info in the AC details and special defenses.
• A better statblock format, with the statblock report having a nicely hyperlinked contents (useful for long printouts).
• Generating creatures is pretty fast now, generating a creature in anything from 1 to 2 seconds (useful when generating large encounter groups).
• Item selection now uses the new grid, which makes searching and selecting items a much quicker and smoother experience.
• You can now use an "Add Untrained" button to instantly add all skills that don't require training to a PC/creatures skill list. A lot of people like having the stats for *all* usuable skills in their statblock or character sheet.
• Be sure to try out printing an entire report from the encyclopadia of an entire set such as the 3.5 rules, or EveryOne Else. It will give you a great idea of how you can easily build up your own RPG world and use it either on the computer, or as a report or generated webpage. There's actually very little taking advantage of the full capabilities at the moment, but the beauty/wow factor should slowly appear. I should be able to create PDFs as well, if the interest is there. 
  

8th Sep 2003 - New Update (program and revised 3.5 dataset)

• Great news for everyone with the latest improvements to RPM - especially those that may have found some user interface challenges with previous versions.
  
  Details are here.

5th Aug 2003 - 3.5 Rules available, and new update

• [14th August] Firstly apologies for delays in responding to requests. Due to problems in the internet itself, I've been unable to access my own website for the last 1.5 weeks. The news just below is what was actually ready to upload on 5th August.
  
  
• Amongst all the 3.5 chatter, and other things going on, its pretty much "business as usual" if you simply want to get the latest and greatest version of RPM. As usual, and inspite of 3.5 work, and still taking suggestions to improvements for the "old 3.0 rules".
  
  In fact, to make things clear, the 3.0 and the 3.5 program are exactly the same program. With the way RPM is designed, they are simply different "sources", or "datasets".
  
  
• When an update is available, it generally applies to you, whichever rules you use!
  
  
• Future improvments to the RPM program apply to both the 3.0 and the revised 3.5 rules !
  
  
• The latest update of RPM is available here. This fixes an important issue with importing new classes (needed for the 3.5 rules dataset), and has nice improvements for things such as the XP info you get for your characters, and an especially nice improvement with the XP calcaultor.
  
  
• The XP calculator changes are an excellent example of the game play and design philosophy behind RPM, as follows:
• If, you manage both the PCs and the NPCs/monsters in RPM, you can simply press the "Auto" button, and have all the details in XP calculation completely worked out.If you don't manage the PCs in RPM (fairly common), you can simply edit in the number of PCs and average PC level, with everything else worked out for you.If you don't have  much entered into RPM at all, but just want to take quick advantage of the superior XP calculation, you can directly fill out a grid, entering any combination of oppenent CRs and numbers. You can also edit in other details (like PC numbers and average level), to get all you need. RPM has a superior XP calculation ability, that can work with any CR/numbers combination.

If you've ever tried to match an encounter group to the very limited DMG table, you'll know what I mean. As a side-effect, you can see the Encounter Level (EL) worked out for any NPC/monster combination.Lastly, if you have your own method for calculating XP, and want to get fancy, you can change the way RPM works. All D20 game mechanics in RPM are open to change by you!

• The full 3.5 source dataset is now openly available, meaning that you don't need to e-mail me to get it. Installation is very simple, and I've produced some info to answer common questions. You can get the download, and the info here.

Let me know if you find any issues, so that I can quickly fix it!

23rd July 2003 - 3.5 Rules available, and beta of full source/dataset

• I'm very pleased to announce that the Software Library now has the 3.5 Rules Encyclopaedia available for download. This is an extremely easy and useful way to become familiar with the new rules, and you can keep your 3.0 game fully intact!

 
• The full 3.5 source dataset (for full PC, NPC and monster generation) is currently in beta, and is available by request.

 
• Its all free. Click hereformore detail about the the 3.5 encyclopaedia and the source dataset.

21st July 2003 - RPM update, RPG software library, and 3.5

• Firstly, you can grab the latest v4.0.5 update from here. This release has a very strong focus on quality, and also new features.
 
• Check out the new RPG software library. We're building up a nice varied collection of RPG supplements to make your gaming easier than ever. These accessories can certainly multiply the usefulness of RPM to your gaming needs!

If you've done something good you'd like to make available there, let me know.
 
• Only a few days now to the officialrelease of 3.5 !! Then I can get busy releasing the free 3.5 dataset (source) for RolePlayingMaster. Thanks to the very easy and flexible ReCalculate, you should be able to instantly switch to the 3.5 ruleset, and automatically convert your characters and creatures.

 
• Star Wars brilliance. Congratulations to John Cook, who has almost finishing implementing Star Wars on RPM. Virtually without any assistance, he has put in all the classes, skill, feats, special items etc. I will help him finish off a few curly details (such as the different XP chart working in RPM), but its great to see somebody downloading RPM and being able to do something like this virtually unaided.

 
• Get more details on the update and 3.5 here.

8th July 2003 - NPC Pack 1000 available for download - pure convenience.

• NPC Pack 1000 is a free RPM import download. It contains over 1000 NPCs ready to use in your game. They come complete with classes, equipment, defined attacks, feats, skill, known spells, and even personalities.

As per usual, you can quickly change anything you like (even the race), or add templates, and instantly ReCalculate any NPC.
I recommend using the new Creature Organizer feature in RPM to find the NPCs you want and move them into your game or adventure.
More details are available here.
 
• The very latest RPM update is 4.0.4a, which contains some changes that better support handling massive numbers of creatures in RPM - with greater speed and less memory.

 
• There are also other new downloads available, such as the "Beeyond" adventure (demonstrating good use of CC2 maps), and also a massive update at the Unofficial Yahoo fan site.

2nd July 2003 - Version 4.0.4 available - easier, more correct, and with new features.

• The update is available here. I'd like to make special thanks to Andre and the yahoo fan group for the work that went into version 4.0.4 . The sheer breadth and complexity of a complete 3rd edition program like RPM can be quite daunting, but it seems that we're getting very close to getting a program that works very well for the core needs of RPGers. Of course, further work in other areas is always on-going.

 
• A very important update. With the new user interface now done, I've also put a lot of focus into making RPM much easier to use for casual RPG players. This means you'll see things like statblocks and armour class in a more standard way - very suitable for those who aren't (yet!)  into fully computerizing their game. As always, there is good new stuff for the RPG Power User. Details on the changes and new features are available here.

 
• I'm starting to become very confident that RPM is now the premier RPG computer computer for everyone - from the beginner not too familiar with computers, to the Power User who wants to fully design their own world!

I'm very keen to hear from you how RPM measures up to your wildest hopes. I'm especially keen to ear from you if you think that something you need is missing, or could be done better.
I'm especially keen to make sure that all the fundamentals are properly done, before going on to focus on things such as networking and world generators.

Feel free to e-mail me with any suggestions - and benefit from it!  

13th June 2003 - Joe Sweeney does updates tutorials

• I'm very happy to report that Joe Sweeney has been very quick to update his tutorials for the new look and feel.

The following PDFs are available, and if you're like me, you may prefer to right click on the links and save them to your local hard-drive, rather than view them directly in your browser:
• Tutorial 1 - RolePlayingmaster basics
• Tutorial 2 - Creating Player characters
• Tutorial 3 - Quickly creating Non-player characters
• Tutorial 4 - Using Skills
• More good news: Joe plans to update his sample combat tutorial very soon as well.
• Yes, I know, there's a lot more to RolePlayingMaster than this, but once you've mastered these excellent step-by-step tutorials, you'll find that getting your way around the rest of RPM is a breeze!
• Joe's pretty serious about his roleplaying world, and a multi-media whizz to-boot. I recommend treating yourself by checking out his website at http://www.storyweaver.com

10th June 2003 - Official release of version 4, with advanced new skins interface.

