basic roleplaying for fantasy grounds ii - user guide · 2017. 10. 22. · basic roleplaying for...

Basic Roleplaying for Fantasy Grounds II

User Guide

Stuart Woodard

Basic Roleplaying for Fantasy Grounds II

This guide is in three parts: a Players' Guide; a Gamemaster's Guide; and a section on Adapting the Ruleset.

Part One: Players' Guide 3The Players' View 4Sidebar Buttons 4Icon Bar 6Quick Slots 7Modifier Box 7Secret Die-roll Box 7Chat Box 7Character Sheet 8 Part Two: Gamemaster's Guide 14The Gamemaster's View 14Sidebar Buttons 14Icon Bar 17Chat Box 20Character Sheet 21Combat Tracker 21Group Chat 24 Part Three: Adapting the Ruleset 25Creating a Campaign Extension 25Changing Default Campaign Preferences 27Changing the Map Grid 28Powers 28Skill Categories 30Skills 31Characteristics 32Default Weapons 32Damage Bonus 33Other Modifications 34

Basic Roleplaying for Fantasy Grounds II - Players' Guide

Welcome to the Basic Roleplaying for Fantasy Grounds II (BRP) ruleset! This guide will demonstrate the new features of the BRP ruleset, so you can get the most out of playing Basic Roleplaying. If you are planning on running games for your friends, you should also check out the Gamemaster's Guide.

Although this guide will introduce the new features of this ruleset, it is not intended to show you how to use the more general features of Fantasy Grounds II, nor how the Basic Roleplaying system works. If you are unfamiliar with either of these, then it is recommended that you read the following:

Basic Roleplaying, by Chaosium Download the Free BRP Quick-Start PDF http://catalog.chaosium.com/product_info.php?cPath=37&products_id=3700

Fantasy Grounds II, by SmiteWorks Browse the online User Guide http://www.fantasygrounds.com/userguide


The Players' View

The screen has the following basic areas:

• Along the top, starting from the left, is the list of player portraits; • In the top right-hand corner are the Sidebar Buttons; • Down the right-hand side is the Icon Bar; • Along the bottom are twelve Quick Slots; • Immediately above the quick slots at the left-hand end is the Modifier Box; • Immediately above the quick slots at the right-hand end, if the option is enabled, is the

Secret Die-roll Box; and • Above the modifier box is the Chat Box: the bottom area is for entering chat and some

commands, the main area is the chat output pane.

Sidebar Buttons

These buttons open various dialog boxes for interacting with Fantasy Grounds, as follows:

• Pics opens a portrait selection screen, where you can view and select from a list of installed character portraits. To add portraits to your system, copy an image file (JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP) into the portraits sub-folder in your Application Data Folder (accessible from the Start menu). The ideal size is 63x63 pixels, but if you use another size Fantasy Grounds will scale it for you.

• RGB brings up a color picker, which controls your dice color. The dice color is also used as your distinctive arrow color on some tactical battle maps.


• PCs opens the Character Selection Box, which enables you to create new characters or select one of your existing ones to play. You can have multiple characters in the same game, and each will appear in the list of player portraits.

• Prefs brings up a preferences box which controls how the ruleset operates. For players there are just four preferences.

• The first one controls how whisper commands are interpreted. If set to 'No', typing /whisper Jim hi will look for a character call Jim and send the text 'hi' to that character. If set to 'Yes' the command would have to be typed as /whisper Jim: hi. The second option can be useful if characters have spaces in their names.

• The second option controls whether a key must be pressed at the same time that the mouse wheel is scrolled to edit a number. If no key is needed, the mouse wheel freely edits number fields. This can be unhelpful if the number field is also in a list. The option can be set to use SHIFT, CTRL or ALT instead of None.

• The third option changes the way hit points by location are displayed, if your game uses that mechanic. If you have a humanoid character, and this option is set to 'Yes' then the Vitruvian Man is used to display hit locations (below on the left), otherwise a tabular format is used (below, on the right).


• The final option controls whether a close box appears at the top right of each window. • Mods opens a module activation window, which controls which reference modules are

available in your Library. The stack-of-books icon shows whether a module has been activated: if it is gray and has a red check mark against it, it has not yet been activated and won't appear in your Library. If it is solid, it will be available in the Library. To toggle the activation for a module, double-click the stack of books.

• +/- brings up a list to store common die roll modifiers. If you have a power or item which you routinely use to boost your chance of success, you can enter the details here and it will be readily available to drag or double-click to add the modifier to your next roll. Pending modifiers appear in the Modifier Box, and frequently-used modifiers can also be placed in a Quick Slot by dragging them there.

• FX opens a similar list to store frequent effects, such as Invisible or Enraged. Effects are probably more useful for gamemasters, and can be dragged to the Combat Tracker.

Icon Bar

The Icon Bar holds only three icons by default for players: the Notes icon; the Library icon; and the Token Box icon.

Notes provide a mechanism for players to record information about the current campaign or adventure, and to share those notes with other players if desired. Each note has free format text and a 'Public note' check. If a note is made public, all other players can see that note but not edit it. Otherwise only you (and the GM) can see your notes.

The Library contains reference material for the campaign, including the BRP core rulebook and any additional campaign material added by the GM.

