Official ICE Forums
Systems & Settings => Rolemaster => Rolemaster Software => Topic started by: Vurkanan on October 03, 2014, 09:16:12 AM
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This topic is for questions about configuration, customization and advanced use of ERA for Rolemaster. For feedback, bugs and features, please go to the original ERA thread (http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?topic=14144.0).
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So, my initial question was: How do I get the Shadow World races into ERA?
Which XML files have to be edited, etc.?
On the other hand, I would gladly pay for the data set, if ICE would publish it. Is there a chance this will happen in the near future?
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The first thing you need is the current location of the race files.
This is typically \ERA\Server\RMC-Configuration\Races\
In Mac you need to show the application contents, then navigate to Contents/Resources/Server/RMC-Configuration/Races/
You will find the demo race files there. The easiest way to create a new race for your game is to make a copy of one of these files, then rename it to: [Your Race].race.XML
Now, open the new file and locate the information that is to be modified. This will normally be the name of the race, racial bonuses for each stat and resistance roll bonuses.
You can also edit the number of starting languages, and two additional sections named: <ImportantInformation> and <Description>.
They are used by the character creation module to list the details when choosing race.
You can also add a custom image for the race, to be seen in the race selection step.
The race images are located inside ...Server\Resources\Races\
The file must be a png image, with a recommended width of 280 pixels. The name must follow a specific format as well.
For example, if your race file is "Dark Elf.race.XML", then your image file must be named: "darkElf.png". That is, start with lowercase, avoid all spaces, and start the first letter of the following words in uppercase.
Try it out and let me know how it went!
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thanks Voriig,
creation of race XMLs seems to work fine, I haven't tried the images yet.
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I certainly don't have a a problem with a Shadow World race set; in fact I think it would be a nice addition. We'd have to work it out through Nicholas and ICE though of course.
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This certainly seems a very interesting product. Is it entirely based on XML tables? I am asking, because I have assembled a customized set of skills (based partly on the Mechwarrior game) in an EXCEL character generator for Spacemaster 2nd. In fact 90% of the skills are directly taken from either Spacemaster or Rolemaster and only a few have been included to match Battletech specific info. Is it possible to create custom content aside from the races?
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Also, I see that the software is available for Linux. Have you any experience in running it on a NAS?
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It is indeed based on XML tables. The only exception is the configuration file (ERA-Settings.conf) that allows some additional rule set customizations.
<salesman mode>
So... you want to add a skill? You can!
A new category? Yup.
Is it a new weapon category? No problem.
What about a whole new group of categories? Yes to all.
</salesman mode>
Now, the disclaimer. Advanced tweaking of the configuration files might cause the application to hang in the middle of character creation, or never finish starting up. But do not worry, this thread is here for those brave souls.
Second disclaimer. I have never played Spacemaster. So I made up some stuff and tested it, I can confirm the following works:
- Creating a new weapon category called "Energy". Just edit Categories.XML and add a line for it.
- Creating a new skill called "Piloting" in the Athletic category. You have to open Skills.XML, use as reference another skill such as Swimming.
- Creating a whole new group/category called "Stars" with a skill named "Planets". This is trickier. All categories belong to a group. If you have a group with only one category, you can give both the same name and ERA will compress it when presenting the character sheet. So first create a group named Stars in Groups.XML, then create a category with name="Stars" groupName="Stars" in Categories.XML. Finally edit Skills.XML to add a skill that will include groupName="Stars" categoryName="Stars" name="Planets". In the middle of all of this you will see that the related stats and table resolution can be specified.
- Creating a new profession named "Pilot". You can copy the example Fighter and go from there.
Disclaimer #3. Once you add new groups, categories and/or skills, it is very important to use, from then on, only professions that take them into consideration. Failing to include the cost for a new category or skill could cause it not to show up, or it could quit the ERA server unexpectedly.
This post is long enough as it is. Please let me know if something is not clear enough. Then let us know how it went!
As regards the NAS question: I have not tried it, I am not even sure what it might require. Remember that the demo is free, so you could try it and if you manage to do a nice setup and want to share it here, you're more than welcome.
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I certainly don't have a a problem with a Shadow World race set; in fact I think it would be a nice addition. We'd have to work it out through Nicholas and ICE though of course.
Yay Terry!!! Thanks for giving your thumbs up! In the meantime, I'm about to give my XML skills a try... stand back everyone, this could be dangerous. :o
Wayne T.
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So, I want to add all the RM2 skills (from Character Record and RMC2). For that I need to config Skills.XML .
As one who has no idea how XML files works and just opened the file in Excel I'm wondering several thing:
1) Can I open it in Excel and it will work? because a pop up popped and said the file is not defined as sum (?) and do I want to define a sum (? what is define as sum)?
2) What's the difference between Category and Group?
3) How can I define the attribute calculation (sum of two attributes)?
4) How can I add an attribute? in RM2 there was also Appearance that is used for some diplomacy skills.
5) I did notice that some of the skills are written twice, with two different attributes? Is that how you average the attributes?
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So, I want to add all the RM2 skills (from Character Record and RMC2). For that I need to config Skills.XML .
As one who has no idea how XML files works and just opened the file in Excel I'm wondering several thing:
1) Can I open it in Excel and it will work? because a pop up popped and said the file is not defined as sum (?) and do I want to define a sum (? what is define as sum)?
XML is basically a text file with fields defined by things in angle brackets, much like HTML. There are Excel files that are written as XML, but Excel is not intended for editing XML files in general and isn't going to help you here.
You can edit XML files as text in Notepad, but I suggest the free Notepad++ http://notepad-plus-plus.org/ (http://notepad-plus-plus.org/) It will do some nice color-coding to make it easier to read.
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Q: Can I open it in Excel and it will work? because a pop up popped and said the file is not defined as sum (?) and do I want to define a sum (? what is define as sum)?
A: Excel should not be used as an XML editor. I just tried opening the Skill.XML and confirmed that the interpretation is incorrect. I suggest using an XML editor, such as the one suggested by jdale.
Q: What's the difference between Category and Group?
A: group is a collection of categories. It is there mostly for compatibility with RMFRP where the concept is used more often. In RMC, the only groups with more than one category are spells and weapons. If you want to add new categories (which means you will make changes to "Categories.XML"), then you should probably add a group with the same name as well (in "Groups.XML").
Q: How can I define the attribute calculation (sum of two attributes)?
A: RMC uses averaging of stat bonuses to determine the stat bonus of a skill. Sum of stat bonuses requires the RMFRP calculation.
To determine the stats used for a skill, let's take a look at Riding in Skills.XML:
<Skill groupName="Outdoor" categoryName="Outdoor" name="Riding" classification="Moving Maneuver">
<Stats>
<Stat shortName="Em"/>
<Stat shortName="Ag"/>
</Stats>
</Skill>
You can see there is a <Stat> for each stat bonus you want to average.
So, if you want for example to change Riding from Em/Ag to Em/SD/In you would write it as:
<Skill groupName="Outdoor" categoryName="Outdoor" name="Riding" classification="Moving Maneuver">
<Stats>
<Stat shortName="Em"/>
<Stat shortName="SD"/>
<Stat shortName="In"/>
</Stats>
</Skill>
Q: How can I add an attribute? in RM2 there was also Appearance that is used for some diplomacy skills.
A: The stats available in the system are currently fixed. I will check the use of Appearance in RM2 to see if there is any way with the current version to include it in the computation of stat bonuses for skills.
Q: I did notice that some of the skills are written twice, with two different attributes? Is that how you average the attributes?
A: That is because of the way Excel is interpreting the file. Once you open it with a text or XML editor you will see there are no duplicates in the file.
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FYI, I do not think that App stat is used for stat points in RM2 or RMSS.
MDC
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I don't have RMC books just RM(2)---did they get rid of racial hitdice? I don't see hitdie in the race.xml?
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The "Dice type" of each race is still part of the basic rules in RMC. In the current version there is no feature to make this rolls automatically. The player must spend points in Body Development as with any other skill. Then, after finishing the level up process, edit the skill manually and modify the special bonus to add the value rolled.
So if you get 1 rank during pre-adolescence and 1 rank when reaching level 1, roll twice and put the sum in the special bonus of the Body Development skill. When reaching a new level, roll again and add this number to the one previously written.
I expect to be uploading new tutorial videos in the short term, which will cover this as well as other commonly asked questions.
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Thanks!
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does anyone have the files prepared for an RM2 Paladin? i'm trying to prep for a convention game in 8 days....(procrastination)
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I've been wondering what you wrote ERA in?
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Where are items stored?
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I've been wondering what you wrote ERA in?
ERA is programmed using Pharo, a dialect of the Smalltalk programming language. The web server technology uses a framework called Seaside.
