Official ICE Forums
ICE Partners => Fantasy Grounds Rulesets for ICE => Topic started by: Foen on August 30, 2009, 03:58:18 PM
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Digital Adventures, LLC and Iron Crown Enterprises present the Rolemaster Ruleset for Fantasy Grounds II! Nearly two years in the making, this ruleset features some of the most innovative Fantasy Grounds programming to date, giving both Game Masters and Players all the tools they need to enjoy this classic RPG online. In addition to including the full text for the Character Law, Arms Law, Spell Law, and Creatures & Treasures remakes of the original game, the Rolemaster Class Ruleset for Fantasy Grounds II features fully automated combat and spell effects resolution! This automation allows for quick play online, or around your local gaming table.
The CEO of Iron Crown, Bruce Neidlinger has been a driving force in seeing this project come to fruition. "ICE is delighted with this electronic conversion of Rolemaster Classic to be played online using Fantasy Grounds II. This abmitious project brings the full Rolemaster experience to the Internet, with its automated combat allowing for speedy play with your friends all around the world! This is exactly the product we have been waiting for!"
The following is included in the Rolemaster Classic Ruleset:
• The complete text of the core Rolemaster Classic rules: Arms Law; Spell Law; Character Law; and Creatures and Treasures.
• Fully automated look-up for combat and spell rolls: resolve attacks and spell results in just a few clicks.
• Resolve critical strikes and spell effects, plus fumbles and spell failures with ease.
• Includes 30 individual weapon attack tables, seven spell attack tables, and dozens of criticals and fumbles.
• Includes more than 2,000 spell descriptions, across 162 spell lists, and three realms of power.
• Rules for 20 character professions, including 15 spell-casting professions, and over five dozen skills from which to choose.
• Descriptions and stats for hundreds of monsters, animals and fantasy races, including Dragons, Demons, Elementals and Giants.
• Hordes of treasure, both sparkling and magical, with guidelines for generating the treasures to go with your monsters.
• Supports optional rules to add depth and flavor to your RoleMaster campaign.
• Drag and drop weapons, skills and spells directly onto your character sheet from the core rule books.
• Automate the combat sequence, with a fully-featured combat tracker linked to graphical battle maps.
• Play this much-loved role-playing game with remote friends all over the world, old and new.
The Rolemaster Classic Ruleset for Fantasy Grounds II will be available available at Digital Adventures Online Store (http://www.digitaladventures.net/catalog/), the Fantasy Grounds Store (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/), and any One Book Shelf affilicate for the price of $20.00.
The Rolemaster Classic Ruleset for Fantasy Grounds II and compatible products from Digital Adventures requires the use of the Fantasy Grounds II software, which is sold separately and can be purchased at the Fantasy Grounds Store (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/).
The Rolemaster Classic Role-Playing game is a copyright of Iron Crown Enterprises, (C) 2009. For more information on Rolemaster Classic products visit their website at http://www.ironcrown.com/. The Rolemaster Classic Ruleset for Fantasy Grounds II is a trademark of Digital Adventures, LLC and Aurigas Aldbaron LLC., (C) 2009, licensed by Digital Adventures, LLC for distribution.
For more information on Digital Adventures products see our website at http://www.digitaladventures.net. The Fantasy Grounds II software is copyrighted by SmiteWorks, LTD, (C) 2009. For more information on the Fantasy Grounds software visit their website at http://www.fantasygrounds.com. All rights reserved. Duplication or distribution without the proper consent of Digital Adventures, LLC is prohibited.
Enjoy!
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Kevin W. Melka
Digital Adventures, LLC
(Posted by Foen, for Digital Adventures)
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I bought a full version months ago, while it was still in beta. . .do I just need to login to download the full final version now?
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LM - what you bought back then was Fantasy Grounds itself, not the RM ruleset (which you got from me when we were playtesting it).
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Aha. . .ok, that makes sense.
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Are the text files and UI character chains readily accesible, so I can translate them for my players?
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Within FG, only the GM needs a copy of the ruleset, and the player text of the books is readily available to the players while they remain connected. Some text (such as Creatures & Treasures and the lookup tables) is reserved for the GM's eyes only.
The text should not otherwise be extracted and redistributed, as it still falls within copyright laws.
StuartW
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The text should not otherwise be extracted and redistributed, as it still falls within copyright laws.