The Token Box holds assorted gaming tokens to use on tactical combat maps. Typically it contains lettered tokens and any bespoke tokens added by the GM. Players often don't use these generic tokens, as their character portraits can be used on tactical battle maps instead.


Quick Slots

The quick slots allow single-click access to anything placed in them, and can also be activated by pressing the function keys numbered F1-F12 along the top of the keyboard. In addition to the twelve standard slots, additional slots are available by pressing combinations of the CTRL, SHIFT and ALT keys, giving 96 different slots in total.

Typical uses for the quick slots include:

• Commonly used attack and damage rolls; • Common roll modifiers; • Short cuts to common lists from the reference modules (such as powers and weapons); and • Frequently used skills.

If a slot is used to hold a skill, by dragging the skill from the Character Sheet, the slot will automatically update to reflect and experience or other increases to that skill.

Modifier Box

The modifier box accumulates various circumstance modifiers, which are then applied to the next die roll. Modifiers can be created using the +/- Sidebar Button, dragged from any number field or added using the /modifier Chat Box command. If the GM has enabled it, the modifier box may also have a sequence of skill level modifiers to its right: x2 for Easy; x1 for Normal; and x½ for Difficult. Select one of these before rolling a skill check to modify the chance of success.

Secret Die-roll Box

If this facility has been enabled by your GM, a box appears on the screen towards the lower right-hand side, next to the Token Box icon. Any die roll dragged and dropped onto this box will be rolled secretly: the GM will see the result of the roll, but no players (including the one who initiated the roll) will know the result. This is typically used when the GM asks for some kind of sense check (such as Listen or Spot), and allows the player to control the roll without knowing the result.

Chat Box

Unless you are using a separate VOIP program, most of the action takes place in the chat box. Typed text is presented in character, out-of-character speech and other commands can be entered using the slash (/) key. In general it is only necessary to enter the first few letters of a command (enough to distinguish it uniquely) rather than the whole command name.

The ruleset supports these standard FG commands:

• /die [nDn+n] [message] • /vote [message] • /ooc [message] - send an out-of-character comment • /action [message] • /emote [message] • /mood [mood] [message] • /mood ([multi-word mood]) [message] • /whisper [character] [message] • /wg [message] - whisper to the GM


In addition, the custom commands supported are:

• /version - display the ruleset version information • /modifier [+n] [message] - add a modifier to the modifier box • /group [message] - send a message to your chat group

Group chat is a feature controlled by the GM that lets grouped characters talk to each other without the other characters seeing the conversation.

Character Sheet

The Main Tab

At the top of the Main tab is space to record some of the more standard details about your character, such as age, profession etc. For more obscure or detailed information, the Notes tab has plenty of space.

On the mid-left of the tab is space to record each of the characteristics (STR, DEX etc) and the sheet automatically calculations their associated characteristic rolls. Depending on which type of BRP game you are playing, these may differ (such as APP vs CHA, and different rolls). A characteristic roll can be double-clicked or dragged to throw dice for that roll.


The mid-right section holds derived characteristics, such as damage bonus and hit points, together with power points, fatigue points and sanity points. These last three only show if the GM has them enabled for your campaign. Note that maximum hit points, power points, fatigue and sanity points are not calculated automatically, as they are frequently over-ridden by house rules.

The bottom section of the tab holds summary weapon/attack information. The default attacks (such as Grapple) are automatically filled in, but others can be added either by right-clicking the section or dragging a weapon from the Library. Clicking the gray square on the right of an attack line opens a more detailed view of that attack.

Dragging or double-clicking the attack name or Att % field will throw an attack roll. Dragging or double-clicking the Damage field will throw damage dice, including damage bonus if appropriate.

The MINI buttons on the top right and bottom left of the sheet bring up minimal views of the overview and attacks sections, which can be helpful if you don't want the full character sheet cluttering the desktop.

The Skills Tab


Skills can be shown grouped by category (as in the screen shot above) or ungrouped, and you can switch views by right-clicking on the skill list.

To throw a skill roll, either drag or double-click the skill name or the Total field. Skill rolls can also be dragged to the Quick Slots. If your GM has enabled skill category bonuses, these are shown in the category headings and included automatically in any skill rolls.

Some skills have specialisms, such as Drive, and a separate field is available to record the specialism. To add further instances of the skill with a different specialism, simply click in the specialism field and press the 'return' or 'enter' key on your keyboard.

Additional skills can be found in the Library, and can be dragged to the skill list, and you can also create new skills by right-clicking on the list.

The Powers Tab

The top part of the powers tab holds general information about your character and the campaign, and includes any relevant skills (if you don't have these skills on your skills tab, they won't show here).


The middle section includes a list of all the powers to which your character has access. Powers are by far the most setting-specific feature of BRP, so the type of power can vary widely, and not all the fields on this list will be relevant for all powers. To get a more detailed view of a power, click its gray Info box on the right-hand side of the entry.

Powers can be dragged here from the Library, or new powers can be created by right-clicking the list.

The lower section of the tab is for recording character failings in campaigns where that mechanism is used (for example, Superworld). The points recorded here are typically used to buy additional powers, but there is no automation which constrains this because the method is likely to differ significantly from one campaign to another.