If you want to know more about these and other components (icons, images, etc.) you can check the license file "sources.txt" in the Resources directory of your installation.
Where are items stored?
To use the inventory module, start the adventure, and click on a cog icon next to the adventure name. There you can find an "Inventory" button, where you can configure the stuff carried by the party.
I'm planning on doing a tutorial video in the short term. Let me know if you have any questions about the inventory so that I make certain to include clear explanations.
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Where are items stored?
To use the inventory module, start the adventure, and click on a cog icon next to the adventure name. There you can find an "Inventory" button, where you can configure the stuff carried by the party.
I was talking about any XML files which define the items, so we can create items specific to our setting. Or import the whole 10' Pole book! (j/k....)
As bringing in professions from RM Companion books, the biggest hurdle seems to be including spell lists for those like Paladin, Nightblades, etc. Changing skills is no problem, but I'm not sure what to do with spells.
What is the format for the parameters tag?
<parameters>1 target 1 min/lvl 10' D</parameters>
<parameters>1 cu'/lvl C 10' F</parameters>
<parameters>1 target - 100' Ed</parameters>
I can read that these spells have 1 target, and the foot measurement is a range, and the 'F' is probably Force, 'Ed' is maybe elemental-directed? Do those parameters make Blur give a +10DB?
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I was talking about any XML files which define the items, so we can create items specific to our setting. Or import the whole 10' Pole book! (j/k....)
Some items come preloaded in the Inventory module, just click on the "Fill with default items" button on the lower right.
As soon as you click the "Save Changes" button on the upper right, a file will be created in the Adventures directory, called "[Campaign Name].inventory.XML".
Every time you load an adventure (using the Restore and Continue buttons in the Adventuring module), the inventory for the campaign will be searched for and loaded as well.
I am still not sure if I am answering your question, so let me know if I did.
What is the format for the parameters tag?
In the current version, the parameters tag is just text. I am not doing anything with it, just showing it next to the rest of the spell information for the GM and players to have it at hand.
When a spell is cast, the duration, DB, healing and other effects must be entered manually, as you can see on this part of the active spells tutorial video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=mZrOpsdtjak#t=72).
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I am still not sure if I am answering your question, so let me know if I did.
Yeah, that's helpful. Basically you don't have a separate XML file for items, they are part of the default inventory load.
What is the format for the parameters tag?
In the current version, the parameters tag is just text. I am not doing anything with it, just showing it next to the rest of the spell information for the GM and players to have it at hand.
When a spell is cast, the duration, DB, healing and other effects must be entered manually, as you can see on this part of the active spells tutorial video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=mZrOpsdtjak#t=72).
Yeah, sorry, don't have the vids memorized yet and I haven't used ERA in a full-game setting yet. I will soon! (5wks!) That makes bringing in the RMC professions much simpler, which is good!
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Is the stderr file any use to us? Is there any helpful indication to tell me what's wrong when I've got bad XML preventing the server from getting up and going?
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Is the stderr file any use to us? Is there any helpful indication to tell me what's wrong when I've got bad XML preventing the server from getting up and going?
The current version does not provide any means of checking errors with the custom built XML files.
I made some tests and the stderr file remains empty not matter what you do, so it won't be of use for troubleshooting.
I'll see if I can add more support for error reporting when reading the configuration files, but it will have to wait for a future version.
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First I want to say this is a great little program. I have the content for RMFRP. Played around with it making some characters, leveling and some scenarios.
these are my first thoughts:
1) needs some tuned up documentation such as a step-by-step walk-thru of character creation and combat and maneuvers. I still am unsure how you set out the effects of parrying for example. do you place the percentage of OB used for parrying or defense in the percent box? or do you use the raw amount of OB in that box?
2) how do you chose to perform a maneuver during combat. did not see that as a tab in the options during the round. specify drawing a sword, diving behind cover, etc? I saw a lot of data in the combat actions .xml file so I suspect its in there somewhere I just hadn't figured it out.
3) Height in inches so it can more closely reflect the characters actual height as a record, or impact stride as needed.
4)exhaustion points? not sure if most players use them. probably not. But your system would be ideal to track them, the totals, how they are used up for actions how they are recovered. Might actually make that system work as intended without much effort during play. at the least for those who use them calculating the totals on the character sheet might be nice. along with height, stride, recover modifier, soul departure wt limits etc.
5) is it possible to have a rounds to death (or other status) box like there are for bleeding/activity/spell effects? or how do you do handle that in your play? (spell effect: life lasting for 6 rounds?). character fighting on for 6 rounds and then dying for example.
6) the initiative box do you enter the 2D10 summed roll? does the system add the Qu bonus to that to determine initiative?
7) anyway to incorporate range modifiers (probably not I suspect it would be too complex). anything to cut down on table looking up is nice.
8) Would love to have a way to save NPCs/Monsters prior to a adventure. It would be ideal to have all encounters preloaded in the system. in some way other than creating a character and leveling them. Most monsters are not leveled characters, just enter OB, hits, DB, level, resistance info, some skill bonuses and ranks that might apply, some notes, and spell lists then save. As it is on the fly how do you use the template do make it so the npc/monster can utilize spells?
I think it will be great if/when Creatures/Treasures is available because I suspect that will be all worked through in due time.
9) in terms of what I would love to see I GM'd mostly fantasy settings, but used rolemaster/spacemaster for scfi, post-apocalyptic, and cross-genre type stuff. So I would love to see:
-The Armory damage tables
-Weapons Law: Firearms
-Spacemaster: Blaster Law and Spacemaster: Equipment Law damage and critical tables. The Spacemaster/ modern armor types incorporated into the system
-the other Spacemaster content (future law/privateers)
-smoothed stat bonuses
-Creatures and races from Creatures and treasures ( or whatever it is called these days)
-essence/channeling/mentalism companion content
-Shadow world content
-black-ops?
Also played around with the XML files. I had no problem modifying professions, adding races etc. Made a new instance and heavily modded trying to make a spacemaster instance reflecting those skills ( new categories and skills, removing some categories), 4 of the races, 2 professions, the culture files etc.
I am hung on launch because it can not find a category named power manipulation in the named group power manipulation. I deleted that group/skill/category from all the config files profession/culture/race files. searched all those files and could not find it. not sure why it looks for that. All the non-modified profession, race, culture and extra downloaded content files were placed in a separate folder. You should be able to remove a group correct? Like I said adding races and professions individually seemed to work like magic!!
Also when working on the culture files for the adolescent ranks I noticed something. Spacemaster doesn't specifically assign those ranks always to specific categories or skills. There might be several ranks assigned to a group, to be applied to various categories in that group, or for example, several skill ranks to be assigned as the player chooses to skills within a specific group or category. multiple ranks to assign to Science/Analytic group categories and skills for example. Rolemaster was always very specific about adolescent skill assignment. There is much more player choice in the process for Spacemaster.
I suspect that getting around that would require more than just fiddling around with xml files to assign those adolescent skills. Probably something similar to how you assign the weapon skill ranks currently.
Anyway I am having a good time playing around with this.
I noticed that Adrenal Deflecting was listed twice as a skill once under the group martial arts and once under the group combat maneuvers. Was not sure whether that was intentional.
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So it seems that the Groups are in some way tied to the core rule set info. By adding back the groups I had removed I was able to get the server to run. These were the Spells and the Power Manipulation Groups. I just made the spell list skills prohibitively expensive. It also seems that though there is no specified skill for Transcend Armor in the Skills .xml, that does show up on the actual character sheet/ level up process. The new added Groups are unable to be added to during Hobby rank assignment.
Otherwise every other aspect worked fine. Creation of a handful of new professions, and races. Addition of new cultures. Though given the way spacemaster does this its not complete. But I added text to the culture description that defines what needs to be manually chosen. I added new groups, categories, and skills. The only issue is that the new group skills can not be added to during Hobby rank assignment ( no big issue). I added additional weapon categories (1-H Energy, 2-H Energy, 1-H Projectile, 2-H projectile) making for 10 categories total. The assignment of the development costs worked fine with the greater number of categories.
I did not add a new realm...I instead just based all the classes on mentalism and used PP development for the psion skills. But that would the next thing to dabble with.
I did add new resistances (Psion). This does not show up on the character sheet. That I guess is due to the size of the box that displays that data, and likely to there being no resistance check keyed to that in the ruleset. The added resistances also do not show up when you print the character sheet.