• For details about the new interface, and other features, get more info here.
• This is a very important milestone in the evolution of RPM. Version 4 finally leaves behind the old "utility" interface, for something more modern and much easier to use.
• Get the download here.
• Check out the new screenshots, and features.

18th May 2003 - Update for  Gui beta download available, and website downtime.

• Firstly, apologies to those who have been frustrated trying to get to this web-site over the past few days. ENWorld, Mortality and myself are all on the same system, and have all suffered from problems by the internet service provider.

Whilst we're back up now, there may be occasional problems during the next week.
 
• If you're waiting for the beta to become official before updating, check out the screenshots! They've all been updated to show off the new skins GUI. In fact, most screens look even better with the latest update - but you'll get a very good idea of what's up.

 
• On the good side, an update to the new "skins" GUI beta ( v3.2.3) is available here. The repsonse to the new look-and-feel has been very, very good! Even hard-core RPM users, who I thought might prefer the old "utility" look, have taken to the new look.

You should backup your "db" sub-directory, and use Import/Export to transfer your personal information into the new system.
I needed to do some structural database changes. Most notably, the size of the "Source" field for various data tables  has been increased greatly, to allow for more flexibility in naming conventions.
Apparantly, people are doing a lot of work entering information from various source books.

3rd May 2003 - New Gui beta download available !

It's been a while now, having taken a fair bit of time and effort, but a beta of the new GUI release is available. This is for those who already have RPM installed.
It's not yet available from the normal download page, but you can get it here, along with details explaining what its all about.

(see the picture below).

9th Apr 2003 - Joe Sweeney's excellent tutorial is available

4th Apr 2003 -     What's being happening...

• Andre Jamke is doing an excellent job at the  unofficial RPM fan site of helping with questions and pushing me to put in features based on your needs, as well as help out with making more free download supplements available. I've also answered a few questions there on how to hook into RPM for putting in your own source material and house rules. More to come...
• Joe Sweeney has put together some excellent RPM tutorials, which I've yet to put on-line (thanks Joe!). Fighting a heavy (day) work load, along with the standard change of season sickness (entering winter down-under), I've been struggling with catching up on everything. Despite upcoming changes (see below), these tutorials will still be relevant and useful.
• There's a few other people putting together great material, and I'll pass on more when it becomes available.
• Along with all this, I'm, trying to "quickly" put together some great interface changes that should have the following benefits:
• Very stingy use of Windows resources. Great news for those using Windows 95/98 or Me, who like to have other resource intensive apps running at the same time as RPM.
• A more obvious and friendly user interface - much less "utilitarian" than what it used to be.
• Well, its "prettier". Whilst very few people have indicated to me that RPM looks far more like a utility, than a fun game app, I watch the various RPG forums. User interfaces like that from the original Player's Handbook disk are well loved.

Even those who are happy with the old "utilitarian" interface of RPM should see benefit from the new approach. More happy RPM users should mean more material shared for everyone.
• Whilst I normally do fairly frequent updates, the next one has been delayed for a while, due to the massive nature of the changes. I will probably make a beta available to those who are keen, before I make the update official. My thanks for the patience of those eagerly awaiting the next release.
• Click on the image above for a bigger picture of whats on the way. Please send any possibly useful comments to me :)

 

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10th Mar 2003 -     Update 3.1 available, including random dungeon generator and internet voice.
• Firstly, an unofficial RPM fan site has started as a yahoo group. I have no official capacity there (not a moderator), and like it that way. This is is an independant RPM community initiative, and a great place to chat with other RPM users, and share export files that you've created. I'm assured that copyright issues will be respected here, and encourage the sensible sharing of information.

A number of people have recently put up their hands to help out development of RPM, via tutorials, data entry, and in other ways. I'll be acknowledging them soon, and perhaps the unnofficial forum would be a good venue to work through.
• Good news for anyone interested in registering RPM, to get the full benefits of everything available (as well as support on the on-going development).  I'm currently offering a 20% discount sale on registrations. Hopefully this will encourage some keen interest on the new features, and spark requests for more features!
• The update has 2 great new initiatives in it, including the ability to create random dungeons, and use RPM to talk over the internet for roleplaying. Both of these initiatives are useful, and good fun! I do, however, want to greatly extend their features, and will wait on community interest to focus my next round of development effort.
• I've been pretty busy. Apart from the above initiatives, the latest release has a number of important improvements and fixes - some key things that will make people very happy! Get all the details here, to find out more about the new features, and all the fixes. Show the interest in what's most important to you, and I'll spend the effort making it happen!
• Lastly, the release of 3.0 with the industrial-strength database has lived up to all hopes. According to all reports, and my own extensive hammering, gone are the days of corruptions or data loss!

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7th Feb 2003 -     Clarifications on 3.0
• Joe Sweeney has created a tutorial for creating PCs, and I've put it on-line here. Nice work Joe! Thanks!

 
• The screenshots are now old. I'll hopefully find time to update them soon...
• To get the Text Generators to work you need to download the "tables.zip" file from my download section (see "Text Generators Pack") and place it in your RPM install directory.

 
• If you're installing into the same directory as an old copy of RPM, be sure to uninstall the old version first.

 
• Due to complaints about wizard-type characters automatically recieving inappropriate weapons and armor according to their race type (as per the monster manual), I stopped the automatic equipment generation. Well, that has caused even more complaints (can't win!), so I'm putting it back next release. When the new generators capability is fully working in this area, none of this will matter anymore.

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6th Feb 2003 -     On the 3.0 release.

Thanks for all the very positive comments pouring in. It seems that stability issues under the previous system affected more people than I realized.
I can tell you that replacing the database manager was no walk in the park, but its definiitely well worth it!


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2nd Feb 2003 -     Version 3.0  info

My thanks and gratitude to all the testers who have been testing the latest version of RPM.
This is a very significant release with a completely new database manager - put in to address stability and corruption problems that seemed to plague many people.

Testing for corruption seemed to be easy for testers - it simply doesn't happen anymore! What we ended up with was extremely thorough coverage of all the other functionality in RPM, which included the new generators capabilities.

All the other free downloads have been changed to suit the new database manager.
Existing export data from the old system will need to be converted to the new system by me. Naturally I'm happy to convert anything e-mailed to me by registered users.

I'm very happy with this release, as reports of corruptions have been dogging me for months. As I guessed, the problem was wider than I expected, since people seem to put up with issues rather than complain about them.

New things to look out for (a few samples):

• Generators! This covers "lists" as well. Now RPM has a very strong capability to generate lists of feats, spells, abilities, magic items, weapons, etc. The uses go on and on, covering generation of encounters and spell lists through to items for magic shops. You can easily copy and modify existing tables, or build new tables from scratch.