The Inventory Tab

Most of the inventory tab is devoted to a list of kit that your character is carrying. Aside from the obvious fields, the check box under the weight icon indicates whether a particular item should be included when calculating total encumbrance, and the check box under the tri-bar icon indicates whether this item should be included in the inventory mini sheet.


The special items section is mainly for GM use, and will include unusual objects (such as arcane tomes or mystical puzzle-boxes) placed on your character sheet by the GM.

The wealth section is free format, as the basis for determining wealth varies too substantially from one genre to another to make this aspect of the character any more specific.

The Armor Tab

The armor tab only appears if the GM has enabled the optional hit location feature of the ruleset, otherwise armor is dealt with as a text box on the inventory tab.

This tab can appear in two formats, the Vitruvian Man (shown above) or in a tabular format. The Vitruvian Man only shows if your character is humanoid and you have enabled it in the preferences dialog box.

In this form, the hit locations are shown at a glance as colored circles with gray being healthy, then shading from yellow through orange, red and black as the location suffers more damage. If you click on one of the hit locations, additional detail is given (the above screen shot has the right arm hit location clicked).


You can assign damage to a hit location by dragging the result directly from the Chat Box to the desired hit location. You can throw a die to select a hit location by double-clicking on the Vitruvian Man, and select a missile location by pressing SHIFT when double-clicking.

The tabular view shows all hit locations at once, but otherwise includes the same information.

Note that in either view, you must separately maintain the total wounds on the main tab of the character sheet: this isn't linked to the individual hit locations because some damage is non-location (such as asphyxiation).

Finally, there are two buttons at the bottom of the tab: on the left is a button to open the armor mini-sheet, which gives at-a-glance information on the character's hit locations; and on the right is a button to roll hit locations randomly. If you hold down the SHIFT key when clicking this button, a missile hit location is rolled, otherwise a melee hit location is chosen. If no missile hit location information is included for your character, the roll will always yield a melee location.

The Notes Tab

The notes tab (not shown) contains a free-format box for recording additional details about your character.

Basic Roleplaying for Fantasy Grounds II – Gamemaster's Guide

The Gamemaster's View

The layout of the GM's screen is very similar to that of the players, but it is worth noting the differences:

• The GM has two new Sidebar Buttons (Light and Combat) and is missing the Pics button; • There are quite a number of new entries in the Icon Bar, covered in some detail below; and • There is no Secret Die-Roll Box for the GM.

Although this screen shot doesn't show the character portrait list at the top left, that is purely because no players have logged in to the game yet. The portrait list is still there, and in fact it plays an important role in the Group Chat feature.

Sidebar Buttons

Although most of the buttons look the same for the GM as for a player, a number of them have additional features. The two new buttons, Light and Combat, control the desktop ambient light and activate the combat tracker respectively. Each of these is dealt with below.

Light

The light dialog box provides four different settings for the desktop ambient light, with normal, red (fire), green (forest) and blue (night) hues. Clicking one of these icons produces an atmospheric effect that might be useful for setting a story scene.


Combat

This opens the Combat Tracker, which is given its own section, below.

Mods

In addition to controlling which modules are available for the GM in the Library, this window also controls which modules the players have permission to access, using one of three settings: Block; Allow; or Force. These permissions are set for a given module by dragging the red/amber/green icons from the bottom left of the module activation window and dropping them on the placeholder for each module.

When set to Block, players are prevented from loading a module. When set to Allow they are permitted to load the module provided it has player-accessible content. When set to Force, players will have that module loaded automatically, and cannot unload it.

Prefs

The GM has access to three additional tabs of preferences, not visible to players, and has two further options on the main 'General' tab:

• "Show image toolbars" controls whether or not some simple image manipulation tools are included as a small toolstrip at the top left of each image window. These tools allow drawings to be added or removed, switch the grid between square and hex and enable or disable masking. The tools are available through the right-click menu anyway, so the toolbar does not need to be visible to use them.

• "Snap to grid" controls how tokens are moved on images and maps with the hex or square grid visible. It can be helpful to switch this setting on or off depending on the circumstances. It should be noted that the setting is effective the next time an image is opened.

The Rules tab controls some optional aspects of the BRP system, and changes the behavior of the ruleset to reflect that:

• The three preferences "Use Sanity", "Use Fatigue" and "Use Power Points" switch those game elements on or off, and impact the players' Character Sheets, the mini sheets and the Combat Tracker.

• "Skill Difficulties" determines whether the ruleset displays three options next to the Modifier Box to change standard skill difficulties between Easy, Normal and Difficult.

• "Ignore 0 Characteristics" directs the ruleset to calculate damage bonuses and skill category bonuses differently, if one of the dependent characteristics is zero. A creature with SIZ but no STR would otherwise have its damage bonus based on the average of SIZ and zero, which is half SIZ. With this option selected, a zero STR is completely ignored and the damage bonus is based on the SIZ of the creature only. This option impacts Character Sheets and NPC Sheets.

• "Skill Category Bonuses" switches this optional rule on or off, and impacts the Character Sheets only.

• "Use Crucial Rolls" determines whether skill rolls are automatically checked for fumbles, failures, successes, specials and criticals. If this is selected, any roll in the chat box will have the text changed to show one of these five results.