One issue I had is that the Psion skills are handled similar to weapon skills with a variable cost. Within the category are several separate skills/abilities. The first category developed is the lowest cost and it varies upward from there. unfortunately you cant assign the costs like the weapon category costs given the limitation of the ruleset . I figured though that I would be able to edit the costs as needed once I got to the character sheet. However, once there I found they were fixed and uneditable based on how they were specified in the.xml files. I wonder is there a way to edit those costs on the character sheet or make them editable in future versions? That seems like the easiest fix. Programing to allow assignment of Psion category dev cost at character creation is likely something that would only be done if Spacemaster specific content is developed.
This was all to see just how customizable the system is. I found that for the majority of users adding races, professions, adjusting skill costs or changing skills the system is extremely flexible.
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First of all, WOW! You really did a run on the features! I am honored that you covered so many of them and all the tweaking you tried. And I am happy to know that you had fun doing it.
Let's answer each of your comments in turn.
1) needs some tuned up documentation such as a step-by-step walk-thru of character creation and combat and maneuvers. I still am unsure how you set out the effects of parrying for example. do you place the percentage of OB used for parrying or defense in the percent box? or do you use the raw amount of OB in that box?
Yes, up to date tutorials videos are on my to-do list. I really haven't found the time to do them. With ERA RMU in the works, that has taken all my available time.
Parrying is briefly mentioned in this part of the tutorial video (https://youtu.be/vW0wGjz5kfA?t=493) you need to choose the skill used to parry, and the percentage of that skill to apply. The Hits and Other boxes are for adjustments to the skill, meant for penalties the defender might be having.
But, you could assign 100% parry, and use the Other box to put as a penalty the amount used to attack. In that way ERA also support parrying as a direct number.
Assigning 0% and Other as a positive value would not work, since the formula is: [ Skill + Hits Adjustment (normally negative) + Other Adjustment (normally negative) ] * Percentage.
2) how do you chose to perform a maneuver during combat. did not see that as a tab in the options during the round. specify drawing a sword, diving behind cover, etc? I saw a lot of data in the combat actions .xml file so I suspect its in there somewhere I just hadn't figured it out.
Only combat actions that have a “representedBy=” attribute in the XML will appear as options. This is done to avoid visual clutter, and allow some specific campaigns that might require a lot of those actions to add them on demand.
Now, as to what options you have for the icon there, you are entering even muddier terrain. I'll let you dabble further, just point your eyes to a file “…\Resources\adventuring.css”.
During an adventure, I normally use the Concentration action, since it does not have any effect when clicked on during the round, it will just be marked as “done”. Then I enter the specific action in the notes input during the round declaration. You can get a tooltip for those details when hovering on the action in the round sequence.
3) Height in inches so it can more closely reflect the characters actual height as a record, or impact stride as needed.
Height is in feet but you can use decimal numbers to represent any value. It is a pity the imperial system does not use base 10 for its measures, so you will need to convert extra inches to feet and add them. For example 5’ 8’’ would be entered as 5.67 in the height input. Stride should be correctly computed with that, and will be considered for movement actions.
4)exhaustion points? not sure if most players use them. probably not. But your system would be ideal to track them, the totals, how they are used up for actions how they are recovered. Might actually make that system work as intended without much effort during play. at the least for those who use them calculating the totals on the character sheet might be nice. along with height, stride, recover modifier, soul departure wt limits etc.
It is true a system as ERA could handle exhaustion and make it finally usable. The truth is I have never used it because …who does? So I wouldn't know where to begin. Just a box for the number, or tracking it like what is done for hits could be added.
Recovery modifier and soul departure are missing, that is true. It would not just be a box in the character sheet, I would need to make sure that is included as well in the races. I will add it to the to-do list, so a future version might surprise it with it.
5) is it possible to have a rounds to death (or other status) box like there are for bleeding/activity/spell effects? or how do you do handle that in your play? (spell effect: life lasting for 6 rounds?). character fighting on for 6 rounds and then dying for example.
I think those criticals almost never came up during my adventures, so if they happened I might just record them with rounds of staggered/must parry, or maybe a spell effect with the duration according to the rounds remaining, or just editing the character notes. I think the character information dialogs are stuffed enough to justify adding that information.
6) the initiative box do you enter the 2D10 summed roll? does the system add the Qu bonus to that to determine initiative?
Yes, quickness it automatically added. So you just enter what you rolled, adjust for any situational details and let the system handle it. Initiative modifiers from the character sheet are also considered. Mental actions will always use SD as the optional rule, my to-do list includes making that configurable. Also, there is some debate related to how character penalties are affecting initiative. I encourage you to try some scenarios and let me know if you find it correct.
7) anyway to incorporate range modifiers (probably not I suspect it would be too complex). anything to cut down on table looking up is nice.
Attack tables can hold range information, which has been there from the beginning. What I never got around to doing was adding a “distance” box in the attack dialog, to make use of that information. It has gone down in the priority list because a lot of other ideas have taken precedence, but it will be there one day.
8) Would love to have a way to save NPCs/Monsters prior to a adventure. It would be ideal to have all encounters preloaded in the system. in some way other than creating a character and leveling them. Most monsters are not leveled characters, just enter OB, hits, DB, level, resistance info, some skill bonuses and ranks that might apply, some notes, and spell lists then save. As it is on the fly how do you use the template do make it so the npc/monster can utilize spells?
I think it will be great if/when Creatures/Treasures is available because I suspect that will be all worked through in due time.
What you ask for is called “ERA Creature Module”. Sadly it has never been implemented, due to lack of time. With the advent of RMU Creature Law there is more reason than ever to have something like that. But it would take quite some time to program.
I think it is obvious by now that your thorough analysis has touched on most of what I have been leaving unfinished in the application. I try to add features in the order that best adds value to as many campaigns as possible, mostly by making a balance between number of requests and time required.
9) in terms of what I would love to see I GM'd mostly fantasy settings, but used rolemaster/spacemaster for scfi, post-apocalyptic, and cross-genre type stuff. So I would love to see:
-The Armory damage tables
-Weapons Law: Firearms
-Spacemaster: Blaster Law and Spacemaster: Equipment Law damage and critical tables. The Spacemaster/ modern armor types incorporated into the system
-the other Spacemaster content (future law/privateers)
-smoothed stat bonuses
-Creatures and races from Creatures and treasures ( or whatever it is called these days)
-essence/channeling/mentalism companion content
-Shadow world content
-black-ops?
I have not received any requests so far for Black Ops nor Firearms. Some people have mentioned an intention of using ERA for Spacemaster, but since I have never played it the time variable is greatly increased, and the chance for mistakes in the functionality for lack of knowledge quite high. Reports such as yours, which allow me to know which features of Spacemaster are not available with the current version, will help a lot in polishing those details.
Shadow world content and E/C/M companions are not difficult at all, since I use them for my campaigns. The work pending here is that I have only created so far what my players needed, but in order to offer it through RPGNow it would to review and complete the content, then polish it and bundle it for sale. Shadow World content was also the top voted feature on a poll I did some time ago. As soon as ERA RMU is ready, that might be my first order of business.
The armory tables could be done, if enough people were interested in them.
The smoothed stat bonuses option, at least as mentioned in RM2 Companion I, is already included, since I use it for my gaming group. It is not available in the configuration options though, but there have been requests for it so I have added the option, and the next version we make available to the public will include it.
I am hung on launch because it can not find a category named power manipulation in the named group power manipulation. I deleted that group/skill/category from all the config files profession/culture/race files. searched all those files and could not find it. not sure why it looks for that.
Since you are using the RMFRP ruleset, there are a number of categories/skills that the system needs to consider for all characters. Spells, Power Development, Body Development, Weapon and Armor groups should be left untouched. You can add additional groups, but too much is dependent on these basic groups to allow them to be removed. Of course a truly independent Spacemaster ruleset would have its own “core” groups/categories/skills.
Also when working on the culture files for the adolescent ranks I noticed something. Spacemaster doesn't specifically assign those ranks always to specific categories or skills. There might be several ranks assigned to a group, to be applied to various categories in that group, or for example, several skill ranks to be assigned as the player chooses to skills within a specific group or category. multiple ranks to assign to Science/Analytic group categories and skills for example. Rolemaster was always very specific about adolescent skill assignment. There is much more player choice in the process for Spacemaster.
I had no idea Spacemaster had that difference over RMFRP. For my gaming group we have a similar ruling, and I have already developed something like what you mention. Eventually I could try to add that option when configuring the system, such that category ranks are interpreted as “ranks for the player to distribute among skills in the category”.
I noticed that Adrenal Deflecting was listed twice as a skill once under the group martial arts and once under the group combat maneuvers. Was not sure whether that was intentional.
That might be a leftover from the Martial Arts Companion. I think they moved the skill location, so by having it in both places the GM might choose which one you should develop.
The new added Groups are unable to be added to during Hobby rank assignment.