Check out the following generators as examples:
• Random spell list generation for each spell casting class by every level.
• How RPM is being tailored in a way that allows you to define things such as class skill proficiencies, random feats, random skill point selection, random equipment and compulsory equipment. This will enable you to put as much campaign-specific custom generation behind any class or race of focus in your game.
• Random encounters by CR, standard DMG Dungeons, or by climate (hills, underground, etc).
• Equipment generators, from a fighters weapons and armor package, through to a "magic shop" where you can decide how many items to have, and generate from various magic table types. Try your own variations with weightings for different table types (eg a Wizard shop focussing on staves, rods and wondrous magic, or an armourer focussing on weapons, armr and potions).
• D20 Modern NPCs can randomly determine occupations. Tinker with the numbers to get a weighting suitable to your own world.
• Character/Creature Generators: Levelling up now uses the generators/lists when adding feats with subtypes. As an example, when you take "Exotic Weapon Proficiency" feat, a list of exotic weapons pops up to choose from. Lots of little convenience functions, like:
• By default, create an attack description whenever you add (buy) a new weapon.
• A skills "max out" button to bump up points in a selected skill to its max.
• Quick execute action buttons for Creature tabs in areas like Attacks and Skills.
• Nice word-processor capabilities now more widely used, for things such as statblocks, skill descriptions and the game log. This works particularly well with the game log which gives you all the in-game numbers (for stuff like attacks), but now highlights things such as AC hit and damage caused.
• Preview the "New Reports" which allows you to easily create or modify all sorts of reports, with a professional quality finish. This will be very useful for customizing your own character sheets.
• Speed. The new system is a lot smoother and faster - particularly in you're shuffling creature counters around the BattleMap, and executing actions.
• A simple, common approach to selecting and setting pictures for characters/creatures, races or maps.
Be sure to try out the generators. They're good fun, and allow you to quickly make use of RPM's extensive database (and search/filter capabilities) to build whatever table you need.


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16th Jan 2003 -     Ultimate Generators - at long, long last!

RPM is having a very strong generators (and lists) capability being built into it.
This is to cover everything from quick character and NPC generation, to fully generated encounters, and beyond.

Nothing brings power and time saving capability to your roleplaying hobby more than well done generators.
You can play with it the current version (beta, as mentioned just below), but I welcome any thoughts or advice you may have on it.
Explanations can be found here.


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15th Jan 2003 -     Status on current work (see 13th Jan) is available here.

Current patch is v2.1.2


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13th Jan 2003 -     Revolutionary pre-release available on request

I've put RPM through a bit of a revolution, going as far as to replace the entire database manager that runs underneath it. This is not yet part of a normal download, as I'm looking for people to verify for me that it works in the various versions of Windows and RAM sizes etc. Please e-mail me to get the link.

Here are the details on the new version:

• Completely new database manager: Although many people will be wondering why I've done this, I think that many others had problems due to the unwieldly nature of the previous system - leading to instabilities and corruptions. I think this was mostly due to the previous system comprising over almost a crazy 450 separate data disk files.

Anyway, the new system looks bomb-proof. As a developer, I would have done the equivalent of "pull the power plug" over a hundred times, and I've never had to rebuild, or lost any data!
The main benefits of the new database system are:
• Rock solid protection of your information.
• Much faster, smoother user interface.
• Programming-wise I was hampered, but now have much greater freedom for future development.
• There were a number issues caused by my "clever" resource management for those using resource sensitive versions of Windows (Window 95/98 and ME). These issues have now been fixed, and include the following:
• After you printed a report, and closed the report window, you couldn't see any more reports.
• After you closed down the Guide, you couldn't see it anymore.
• Occasionally, when you closed a window, RPM would switch to another app you had open.

 
• The following are exciting new features/changes:
• Better use of fancy wordprocessing, that give an even nicer polish than I expected. Check out the Game Log, the Statblock and the Skill descriptions.
• The "New Reports", which produce high quality reports, with full capability for you to change them, or add your own new reports.
• Various mechanics fixes, such as:
• Rule subtlties for light weapons, 2-handed use and extra strength bonuses.
• Fixes to CR calculation - needed since I introduced variable racial hit dice for monsters.
• Smooth creation and automatic stat updates for creatures.
• Some important restructuring in the use of abilities, tables and generators. Much more on this later...
• New documentation available - especially doco to explain setting up your own campaign rule systems.
Hopefully I'll get back good reports from people on various Windows machine configurations soon, and I can then roll the new system out as the official version.
If you're not registered, and have already spent your fair month playing with old versions of RPM, don't worry, just e-mail me.

If you're somebody that previously experienced some kind of stability or corruption problem, please let me know if the new version fixes everything for you.

Thanks,
Luke
 

22nd Dec 2002 -     Report Generator in the works

After some feedback, I've started a report generator that will allow you to easily create your own reports, or modify RPM's existing reports. Any feedback on this is very welcome.
You can see some sample screenshots and some sample reports (as PDF exports) here. I think they're pretty good!

This is an important, because it allows you to:

• Customize your own character sheet (or even have different ones for different needs).
• Similarly customize your "Adventure" report, to suit your style.
• Gives you open flexibility to add a professional touch to your own campaign material. So you will be able to produce a nice report of your personal list of feats, skills, classes etc.

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10th Dec 2002 -     Update 2.0.10 available.  E-Tool import feature!

A few minor fixes, but the major reason for this release is the ETools XML Import capability!
You can build on your ETools work by importing you creatures to RPM and then:

• Easily add templates!
• Use them in RPM-built Advnetures.
• Add new prestige classes, feats, skills, or just about anything to your creature, using free RPM source downloads, or using material you've added into RPM yourself.
• Use the combat managing facilities in RPM using your ETools creatures.
You add your characters/creatures into RPM using the new menu option under "Add Creatures". Simply pick the XML file that you've exported from ETools, and its all automatic from there.

I saw some differences between the original ETools  creatures and after they were imported into RPM. This was basically in ability modifiers,  saves, attacks etc. It was due to th fact that RPM had equipped high-level characters with their magic equipment, and RPM had applied all the proper effects - so its all good!

This is a start to ETools integration, and I plan for more if there's sufficient interest. I'm keen to work on any issues or new features that anyone can identify.

Have Fun!

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3rd Dec 2002 -   Update 2.0.9 available.  A few minor changes

Update details:

• Just a fix of a few problems people were experiencing. I tidied up some data, and removed the need to ReCalculate when you play around with chaging Race, or adding/removing templates to characters and creatures.



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27st Nov 2002 -  Update 2.0.8 available.  A few major changes

Update details:

• A revamp of the skills, when levelling up or creating characters/creatures. You now get the full picture on maximum class ranks, and overspending of your points.
• Fixes to a number of issues reported in the last couple of weeks.
• An update to the D20 Modern supplement.
• The "Core" source has now been split into "Core" and "Core Fantasy". If you want to play D20 Modern, or other campaigns, without all the core magic (items, feats, classes, races etc), you can turn off "Core Fantasy".
• Significant revamp in the combat manager. RPM now has options for "Opponent" and "Review". If you have review turned on, RPM will take you through every action step by step, allowing to change dice rolls and make other relevant choices. If you have "Opponent" turned on, RPM will properly work out both sides of the interaction for things such as attacks, or opposed skill checks.


A lot of people will get a great deal out of turning "Opponent" and "Review" off for in-game play. This gives you a quick button press for attacks, saves and skill checks. Its perfect for the player managing his character at the table, or the DM managing encounters when he doesn't have the PCs entered into the computer! You can make your usual calls to the DM or players, with RPM having quickly calculated your side of the mechanics for you!

For example, a button press will tell you what AC your attacks will hit, and for how much damage (including type of damage, and other specials). A quick press for skill checks or saves, will tell you what DC you'll make.
You'll find these changes very useful right now, and there will be more refinements to come in the future.


