| Pygon June 16th, 2009 3:17 AM Join date: May 22nd, 2009 Location: Fenton, MI Posts: 261 | This article will talk about many of the most common functions you'll make use of when conducting and playing a TTopRPG session. Both players and GMs can benefit by reading this article. Right Click Menues Right-click menues are TTopRPG's primary way (other than hotkeys on the map) of giving the user access to the application's many functions. In the vast majority of situations, if you need to do something with an object on the screen (whether on the map or in some other area on the interface), right click it and you'll see what you can do with it. Chatting (emotes /me, /em and alias /a, /ame, /aem) Note that you can type /help on the chat line to get a list of all available chat commands. Most times, you chat in TTopRPG by typing in the blank below the chat area and hitting ENTER. To the left of the chat entry blank is a button that will either have your player name or the name of the current selected macro tab. This button switches between those two. When your name is in the button, you're in OOC (out of character) mode. Otherwise, you will be speaking in character. When speaking in character, the name in the button will change whenever the selected macro tab changes. This makes it convenient to switch between multiple PC or NPC names when you are chatting. To help make you aware which name will result when you chat, a small helper window with the resulting name will appear just above the chat entry when you start typing there. You can emote by using "/me" or "/em". If your name is Bob and you type "/me scratches his head", the chat message is "Bob scratches his head". There are two more ways to speak in character, which are only available to the GM: Many times you may need to speak in character with an NPC that you don't need any die rolls for, so you won't usually have a tab set up for it, so you can't select it to automatically speak in-character for the NPC in chat. However, if you have an icon representing the NPC on the map, you can quickly generate an in-character message by hitting Q (Quote) on the icon. The quote form also supports emotes ("/me and /em" ). The final way to speak in character is to use the "/a name message" command. If you type "/a Ogre Give me your sheep.", the chat message is "Ogre: Give me your sheep". You can also use "/ame name message" and "/aem name message" for alias emotes. Whispering (/w playerName message, /r) There will be times when you'll want to share information with another player without anyone else knowing about it. To whisper to another player, use "/w name message". The command supports partial names. For instance, if a player is named Richard and you want to whisper to him, you could type "/w ric Hello" and Richard will receive the message, as long as there aren't other players whose names also start with "ric". Use "/r" to quickly reply to someone who has just whispered to you. You can also send a tell to someone by right clicking their name in the player list and using the Send Tell option. On the other player's machine, your "From" message will appear in every channel to ensure that he sees it. You will only see the "To" message in the channel you typed the whisper in. Note: Whispers show player name only in the result. You cannot whisper as a Character or Monster, despite the name appearing in the little helper window. Channels (/join, /leave) Channels were a recent and experimental addition. To make a channel, type "/join channelName". A tab with whatever channelName was appears above the chat box. Whenever new text appears in a channel, a star (*) will appear on the channel's tab. You can leave a channel by typing "/leave" when the channel is active. You can also "/invite" a player into a channel (including the GM). It works the same way as a tell (/invite playerName). The player list will reflect who has joined a channel (those that aren't joined will be grayed out). A right-click menu on the channel tabs also allow you to Leave and Invite. You can't leave or invite with the Main channel. Some server-supplied messages and alerts will only appear in the Main channel. Whispers arriving from other players will appear in every channel to ensure that you see them. Most other messages will appear in the same channel they originated from (dice rolls, the results of clicked macros, etc. will appear in the same channel you had active at the time). Dice rolling (/roll, /turn, /table, /wr, /wr9, /wr8, /wrx, "... [1d20+5]..." ) Dice rolling is vital for playing games in TTopRPG. The /roll command supports dice phrases like "d20+5", "2d10+4-2d6", etc. It does not support multiplication, parentheses, phrases longer than 26 characters, more than 99 rolls of a single die or a dice size greater than 999. So the largest roll phrase you can enter is "/roll 99d999+99d999+99d999+99d99". TTopRPG also has a /turn command, which uses the 3.5 Turn Undead table. The syntax is "/turn level dieRoll". A 5th level cleric that has a turn check of d20+7 would type "/turn 5 d20+7" to get the results. To handle rolls from a table, I added a /table command. The syntax is '/table "filename" dieRoll'. Each line in the filename.txt has lines such as "1;No treasure here" or a range like "26,50;Babble Incoherently" to display the result. Lines that start with "//" are ignored and can serve as comments, like "// This is the 3.5 Confusion table - roll d100". The filename.txt file is placed in the scripts folder. TTopRPG has no automatic way of building these files (yet). A typical /table command might be '/table "Confusion 3.5" d100', which uses the Confusion 3.5.txt file in the scripts folder to show the result. Here is what a sample table file might look like: filename: Confusion 3.5.txt // Confusion 3.5 table - roll d100 01,10;Attack caster with melee or ranged weapons 11,20;Act normally 21,50;Do nothing but babble incoherently 51,70;Flee from caster at fastest possible speed 71,100;Attack nearest creature (not a familiar) The /wr, /wr8, /wr9 and /wrx commands are for New World of Darkness. The syntax is "/wr n", where n is a number between 1 and 25. That many dice will be rolled: These dice roll commands can be set up in macros (discussed later). When a GM uses the /roll, /turn, /table and /wr* commands, all the players see is "<GM name> rolls dice...". For the GM, all these commands are private. As with OpenRPG, TTopRPG now also supports chat die phrases like "I swing my axe, hitting AC [1d20+5] and cause [2d6+7] damage". The output evaluates the die rolls accordingly (it does not support nWoD rolling in this fashion). Simple macros only support 32 characters, so macroing phrases of this size requires Advanced macros (see Macros). You can use these die phrases to send whispered rolls to other players ("/w Bob You just took [d6] Con damage!" ). For the GM, this way of performing die rolls is also private (new with .077), although whispered die rolls will appear for the player you whispered to. When using a "d20" style /roll, TTopRPG will add a special notification when a natural 1 or natural 20 is rolled. If the /roll phrase is not random (like "/roll 20", note there is no 'd' there ), the roll result will also warn that the roll was not random. Macros A macro is a button you can click to throw off a command, usually a die roll of some sort. Before you can set up a macro, you need to have a tab set up in the macro list (the area above the chat box). If a tab isn't there already, Click New PC or load one by clicking the Load PC button. In the area below the tab, right click and select New Macro. Give the macro a name and an operation, and click OK. The button should appear. Click it and the operation will occur. Macros are a quick and easy way of using die rolls associated with a PC or monster. You can set up multiple tabs if you wish. This allows a single player to run multiple PCs, and a GM to set up many monsters and have their macros available with a click of a tab. Note that only GMs have access to monster macros, and even then, monster macros are only available when a campaign is loaded (right click the tab strip to switch between Characters and Monsters). Macros within a single list can be re-arranged by dragging them up and down. You can also change and remove them with another right click. You can right-click a tab and Save a macro list. Later, you can Load the macro list again using the same menu. If there are no tabs available to right-click, you can right-click the New and Load buttons that will be there otherwise. NOTE: When you save a Character tab, it goes to the same folder location, whether you have a campaign loaded or not. This means a Character tab of the same name will overwrite a saved Character tab from other campaigns. If you want to keep a history of macros for a PC as it levels, rename it to 'Name Level#", like 'Grunk L10' or something, then save it. Monster tabs, however, get their own campaign-specific tab folder, so Monster tabs from different campaigns will not overwrite each other. This also means that monster tabs are not readily available to select from when you have a different campaign loaded. TTopRPG currently has no way to share these files between campaigns, but you can go into the monster folder in one campaign and copy them to another if you wish. A GM can give a Character macro tab to a player by right-clicking it and using the Give To menu option. If another player has the tab, that player loses it when the other player gains it. The GM always has access to all the tabs. Be careful, though - a player that has a tab otherwise has total control over it, so if a player removes a tab, TTopRPG removes the tab from the GM's list as well. If a player doesn't need a tab anymore, the GM can give the macro to himself, taking it away from the player. If the macro tab list becomes too large, you can quickly select a different tab by right-clicking the macro tab strip. The names of all the tabs will be listed alphabetically at the bottom of the menu. You can also Associate a tab with an icon - if you then hit T on the icon, the tab will select itself. My most usual order of setting up all the macros for one tab is as follows: For 4e macros, I make sure to put which vs. the attack is against (AC, Fort, Ref, Will) in the attack name. I put the damage type in the damage macro name (fire, psychic, etc.) plus any other notes (ex. Storm dmg fire + ongo 5 fire) When playing 4e, high level PCs will have significantly more macros than 3.5 PCs. 4e monster macros, on the other hand, are MUCH simpler. A future enhancement will allow you to further organize large macro lists by sub-tabs and colors. Advanced