StuartW
It is not my intent. I'd just like to have the text displayed in french during gaming sessions (just the messages, buttons, item names, spell names, monster names... I don't have the time to translate all the rulebooks by myself :p)
Thanks for the information, I'll drop to the shop and have a look at GM/players interaction features in FG2.
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The text should not otherwise be extracted and redistributed, as it still falls within copyright laws.
StuartW
It is not my intent. I'd just like to have the text displayed in french during gaming sessions (just the messages, buttons, item names, spell names, monster names... I don't have the time to translate all the rulebooks by myself :p)
Thanks for the information, I'll drop to the shop and have a look at GM/players interaction features in FG2.
If you do a lot of translating you might want to talk to the guys who made the program as now they can sell it in French.
MDC
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If you do a lot of translating you might want to talk to the guys who made the program as now they can sell it in French.
MDC
I'd like to. However, I am the head of the translation department for a video games company in Paris, and translating FG2 as a paid job would cause a violation of my working contract because it's an online program (I may however translate paper stuff as much as I want).
I'll seriously consider this option if I manage to find another job (which I am currently trying to as hard as i can).
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Anyone know if you can add things to this? As new secondary skills, new background options, etc.
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I believe if you watch the videos on the basics of the program (The D20 version) and it shows you how to do it. I have to rewatch them again today so I can add my own material. I actually took today off from work so I could be a irresponsible adult and learn how to use the program..lol. ;D
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I like what I've seen so far, I'll buy it if I find people to play RMC with (I'd like a RMSS ruleset, my players won't switch back to simpler rules, they like the diversity).
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I too would like to know more about what can and can not be adjusted. Rolemaster is beautiful - but I still pile on the house rules, add races, adjust racial bonuses, change around some of the bonuses/negatives of certain armors, and would love to add in combat styles and armor by the peice. Also, add some skills and take some out. Does it computerize some of the heavy crunch (sounds like it does) and would it be worth having around during a live gaming session?
So, how flexible is this game and is it easily tweekable by a software noob?
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I know nothing of Fantasy Grounds. ???
I assume it's necessary to first purchase FG2, then the RM ruleset is some kind of plug-in for it? Does it come with instructions on how to integrate into FG2?
Did I mention that I know nothing of FG? :-\
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On the subject of flexibility, there are some aspects which can be easily tweaked: you can include your own skills just by creating a new blank skill entry on a character sheet and typing your own name, description, etc into it. The same goes for weapons, races and spells/lists to some extent).
For the next level of complexity, making those new skills draggable from a campaign reference module onto your players' sheets, you'd need to edit some XML. Doable, but not for XML noobies or the faint at heart.
For new weapon tables, the XML is far more complex (those tables encode a lot of information). For new automation (such as changing the way hits are calculated) you'd need to edit the ruleset scripting (which is in a language called Lua) and you'd need to understand the FG programming model (which is documented on the FG site).
On the subject of FG, you need to have a copy of the underlying FG software installed on the GM and each player's machine, then the GM buys the RMC plug-in (called a ruleset). Once installed on the GM's machine, any player who connects to that GM can join an RMC game without having to buy their own copy of the RMC ruleset.
Finally, it is worth noting that the FG software comes in two flavours: Full is for folks who want to GM; and Lite is for folks who only want to play. The Lite version is cheaper, but there is no upgrade path, so if you think you might ever want to GM (whether its RMC or some other game system), then you should probably buy the Full version.
Hope that helps
StuartW
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I know lua, it's easy to learn and basic skills are enough to deal with a lot of things. An excellent choice for this tool!
FG2 is now on my "mustbuy after baby is born" list :p
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Lets say I just want the program with RMC for running my sessions as a GM in a RL tabletop manner. Instead of bringing all my books n notes I just bring my laptop (loaded with this software), can I use it in that manner OR do I need to be connected to the internet for it to work?
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You can fake it out, and run a local campaign. You'll still need to create program versions of all the characters you will be using, if you want automated combat resolutions. If you're just using it for looking up information, you could actually do that in the character builder module, it looks like, which requires no connectivity at all.
Having (tried) to use FG for other games, this is by far the best adaptation of rules I've seen. The extractor for the RMC ruleset ran without a hitch, I didn't have to drag anything to a folder or monkey with it.
There's a few things that aren't readily apparent, but there is a PDF document available from DA that spells out a few more points - things like how your new skills won't calculate stat bonuses in character builder mode, but should do it in the campaign mode. I haven't actually tried it, but supposedly that's how it works.