On-going development:
There's some components I want to purchase for the next development stage of RPM.
This is quite important work, and I rely on software registrations to fund on-going development.
So, if you're continuing to enjoy using RPM, and especially if you want to help take it onto the next stage, please register your copy. A decent amount of time for evaluation has just about passed, since the full release.


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21st Nov 2002 - Update 2.0.6 available.

Update details:

• Apparantly people using Windows 95, 98, or Windows Me are still having some issues related to running out of Windows resources. I did put out in a resource meter warning system, but some people simply need to run lots of other apps at the same time.

This release is mostly about some key fixes to the core program to absolutely minimise the use of Windows resources. I thought that it may slow down the program a bit, but the speed is still very good, with no apparant slow-down.
If you've been experiencing general weirdness, this update should fix it up :)
• There were also some other minor issues reported which have been fixed. This includes an update of the "D20 modern" download supplement.

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15th Nov 2002 - D20 Modern Available !, Update available.

• D20 Modern is available as a free supplement.

This is exciting news!
Even if you're not sure about trying the modern day rules any time soon, there are some interesting  variations on current rules, well worth a look. You can see an example, along with an Encyclopaedia report of D20 Modern here.
The supplement has 6 new basic classes and 12 advanced classes, along with a swag of new skills, feats, and items (modern weaponry!).
• Update 2.0.5 is available. You can grab a full install, or the small patch. You'll need it to create any D20 Modern characters ot creatures.

The update includes:
• A nice interface for setting up game mechanics for abilites (class features, racial traits etc).
• By default only classes and feats you qualify for are shown in levelling up now.
• A fix with for the automatic popup "Edit" button, for when you're editing rich text fields.
• Correct exporting of class and racial abilities when exportin a source.
• Some minor stability fixes.

 

3rd Nov 2002 - Update available, DragonStar, registration discount.

• Update v2.0.3 is available. You can grab a full install, or the small patch. Thanks to all those that gave suggestions on how to make RPM friendlier and generally more usable. I'm pretty happy with the results.
• DragonStar is now available as an RPM download, thanks to the work of Michael Breaux.
• Special! For the following week you can register RPM at a discount for $20.

Here's a list of all the improvements since the full release...
 


Character/Creature Generation and Maintenance: Speed improvements - especially when recalculatiing, or using the BattleMap.  Adding new attacks will now do sensible things in automatically setting the "Attack Style", to save you the effort. For example, adding a second weapon will automatically set the style to "Multi-weapon" if it's a natural attack, and "Two Weapon" if it's not.  There's a "Buy" option now in the window to add items. If you're in the default "Buy" mode, you can see the creature's current funds, and items bought will be paid for.   Some fixes in the class abilities area, particularly for Monks and all their special attack options. You can preview the half-finished "chartest.html" report, to see what's happening with some future statblock/character sheet work. Crucial fixes to a bug some experienced when creating new creatures. A fair bit of work with templates, and in particular with defenses (such as resistances, immunities, and spell/damage resistance). These defenses are, of course, particularly relevant when adding templates to standard races. The statblock has changed to show these better. The Modifiers system (currently used for races, class features, feats, items etc) is now extended to Race Types. This means that if you create a new Race of type "Dragon", or "Undead", the Race automatically inherits things like special immunities from its type (and so, of course, do any creatures you create of that race type). If you create a new Undead, for example, it automatically gets the 11 or so immunities for being undead.

Adventure Preparation The Adventure detail, maps and locations, and encounter groups are being re-organized to fit together in a much more obvious and friendly way. It's a lot easier to see how everything fits together... You can use the BattleMap now to click directly onto the map for entering location descriptions, much as you can create creatures, (or encounter groups) on the spot. I've added key detail templates that you can select from when creating a new adventure (Introduction, Background, Synopsis etc). These contain rich text descriptions to assist you in building your adventure skeleton. You can edit the templates to suit yourself (eg. Put your standard e-mail, web-site address and graphic, in the "Credits" detail for your adventures).

In-Game Play The BattleMap itself is being re-organized to be more friendly in the way everything fits together. In particular, you have a much better way of viewing relevant location, creature and action information as you work with the map. You now see more detail on creatures as you move the mouse over them on the map. The "Game Log" is being organized in a more friendly manner with regard to showing rounds, creature actions, attack of opportunity, and results (of attacks, damage, skill checks, saves etc). An "Encounter Done" button has been added to the other 4 buttons controlling combat initiative management. It shoots you off directly to the screen that calculates XP for the party. Prior to now, some weren't even aware that RPM can calculate and distribute XP for you after an encounter. In a later release I'll have the "Encounter Done" step optionally enter the Game Log details for the encounter into the outlook-style Campaign Calender/Diary. You'll be able have a campaign diary with a full record of events. You can also edit directly into the Game Log now.

 

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24th October 2002 -     Get your feature requests in. "Mini Update patch" available.

If you have suggestions for on-going feature work (or especially useful tweaks), have a look here.

Although I intend to release a full patch update within  a week, I've recieved a few reports about some nasty bugs when adding creatures, or starting up the BattleMap.
If you're affected, and want to fix now, you can get the mini update here.
Details about the patch (and other new features) are here.

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4th October 2002 -     Full release available for download! Beta finished.

I'm very pleased to announce that the first full release of RPM is available for immediate download!

The long-running beta is now over, and there are a number of important things to note:

• After a long beta, RPM is now very ready to be properly supported as a full shareware release.
• To avoid confusion from numbering, the full release will actually start from version 2.0
• You no longer need to register for a password to use RPM. That was an important part of maintaining contact with users to get feedback during the beta.
• There are a number of excellent new features and stability fixes. Please see the download section for more details.
• Work on RPM is *not finished*. Your suggestions and any issues are very welcome! I'm currently working on some excellent features.
• I'm keeping the current Registration list as a mailing list. Feel free to sign-up for on-going news and annoucements. Now optional.
• You can now choose to officially register as an RPM user.


Registration Benefits:

• No more expiries! These were necessary during the alpha and beta releases, to support only the latest releases.
• Priority support for requests.
• Free updates to any future RPM releases.
• Full access to all features (import/export capability).
• No more registration window on initial startup.
• You get a better program. I need to pay for shareware components I use in RPM, and there are other componentsI want to buy to make further improvements. There are many great features I have in mind. In some ways I could go on adding things "in beta" forever, but it's reached the point where RPM is very useable, and some funds are needed to realize full it's potential. Unfortunately, the donation concept just didn't work.
• There are a wide, very secure number of ways to register. You may even send a personal cheque, if don't like the more standard methods of internet payments.
• Hopefully people will feel more inclined to make change requests once they've registered. Suprisingly, despite my strong attempts to get criticisms for improvements, I've had comparatively few requests for more features or improvements. I suspect that people just don't feel comfortable asking for more things when it's free.

If you have made a donation, or some other contribution to RPM during it's development, please contact me for a free registration. If you would like to register, and enjoy using RPM, but simply aren't in a position to pay the (cheap) registration fee - please contact me.

If you use RPM, your support in registering will be greatly appreciated, and will definitely make a difference to the quality of your future free updates.


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3th October 2002 -     RPM on a magazine cover

I'm very pleased to say that RolePlayingMaster has appeared on the front cover of the excellent, flagship Australian PC Games magazine PC PowerPlay. You can see the blurb here. Sure, the RolePlayingMaster screenshot using a standard Windows interface looks a little out of place amongst all the 3D graphics of the other programs - but it's what works best for a tabletop utility.
Of course, I'd recommend the latest website download, but if you're in Australia, the DVD is a quick install and check out option, and there's plenty of other RPG goodness in there.