• "Use Strike Ranks" changes the ordering of turns in the Combat Tracker to use the optional strike rank system. This complex option is not fully automated, but the alternate Combat Tracker layout helps run encounters using strike ranks. If this option is not selected, DEX is used to drive initiative order.


• "Use Hit Locations" turns the optional hit location system on or off. This has a very wide impact, and changes the way the Character Sheet, Mini Sheets, NPC Sheets and Combat Tracker operate.

The GM tab impacts some of the non-BRP ruleset functions:

• "Secret die rolls" enables or disables the Secret Die-roll Box for players. With this enabled, any roll dropped by a player into the box will actually be made on the GM's screen, so none of the players (including the originator) will know the result.

• "Show die roll totals" is a simple option that includes a total of all the rolls and modifiers whenever a roll is made, adding it to the chat box text. This is useful when rolling large numbers of dice, generating characters, or when there are large numbers of modifiers.

• When "Show portraits in chat" is selected, standard in-character chat messages from players and the GM are accompanied by a small icon depicting the character. You can override the GM icon by changing the file portrait_GM_chat.png in the icons folder of the ruleset. Chat portraits aren't included for emote or other chat entries, but they are included for some of the die rolls.

• The final option controls player-to-player whispers. This has three settings: Off (players cannot whisper to each other), On (they can) and Echo (players can whisper to each other, but the GM sees all such whispers).

The last tab, Combat, changes the way the Combat Tracker operates:

• "Show PC stats on clients" determines whether one player can see the summary status of other players' characters in a combat. Some GMs prefer to keep players unaware of just how healthy or unwell their comrades are, using descriptive text instead of numbers. This option gives GMs the choice. This option effects the HP, Wounds and PP fields.

• "Show NPCs on clients" changes when NPC entries are visible to players. If set to Yes, then NPC entries are always visible (although their stats are never seen by players, just their names and tokens). If set to No, then the NPC entries don't appear on the players' combat tracker. If set to Toggle, each NPC's visibility is controlled by the little 'eye' icon immediately above its name.

• "Tracker changes GM id" enables a feature that automatically changes to in-character name of the GM to match the NPC name, when it is that NPC's turn. The in-character name of the GM is used when the GM uses emote, chat or mood commands.

• "Auto-number NPCs" changes the way NPC names are determined when they are added to the tracker. If set to No, the NPC names are left unaltered. If set to Yes, the first NPC with a particular name is added as usual, but subsequent NPCs with the same name have a sequence number appended to them. If set to Random, subsequent NPCs are given a random number. For example, with a Leader NPC and three Thug NPCs the combat tracker names would be:

o Leader, Thug, Thug, Thug (preference set to No) o Leader, Thug, Thug #2, Thug #3 (preference set to Yes) o Leader, Thug, Thug #72, Thug #183 (preference set to Random)

• Finally, "Bell on PC turn" toggles whether or not the players' FG instance beeps at them when it is their turn. Sometimes this is useful if your players have a habit of reading their email or doing other non-FG tasks when it isn't their turn in a combat.


Icon Bar

Story

This button works exactly the same as the standard FG Story button.

Encounters

An Encounter is a pre-set list of NPCs which can be added to the Combat Tracker very easily by clicking the orange triangle next to the encounter name. Create encounters by right-clicking on the list, then open the encounter itself and drag NPCs and creatures to the encounter. You can set the number of each creature or NPC that appears and their initial reaction (neutral, friendly or hostile).

When a creature type is dropped on the encounter, it resolves the random values like characteristics and HP, and these can then be edited by clicking the gray box to the right of the creature entry. This means the encounter is fully pre-prepared for subsequent use on the Combat Tracker.

Maps & Images

These work in a very similar way to standard FG, but with the addition of the optional image tool bar, mentioned in Prefs, above.

Personalities

The Personalities list is used for standard NPCs, specific 'boss' creatures and generic creature/race templates. The most important distinction for these entries is whether they are for a specific person/creature or whether they describe a race or class of people/creatures (a racial template). This is controlled by the Race? check box.


If the entry is a racial template, then it will include the die rolls required to generate characteristics (such as STR: 3D6) whereas if it is for a specific creature or person, it will include the actual values (such as STR: 10). When a specific entry is dropped onto the combat tracker or the encounters list, it copies across as-is. When a racial template is dropped, the ruleset determines characteristics randomly from the die rolls and reports the outcome in the chat box.

This shows the two types of personality entry, by way of comparison. For a racial template, the rolls are recorded and there is space to enter the average (the average isn't calculated automatically and isn't used for anything other than information).

Although the right-hand example includes more characteristics than the left-hand one, that is simply because APP and EDU don't apply to wolves: you can remove unwanted characteristics, or restore the default set, from either type of entry just by right-clicking on them.


On the Combat tab, both types of entry have space to describe their attacks and defenses, although the specific entry has its full hit location breakdown displayed (if that game option is enabled).

If the Hit Location template is changed to Custom, the GM is given considerably more scope to change the hit locations, their melee/missile hit chances, and the calculation method for hit points.

The HP Method determines how the calc field is used. For Standard BRP, the calc field is a multiple applied to the total HP and then rounded up.