I'm planning to write an in-depth review after I spend some time trying to break it over the next few days, if anyone would be interested in that.
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A review would be great. And would probably make for a good Guild Companion article if you submitted it to them.
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Ok! Brain hurts from FG2 overload...too much RP material in 24 hours. I just spent the last 2 days playing around with FG 2...watching the videos, creating tokens, pictures, adventure transfers and building a character with my wife. This program is insane! For all you RM junkies out there this thing is a must have. To give you an idea how easy it is, my wife has not played RM in 10 years. She asked me if she could make a character with out books and only from memory. She actually generated a 1st lvl character "by reading the instructions" in roughly a 30min. IMO if you do not plan on using for on-line purposes its good for a Tabletop resource. Nothing will ever beat the old fashioned books but this is the next best thing.
I actually made some tokens if you want to download them for free.
http://sites.google.com/a/wolfqueenslair.com/http-sites-google-com-site-curseofthewolfqueen-home/cwq-adventure-download/cwq-download
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Lets say I just want the program with RMC for running my sessions as a GM in a RL tabletop manner. Instead of bringing all my books n notes I just bring my laptop (loaded with this software), can I use it in that manner OR do I need to be connected to the internet for it to work?
The FG software doesn't require you to be connected to the internet to run it, so is quite handy for RL face-to-face games.
As regards electronic vs hard copy: it is mostly a matter of personal preference rather than need. I happen to like hard copy, even though I also have PDF and FG versions and most of my players only want FG versions. Just call me odd.
StuartW
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Now that the RM:C rules have been done for Fantasy Grounds, would it be the same amount of work on top of what's already been done to make an RMFRP ruleset or would it be a lot quicker as most of the ground work is already there now?
The reason I ask is because I use RMFRP (what a shock from my first para) and have built up my collection to include ALL the books (very expensive) and have spent a great deal of time getting all those rules into my head so switching over to the RM:C rules is not an option I wish to take.
BUT... The ease of using a utility like this would save an enormous amount of time in keeping track of combat and, for the price (compared to what I've already invested in RMFRP), is worth buying it and seeing how easy it would be to edit it to suit my needs.
I also use the Combat Companion with the ARs and new weapon tables and as it's primarily a RM:C book, I was surprised that it wasn't available with the RM:C ruleset. Is there a way to add on info from future books to the RM:C ruleset (like expansion packs containing optional rules) or would it mean a re-write of the RM:C ruleset as a whole?
On the subject of other rulesets, is there anything planed for Spacemaster? ;)
On another note, character creation is something that needs doing but I've managed to finish those that fairly quickly for my party's characters. It's the combat tracking that would make this a 'must buy' for me. Is there a way to create 'combat only' rulesets (which may take a lot less time to develop) or is it a case of Fantasy Grounds needing ALL info programmed into the ruleset not just the combat rules?
:)
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craggles, as Foen said things can get harder the more in depth you want to go. Unfortunately CC is one of those things which makes significant changes to the combat tables and rules and as such would require some reworking....not to mention data entry of all the new tables.
However, without the Combat Companion this ruleset is usable virtually as-is for RMFRP, with a few adjustments here and there.
One thing I should note is that the RMC ruleset doesn't actually do character creation/development....so you can actually just enter in you character regardless of the RM flavor or house rules you use. The only thing that may require some adjustment is the difference between stat bonuses but this can be compensated for easily by using the Misc Modifier column so that the total bonus comes out to be correct which is really all that matters in the end.
The combat part of the ruleset was really the most intensive part of the ruleset and would require substantial amount of time to change it...though not as much as the original development of course.
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Although a lot of the CC stuff would require significant coding (arbour by the piece, combat styles etc), adding in the new professions and spell lists should be fairly simple. Has anyone tried this yet?
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So far I have eliminated the Illusionist and added my own world specific Shadow Mage, which allowed me to simply use the Illusionist template. I've also used that same tactic to blend 2 spell lists in order to make room for a completely new one, without going beyond 6 Base lists for the profession. Mind you, I know little to nothing about coding, so I dip my toes rather than jump in! My impression is that new/additional spell lists would be relatively easy. Professions would take more work, as they are referenced in more places throughout the code. That being said, I don't see why even a neophyte such as myself wouldn't be able to add professions on top of the existing ones if the need presents itself.
Veldehar Snow-Elven
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Is anyone playing this? I would love to get back into RM, but my group is currently laughing our way through a Hackmaster campaign and having way too much fun.