14th September 2002 -     Stability fix!

I've been taking a long, hard look at stability, and there were big issues if you're on Windows Me, 98, or especially Windows 95. These versions of windows do not manage system resources very well (unlike NT, 2000, and XP). Having lots of RAM doesn't help. You're particularly prone to problems if you have apps like Outlook, Internet Explorer windows, and RolePlayingMaster all open at the same time.

RolePlayingMaster does a very good job of having large amounts of information instantly available at your finger tips (especially with rich text wordprocessing capabilities), but this comes at a resource cost.

I rarely use these versions of Windows, and had no idea of how bad the problem was until a few days ago... When it went bad, it was very, very bad.

I've done work on the resources issue, and think I've fixed the problem. If you are a Windows 95/98 or Me user, and you've experienced wierd issues or instability problems, you can e-mail me for a special upgrade to see if it's now working well.


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11th September 2002 -     Lest we forget...
 


The courage of those who spent their last moments fighting back against terrorism... The bravery of those who gave their lives in rescue... The strength of those left to face the loss... The lessons of humanity for all of us shown in the aftermath...

 

9th September 2002 -     End of the beta  / Thankyou / Help!

By now you've hopefully had a chance to look at the latest release, and perhaps downloaded and played with the new "Burning Sage" adventure. If not, and especially if you don't like to use computers at the gaming table, check out the Adventure report  here.

You can print it out, or shrink your browser window to about 3" by 5" across to get a feel for using it in your Palm or PocketPC. It's well worth a look - especially for clicking between location description links! It took about 2 hours to copy-and-paste this adventure into RPM.

The feedback is that RPM is definitely very useful and very ready for it's first full release. It's my intention that the next update will be the first full release. No more beta releases! This will hopefully be within 2 weeks.

This will have several benefits:
- I'll be tidying up some documentation and other issues for the next release.
- Registered users won't see expiry messages anymore!! If you like your current version, you can keep it, and not worry about being forced to get updates! Avoid the export/import issues with updates!
- I'll be happy enough with the first release to support it as a stable release. The primary reason for all the expiries before was for me to avoid chasing down any problem reports from very old versions. People seemed to accept that this was fair for a program in alpha/beta development.

A big thankyou:
Big thanks to everyone who has actively helped the development of RPM to this point - especially the pre-beta testers, and those who have filled out the survey/questionnaire forms! This has provided me with invaluable information for focussing development and features appropriately. RPM today is a *very* different program from what is was even 6 months ago.
Of course a program of this size and complexity experiences some painful growth in the earlier stages, especially when you let so many people download and use it, whilst trying to maintain consistency as it evolves. I've been kept focussed by a constant stream of very happy and positive RPM users along the way which kept me going (especially once I got the user interface sorted out!).

Of course, any help with RPM results in a better program for us all !

Request for Help:
I'm very keen to polish off RPM for the first release in the best possible way, and would appreciate any focus you could give me, based (mostly) on the survey results. No new features after "first release" though!!
In the past I've had many offers of general help from people, but with the stages of development, it's been too hard to take advantage of it. With the release of a stable version, that can change!

The diversity of what different people want is quite large, but the important bits turns out to be the things that you'd mostly expect. I'm still very much about producing a *complete* RPG support program. This starts off with the basics of character/monster generation, builds up to adventure building, and culminates with highly extensible, automated, and scriptable in-game support.
The complete in-game end of the road is far off, although you can *just about* see spell effects automatically applied, and automatic adjustments for creatures applied (eg fire does no damage/double damage, no criticals,  special resistances or immunities).
As always, the key goal is about saving you as much time as possible in preparation and in play, and making the mechanics as easy as possible, so that you can focus on the enjoyable roleplaying!

Here are the top hot spots I've received the most feedback about, and any help you could provide would be much appreciated, and beneficial to yourself!

• Improve Reports:

I need some detail here, as to which reports we're talking about. I've already started on the "Adventure" report. I assume that character sheets would be a popular mention, so if it's important to you, give me specifics of what you're after.
• More Downloads / Want other Sources:

This would include adventures, personal campaign settings, and published campaign settings/splatbooks ( FR, Tome & Blood, etc).
If people could make, or find good downloadable adventures, and put them into RPM, I would be very happy to make them available from the website. It only takes an individual effort from a  few dozen people to build up a significant library for the benefit of everyone.
Published campiagn settings or books need to be released as open content, or with the owner's permission. If you have anything specific in mind, you can let me know. I'm having a talk with Wizards of the Coast about permission to use their books, but that will take quite a while, if it's possible at all. Feel free to contact/e-mail any publishers yourself, and ask them for permission to use their material in RPM. Nothing stops you from providing RPM download modules from your own website (or some other)!
• Speed:

This is a general comment often made, but I need specifics. I need to know *which* features need to be speeded up, and how critical it is. If it's important to you, please let me know...
• Better Info Lookup:

This featured highly, and I already addressed it in the last release. Hopefully you've discovered that you can double-click on almost any list item, and get a comprehensive window popup for it. If you need more than that (I can't imagine what...), let me know.
• Table Generators/Random Treasure:

I'm onto it! There's many ways to do this, so if you have a great idea for *how* to do it, let me know...
• Stability:

This was somewhere near the middle of the list, but I mention it because it's obviously *extremely* important to those affected by it!
If you're affected, *please* tell me, and let me know exactly how things go wrong. Tell me your operating system and RAM details.
People running Windows 95, 98 and ME are exposed to operating system resource problems. This is *especially* true if you have programs like Explorer, Internet Explorer and/or Outlook running at the same time.
"Stability" is probably the most important issue, so if you can find the time to tell me about just one thing - make it this!


I'm not intending to fix and tidy all of the above for release 1, especially with regard to new features such as random treasure and table generators. If I get any adventure or other downloadable modules from you, though, they could certainly make it in!
After the full release, I'll remain focussed and commited to further RPM development (as long as the support for it stays this strong). I'm keen to attend to the vision I have for further generators and treasure/equipment!

I've "talked the talk" about "RPG Community" on my website for over a year, and from the point of a full release 1, this could become a reality.
Remember, small efforts from lots of people will result in something great for all of us!


---

Update 1.92b is available, with new adventure features mentioned below, and fixes to feat modifiers, and well as some of the more esoteric attack and damage calculations. I forgot to mention last release that info lookup has improved, with you being able to double click on almost any list item to get a full description window up. This is particularly useful when levelling up, since you can click on class, skill and feat lists to get any detail you need.

"Dark Deciever" e-mailed me the other day, explaining that he runs his RPM adventures from his PDA, and asking me to put some links in. Excellent idea! Wish I'd thought of it...
If you have a Palm or Windows CE handheld, but can't use a full desktop at the gaming table, you can copy your HTML "Adventure" report to your PDA, and use it by viewing in your browser!
To support this great idea, I've restructured the "Adventure" report to be more PDA-friendly. There are now lots of links for jumping between adventure details, maps, encounter groups and full statblocks.

A new adventure download is available from the download section. The "Burning Sage's Demense" is an quality ENNIE winner, entered into RPM, complete with maps, locations, story plot, details, encounter creatures etc. You can use it in the following ways:

• Modify it if required to suit your own adventure campaign and play group.
• Simply print out the adventure and take your notes to the gaming table.
• Save the "Adventure" web page report to your PDA and play it from that.
• Use RPM in-game for full Battlemap and adventure lookups.
• Use RPM in-game and make full use of combat and encounter management facilities.