I tried adding a group, category and skill, and it appeared during hobby rank assignment. Hobby ranks in RMFRP should allow all skills in all categories. Send me a PM with the Groups, Categories, Skills, and Profession XML and I will check if there is something missing.
I did not add a new realm...I instead just based all the classes on mentalism and used PP development for the psion skills. But that would the next thing to dabble with.
Adding realms is complicated. Lots of features in the adventuring module rely on knowing the casting penalties, resistance adjustments, and other factors. So that makes it quite difficult for me to offer such a possibility for now.
I did add new resistances (Psion). This does not show up on the character sheet. That I guess is due to the size of the box that displays that data, and likely to there being no resistance check keyed to that in the ruleset. The added resistances also do not show up when you print the character sheet.
As you guessed, the resistances are also wired into the ruleset. It would be easier to make them customizable than it would be realms, but still I guess that feature it not a top priority.
I figured though that I would be able to edit the costs as needed once I got to the character sheet. However, once there I found they were fixed and uneditable based on how they were specified in the.xml files. I wonder is there a way to edit those costs on the character sheet or make them editable in future versions?
You can see at this point of the tutorial video (https://youtu.be/_M5bfyGyqXs?t=159) that all skill costs are indeed editable by character. Let me know if that solves the issue.
This was all to see just how customizable the system is. I found that for the majority of users adding races, professions, adjusting skill costs or changing skills the system is extremely flexible.
Again, I am glad you found it interesting, and thanks for such a complete review!
I hope the next versions can add on the features you need the most.
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I found that I was able to edit the cost of the skill once I got to the character sheet. What I was not able to do was adjust the cost of the skill Category which is the more important issue.
I also looked out how the armor and attack tables were set up. For Spacemaster / Modern stuff there are basically another 11 armor classes above AT 20. I was playing around trying to add a new armor type, and tried to write out one of the blaster tables that might included that armor type. That's when I found out that each are designated by a number. Right now adding further types isn't possible. I am not sure if it is possible to add some "overhead" for further armor types without breaking the system.
Anyway I have enjoyed playing around with this. It has a lot of potential. I wish we had something like this 25 years ago!!! I remember when I could I would use the condensed combat system that was presented in Rolemaster Companion 2 back in the day. Cut down on looking up as much in the tables. Anything to make things smoother. With this I even was able to run combat on my ipad. Of course the blaster pistols were firing shockbolts!!
I definitely would focus on the new stuff. We are all waiting to see what its like! For me I think the most useful next bit would be something like a creature module. I think that's something that a lot of folks would make use of. I can just imagine hopw much work it is to put all this stuff together. Thanks for sharing!
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BTW the hobby skills worked fine. The skills that it would not let you choose I think were limited by development cost. My guess is everything 25 or greater in cost is prohibited from being selected. Tweaking the costs lower they all showed up.
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On the height I just tried it when creating another few characters. the box lights up red if you do a decimal point. it seems to just accept
integers in feet.
On further checking if you save and download the file it will stay as it should.
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I found that I was able to edit the cost of the skill once I got to the character sheet. What I was not able to do was adjust the cost of the skill Category which is the more important issue.
Editing whole categories seemed like too much for a specific character, since that would be deviating far from the profession as a development template.
Maybe such cases should be handled as alternative professions.
But that is coming from my RM2/RMC background, where you wouldn't develop ranks for the category anyway, so it might be more important to RMFRP players.
I could eventually add that possibility if there is enough interest.
I also looked out how the armor and attack tables were set up. For Spacemaster / Modern stuff there are basically another 11 armor classes above AT 20. I was playing around trying to add a new armor type, and tried to write out one of the blaster tables that might included that armor type. That's when I found out that each are designated by a number. Right now adding further types isn't possible. I am not sure if it is possible to add some "overhead" for further armor types without breaking the system.
I think you should be able to add new armor types without problems. They must be numbered mostly to help with presentation issues. I could add the type description somewhere, but the armor dialog is quite cluttered already.
RMU uses 10 armor types, just like RMC Combat Companion did. Both systems have been used in ERA just by changing the armor type XML files. If you add or remove files there, you just need to make sure that the attack tables have result for all of them.
Anyway I have enjoyed playing around with this. It has a lot of potential. I wish we had something like this 25 years ago!!! I remember when I could I would use the condensed combat system that was presented in Rolemaster Companion 2 back in the day. Cut down on looking up as much in the tables. Anything to make things smoother. With this I even was able to run combat on my ipad. Of course the blaster pistols were firing shockbolts!!
I have been using it for 9 years now, and it has certainly changed our way of playing. The character status module that the players access from their phones has also simplified a lot of the upkeep during play.
BTW the hobby skills worked fine. The skills that it would not let you choose I think were limited by development cost. My guess is everything 25 or greater in cost is prohibited from being selected. Tweaking the costs lower they all showed up.
Hobby skills with a cost above 20 are not allowed. This comes from the restriction in RMFRP Character Law stating that 40 DP is the limit for hobby ranks. I changed it to 20 for my group due to some house rules, but never realized that it was wrong by RMFRP rules. I will try to fix it in the next version.
On the height I just tried it when creating another few characters. the box lights up red if you do a decimal point. it seems to just accept
integers in feet.
On further checking if you save and download the file it will stay as it should.
I tried it and my browsers do not light up in red, but in any case I'm glad it saves the values as intended.
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Hi, i have a question... i bought the 3 packages for RMFRP but i would use it for a science-fantasy setting.... i know that i must add a lot of skills for the space master settings.... how can i add the new skill group costs to the characters in the compiled .ERA file???
There are some tweaks to help that..?!?
thanks in advance.
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Hmmm... once you add new groups and categories you will most likely be unable to use the professions included in the RMFRP Character Law files.
I will try to make some changes in the next version so that you can at least create the character and then manually edit the cost in the character XML file.
I am starting to believe that offering something like ERA for Spacemaster would make a number of people happy.
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Ok... but that's very unpleasant... couldn'T be the system condigured to permit some "editing" to the core professions?
i mean... if i create a file Magician.prof.XML the XML included could be ADDED to the data of the magician in rmfrpCharacterLaw.professions.era ....
or in case of exinting data, it could OVERWRITE the old values.
i mean... Armor - Light of the magician (core) costs 9. If i add a row in the Magician.prof.XML that sets che cost of Armor - Light to 12, the base value will be overwritten.
And if i add a note to the Magician.prof.XML thas sets the cost of Psion - Base Psion field to 6/6/6 (after defining the skills and sgill groups and categories in the right files), that cost will be added to the magician.
Too complicated?
too complex?
yes, i think that an ERA addendum for spacemaster would be very cool.
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I'm not sure if I understood your suggestion, or it may be that my previous post was not clear, so I will try to rewrite in light of your last post.
If you add categories to the Categories.XML files, all your professions must (in the current version) have a cost for that category.
So, if you download the base free product which comes with 2 professions in XML format, you need to edit them and add the cost for the category, then everything will be fine.
BUT, if you install the RMFRP Character Law package, you will get and additional file in the professions directory: "rmfrpCharacterLaw.professions.era".
Due to IP / legal issues, this file can't be edited, and since it contains a lot of professions without a cost for your new category, the current version of ERA will not be able to create a character for those professions and include your new category.
BUT, since the .prof.XML files take precedence over rmfrpCharacterLaw.professions.era, you could in theory manually create all of the .prof.XML files and include as well a cost for your new category. This would be equivalent to deleting the rmfrpCharacterLaw.professions.era from your directory anyway, since you are offering personalized versions for all the professions.
My recommendation would be:
1) After installing the RMFRP book files, delete rmfrpCharacterLaw.professions.era, edit the sample .prof.XML files to add costs for your new categories. Then if you want additional professions you need to create the relevant .prof.XML files. In a Spacemaster game I guess you would be creating new professions anyway.
2) If the previous idea seems to much work, you could wait for the updated version I am preparing (but since RMU is top priority at the moment, I can't give a date). With it, you could add categories, and create professions without a cost for that category, then manually edit the character after creation and set the cost for the category.
Let me know what you think about those scenarios. It is possible as well that I misunderstood your post and my suggestions make no sense :o, either way I am interested in your opinion.
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sorry, i'm Italian.. it's hard to explain my suggestion.
I understand your advice, but i will only suggest a new feature to the program:
It would be very handy if the .prof.XML files don't overwrite ENTERELY the record for the rispective profession in the .era file, but simply to patch it.
i mean.. if i create a prof.xml file that contains ONLY the modification to the core profession (i.e. new group costs, modified group costs), i suggest that the program read it and "patch" the core version with this customization....
btw... what is RMU? :D :D :D
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i mean.. if i create a prof.xml file that contains ONLY the modification to the core profession (i.e. new group costs, modified group costs), i suggest that the program read it and "patch" the core version with this customization....
