Topic: Running a SW game with remote players

[Terry K. Amthor]

Who knows about the easiest way to run an online game… as in, a regular Rolemaster Shadow World game 'live', but with other people remotely, with something to handle the interactions. I heard that Google Plus has some capability? Of course it would be magical if it handled the dice rolling and all, but I'm a luddite in this area (I can barely use the excel RM character spreadsheet) so any suggestions would be helpful.

[markc]

  ICE has a partnership with Fantasy Grounds with the RMC rule set. It does dice rolling and lots of other good stuff. You might want to see if ICE has some trial copies of Bis copies that you could use.
MDC

[kmanktelow]

Hi, Terry,

The demo is available from:

http://www.fantasygrounds.com/downloads/

The Ultimate license at $149 actually sounds quite good.

You might have another outlet for your Shadow World books- if ICE agreed to allow them to be used with Fantasy Grounds.

All the best,

Kevin.

[craggles]

Hi Terry,

Fantasy Grounds is amazing and you only need the 'Full Version' ($39) as a GM as long as the remote players have a 'Lite Version' ($24) - the only thing the 'Ultimate Version' allows you to do is have remote players who only have the 'demo' (or 'unregistered version') connect to you.

The RMC Ruleset is available ($40) there and automates dice rolls, combat resolution, table lookups - all excellent stuff!!! There's a user created RMFRP extension that's available and free to use if your weren't using RMC (but the extension requires the RMC Ruleset to work and it doesn't automate as much as the RMC Ruleset does). The RMU Ruleset is in development as well!!

Unfortunately it's not overly user friendly so you would need help setting it up and showing you the ropes but the RM community is extremely helpful at the Fantasy Grounds site (http://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=65) and someone would be very happy to walk you through it via screen sharing (that would be Jeremy - he's great!).

Although Fantasy Grounds is for remote players to join, several users either use Fantasy Grounds as a combination of face to face and remote players or even for their completely face to face games - it greatly streamlines the process!

[blackheart]

Fantasy Grounds is excellent.... Recommended.  I would tell you that there is a learning curve, because it does so much.  Again, I own it and the Rolemaster rule set.  Take a few hours to learn it, you won't be disappointed. 

[Dakadin]

I am Jeremy that craggles mentioned. I use it regularly to run my face to face game which includes 5 PCs.  It definitely speeds up the table look up process and tracking combat.  The latest version includes features to help with character generation and leveling (stat generation, stat gain rolls, skill development).  The RMC ruleset includes Character Law, Arms Law, Spell Law and Creatures & Treasures. 

The RMC ruleset is only $20 but you will need at least a full license for Fantasy Grounds as craggles pointed out.  You can see the details here about the RMC ruleset: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.xcp?id=DGA080

There are also versions of The Armoury(https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.xcp?id=ICERMC1016FG2) and Rolemaster Fantasy Weapons(https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.xcp?id=ICERMCFantasyWeapons) now available.

I put together some videos(http://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17264) to help people see what is possible in the RMC ruleset.  They are a bit dated so I will need to update them with some of the new features but they should give you an idea of what to expect.

Please let me know if you would like a walk through of how it works in Fantasy Grounds.

I took over the development for the RMC ruleset for Fantasy Grounds about a year ago so if anyone has any suggestions for how it would make your games run better let me know.

Keep up the great work on Shadow World.  It is my favorite campaign world.  I am actually taking my players through Xaar right now.

Thanks,
Dakadin

[zyax1]

Who knows about the easiest way to run an online game… as in, a regular Rolemaster Shadow World game 'live', but with other people remotely, with something to handle the interactions. I heard that Google Plus has some capability? Of course it would be magical if it handled the dice rolling and all, but I'm a luddite in this area (I can barely use the excel RM character spreadsheet) so any suggestions would be helpful.

We play with Hangout (Google+) and fantasy grounds. I say it would be magical if a light fantasy grounds version was an app in Hangout.

[craggles]

oops - RMC Ruleset is $20 (Thanks Jeremy, that'll teach me for relying on my memory!!!) :O

Craig.

[Terry K. Amthor]

Thanks guys, fantasygrounds looks intriguing (and pretty amazing). I have had the itch to run a Shadow World game for awhile, but I have to admit this does look like a lot of up-front work (in addition to setting up the actual campaign).

I also see that fantasygrounds does not run natively on the Mac. Craggles, what is your experience with the 'wine' emulator, or do you also have a PC?