I've done a fair bit of work on the "Adventure Builder". The user interface for managing the tree-view of adventure detail has some issues fixed up, and is now far more intuitive to use.

You can download the update here, along with info about what's changed. Be sure to export any of your own information before applying the update.

28th August 2002 -     Update 1.91b Available, and new Source downloads

I've got the latest update available, and also updated the full installation.You can download it here, along with info about what's changed. Be sure to export any of your own information before applying the update.

I've also included a couple of new "source downloads" in the downloads area - the "Daemonforge" campaign setting, and some Netbboks material. These 2 downloads basically add a lot of content to your Campaign Encyclopaedia. Apart from being good RPG material, they are also an excellent demonstration of what you can achieve using the Campaign Encyclopaedia functionality. Since that functionality has also been recently made available in the Adventure Builder, all the more reason to check it out!

Thanks to those who've already filled out the questionnaire. The results are starting to become very useful. Although I have just over 90, that's under 4% of total registrations in the last 2 months, so I'm keen to hear something (anything) from the rest of you :)  The more I find out from you how well RPM is working for you, the better it is for everyone!

Update 1.9b is now available, with some important fixes and some really good new features.You can download it here, along with info about what's changed. Be sure to export any of your own information before applying the update.

I have a new questionnaire/survey which you can do here. Please take a couple of minutes to fill it out. It's short and simple, and all about your needs and your experiences with RolePlayingMaster. Filling this out will give me a pretty good idea of where to focus my energies for future work, and make RPM even better.

I've had a few reports of stability issues which turned out to be related to Windows resources. This can apply to Win 95, 98, or ME (it's not an issue for NT4, 2000 or XP), and can happen even if you have a large amount of RAM. Basically, RPM uses a lot of resources (like Outlook, or Internet Explorer), so if you are having any problems, try running RPM without any other apps open, and see if things improve. Windows 95 is the operating system most susceptible to this kind of problem, and you may even need to reboot once you have a situation of lost of low resources.

Please, if you have any problems with RPM (crashes, error reports etc), let me me know here. If you get any error messages, tell me what the message was, along with what you were doing at the time.

An update for the beta is now available, which you need to download here. Be sure to export any of your own information before applying the update.

An update for the beta is now available, which you need to download here. Be sure to export any of your own information before applying the update. The major fixes are:
• A very enhanced reworking of abilities (Str, Dex, etc). You get so see the individual dice roll, along with effects of templates, aging, and racial modifiers. The racial modifiers (obeying reasonably complex rules), can generate you fully calculated creatures based on 3d6 ability dice rolls - much increased flexibility. It's also very good for creating PCs from unusual races.
• General notes (such as adventures, maps, location, PCs/creatures) all now have the same wordprocessing capabilities as the Campaign Encyclopaedia. So you could, for example, store a picture of your PC in the notes section! Just right-click on the edit field and choose "Editor".
• I've put a hyperlink capability into the Encyclopadia and the other notes fields. At the moment you can reference Enclopaedia entries and jump to them with a mouse click, or web pages/files. In the future I plan to support references for maps, locations, PCs/NPCs/monsters etc.


I've only had a handful of issues raised from well over 1500 downloads since the beta release. Be sure to let me know if you had any issues with the initial beta, or with the update. With this many downloads I should be able to ensure that RPM works for everyone, for all versions of Windows. Like me, you may well be enjoying the recent release of NeverWinterNights :)

I don't include a lot of the Netbooks, sample adventures and the Daemonforge campaign setting in the update (to reduce the size of the download).
I'll start to make these available as separate downloads for those who actually want them.
Let me know if you have entered adventures yourself into RPM, that you'd like me to share!

I've just fixed up the registration page. Apologies to a fair number of people. There was an unexpected run of registration attaempts on Saturday/Sunday (depending where you are in the world), and I ran out of space! All fixed now though...

I'm now looking out for things that need to be fixed in the beta.
From over a thousand registered downloads I have a handful of issues so far to fix in an update.
I'm already doing some interesting work for character/creature generation and also for the campaign encyclopaedia.

Details are available here, in the  "Ongoing work" post. Feel free to contact me, or post in the forum.

There has been an extremely good response to the beta. In just over a week there have been almost 1000 downloads, and beta registrations. Pretty good going, especially with all the NeverWinterNights buzz going on at the moment. I've decided to terminate thye old mailing list, since all current users are now on the beta mailing list. If you haven't yet downloaded the beta, I recommend that you do, and register for the new mailing list.

If you've played with the beta for a while now, feel free to send me an e-mail of any problems or suggestions you may have!
There is an awful lot inside RPM now, and the way I decide which bits to enhance and improve, is by your feedback.

After a year and and half of concentrated development, and following an intensive 2 month PreBeta program, incorporating feedback, issues and suggestions - the RPM full Beta is available for download!

Development could go on forever... but RPM is an extremely usable and valuable program right now!

Get it, and further details, here.

16th May 2002 -     Generators!, the Beta release, etc.
 

• I'm very close to releasing the beta as a public download now. I'm just waiting for the last set of comments and issues to come in from the PreBeta testers.

 
• I gather I'm at a point now where completing the help and adding a few more tutorials are the most important aspects to release in the Beta. The PreBeta showed me that many now find RPM very easy to use, but many are also looking forward to the full help/tutorial set.

 
• About the only thing I don't currently do in RPM is integrated generators. Sure there's a whole batch of generators available, but they just produce text - not "real" items. I promised myself that I wouldn't add any more features before release 1, but there seems to be a strong call for generators, and I should at least consider a cut-down version for release 1.

I'm talking about generators for NPC equipment, based on class (adds polish top the integrated Jamis generator), generators for different wandering monster tables; that sort of thing...
Check out this thread for more details. Leopold (PCGen moderator) was kind enough to declare RPM as the best NPC Generator, based on it's current functionality.
If you think generators are important enough to include in release 1, and/or you have some suggestions, e-mail me, or post to the thread. I'll need to know pretty soon.
 
• It's slowly dawning on me that I haven't communicated the full power of RPM very well, or that you can use it in very simple ways without bothering about the full power.

As a result, I've updated significant sections of the website, if you want to check out areas such as features.
 
• If you haven't yet checked out the new screenshots, or tester feedback, I recommend it!

9th May 2002 -     "You Said It!" - PreBeta testers respond to the latest in RPM

I've compiled a summary of responses from those involved in the PreBeta test. There are 3 good reasons you may want to look it over:

• You've been impressed by the new screenshots, but you wonder if it's all a bit complicated, with a steep learning curve.
• You're keenly following the developments of RPM, but don't want to "get your hands dirty" until the first full release.
• You're simply interested in finding the best RPG utility out there, and wonder if this might be it.

7th May 2002 -     Revamp of Screenshots

I've completely re-done all the screenshots - long overdue. This new set gives you a good picture of how RPM hangs together, with explanations.
This incorporates the very latest features. Click here.

29th April 2002 -     PreBeta update 3 available!

PreBeta update 3 has just being released to the PreBeta testers. Looking pretty slick and quite a bit faster now. Details are available here.

The public release version has expired, but you can get around it by pre-dating your computer before Apr 14.
I'm currently supporting those helping me with the pre-beta releases, and just don't have time to create an updated public release.