That is quite a complex feature to add, it would complicate the way the files are read and the way professions are built and... I'll avoid the technicalities, let's just say it would require too much work and the features pending are already quite a lot.
With that said, I can assure you that it will be considered. Maybe some day, after RMU and the ERA Creature Module and the Shadow World book files to add races, spells and kulthean weapons, after the RMFRP Ess/Ment/Chann/Arcane Companions, I might find the time to implement your suggestion.
btw... what is RMU? :D :D :D
Just in case you are really asking that... Rolemaster Unified is the future of tabletop RPG, and you can read more here (http://ironcrown.com/blog/2015/07/18/rmu-beta-2-out-now/):
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the arcane companion... that's great! :D
HAHAH i read all, and thanks in advance. I know the complexity of the work (i'm a programmer too) but i believe in the usefulness of that.
but now i have a new target to wait... the companions! :D :D :D
Yes, i'm an old RM-fan... i bought near every manual i found HAHAH ... the next will be surely RMU, when available. (i didn't know that RMU was the new beta, sorry... )
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Hi... another question... i wanna translate ERA in Italian... but i think that i cannot change the name of groups, categories and skills... if I do that, i lose the profession skill costs in the .ERA files.... right?
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Translating ERA? That's a flattering thought, but the underlying architecture was never designed with that in mind. It would take a major rework to allow for the language to be changed after creating the executable files. It might be a little easier for me to release the application in different languages, but in that case each version could only be expanded by using the skills, professions, etc in that language only.
I'll keep the idea anyway, and I will let you know if I think of some way to implement it.
Thanks for asking!
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ok... if you need help for that.... i mean... rolemaster exists in italian language (from 2004 to 2011 strategiochi and red glove translated and printed some manuals in Italian).
That's the reason for the asking. I tried to translate directly the XML files, but the program references the skills, groups, categories, professions, etc. directly by name, so the translation don't works without re-writing completely the XML files for professions, etc.... and obviously it's impossible to translate the .ERA files....
But anyway, if you need some help for that, let me know....
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I have had the bought FRP packages on my computer for a while now. But haven't used it yet but we have recently made the transition from Pathfinder to RM for our current campaign and it seems to be a stick so time to dive in to ERA. Either way had to create some custom Professions so I can write some of our current characters into the program. I was just wondering what modifier you use for Occupational skills. Looks like Everyman skills are modified with 0.5. Does that mean Occupational are modified with 0.33 or something similar?
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I use 0.33
For example, to add Herb Lore to the Animist as Occupational, you need:
<SkillsCostModifier modifier="0.33" groupName="Lore" categoryName="Technical" skillName="Herb Lore" classification="Static Maneuver"/>
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Ahh! Used 0.3 but didn't work but when I changed to 0.33 it seemed to work fine. Thank you! ;D
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... had to create some custom Professions so I can write some of our current characters into the program ...
I was left wondering, which professions did you create? Are they from a companion not currently available for ERA, or some profession you made specially for your players?
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Hi, three "simple" questions:
1. The program can somehow track the fatigue points? If no, there are plans to implement it?
2. The program can somehow track XP gain trough attacks, spell casting, manouvers etc? If no, there are plans to implement it?
3. At the current state it's impossible to add the Arcane Realm to the system through customization, why that conflicts with the rmfrpCharacterLaw.professions.era file bought, right? there are some workarounds, other than manually re-write all prof.xml files? same if i add new arms category... right??
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1. The program can somehow track the fatigue points? If no, there are plans to implement it?
The current version has no feature to track fatigue points. At least as a starting point, future versions might have a box for fatigue points in the character details in the Adventuring Module, to be manually edited as required. Something like what is now shown for hit points and power points.
In the meantime, I can suggest manually adding a combat skill, and change the ranks of the skill to reflect the number of exhaustion points left. I have never used them, so I am not sure if my suggestion is useful, but that is how I would handle it if required in an emergency during an adventure.
On the other hand, RMU has a different way of handling that, and I might add support for its way of doing things in ERA for RMU, which is currently in the works.
2. The program can somehow track XP gain trough attacks, spell casting, manouvers etc? If no, there are plans to implement it?
There is a feature, not documented yet nor spoken in the tutorials, which does almost that.
If you create an adventure, and play through it, a file will be created in the same directory as the adventure.XML, which contains the summary of actions that could be interesting for tracking XP.
I created it to be simple, since there is too much that might be relevant for XP, but it mentions which maneuvers were successful by each PC and its difficulty, the names of the spells cast, damage received, and tracks who attacked who.
I know it could be made more comprehensive, but each GM would need different functionality here, so it has not been reviewed not spoken of yet.
But, now you asked, and now you know it is there. Please try it out and let me know what you think.
3. At the current state it's impossible to add the Arcane Realm to the system through customization, why that conflicts with the rmfrpCharacterLaw.professions.era file bought, right? there are some workarounds, other than manually re-write all prof.xml files? same if i add new arms category... right??
The current version does not allow adding additional categories without requiring a complete new set of professions.
The next version I am working on corrects this, by giving a cost of 0 to any skill or category not mentioned in the profession.
I am not releasing it yet since most of the work in that version is for the preliminary RMU ruleset.
If the inability to add new categories for existing professions is blocking the current users of ERA from playing, I could try to release an intermediate version including the fix.
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Thank you... it's only a little hard to incorporate arcane spell list without the appropriate skill category.....
I hope you will consider to add that particular skill cost.
Another question... i inserted a custom race for my campaign... that race have Underwater Breathing as default (sea elves). How can i insert that talent as default for the race?
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Thank you... it's only a little hard to incorporate arcane spell list without the appropriate skill category.....
Until better support arrives, I'd suggest adding the spell lists to the TP Spells category, then changing the cost manually.
Another question... i inserted a custom race for my campaign... that race have Underwater Breathing as default (sea elves). How can i insert that talent as default for the race?
Racial talents are normally listed in the race description (there's a tag named <ImportantInformation>), and if relevant my players normally add them again to the character notes.
You could also add it to the character manually during character creation in the background step, with a cost of 0.
But I think what you ask for is "automatic talent assigning due to race", that is a feature I have not thought of before, I'll add it to the TO DO list... thanks for the suggestion!
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May i advance a "technical" suggestion for the "new" category cost? You wrote that in future all the cost non specifically set to a value in the profession files will be set to "0".
What if the category xml file in each category entry we could add a "default cost" tag with a value to be used in case of an missing category cost in the profession entry, instead of an arbitrary "0" ?
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I was left wondering, which professions did you create? Are they from a companion not currently available for ERA, or some profession you made specially for your players?
The profession I wrote in to the program are Priest (Metalwork) and Priest (Lightning) from the Channeling Companion. I will also add the Channeling Alchemist from the Treasure Companion soon. Still adding the new spell lists for the previous professions at the moment. Have even added some of the spell lists from the Construct Companion. Still plenty of work to do but really looking forward to try out ERA for the first time our next session the 29th of August. :-)
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I am a bit curious about the Herald function. Is it finished and how does it really work? Seems like have to connect to the local server and be assigned one of the characters for it to function.
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It is finished, at least for now. And one of these days, once I find the time, I intend to add a tutorial video for it.
The feature is quite simple really. After adding the characters to the adventure, you can have a tab open in your browser with the Herald Module.
There you get a box for each player, and can write text to them. What you write will appear on their respective Character Status Module, which is supposed to be open in the players' phone/tablet during the adventure. That way you can send messages exclusively to a single character, and they can review it without the others knowing.
There is a lot of room for improvement. I created it some time ago and haven't used it much really. I am open to suggestions on how to improve it.
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I tried it out earlier today actually. Created a server on my laptop and used my Tablet to connect to the server. Seemed to work fine. Will give some feedback after we have tried it out. Would have been perfect earlier in our current adventure since I have never seen so many secret notes pass between the GM and the Players as this adventure did. Hence why I was so curious about it since it would help in the future if there are excess notes to be sent to the players in secret. One thing I can think of now that would be welcome is for the players to send secret messages to the GM. Seem to be one way communication now. ;D
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It also can speed up play if the GM can create some notes in advance.
MDC
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is the Harald function already available?
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is the Harald function already available?
Yes!
At this moment of the module overview tutorial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=sqndcGXRX60#t=61) you can see how to access it.
Let me know if you have any questions about it.
If there is enough interest, I will try to do a specific tutorial as soon as I am able.
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a quick question... what's the meaning of the parameter "codes" in the tag <herb> in the herbs.xml file?