The ruleset only includes Standard BRP as distributed, but other methods could be added. See the separate notes on Adapting the Ruleset for an example that uses the RQIII method.

Any changes to the calc field are applied immediately for specific personalities, but not for racial templates, as their HP are only provisional until the actual characteristics are rolled.

The Appears tab is identical for both type and is just a free-format text field to add some narrative text about the creature or NPC. This is used extensively in the Call of Cthulhu bestiary, but is not used in the standard BRP core reference material.


The Notes tab holds sundry information and skills for the personality. You can throw the dice for one of the skills by double-clicking the skill name or dragging it to the Chat Box.

In all of these screens, the top row remains the same and shows the token used for the NPC or creature, the name and a GM speech bubble. The speech bubble can be clicked to set the current GM in-character name to be the same as the creature.

Items

This button works exactly the same as the standard FG Items button.

Notes

This works the same as for players, but the GM can see everyone's' notes and edit them, whereas players can only edit their own and only see notes that have been checked as public.

Chat Box

The ruleset supports these standard GM commands:

• /story [message] • /identity [name] • /export [filename] [description] • /action [message] • /save • /reload • /console • /clear

In addition, the custom GM commands supported are:


• /group [name] [message] - send a message to the group containing the named character

Group Chat is described in more detail below.

Character Sheet

The players' character sheets are visible to the GM and function much the same on the whole.

Main Tab

The main tab is the same as for players, but there is an extra speech bubble by the character portrait. The GM can click this bubble to assume the in-character identity of a player. This doesn't, however, change the chat portrait for the GM.

Inventory Tab

As with standard FG, the GM can drag and drop entries from the Items list to the Special Items section of a player's character sheet.

Armor Tab

This functions identically to the player's view, except the GM (alone) can change the hit location template for a player character to allow non-humanoid characters and custom hit locations.

Notes Tab

The notes tab includes the player's notes but also has an extra space for the GM to include notes about the character that the player cannot see. This field is also present on the Combat Tracker, so is especially useful for wounds and other ailments about which the player may be unaware.

Combat Tracker


The BRP combat tracker has an entry for each participant in a combat and a row of action buttons along the bottom. The action buttons are similar to the standard ones found in FG, except there are an additional two which delete all NPCs (the gray face with the red cross on it) and clear all effects (the blue silhouette with the red cross).

The layout of the top part of the tracker changes depending on whether the optional strike rank system is being used (as shown in the screen shot above) or not. If it is not in use, the DEX characteristic replaces the Rank field. Likewise, if the GM has disabled power points in the campaign, the PP field will be absent.

Finally, the wounds field is used to track total HP damage. With hit locations enabled, wounds are recorded for each of the individual locations but this field does not update automatically (to allow for non-location damage, like asphyxiation).

The four grayed-out icons to the right of the center of each entry control the different combat panels: Attacks; Defenses; Effects; and Notes.

Attacks

The attacks panel lists the attacks for NPC characters, and the MOV and damage bonus characteristics. To roll an attack for an NPC, double-click on the attack name, and to roll the damage, double-click on the damage (inside the brackets). Damage bonus for NPC attacks is added automatically, using half for appropriate missile weapons (or twice the penalty value if negative).

Defenses

The defense panel shows either the type of armor worn (such as '1-point leather jacket') if hit locations are disabled, or it shows the hit location list, with the hit chance, name, armor points and current hit points. It also shows a health indicator, which varies from gray (healthy) through yellow, orange and red to black (severed/destroyed).


Dragging damage results to a HP field will deduct that damage from the current HP for that location, after allowing for the armor protection. You can also edit the HP manually using the keyboard or mouse wheel.

If you want to roll to determine a hit location randomly, double-click any of the hit chance fields. If you double-click a missile hit chance it will roll for missile locations, otherwise it will roll for standard (melee) locations. The missile field is only visible if the particular PC/NPC has missile hit locations defined.

Effects

These operate exactly the same as the standard FG combat effects, and can be cleared with the Clear All Effects button on the bottom of the tracker.

Notes

This panel gives access to the GM notes field for a player character, or a stand-alone notes field for NPCs.


Group Chat

The Group Chat facility is useful when the player characters split up, and some of them are in a different location to the others. Characters in a chat group are able to chat to each other in character without players in another group being able to see the conversation.

It is important to note that it is characters which are grouped, not players. If a player is controlling two characters and they are in different groups, the player will see both conversations in the chat box.

Group chat is controlled by the GM using the character portraits at the top left of the screen.

Creating a Group

To create a chat group, drag one of the character portraits on top of another. This will create a group with both characters in it, and they will be shown adjacent in the portrait list with a faint box joining them. Both players will be told that they are joining a chat group.

Adding Characters

To add another character to an existing group, drag their portrait on to one of the characters in the target group. The new and existing group members will be told that the new player has joined the group.

Removing Characters

Right-click on a portrait to remove that character from a chat group: the player and the others will be told that the character has left the group.

Disbanding a Group

Right-click on any portrait in the group to disband the group: all players will be notified that the group has been disbanded.

Sending Messages

Any player can send a message to the other characters in the same chat group by using the /group [message] chat command. The other players will receive the message and the GM also sees the message.

If the GM wants to send a message to a chat group, the target group must be identified, so the name of one of the characters must be included in the chat command: /group [name] [message].