Another option is to become a pre-beta tester, giving you the latest and greatest. This will get you a much more stable and featured program! - but for that I'd expect you to give me some feedback within a week.

22nd April 2002 - Progress

The prebeta is progressing very well. A release 2 update has already gone out, and I'm hard at work with release 3.
In particular, a very inclusive and encompassing formula is used to work out and display Encounter Levels (EL) in the release 3 update, making it much easier to create appropriate encounter groups.

11th April 2002 - Pre-beta in progress

See here for pre-beta  message board news started by one of the testers. There's some pretty respectable RPG programmer types there commenting. Feel free to add any comments you feel appropriate.

The pre-beta has been out for a couple of days, and I've already had  some good responses. A smallish group of about 30 are putting it through it's paces this week, and giving me some encouraging feedback. I'm sure there'll be plenty of tinkering between now and the final release, but it's good to see that the basics all seem to be right.

The sort of feedback I'm getting is that DMs think it's going well. Players think it's going well. Others are keen to start using it (including building full adventures) during their games. "Principles are good" (important, and not to be taken for granted!).
The combat manager and new outlook interface are well recieved. No significant comments on import/export or the new calendar/planner (except as below).

I'll make a pre-beta update available for the testers soon, based on issues that have been raised. The main ones are:

• Stability Issues:
• Fixed bug to "Update Classes" when you edit class levels for spells.
• Issue with "Jamis NPC Generator" import fixed.
• Issue with rebuilding the database fixed.
• Creating database objects (creatures items). An important fix. The system could become unstable if you killed the program, or imported other people's data.
• "Groups" and "players" now included as part of adventure import/export.
• The combat tutorial has been updated to be easier to follow.
• Critical damage rolls fixed.
• Automatic initiative sorting for all cases ( start of round, and skipping defeated creatures ).
• Racial subclasses get properly cleared if you change the race in character/creature generation.
• Registration of RPMnetworkPrj.ocx on startup (not important anyway).
• When you create a wand, you can select the spell effect and caster level for it now.
• "Auto-complete" optional button for attacks and damage.
• BattleMap features:
• Eliminate "jerkiness" when clicking/moving  creatures.
• Show distance moved as you move creatures, and update stepped/moved.
• Show important status info (active, can act, can act full,...).
• "Missing File" issue addressed.

8th April 2002 - Pre-beta preparation

Thanks to those who've already responded to the call for pre-beta testing. I'm finalizing the tutorial walkthrough, and preparing the download.
I'll e-mail you all as soon as the download is available.

I've decided that a read through the tutorial will give anyone a keen insight into what RPM can do for them, and how it can make your game flow with the best possible computer assistance. So, even for those not involved in the pre-beta test, a preview of the tutorial here, and other details can be found  here.

The combat tutorial is at the heart of why I started RPM in the first place, and I'm hoping that the pre-beta testers can tell me how well the vision is fulfilled with the current format.

RPM should enhance the tabletop roleplaying experience by:

• Assisting the running of the game by allowing quick and easy generation of encounters.
• Allowing for enhancement of simple encounters by quick and easy means (adding class levels and items easily)
• Fully understanding and applying the rules, as a time saving that helps correct play.
• Doing all the above in the quickest, least intrusive way, so that the computer doesn't become a distraction.

Allowing the DM full control, without taking over proceedings, or limiting options.

4th April 2002 - Beta soon!  Pre-beta testers wanted! "Adventure writers" wanted too...

Thankyou: First up, a huge thankyou to "Jughead" for creating an RPM splash screen graphic. This is one cool piece of work, and I'm thrilled to have this unexpectedly professional startup for RPM !!

Stability issues:  whilst configuring a new machine (with IExplorer 5.0 on it, instead of IExplorer 6.0), I discovered some big stability problems with RPM. I'm sure that this is the cause of some bug reports I've received, and that quite a few downloaders were probably affected. I've changed my scripting to be compatible with IExplorer 5.0, so look forward to much increased stability in the next release.

Testers, and Easy combat: I've been doing extensive work on combat management lately, and I'm pretty close to the beta release now. There's a bunch of new features that I'm interested in getting feedback on, before I do the beta release.
If you're interested in getting a private copy of the latest release, to get feedback to me within a week, just e-mail me.
As part of this private release, I plan to do make my first available tutorial walkthrough available - for managing a quick and dirty combat!.

Adventure Writers: I'm also interested in hearing from those who think they may be interested in creating adventure modules in the next release, for exporting, to share with the RPG community.
Click here for more details on the private release, and beta progress.

28th March 2002 - Preview: Import/Export features, saving your info between RPM updates!

Probably the biggest complaint lately has been that you lose the information you put into RPM, when you update your release.
Click here for a preview of the latest work. I've done significant work on the import and export. Whilst this allows you to save your information when you get an RPM update, it also allows you significant flexibility to transfer your characters between systems, and even share complete adventures with the RPG community

22th March 2002 - Preview: Revolutionized "Outlook" interface and Campaign Planner/Journal

Click here for a preview of the latest work. This is firstly about using an "Outlook-style" button interface to reduce screen clutter and organise buttons more clearly as you need them.

I've also implemented a campaign Planner/Journal - also like outlook. There are many possibilities for extending the basic framework in the "preview", but I'll wait for feedback from those who see a good use for it.

19th March 2002 - Release 0.757 available!

This release contains the new "awesome features" already previewed. The download is working again.
Detail and discussion can be viewed here  (note at the page bottom that several pages are viewable).  I "had" to make a release now, so didn't get to put quite the amount of polish on the new features as I'd have liked, but this should be a very helpful and useful release.

The main  points of note are:

• The new "Attacks Screen", for easily adding weapons and attack forms, then being able to see the breakdown for all atatck and damage modifiers.
• The whole new approach to in-game management, particularly targeting, for combat ( attacks ), skills and spell casting. A "must get" for in-game play.

12th March 2002 - Awesome new features preview !!!

Click here for a preview of some awesome features I've recently worked on.

I haven't been able to find anything remotely as powerful as this for computer assistance to compare to, so I'd appreciate any comments after looking at the preview.

Current News

23rd February  2002 - New  release

This release is the culmination of a month's worth of major and minor fixes and features. Details are available at the download page, with more detail found in this message thread. This runs over multiple pages - check the "Pages" list near the bottom of the page.

The long-awaited birth of "little Lachlan" has definitely effected my ability to progress work on RPM, but I'm hopeful that I'm now turning a corner, and will soon get the beta release under way.
 

Click here (daily)    Latest  news concerns new work done on classes, player/creatures options, and skills.
This points to news on the beta features phase of RPM development. This will get you to a message board thread that will be constantly updated with the feedback, my news,  and your own input. If you are not already a registered member in the EN World message boards, I highly recommend that you register! Apart from anything else, you can post your own thoughts directly and publicly for beta features.

18th January 2002 - New  release - "The Hitchhiker's Guide to RPM"

This new release focuses on one thing - a better user interface to provide a simple guiding framework  for using RPM.

It's two main features are that it makes RPM much easier to navigate and use, and that it has the words "Don't Panic" in large friendly letters on the front.

Although I'm looking for feedback on what is really wanted for release 1 (and hence the beta release), it became clear that many people are struggling with the current user interface, and aren't even sure where to begin, in terms of saying what they want polished for the beta test.