THe code is 5 characters but in the tables of the core book of RMFRP system the code is like "s-O-2"....
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The herb codes are based on the most updated source on herbs: Shadow World Emer III.
There, they describe even previously presented herb with more detail.
So you have: Climate Code + Locale Code + Frequency + Compass Area
In case you don't have Emer III, use area Code "U" (Universal).
Frequency is a value used when considering the number of doses found.
[(1-100) on open-ended D100) + modifiers + frequency -100] divided by 5 OR the frequency, whichever is LOWER.
I guess you could translate the "Difficulty of finding" presented in RMC and RMFRP into a frequency value using some inverse of the doses formula.
As a side note, thanks to your question, I reviewed the climate and locate codes to confirm that they were the same used in RMC and RMFRP herb charts. They are, BUT the Emer III chart has a bug: they assigned D instead of Z to Desert, which overlaps with Deciduous/mixed forest. It may not affect other ERA users, but for my Shadow World campaign I will have to deduce which herbs are located in deserts by checking against Character Law and fix the herb list I have created.
So thanks for your question, and thanks for helping me find this ambiguity!
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"Whatever the reason, I don't recall it being asked before. The good news is, it is slightly already included.
Although you can't define it globally for all new characters, you can edit a character and configure the Rank Binding, then manually edit the character file and change the "conversion ratio" of the binding.
Let me know if that is clear enough. If not, please add a post to the advanced customization thread and I'll post a guide on how to do this.
Afterwards, please let me know if that is acceptable for your group. In future versions I might add a more direct configuration for this feature if there is enough interest."
You asked me to enquire here about this feature. I would appreciate a guide on how to do this, and I do have a couple of questions:
1) Editing and adding the values seems like a lot of work. Once I do it, will I be able to save it across all professions and characters easily (Similar skills do not change based upon profession–they are the same for everyone)
2) Does your Rank binding system properly use either the character's skill or the number of ranks in the in similar skill, whichever is higher, to calculate the character's skill bonus, i.e. is the total in another column or kept track of properly?
Thanks!
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I would appreciate a guide on how to do this
Ok, give me a couple of days and I'll write about this, maybe as an addition to the manual, or a new video in the YouTube channel.
1) Editing and adding the values seems like a lot of work. Once I do it, will I be able to save it across all professions and characters easily (Similar skills do not change based upon profession–they are the same for everyone)
Rank bindings are currently per character only. This means that you would need to re-do them for every character you create.
Adding it as a feature in the system would require some work, which might take some time to get to the published version because of others features i'm currently working on, but I'll take note of it and add it to the requests.
2) Does your Rank binding system properly use either the character's skill or the number of ranks in the in similar skill, whichever is higher, to calculate the character's skill bonus, i.e. is the total in another column or kept track of properly?
Rank bindings allow you to handle stuff like similar skills, but it's not exactly the same. When you declare a binding, the bound skill can't gain ranks, it will always be based on its source skill. Its main use is for derived skills, such as elven sight with can be declared as a new skill bound to Perception/Observation and then given a specific extra bonus. Also Stalking/Hiding which are solved as different skills but many times developed as one.
Even if I were to add the declaration of bindings as global feature for all characters, and allow the conversion ratio to be accesible as well, it still would not allow the development of the skill individually to consider only the highest value. The only way I see this as getting a higher priority is if it would help with some other ruling in RMU, which is currently the main driver for new features.
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I've updated the RMC Optional Rules document with additional details on how to use the Rank Binding feature to create the "similar skills" from RM2. Keep in mind that in the current version there is no feature to set this automatically for all characters. The binding needs to be configured for each character created.
The document can be obtained from:
http://goo.gl/xdMHbd (http://goo.gl/xdMHbd)
You can find the explanation in the section for Option 12.2, let me know if they are clear enough.
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Ok I have installed a copy of the latest exe on a seperate machine as a test bed. I am running a Alternative Earth campaign based in a 1922 London, where Magic & Fantasy creatures are now visible its similar to the Hard Magic series of books by Larry Correia. I am using the RMC server to play and produce my character sheets. So I would like to use the skills from the Pulp Adventures book, , so I have manually updated the Categories & Skills XMLs and test ran producing a character but it did not show the updated skills, I removed the profs.era and replaced it back in the folder when it did not work and now Im getting an issue when I try to open the server, I have attached the screenshot of the ERA - Web Server box. I have the .log as well. Ok so Im doing something wrong in regards to getting RMC server to see the updated skills any advice.
Aly
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I think there is a post on that subject in this thread. If you add new categories you can no longer create nor load characters for the professions provided.
Internally each profession has costs and other important information related to the skill categories. So when you add a new category, those old professions can't cope with the change.
If you intend to play a Pulp game, you would need to remove the existing profession files and only place your own profession files.
There is a possibility, in the future, to add in ERA something to improve this situation, so that you can only add a small file to explain how to adapt existing professions to your new categories.
If you are interested in that feature, you should vote for "Extended Professions" url=http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?topic=16952.0]in the poll[/url].
Also, if there is enough interest, you could ask for the specific book you are using to be added as a Package in ERA, in this poll (http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?topic=16953.0).
In any case, I am happy to help in this thread with any detail that you might need to make your custom pulp professions work in ERA.
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Attachment approved
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I didnt see anyone else having this issue, so I am very stuck. Group.Category.Skill, new Professions(Pulp, specifically), and the Modern Man race were all complete, as was Rural and Urban(Pulp) cultures. However, when I get to the section on adding culture, I get an error message that the new ones cannot be added....It says that the action cannot be accepted by the server. Status:500 KeyNotFound: Key Rural(Pulp) not found in dictionary.
Ideas? I am not really a code or database guy.
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Quick checklist.
- If you added new groups and categories you must remove the professions included in the application. This means ERA/RMFRP/Configuration/Professions should only contain the files you created.
- If you removed groups and/or categories, they should not be mentioned in any of the cultures in ERA/RMFRP/Configuration/Cultures
- In RMFRP, if you created cultures you must also create a subculture, as can be seen for example in ERA/RMFRP/Configuration/SubCultures/Wood Elves.sub.XML which is used to determine available skills for hobby ranks. If in doubt, just copy from any of those provided and change it to say culture="YOUR CULTURE NAME"
Let me know if any of that helps, and we'll continue with the troubleshooting.
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(RMFRP product question)
If I make use of the "Optional Stats Used" option presented in the School of Hard Knocks Skill Companion, where INDIVIDUAL skills in a given category have individual stat bonuses (and where stat bonuses aren't factored in at the skill category level), what is the best way to manipulate the XML files?
For example, the Artistic*Active category (which the core rules defines as having Pr/Em/Ag as the applicable stat bonuses) in the XML file correctly reads as follows:
"<Category name="Active" groupName="Artistic" progression="Standard"> <Stats> <Stat shortName="Pr" /> <Stat shortName="Em" /> <Stat shortName="Ag" /> </Stats> </Category>"
However, if using the "Optional Stats Used" option in SoHK, individual skills in that category would have the following applicable stat bonuses:
Acting - Pr/Em/SD
Dancing - Pr/Em/Ag
Mimery - Pr/Em/SD
Mimicry - Pr/Em/Me
Etc.
I'm no XML expert, but I'm ASSUMING that if I go into the Skills.xml file, I could theoretically insert those optional stat bonuses to each individual skill? But if I do so, what happens with how the skill categories have associated stat bonuses (which - if using the Optional Stat Bonuses option - they don't)? Should those Core rules stat bonuses be removed from the Categories.xml? Or, if I have individual stat bonuses attached to individual skills in the Skills.xml, they would override?
Thanks, in advance! I hope my question makes sense!
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Great question!
Indeed, if you open Skills.XML you will find that all skills have a <Stats></Stats> at the end.
Just insert whatever stat you want here, for example:
<Stat shortName="SD" /> in Acting. Then make sure to remove the third stat in Categories.XML for Artistic-Active, and you're done.
The next time you start the application, you will see in the Character Development module that two stats are listed in the category, and their bonuses added up in the Stat column of that category. In the individual skill, the last stat will be listed, and its bonus indicated in the Stat column for the skill.
So the final skill bonus will have added the first two stats when considering its Category column, and the third stat in the Stat column, for a correct final value.
Now you just have to edit those files... :book2:
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Sorry if this isn't the best place to post this, but...
Recently had to purchase a new computer due to HD failure on my old one. Went to re-download my purchased ERA files at RPGNow, was able to find them and download them, no problem.
However, when I went to install, and import purchased book files, etc... it seems that there are files missing. Particularly, in the RMSS/RMFRP Shadow World file, there's no race information! I recently got a few email messages from RPGNow that there were some file updates to some of the files at RPGNow (to address Mac10 OSX, I believe); not sure if that has something to do with it, or not...
