Topic: Combat Minion Software Personal Opinion.

[HawksNut]

I used this for the first time this weekend with our group. It took me one evening about 1.0 hour to input all the PC's in our group then another 2 hours to input all the NPC (villains) for our upcoming adventure Saturday. The software worked great and I installed this on my IPad so this is very compatible with an IPad. Combat and keeping track of critical hits was great. We slowed combat down a little as my group wanted to roll their own "to hits" but they agreed to allow the software roll the "critical hits". This software definitely speeds up combat even if you take time to manually input your PC's "to hit" rolls. I highly recommend this software and I hope ICE plans on continued support for the future. Just one users opinion.

[Thom @ ICE]

Thanks for the feedback.... and don't forget to post a review at RPGNow to share your comments there.  As far as future support, yes, we'll be working with RCM and Merkir as long as he's willing....

[Merkir]

Thanks PorscheTim917 for the very kind feedback.

[gandalf970]

My group will be using this on Friday night.  One thing I can see right away is if there is a way to clear all the conditions on the NPC's and PC's after an encounter instead of doing it manually.  Love the program, it will make my games go so much faster.

Cheers.

[gandalf970]

I used it for our game tonight and it went perfect.  A few things to be ready for though.  I had all of the NPC's loaded to play, bad idea.  Just save each encounter as a different text file then back them up as you go.  It slowed things down a little to skip over all of my NPC.  Still this caused our group to roll through a complete 25 room dungeon crawl ( not our preferred method ) in 5 hours.  This would typically take us at least 2 1/2 sessions. 

Well done on the app, it is so great and allows us to get even more Rolemaster combat in.  If you told me what one thing and only one thing would you add.  I would say a check box to say if the NPC is in that particular encounter.

But knowing the limitation of the app now, makes for an easy workaround.

Cheers for making this tool!

[Merkir]

My group will be using this on Friday night.  One thing I can see right away is if there is a way to clear all the conditions on the NPC's and PC's after an encounter instead of doing it manually.  Love the program, it will make my games go so much faster.

Good feedback. I've added it to the TODO list. Thanks.

[Merkir]

I used it for our game tonight and it went perfect.  A few things to be ready for though.  I had all of the NPC's loaded to play, bad idea.  Just save each encounter as a different text file then back them up as you go.  It slowed things down a little to skip over all of my NPC.  Still this caused our group to roll through a complete 25 room dungeon crawl ( not our preferred method ) in 5 hours.  This would typically take us at least 2 1/2 sessions. 

Ok it appears you missed one of the key features of the software and that is the keyword filtering. This allows you to filter all your NPCs so that it only displays the subset of NPCs you're interested in for any particular encounter. The way you should do it is as follows:

- Enter ALL your campaign's NPCs/monsters/creatures into Minion - at least those you're likely to encounter next game session.
- For each NPC/Monster/Creature, enter a keyword string in the 'Keyword Filter' field when you fill out the create NPC form. Eg. use keywords like "E1" for encounter 1, "E2", etc.
- When it comes time for encounter 1, type "E1" into the top right of the NPC panel where it says "Key" then click the Search icon.  Your long list of NPCs will be filtered and show only your "E1" NPCs.
- Start the encounter. The encounter will be limited to the PCs and the now-filtered list of NPCs - just what you want.
- ENJOY!

Also please take a look at the video which I think shows it better than I can describe it, from about the 4 minute mark:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQlg8_7LJI0

[gandalf970]

Well said I did miss that.  I was so hyped actually of this app coming out that I passed on all of that.  I really have been waiting for something like this for 20+ years.  I am not a programmer or have that skill set, so thank you so much. 


Cheers