Basic Roleplaying for Fantasy Grounds II – Adapting the Ruleset

Adapting the Ruleset

The Basic Roleplaying ruleset has a good degree of built-in flexibility that can be controlled by the GM from the preferences dialog, but that won't always be adequate for a particular campaign or genre. In addition to using preferences, a GM can change the default ruleset behavior either by editing the underlying ruleset files or by using a campaign extension. The first of these options is beyond the scope of this guide, but much can be achieved using the second option, which is explained in more detail below.

Please note that whichever route is chosen, you cannot redistribute either the ruleset or a campaign extension, as the copyright for the original code is the property of SmiteWorks USA, LLC.

Creating a Campaign Extension

The ruleset comes bundled with a sample campaign extension, for you to copy and adapt, called MyQuest. The first step in creating your own campaign extension is to copy the MyQuest folder to the extensions sub-folder in the Application Data Folder of your Fantasy Grounds II installation. You can find the Application Data Folder in your Fantasy Grounds II start menu group, clicking it should bring up a window similar to the one below.

You should then expand the 'rulesets' sub-folder, the 'Basic Roleplaying' sub-folder and the 'sample' sub-folder. Within 'sample' is the 'MyQuest' sub-folder, which needs to be copied into 'extensions' in the Fantasy Grounds II Application Data Folder.

Be careful to create a copy (by holding down the control key while you drag MyQuest to extensions) otherwise you will lose the example template when you later edit it.

The screen shot below illustrates this.


You should test you have been successful by launching Fantasy Grounds II and starting or creating a Basic Roleplaying campaign. The MyQuest Campaign Extension should appear as an option.


If you start your campaign with this extension selected, you should see some additional start-up narrative in the chat box, and the background and logo on the character sheet will look different:

The MyQuest campaign extension has two main files which you can edit to alter the ruleset behavior, extension.xml and scripts/myqscript.lua. When changing these files to tailor your campaign, make sure you edit the versions in your extension folder, not the ones in your original sample folder.

Changing Default Campaign Preferences

When you start a new Basic Roleplaying campaign, the ruleset preferences are set to some standard default values. You can override these defaults in a campaign extension so that the best ones are selected for your genre. For example, you might want to turn off hit locations by default.

The default preferences are held in the scripts/myqscript.lua file, towards the bottom:

DefaultPreferences = { ["UseCrucialRoles"] = "Yes", ["UseSkillLevels"] = "Yes", ["IgnoreZeroAbilities"] = "No", ["UseHitLocations"] = "Yes", ["SkillCategoryBonuses"] = "Yes", ["UsePowerPoints"] = "Yes", ["UseFatigue"] = "Yes", ["UseSanity"] = "Yes", ["UseStrikeRanks"] = "Yes" },


Editing these preference values will change the default for new campaigns which use this campaign extension.

You can also change the defaults for the other preferences, if you wish, by adding additional lines to this section of the file with the relevant preference keywords and default values.

The preferences that can be changed in this way are as follows:

Keyword Preference (values, case sensitive) "CombatTrackerShowNPC" Show NPCs on clients (Yes/No/Toggle) "CombatTrackerShowStats" Show PC stats on clients (Yes/No) "AutoNumber" Auto-number NPCs (Yes/No/Random) "BellOnTurn" Bell on PC turn (Yes/No) "TrackGMId" Tracker changes GM id (Yes/No) "Vitruvian" Show Vitruvian Man (Yes/No) "BaseMouseScrollerKey" Mouse Scroller Key (CTRL/SHIFT/ALT/None) "P2PWhisperSeparator" Use ':' for whispers (Yes/No) "P2PWhisperGM" Allow P2P whispers (Yes/No/Echo) "SecretBox" Secret die rolls (Yes/No) "ChatPortraits" Show portraits in chat (Yes/No) "CloseBox" Show window close box (Yes/No) "ImageTools" Show image toolbars (Yes/No) "SnapToGrid" Snap to grid (Yes/No) "ShowTotals" Show die roll totals (Yes/No)

Changing the Map Grid

The default grid used by the ruleset is expressed in meters (m) with 1.5m per square and displays distances to one decimal place. For fantasy settings, an imperial measure might be more appropriate, and this can be changed in scripts/myqscript.lua, just below the default preferences:

Grid = { Multiple = 1.5, Decimals = 1, UnitName = "m" },

To use feet, with 5' per square, change this section as follows:

Grid = { Multiple = 5, Decimals = 0, UnitName = "\'" },

Powers

The next section of the script file deals with powers: the first bits are easy; but the main meat of this section is quite complex. First the easy bit, changing the name for power points.

If your campaign uses spell points, energy points or magic points instead of power points, this can be changed by editing the following two lines:

PowerPointLabel = "Power Points", PPAbbreviation = "PP",


To rename them Magic Points (MP) simply replace the descriptions as follows:

PowerPointLabel = "Magic Points", PPAbbreviation = "MP",

This will impact the character sheet, mini sheets, combat tracker and NPC sheet. Any use of the words 'Power Points' in spell descriptions etc, will not be changed.