Any way to get those files bundled back in?
Cheers.
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We haven't received any other complain about stuff missing from the Shadow World package.
Just in case I did a quick check of the update we sent today to RPGNow and they are all there.
I will post the details later, but I highly recommend you re-download all your previously purchased packages.
If you do so, you get new content for your old purchases! Shadow World now includes all herbs and creatures in the Master Atlas 4º edition, and the Chararter Law package will give you the herbs in RMFRP Gamemaster Law.
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We haven't received any other complain about stuff missing from the Shadow World package.
Just in case I did a quick check of the update we sent today to RPGNow and they are all there.
I will post the details later, but I highly recommend you re-download all your previously purchased packages.
If you do so, you get new content for your old purchases! Shadow World now includes all herbs and creatures in the Master Atlas 4º edition, and the Chararter Law package will give you the herbs in RMFRP Gamemaster Law.
Anyway you could check the files that are actually currently being sent out by RPGNow? I just re-downloaded it (again), and the only files/folders showing up are:
(ERA_for_Shadow_World_RMSSFRP_(9675786).zip\ERA\RMFRP\Configuration)
AttackTables
CriticalTables
Spells
(UPDATED: I just went to review my "Library" of previously downloaded items on RPGNow, and under the ERA for Shadow World RMSS/FRP section, there's only one file named:
ERA_-_RMFRP_Spell_Law-30Oct2016.zip
It's as if the larger file has been replaced with Spell information ONLY. I can NOT access the file that I originally purchased.)
Thanks.
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That's really weird. We will be re-checking the uploads to see what went wrong.
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Fixed. Please redownload.
Best wishes,
Nicholas
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Hi guys, having an issue with ERA. I have changed the Skills, Groups, Categories, Professions.XML's to include skills from the Pulp Adventures and I could use ERA to level characters. That was all fine until you updated ERA in Nov & Dec, now when I try to add a new character it errors when I try to access the character sheet and says the following "SystemConfigurationFailed: Could not find category named Awareness in group named Awareness" . The August update still works fine.
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When you update ERA, it comes by default with the standard set of skills, groups, etc.
If after downloading you extracted the application to the same directory, and chose to have the files overwrite your current installation, then most likely the message you get is because your changes are not in the server, but the character files still mention them.
Let me know how you handled the files, confirm if your configuration files still have your changes.
Also, I'd need to know if you get the message when loading a character or when adding it to an adventure (or both?).
Another check that would be useful for troubleshooting is this: can you create a brand new character and load its character sheet?
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When you update ERA, it comes by default with the standard set of skills, groups, etc.
If after downloading you extracted the application to the same directory, and chose to have the files overwrite your current installation, then most likely the message you get is because your changes are not in the server, but the character files still mention them.
Let me know how you handled the files, confirm if your configuration files still have your changes.
I install a brand new iteration of ERA each time you update it, I then copy my versions of the Skills, Groups & Categories XML's and overwrite the standard ones. I also add my professions to the profession folder.
Also, I'd need to know if you get the message when loading a character or when adding it to an adventure (or both?).
I only use the app for character generation, do yet use the adventure side.
Another check that would be useful for troubleshooting is this: can you create a brand new character and load its character sheet?
It happens with brand new characters as well. All of the iterations up to August work fine, its the Nov & Dec versions which fall over. Its as though it is ignoring my replacement xmls.
If you need copies of my xml's I am using I am quite happy to send them to you.
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Please send me all of your new and edited files to era-support.voriigkye@recursor.net.
I'll do my best to find a solution to your issue.
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Please send me all of your new and edited files to era-support.voriigkye@recursor.net.
I'll do my best to find a solution to your issue.
Chrs, sorry took a bit of time but the power supply on my pc died over the weekend. Email sent
Aly
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I'll answer here since the very idea of this thread is for all potential advanced users to benefit from the customizations others have tried.
I think I have never read the Pulp Adventures book you are using, although I know it exists.
I tried your files in my development environment and found out that the issue you mention (Could not find category named Awareness in group named Awareness) does indeed happen when using the RMC ruleset, because of the point described in the changelog for 2016-10-25: Added perception penalty to armor.
There are some categories and skills that should not be changed when customizing the ruleset, because they are needed to compute some aspects of the character. Perception was added to that list for RMC in the update that broke your files.
Now, do not despair. A simple fix would be to add back the Awareness category with its Perception skill so that your files can still be used. Although you would be missing the automatic computation of perception penalty due to helmet worn.
But, there is something else I need to point out. You are using the wrong base ruleset.
I did a quick check and found out that Pulp Adventures is a Rolemaster Standard System module, which means that you should be running ERA for RMFRP, instead of ERA for RMC as you seem to be doing now.
If you did, you would find that there are much less changes required in the skill set, and all your customizations would be easier, smoother, happier, etc.
Let me know if that information helps, and if you decide to change the base ruleset to RMFRP, do post and tell us if you found it easier, as I expect it to be.
Thanks for dabbling with ERA!
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I'll answer here since the very idea of this thread is for all potential advanced users to benefit from the customizations others have tried.
I think I have never read the Pulp Adventures book you are using, although I know it exists.
I tried your files in my development environment and found out that the issue you mention (Could not find category named Awareness in group named Awareness) does indeed happen when using the RMC ruleset, because of the point described in the changelog for 2016-10-25: Added perception penalty to armor.
There are some categories and skills that should not be changed when customizing the ruleset, because they are needed to compute some aspects of the character. Perception was added to that list for RMC in the update that broke your files.
Now, do not despair. A simple fix would be to add back the Awareness category with its Perception skill so that your files can still be used. Although you would be missing the automatic computation of perception penalty due to helmet worn.
Thanks for looking into that, will have to adjust the required sections.
But, there is something else I need to point out. You are using the wrong base ruleset.
I did a quick check and found out that Pulp Adventures is a Rolemaster Standard System module, which means that you should be running ERA for RMFRP, instead of ERA for RMC as you seem to be doing now.
If you did, you would find that there are much less changes required in the skill set, and all your customizations would be easier, smoother, happier, etc.
Thanks for dabbling with ERA!
Yeah we originally started with the Beta rules for RMU then found ERA and being we played original Rolemaster stuck with RMC. Yeah we are aware that Pulp Adventures are RMSS, so will be transitioning over to RMFRP at some point. Then theres the conversion of the characters to date which will take a bit of time. But we will get there. Chrs
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Hi, people update to the Dec version of ERA works fine, able to generate characters with my custom skills, groups, categories, professions and races.
I have now updated to the January version of ERA and Im getting an error the program is stating that there is "No defined cost for hand guns" and is stopping dead when I get to hobby ranks in character creation and it will not load any of my already generated characters. I have copied over all the custom xml's into the correct sections of the RMFRP Config.
Running the Linux version on ubuntu 16.04.1. The support log is over the limit for to post here I will email it to you directly. If you can shed some light my problem chrs.
Aly
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I have now updated to the January version of ERA and Im getting an error the program is stating that there is "No defined cost for hand guns" and is stopping dead when I get to hobby ranks in character creation and it will not load any of my already generated characters. I have copied over all the custom xml's into the correct sections of the RMFRP Config.
I have received the files and they were really useful for me in understanding the issue.
You have added a new skill category group, skill categories for the new group, and new skills that are not in the new categories but in other pre-existing categories. You have also added new professions which include the cost for the new categories.
The existing professions in your installation do not have a cost for the new categories, so the system assigns a cost of 0 by default.
If you were to start the server and create a character of any profession, it should work ok, although each character would then have to indicate its cost for the categories.
Now, if you load a character (or create one and then edit it in the Character Sheet module), and add skills to the new categories, the system would know of new skills in the new categories.
And here is the bug/limitation.
When creating a new character, of an existing profession that has no cost assigned to a category, IF there are skills in that category, the system is not equipped to assign a cost to it during the Hobby Ranks step of the Character Creation, and you can't complete the character.
So, some approaches and some food for thought looking at future versions of ERA.
- If you are going to add skills and categories, it is best to create your own professions instead of using those included in the packages. This will improve with the Extended Professions feature that will be an option in the upcoming poll for "New features in 2017". This feature will imply that you can add the missing costs for your new skills and categories to any profession in the packages.
- You can create your characters, regardless of profession, as long as there are no skills in the Skills.XML for new categories, if that is the first thing you do after starting the server. So far it seems that only the Hobby Ranks step has a problem with that, so if you start the server, create all the characters, and then edit them in the Character Sheet module to add skills, you should be fine.