Macros As of version .075, TTopRPG now supports complex macros. All of these options are available from the Advanced mode of the Macro form:  If you switch back to Simple mode on a macro, you lose all of these options for that macro. I've also added the ability to put parameters in the macro commands. Anywhere you place a [?var] or [?var=default] tag in a macro, TTopRPG will ask you for var's value before proceeding. For example, if you have the dice phrase "I am powerattacking with [?powerattack=5] points. I hit AC [1d20+7-[?powerattack]] and cause [1d12+6+[?powerattack]] damage", TTopRPG will ask for the value of 'powerattack' (default value 5), then replace all occurrences of powerattack in the phrase with what you enter, then execute the phrase. Finally, a macro that doesn't contain any dice rolls will not show its name when clicked. You can force the name to show by checking the Always Show Name box (available soon). Player Map Functions As a player, there are a small number of operations on the map that allow you to tell the GM and other players what you are doing, and a few utility functions. GMs have many more options, which are discussed in the other articles in the Technical Support forum. Markers (M, Delete) Hit M on the map and a marker will appear. You can get rid of it with the Delete key. Markers are used to tell other players where something is happening (where you are tossing a grenade weapon, or where you are placing a spell, etc.). Attack Arrow (A) To place an attack arrow, hit A on the map and click where you want the endpoint to be. You can place an attack arrow by itself, or originating from a PC icon. An attack arrow is another fast way of telling the other players what you are attacking, or where you are placing a spell. Only one attack arrow is available for all players. When a player places the attack arrow, any other attack arrow on the map is removed. Drag Map (left mouse button, move) To reposition the map, grab it by holding the left mouse position and move the mouse. Release when you are finished. You can also scroll the map using the scroll bars next to the map window. The mouse wheel can be used to zoom in and out. The slide bar under the map also serves this purpose for those without mouse wheels. Drag Icon (left mouse button, move) Dragging icons is the most common way to explore a map. Just grab the icon with the left mouse button, drag the icon, and release the left mouse button when you are finished. The drag path shows you how far you have moved, and it will disappear in 4 seconds. Plot Path (P on icon, click out path, space bar) Plotting a path for icons is how you should move them during combat, since the path will remain indefinitely, allowing the GM to examine the path for attacks of opportunity or stepping across traps. Hit P on an icon to begin the plot. Click out the path, then hit the space bar to finish. The icon will move to the end of the path automatically. Use the right-click menu to view additional options while you are plotting. Also, holding SHIFT when you place a plot point counts that segment as difficult terrain. Only one path is visible at a time. If multiple players are plotting a path at the same time, the last player to plot a point is the one whose path is visible. Since combat is turn based, this shouldn't be a problem. This is also why the path plot should ONLY be used in combat unless the GM calls for it elsewhere (for example, when he asks what path you followed across a room while you were exploring). The GM's plotted path is invisible to players if it originates from an invisible icon. Ruler (Alt click map) Begin a ruler by Alt-clicking the map. Click out the ruler and hit the space bar to finish. A ruler is used to measure distances. It works much the same as the path plot, but everyone can place a ruler at the same time, and icons do not move along rulers with the space bar. Each ruler disappears after 8 seconds. The GM's ruler is always invisible to players. Find Icon (F) If you can't find your PC icon on the map, highlight the icon's portrait in the lower right of the map and hit the F key. The map will jump to the location of the icon, as long as it is visible. Associate Tab (right-click tab to associate, T to use) If you right click a macro tab and select Associate with Icon, then click on a PC icon, the icon and tab become associated. Afterwards, if you hit T on that icon, the tab will automatically select itself. This is usually only important if you are controlling more than one PC and want a fast way of selecting the other tabs. Usually the GM is more likely to make use of this function, since he can easily have multiple monster macro tabs loaded (GMs can associate a tab with either a PC or monster icon). Modify Icon (double-click, ENTER) If you double click a PC icon or highlight it and hit ENTER, you can modify the name and graphic for that icon. The only graphics available for selection are those that the GM has determined as Common PC portraits. Less common chat commands Here are a few more commands that are also available in the chat area: Conclusion Hopefully, this article gets you started with operating TTopRPG's interface. The other Technical Support articles will go into more detail about other aspects of the application. |
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