The more complex part of this section defines the various power types supported by the campaign, and comprises one entry for each type of power, with the entry itself listing the common fields used to describe the power. As an example, the default definition for Psychic Abilities looks like this:

{Name="Psychic Ability", Fields= { {Name="range",Label="Range",Type="string"}, {Name="duration",Label="Duration",Type="string"}, {Name="cost",Label="Cost to Use",Type="string"} }},

Each field has a name (used in the underlying FG database, and so it must obey the naming constraints for database nodes), a label displayed next to the field and a data type. The ruleset uses this information when displaying a power:

The type of a field can be 'string', 'number', or 'flag', with a flag field being displayed as a check box is edit mode, and just as the field label in read-only mode. When using flags, an additional attribute called FlagTitle is used to label the list of flags.

The following definitions correspond to the three magic types in RuneQuest(tm) Third Edition:

{Name="Spirit Magic", Fields= { {Name="cost",Label="MP Cost",Type="string"}, {Name="range",Label="Range",Type="string"}, {Name="duration",Label="Duration",Type="string"}, {Name="spelltype",Label="Spell Type",Type="string"} }},


{Name="Divine Magic", FlagTitle="Traits", Fields= { {Name="cost",Label="MP Cost",Type="string"}, {Name="range",Label="Range",Type="string"}, {Name="duration",Label="Duration",Type="string"}, {Name="spelltype",Label="Spell Type",Type="string"}, {Name="stackable",Label="Stackable",Type="flag"}, {Name="reusable",Label="Reusable",Type="flag"} }},

{Name="Sorcery", Fields= { {Name="range",Label="Range",Type="string"}, {Name="spelltype",Label="Spell Type",Type="string"}, {Name="duration",Label="Duration",Type="string"} }},

Skill Categories

Basic Roleplaying provides optional grouping of skills by category, with category bonuses and penalties determined by linked characteristics. The names and bonuses for each category can be changed in the campaign extension file. The default categories are defined as follows:

Categories = { ["Combat"] = {Order=95, Primary={"DEX"}, Secondary={"INT","STR"}, Negative={}}, ["Communication"] = {Order=5, Primary={"INT"}, Secondary={"POW","APP"}, Negative={}}, ["Manipulation"] = {Order=10, Primary={"DEX"}, Secondary={"INT","STR"}, Negative={}}, ["Mental"] = {Order=15, Primary={"INT"}, Secondary={"POW","EDU"}, Negative={}}, ["Perception"] = {Order=20, Primary={"INT"}, Secondary={"POW","CON"}, Negative={}}, ["Physical"] = {Order=25, Primary={"DEX"}, Secondary={"STR","CON"}, Negative={"SIZ"}} },

Each one has a name, an 'Order' number which is used to sort skill categories on the character sheet (categories with higher Order numbers appear after those with lower numbers). Again, using RQ3 as an example, the categories would be defined as follows:

Categories = { ["Agility"] = {Order=5,Primary={"DEX"},Secondary={"STR"}, Negative={"SIZ"}}, ["Communication"] = {Order=15,Primary={"INT"},Secondary={"POW","APP"}, Negative={}}, ["Knowledge"] = {Order=25,Primary={"INT"},Secondary={}, Negative={}}, ["Magic"] = {Order=35,Primary={"INT","POW"},Secondary={"DEX"}, Negative={}}, ["Manipulation"] = {Order=45,Primary={"INT","DEX"},Secondary={"STR"}, Negative={}}, ["Perception"] = {Order=55,Primary={"INT"},Secondary={"POW","CON"}, Negative={}}, ["Stealth"] = {Order=65,Primary={"DEX"},Secondary={}, Negative={"SIZ","POW"}} },


Skills

Skills are probably one of the most variable elements of a Basic Roleplaying campaign, with each genre and campaign having different skills and starting percentages. The campaign extension can define which skills appear on the character sheet, what skill categories they fall in, whether they have specialisms, what the starting skill chances are, etc.

Each skill is named and given some or all of the following attributes:

Attribute Meaning/Use Base Starting value for the skill chance, see below for more detail Category One of the skill categories defined above Sublabelling If present, and set to the value true, allows this skill to have specialisms Untrained If present, and set to true, the skill does not appear on a new character's sheet NoCheck If present, and set to true, the skill doesn't have an experience check box

As an example, here are a few skills defined by default:

["Fly"] = {Base="var", Category="Physical", Untrained=true}, ["Gaming"] = {Base="INT+POW", Category="Mental"}, ["Grapple"] = {Base="25", Category="Combat"}, ["Heavy Machine"] = {Base="01", Category="Manipulation", Sublabeling=true},

Note that the Sublabelling, Untrained and NoCheck attributes must have their true value without enclosing quotation marks, whereas all the other attributes have quotation marks around their values.

The Base attribute requires a bit more explanation, as it can take three different forms. The most straightforward is a number (in quotation marks) which means the skill starts at this percentage level. The second form is simply the word "var", which means there is no pre-determined level, and hence the base chance is left editable on the character sheet. The final form is a calculation, which can include the three-letter abbreviations for any characteristics, simple arithmetic operators (+,-,*,/) and numbers. In the above example, Gaming has a base chance equal to INT plus POW, and similarly the Dodge skill has a base chance equal to DEX*2.