The user interface complaints were very valid , and several people offered good suggestions as to how these could be overcome. The "Guide" is the result of putting all these ideas together, to get what I hope will be the final solution for "ease of use".

More details are available in the release notes in the download section.

Have fun! I look forward to hearing from you about:

• Whether or not the guide is the answer to easily managing the complexities of RPM.
• What you think of the new "Generators".
• What you think needs to be polished for the first (beta) release.

10th January 2002 - New  release (Generators and other features) , and feature shutdown - time to speak up!

News Summary:

• A new release is available! Summary details are below, and more at the download section.
• I've fixed the mailing list problem. Those who had problems can register now.
• I'm keen to shutdown features for the impending beta release. I'm very keen for feedback on what you feel needs to be in the beta for release 1. Assume that help/tutorial information will be available. From this point on, until the beta release, I'm looking to polish up various areas, rather than take on new work. My expectation is that most people are interested in polish on game prepartion functions (for printouts), than on in-game (BattleMap and CombatManager) features. Good feedback at this point can make a big difference to the quality of the final release. The very large majority of people (mailing list and website downloaders) are silent users, but now is the time to have your say (especially on the subject on generators!). The right feedback here should have a significant effect on the quality and appropriateness of the first release. Less popular features that aren't yet complete will be polished up after the first release, and possibly disabled during the beta!

• Character/creature management: Improvements to determing skill point counts, and to assigning bonus ability points.
• Generators for many, many things - and important decisions to be made on how to progress this work in the future. See the download section for important details.
• More standard info for creating "Adventures", and a more comprehensive adventure report (printout).
• Time saving features with "copy current creature" and "copy current Race".

• Firstly, I'm about to run out of mailing list space again. If you try to join, and have problems, just e-mail me. I'll try to keep you informed until I get something better sorted out.
• You can now make a web-site donation to the RPM cause. It's secure and fast. This will help me with on-going charges, 3rd party components I need for RPM, and internet services (such as the mailing list). Also, should RPM get to the point of being registerable shareware, or something similar, past donations will count towards that.
• I've done previous background work on basic generators. Just recently though, I've investigated Bruce Gulke's TableSmith, and discovered that his ideas and design are very similar to my own. I'm all for integrating with the best RPG utilities out there, I'm just deciding now how fully to support the TableSmith format (currently with over 300 various generator tables available!). Any comments are welcome, for ideas or to support this. I've already got the basic generators working, and it's looking good! I should point out though, that this is only a partial version of the full, very powerful version of Bruce's excellent utility!  The major benefits of this to RPM would be:
• Masses of generators available, from various categories of names, to spell books, to towns etc.
• Integrated as an engine to RPM, this could be used to really fill out NPC details generation.
• As an in-game utility, it could be used to generate on-the-fly things from many categories, such as random events, encounters, or even wheather.
• As a "well-known" format, any could create their on tables, especially for their specific campaigns!
• I'm currently doing some work on expanding "Adventures". It's time for a more professional output that conforms to the "standard" better. I've updated the "Adventures" screenshots and reports to reflect the "halfway point" , and if you have any comments or suggestions, now is a good time to tell me. Current work includes:
• Expansion of the descriptive fields available for adventures.
• The report now includes creature descriptions (tactics etc) by map location, and a full statblock listing at the end. More work to follow.
• Improvements to the report generator itself, to enable all this, including cleaner presentation by not printing anything where sections are blank.

I'm currently doing some work on expanding "Generate Adventure". It's time for a more professional output that conforms to standard better.
I've updated the reports to reflect the "halfway point" , and if you have any comments or suggestions, now is a good time to tell me.

Following feedback for numerous issues, I'm releasing another update. The major issue was that automatic calculation for a number of things were not working correctly when generating characters. Numerous small issues that were reported have also being fixed.

The Christmas release is now available. The quick summary of changes  is:
For preparation:    You now have equipment and attacks automatically created (by race) in the character/creature generator. This is particularly useful used in conjuction with the integrated Jamis NPC Generator, resulting in rapidly generated, fully ready-to-go, characters/NPCs/monsters!
For in-game play:    Lots of improvements in generating, managing, and playing out  encounters. This includes applying damage to creatures, maintaining their health status, and providing lots of right mouse click popups everywhere to easily achieve what you need.

There are actually many changes, and the details are available in the download section release notes.

Happy Christmas!

In addition to the features mentioned on the 12th, I've got the following requests so far:

Items to include fully in the release:

• Fix issue for "Rebuild Database"
• Fix issue with taking multiple skills (eg. multiple Profession or Craft skills)
• Change the startup so you only have to press "I Agree" once
• Put an enchanment number into magic weapons, armor and shields. Also name them properly, with the '+' at the front.
• Make the "Item Screen" more friendly
• Provide easier acces to the item maker. {I'm putting buttons in all the relevant areas}
• Add "Attacks" to the statblocks.

• Include weapon damage variations by size. {I'll have the GUI mostly done (for comment), but may not get the automatic damage recalculation done.}
• Increase general stability {I can't guarantee that issues will disappear altogether at this point, but I (have already) put in a feature to stop the database from being corrupted. You will simply need to restart RPM if you have a problem}
• Have option wizards when you first start up the program {what I will do is put more work into the "Preferences" later, which pretty much get you to the same place}
• Generate random equipment by race {No full random generator for a while, but any (non-random) equipment will automatically come across. You'll see that weapons and armor are automatically equipped by race type now. If you want to add other equipment to the Race template - go for it!}
• Implement time trackers, for things such as a "Bless" spell" {you can see the start of that in the new "Expiry timers" screen. Significant work will be done on streamlining and automation before this is actually completed}

• Allow for a number in the add creature wizard that will create multiples {For now, an easy option is to cut-and-paste multiple lines using the "Jamis Generator" screen}
• Fix for Monk Attacks and AC variation {perhaps AC, just for now}
• Various requests related to executing actions (attacks, spells, skills etc) {Not in this release. This release is about "core" features. You may want to play with what's available in some skills - such as "Jump"}

Last chance to mention any other little issues for inclusion! With a lot of luck I might get the release out by the end of this weekend.

I should be ready to do my "Christmas release" in a few days.
Seeing that it's Christmas,  I'll give a couple of days for any special requests. If you have a small pet peeve, or good idea, that you think I might be able to fit in, let me know.

The current "Christmas release" list of fixes and enhancements is as follows:

• Fix to spell "memorization" ability bonuses
• New "Add Item" buttons at convenient places.
• Fix issue with adding a new class.
• Implement equipment usage (equipped, carried, or stored).
• Re-calculate modifers so they only include equipped items.
• Configure base races with items and attack modes.
• Automatically assign racial equipment and attack forms to created characters/creatures.
• Streamline adding of attack forms. for both the characters/creatures screen, and the Races screen.
• Automatically fill out attack details when choosing weapons for attack forms.
• Polish up the "Level Up" screen, implementing proper purchase of skills. Assign points correctly from the actual classes, taking class skills and cross-skills into account.
• Re-work the "Class Skills" section for both the Skills and the Classes maintenance screen, with a nice and simple screen to designate skills as being class, or cross.
• Tidy up the BAB calculation and presentation.

• This is the first news installment for RPM!
• I'm now hosted at EN World! I consider EN World to be the premier 3rd Edition site for resources and community support, and I'm honoured to be hosted here!
• It's a good time to thank Morrus publicly for this, and for his support of the 3rd Edition RPG community at large. Thanks Morrus!
• I have updated the workplan, to reflect the current on-going work to RPM.