- I have taken note of this situation and will try to improve support for it in the next version. This will mean that a new skill in a new category with no cost will be assigned a cost of 0, instead of breaking the character creation process.
- Be careful with the use of weapon skills in a new category, since by default those skills will not be considered an Offensive Bonus and will therefore not be offered in the Adventure module when attacking, and you won't be able to specify a fumble range. You can change the skill type in the Character Creation module but editing the skill and then clicking on the Gears icon, choose Classification: Offensive Bonus, accept, and next time you edit it the additional options will appear.
It is quite interesting to see how different groups adapt ERA to their needs, so thanks for sharing.
And let us know if you require further assistance.
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I am ok with setting things up, is there a way to change the languages from the default? I have a list of unique languages I would like to use. Thanks.
Love the software
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I am ok with setting things up, is there a way to change the languages from the default? I have a list of unique languages I would like to use. Thanks.
This will require you to take a look at the example files in the base product.
Both in the RMC and RMFRP rulesets, you can Add a language as a skill, for all characters to have available when leveling up.
To do this you must edit Skills.XML and add a line like:
<Skill name="Nuyasu - Spoken" groupName="Communications" categoryName="Communications" classification="Static Maneuver" ><Stats></Stats></Skill>
This, however, will not be available as a language during character creation. It will only appear after the character has been created.
Also, the structure of the skill name is important. Due to the internal way in which sub-skills and languages are handled, you can't use parenthesis in the skill name.
Specifically in RMFRP, you can instead Add a language to a custom race and culture.
To do this you must edit
/Cultures/yourCustomCulture.culture.XML to list your languages, in the form:
<StartingLanguage languageName='Iruaric' spokenRanks="6" writtenRanks="2" />
and you must also edit /Races/yourCustomRace.race.XML to make sure that the number of languages matches the expected number of languages for the culture of that race, for example
<Languages>4</Languages>
This will make the languages appear during character creation, and afterwards in the character sheet, but only for characters of that race and culture.
The downside here is that you can only do this for custom races and cultures, and not for those included in the packages sold.
Love the software
;D Thanks! You can also show your love by rating the packages at RPGNow.
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I am ok with setting things up, is there a way to change the languages from the default? I have a list of unique languages I would like to use. Thanks.
This will require you to take a look at the example files in the base product.
Both in the RMC and RMFRP rulesets, you can Add a language as a skill, for all characters to have available when leveling up.
To do this you must edit Skills.XML and add a line like:
<Skill name="Nuyasu - Spoken" groupName="Communications" categoryName="Communications" classification="Static Maneuver" ><Stats></Stats></Skill>
This, however, will not be available as a language during character creation. It will only appear after the character has been created.
Also, the structure of the skill name is important. Due to the internal way in which sub-skills and languages are handled, you can't use parenthesis in the skill name.
Specifically in RMFRP, you can instead Add a language to a custom race and culture.
To do this you must edit
/Cultures/yourCustomCulture.culture.XML to list your languages, in the form:
<StartingLanguage languageName='Iruaric' spokenRanks="6" writtenRanks="2" />
and you must also edit /Races/yourCustomRace.race.XML to make sure that the number of languages matches the expected number of languages for the culture of that race, for example
<Languages>4</Languages>
This will make the languages appear during character creation, and afterwards in the character sheet, but only for characters of that race and culture.
The downside here is that you can only do this for custom races and cultures, and not for those included in the packages sold.
Love the software
;D Thanks! You can also show your love by rating the packages at RPGNow.
Cool. Thank you! That should work for me, I'm 'ok' with editing XML. And I want to keep the players from grabbing languages that would not be available to them at start.
Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk
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How do you add stats to new weapon categories? I'm customizing for use with Spacemaster, and I need to be able to set Projectile Weapons to use AG/ST, and Energy Weapons to use AG. I have them weapons themselves added, and working in character generation I just can't find which file sets the stats.
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How do you add stats to new weapon categories? I'm customizing for use with Spacemaster, and I need to be able to set Projectile Weapons to use AG/ST, and Energy Weapons to use AG. I have them weapons themselves added, and working in character generation I just can't find which file sets the stats.
Edit: Should have specified this, but my modifications are being done in the Rolemaster Classic module of ERA. I'm using a separate instance of the software on another computer, and it doesn't have any of the additional licensed add ons in place.
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How do you add stats to new weapon categories? I'm customizing for use with Spacemaster, and I need to be able to set Projectile Weapons to use AG/ST, and Energy Weapons to use AG. I have them weapons themselves added, and working in character generation I just can't find which file sets the stats.
In the /RMC/Configuration/Categories.XML file you must add categories similar to the way it is done for other weapons.
For example:
<Category name="Projectile Weapons" groupName="Weapon"><Stats><Stat shortName="Ag"/><Stat shortName="St"/></Stats></Category>
I am not familiar with the different versions of Spacemaster, so I'm unsure if you'd be better off starting from the RMC or the RMFRP content in ERA.
Remember that once you add new categories, you can't use the professions and cultures provided with the base product. You should remove them (or modify them to add cost/bonus for those categories) so as to avoid any conflict in the configuration files.
There are many similar attempts to whay you are needing in the previous pages on this very same thread, so I'd recommend checking them for more insight.
Lets us know how it went, and thanks for using ERA!
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In the /RMC/Configuration/Categories.XML file you must add categories similar to the way it is done for other weapons.
For example:
<Category name="Projectile Weapons" groupName="Weapon"><Stats><Stat shortName="Ag"/><Stat shortName="St"/></Stats></Category>
I am not familiar with the different versions of Spacemaster, so I'm unsure if you'd be better off starting from the RMC or the RMFRP content in ERA.
Remember that once you add new categories, you can't use the professions and cultures provided with the base product. You should remove them (or modify them to add cost/bonus for those categories) so as to avoid any conflict in the configuration files.
Right in front of me where I couldn't see it, Thanks.
Spacemaster 2 would be equivalent to Rolemaster Classic. Not sure if Privateers is equivalent to RMFRP or something completely different.
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Posting my question here per Voriig's request.
Having successfully added the Swashbuckler profession from School of Hard Knocks to ERA RMFRP, I'd like to try adding the other professions from that book as well. The only problem is that two of the classes have profession bonuses in the Subterfuge/Stealth category, rather than the Subterfuge group.
I can see how profession bonuses to groups are coded, but have no example to work from when it comes to skill categories. So, how does one do it?
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Check how it's done for the magician. They have a +5 specifically for the Lore - Magical category.
Instead of the empty:
<SkillCategoriesBonuses></SkillCategoriesBonuses>
You'll see:
<SkillCategoriesBonuses>
<SkillCategoryBonus groupName="Lore" categoryName="Magical" bonus="5" />
</SkillCategoriesBonuses>
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Brilliant, thanks - I see it now. I looked before but didn't notice that the Lore - Magical bonus was listed separately from the group bonuses.
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Ok so I have looked over the forum and I'm sure it's a new question. If not, direct me to the right spot. I like to use the optional rule in the School of Hard Knocks for mundane skill difficulties. How do I change the default settings?
I also have a problem with the hiding skill it's not letting me add skill ranks to it. I'm forced to change the spelling so my players and I can add ranks to it. Any ideas to fix that?
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Ok so I have looked over the forum and I'm sure it's a new question. If not, direct me to the right spot. I like to use the optional rule in the School of Hard Knocks for mundane skill difficulties. How do I change the default settings?
Hmmm, no one had asked for that before!
The current version has the available difficulties determined by the ruleset, there is no option to change them. With that said, it might be possible to add such a feature in future versions of ERA. I'll add it to the short-term list of things to add. Thanks for the suggestion!
I also have a problem with the hiding skill it's not letting me add skill ranks to it. I'm forced to change the spelling so my players and I can add ranks to it. Any ideas to fix that?
That is because Stalk and Hide are "bound" with Hiding always using the number of ranks in Stalking. This is a default rule in both RMC and RMFRP.
For more details you can check this post (http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?topic=18762.msg224888#msg224888).
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How do I add a new image for a profession for RMC? Copied the Fighter.prof.XML to the new profession (Warrior Mage). I have all of the skills and bonus added and have created some test characters fine. I haven't been able to figure that out yet. Under Server/Resources/ I see the RMC-Races. Do I create a RMC-Professions folder for the images?
Thank you
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How do I add a new image for a profession for RMC?
You have 2 options:
- Edit the <SampleImage> tag in the profession file, with a valid Base64 encoded PNG image
- Remove the <SampleImage> tag in the profession file, create the ERA/Server/Resources/RMC-Professions directory, and put in it a file named as your profession with PNG extension. In your case Warrior Mage.png
The recommended image width is 280px.
Let us know if you were able to see the profession image after that.
Thanks!