Here are some example skills:

["Climb"] = {Base="40",Category="Agility"}, ["Dodge"] = {Base="5",Category="Agility"}, ["Jump"] = {Base="25",Category="Agility"}, ["Ride"] = {Base="5",Category="Agility"}, ["Swim"] = {Base="15",Category="Agility"}, ["Throw"] = {Base="25",Category="Agility"}, ["Fast Talk"] = {Base="5",Category="Communication"}, ["Orate"] = {Base="5",Category="Communication"}, ["Sing"] = {Base="5",Category="Communication"}, ["Speak Language, Own"] = {Base="30",Category="Communication"}, ["Speak Language, Other"] = {Base="0",Category="Communication",Sublabelling=true}, ["Animal Lore"] = {Base="5",Category="Knowledge"}, ["Craft"] = {Base="10",Category="Knowledge",Sublabelling=true}, ["Evaluate"] = {Base="5",Category="Knowledge"}, ["First Aid"] = {Base="10",Category="Knowledge"}, ["Human Lore"] = {Base="5",Category="Knowledge"}, ["Martial Arts"] = {Base="0",Category="Knowledge"}, ["Mineral Lore"] = {Base="5",Category="Knowledge"},


["Plant Lore"] = {Base="5",Category="Knowledge"}, ["Read/Write Language"] = {Base="0",Category="Knowledge",Sublabelling=true}, ["Shiphandling"] = {Base="0",Category="Knowledge"}, ["World Lore"] = {Base="5",Category="Knowledge"}, ["Conceal"] = {Base="5",Category="Manipulation"}, ["Devise"] = {Base="5",Category="Manipulation"}, ["Sleight"] = {Base="5",Category="Manipulation"}, ["Play Instrument"] = {Base="0",Category="Manipulation",Sublabelling=true}, ["Listen"] = {Base="25",Category="Perception"}, ["Scan"] = {Base="25",Category="Perception"}, ["Search"] = {Base="25",Category="Perception"}, ["Track"] = {Base="5",Category="Perception"}, ["Hide"] = {Base="10",Category="Stealth"}, ["Sneak"] = {Base="10",Category="Stealth"}

Characteristics

To change the number and name of characteristics, and the name or availability of characteristic rolls is fairly straightforward. A little bit below the skills section is the following:

Characteristics = { {Name="Strength", Roll="Effort"}, {Name="Constitution", Roll="Stamina"}, {Name="Size"}, {Name="Intelligence", Roll="Idea"}, {Name="Power", Roll="Luck"}, {Name="Dexterity", Roll="Agility"}, {Name="Appearance", Roll="Charisma"}, {Name="Education", Roll="Know"} },

Simply change the name of a characteristic, delete it altogether or add new ones (such as Sanity in Call of Cthulhu). If there is a Roll attribute, there will be a characteristic roll on the character sheet. If no Roll attribute is present, then the character sheet will have a blank space to the right of the characteristic instead. Typical older-style Basic Roleplaying games didn't have characteristic rolls and lacked the Education characteristic. This section would therefore look as follows:

Characteristics = { {Name="Strength"}, {Name="Constitution"}, {Name="Size"}, {Name="Intelligence"}, {Name="Power"}, {Name="Dexterity"}, {Name="Appearance"} },

Default Weapons

The final section which is easily modifiable (without resorting to writing some degree of Lua script) is the list of default weapons. These appear on any new character sheet, and cannot be deleted. The standard Basic Roleplaying ruleset defines only two:

["Brawl"]={Skill="Brawl",Attack=25,Damage="1D3",Hands="1H",Notes="", DBFlag=true}, ["Grapple"]={Skill="Grapple",Attack=25,Damage="",Hands="2H",Notes="See Grapple rules"}


As with skills, not all attributes need to be used, and they are mostly self-explanatory. Two things to watch out for are the fact that the Attack attribute and DBFlag attributes don't have quotation marks around their values, and the fact that the DBFlag attribute indicates that this weapon should have a damage bonus applied to it.

For RQ3, there are no default weapons, so this section is empty:

DefaultWeapons = {},

Damage Bonus

Although the rest of the campaign extension modification relies upon some amount of Lua scripting, it is worth dwelling on an aspect that is frequently modified: calculation of damage bonus dice.

The standard Basic Roleplaying ruleset has the following function that determines the DB:

function damageDice(val) local dice = {}; if val < 13 then return {"m6"} elseif val < 17 then return {"m4"} elseif val < 25 then return {} elseif val < 33 then return {"d4"} elseif val < 41 then return {"d6"} end val = math.floor((val-9)/16); for i=1,val do table.insert(dice,"d6"); end return dice; end

An explanation of Lua scripting is beyond the scope of this guide, but this function takes the value of STR+SIZ (the parameter val) and returns a list of dice names to be rolled as a damage bonus according to the following table:

STR+SIZ Dice 0 to 12 -D6 13 to 16 -D4 17 to 24 None 25 to 32 +D4 33 to 40 +D6 For each +16 +D6

The list of dice is made up a number of string values (m4, m6, d4 and d6) where the 'm' indicates a minus die. While this is close to RQ3, the first two or three calculations are slightly out, so the revised function is given below.

basic roleplaying for fantasy grounds ii - user guide · 2017. 10. 22. · basic roleplaying for...

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