[craggles]

Hi Terry, I have no experience with Wine as I use Parallels which emulates a PC environment (but you need a Windows OS license as well and I use XP for it so that was very cheap from ebay) but apparently, it's easy to set up with Wine and you don't need a Window's OS license so I'm going to do a quick test to see if I can. 

Although I probably have a spare license of Parallels or VNC (Parallel's competitor and it would also need a Window's OS License as well) or most likely both if you wanted to go down that road because I get bundle deals - 10 apps for $49 type things like this one for example http://www.macsuperbundle.com which usually have a big app or two in there that make it very attractive (although I already have the items I'd want (or the competitor's versions) in that bundle from previous bundles).

I'll let you know how I get on with Wine and Fantasy Grounds soon. 

[RandalThor]

Who knows about the easiest way to run an online game… as in, a regular Rolemaster Shadow World game 'live', but with other people remotely, with something to handle the interactions. I heard that Google Plus has some capability? Of course it would be magical if it handled the dice rolling and all, but I'm a luddite in this area (I can barely use the excel RM character spreadsheet) so any suggestions would be helpful.

I very much hope that this means you are looking for players in such a game, as I would love to be in a SW game ran by the author of the setting. 

[craggles]

and here I was going to subtly ask. 

[Ynglaur]

Can Fantasy Grounds be extended with house rules easily?

[craggles]

What sort of house rules do you have in mind?

[RandalThor]

and here I was going to subtly ask. 

Sorry, no subtly here; only a bull in a china shop...

[Dakadin]

Can Fantasy Grounds be extended with house rules easily?

That depends on the house rule.  New spell lists can be added within FG.  New professions, races, skills, attack and critical tables can be added if you aren't intimidated by XML files. 

I've already automated some of the optional rules that it made sense to automate.  I am trying to add the ones that I can so that GMs can run the game the way they want.  Here are the ones that are included so far:

• The new character assistant options include the base stat generation method or options 7.1 or 7.2.  The minimum reroll number for stat generation and whether to use it always or only for temporary stats can be set.
• The percent of development points for secondary skills can be set.
• Exhaustion can be tracked automatically and the penalty can be set to none, core rule penalties or gradual penalties.
• Power points can be manually or automatically set using the core rules or the following optional rules: Character Law #1, #16 and/or Spell Law #4.
  

There are extensions for linear and smooth stat bonuses that can be found here: http://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18058.

Other house rules would need to be handled manually but that is how it is usually done in face to face games.

If you can give me a better idea of what house rules you would like to use, I can give a more specific answer to how it could be handled.

[Terry K. Amthor]

Hi Terry, I have no experience with Wine as I use Parallels which emulates a PC environment (but you need a Windows OS license as well and I use XP for it so that was very cheap from ebay) but apparently, it's easy to set up with Wine and you don't need a Window's OS license so I'm going to do a quick test to see if I can. 

Although I probably have a spare license of Parallels or VNC (Parallel's competitor and it would also need a Window's OS License as well) or most likely both if you wanted to go down that road because I get bundle deals - 10 apps for $49 type things like this one for example http://www.macsuperbundle.com which usually have a big app or two in there that make it very attractive (although I already have the items I'd want (or the competitor's versions) in that bundle from previous bundles).

I'll let you know how I get on with Wine and Fantasy Grounds soon. 

Thanks Craggles! ;-)  I'm familiar with Parallels (the web guys where I used to work all had it on their Macs so they could view websites in Windows browsers, but I didn't really mess with it). I'm not eager to have Windows on my Mac in any form, so if Wine works without putting Windowz on my machine and isn't too sluggish that could be an option. I have a 3.0 GHz Intel Duo iMac with 4 gigs of RAM, running 10.6.8.

[markc]

Terry,
Tech suggestion: 
 I would get more RAM for your Mac as it is cheep and can have vast improvements on the performance of software. Look at the specs to see how much RAM your machine can hold before you buy more than you can use. No matter what the simple and cheep investment can have a huge impact on how your machine works.
MDC 

[Dakadin]

There are some great guides to running FG on a Mac that DrZeuss put together.  You can find them in the sticky threads near the top of the forum here: http://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=41

[craggles]

If you want to get an idea of playing in a Fantasy Grounds game, you can take part in the Virtual Con. Info here - http://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=69 and it starts this Friday.

A lot of the GM's will have Ultimate Licences so you only need the demo to take part. You can play the Rolemaster games as well as any of the other games available in Fantasy Grounds.