Where to get the help I need? Altering BRP for this...

[Magnatude]

Hi Everyone, I'm very new at Fantasy Grounds and I bought BRP in hopes to be able to convert my Home-brew game system to FG.

I know of the BRP Wiki and I'm looking for more information on altering BRP.
(And some scripting help if there is someone available?)

My System is all D6 rolls, no other dice are used. I have uploaded an Example character sheet that I created with a Character sheet maker, and filled it in with the basics so people reading this have some idea of how the character works.

So is BRP the thing for me to use?
I will need to re-arrange hit locations to use a 2D6 roll: (the 2D6 can be altered with an Aim-high +1, or +2 during HtH Combat)

Roll 2D6.....Location
2-3.............Leg
4-5............Thigh
6.............Abdomen
7...............Chest
8-9.............Arm
10-11.......Shoulder
12+.............Head

So I think from what I'm reading, that these hit locations need to be scripted.
There will be others for Vehicle locations, Alien critters and such.

The Genre is SciFi Semi-Anime Style... Lots of Spaceship Interaction





The setting uses Electric/Plasma Universe Theory (inspired by James P Hogan novels, RIP)

If Anyone is able to point me to the right locations of altering stuff, or giving me a hand somewhat? I can trade off help with Artwork if you need it.
~~Richard~~

[Sorcerer]

I can't say that this will be an easy project for you, but I think if it can be done, then the BRP ruleset is the one to start with, since it is the only one I know of that uses hit locations.

StuartW designed the ruleset to be (relatively speaking) easy to alter/upgrade. and the hit location templates are one of the things he set up to be customizable. They are located in the brpscript.lua file in the gameline\scripts folder of the ruleset.

That said changing the hit locations is one thing, coding it so that hit rolls (and all other rolls) are made using 2d6 instead of a d20's or d100's will be much more challenging...

[Magnatude]

Thanks I will check out that lua file, its at least a place to start. I'm not a "scripter" by any means, but I have been able to root out and modify things I need in other scripting languages with some success, messy at times but gets the job done....

Post edit: ok I've located the die-rolling switch for the BRPHitLocation in the Global.lua

Hey guys, mods, is it ok that I post all of my scripting edits here for others to use? Some of you guys might be able to point out some errors that I might commit, lol

The stuff in the script you mentioned looks straight-forwards, and it did help me in getting someplace


Also I took the PAK file and unzipped it... then put the whole folder she-bang into the Application Data...Fantasy Grounds II... rulesets. And renamed the folder "Basic Roleplaying SciRPG Edition"
And I'll modify everything in this "testing" folder. (I hope that is a correct thing to do??) I'll keep track of my modifications and then work on a "mod" version later

[Sorcerer]

renaming your 'test ruleset folder' is definitely the thing to to do. And it should load and run perfectly well like that. The main thing is to rename it, since it will always load the pak version in preference to any folder ruleset of the same name.

actually I was not aware that the current version was available in pak form, otherwise I would have suggested extracting it.

Looks like I need to redownload to get the latest version as mine was installed as a a folder ruleset and not a pak when I bought it last year!

[Magnatude]

Another thing I need to do:

My system uses accumulation damage and no set "Hitpoints"
As damage hits the character, the Character makes a save vs the damage total, the higher total of damage, the easier it is for the character to fail his save.
The usual effect is to Black-out until the character makes a successful save to be conscious in a wounded state.
The Black-out saves can be done on the fly but I wouldn't mind getting some input on how to script my damage accumulation.
The Body locations being damaged will effect the Save roll with a modifier, but that can be done on the fly instead of being scripted.

[Sorcerer]

in this instance i don't think the BRP ruleset will give you any concrete examples of what to do, as it is abit 'rules lite' in terms of combat.

i.e. it does not (as far as i can remember) have any automatic targeting and damage calculation system.

better examples can be found within the 4E ruleset which is included with FG2 or in d20_JPG and the C&C rulesets.

the d20_JPG ruleset can be downloaded for free from the downloads section of this website (C&C is available in the store). both are probably more straightforward than the 4E system to understand (although there is alot of good stuff to be found in the 4E ruleset as it is smiteworks 'flagship' and is probably the most advanced in terms of automation.

anyway, in those rulesets attack and damage rolls can be dropped onto the tokens of your opponents on the map image (or directly on the opponents combat tracker entry).

with respect to damage; the damage roll is automatically calculated but it is not deducted from the HP total it is added to a wounds total, which is compared to the HP total.

I suppose you can use this same system of totaling wounds.

if I recall correctly all the action for this coding goes on within chatmanager.lua/chat_chat.lua where the dice rolls are processed from the chat window and in combattracker_common.lua where the damage is applied to the charactersheet (through links set up in combattracker_entry.lua).
there may be some calls to related files, but anyway that might be enough to get you started.

[MeganHunter]

I'm actually not able to open my lua files to edit them. Around the net it says any text editor, but none of mine recognize it in the drop down. I hope it's not some Win 7 thing.

Speaking as another person who's not a programmer, I read through that whole BRP custom link and it does sound far easier than the others I've seen; you're right Sorcerer, the author did an excellent job making it as easy as he could.

[StuartW]

@Sorcerer,Magnatude: The 4e,d20 and C&C rulesets do a great job of automating combat results, and it is something that makes combat run more easily. I'd like to claim that hit locations make that too difficult (you need to resolve the hit location when you drop damage on a token), but I think that is probably just me being generous to myself

@MeganHunter: I don't think you can drop Lua files onto an editor, you either have to right-click and choose (Open With...) or fire up your editor first and then open the file from within the editor (File->Open...). I use Visual Studio to edit rulesets, but that is overkill for most folks. I've heard that Notepad++ is a Good Thing, and I believe it is free.

Cheers

Stuart

[Sorcerer]

I'm sure you are right, the hit locations would make the automation and coding a real pain. I'm sure you could do it if you wanted to, but it would probably age you about 10 years and take you nearly as long - especially since hit locations change per creature type.

with regard to lua editing, I use notepad++, it is very good and as you say, it is free.

I have the xml and lua files associated with it so that a double click will open them directly, but it is possible (if notepad++ is already open) to drag and drop files onto it.
I do this mainly when I have a keyword/variable/function that I can't find but know exists. In which case I simply drag and drop all the ruleset lua/xml files into it, and then do a search of all opened files. That works well, especially if you want to see all the references to a particular variable/function.

I'm sure standard windows notepad will open lua files as well, although it has to be specifically selected from the list (right click menu, open with), but it is not ready a good editor for lua.

find the link for notepad++ 5.9 (current release) below

https://notepad-plus-plus.org/release/5.9

[MeganHunter]

Thank you both, I've downloaded notepad++ and it works just fine. I didn't realize you were that Stuart Stuart. I think I will end up buying BRP down the road if I can convince my friends to play Mutants & Masterminds, it seems like the next best thing to a specific sheet.

Opening it up, for my current campaign there's still enough complexity in coding that I think I'll have to stick with Generic for this. It's only a little disappointing because we found out Item sheets in Generic only share the name, none of the stuff I've written down in them. So then I have to drag them to the chat window, but the players can't copy paste that info and have to type it all over. It's just so much wasted work, not just on flavor text that they'll now only hear once, but in writing out all the item stats. So they just ask me every 5 minutes "what's that do again?" Terribly slow. I'm actually close to making my Items as Images just so they can see the freakin' details.