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peterb

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Everything posted by peterb

  1. Try saving the worksheet, using File -> Save As, as either a: Tab delimited text, or Semicolon delimited (*.skv), or Whitespace formated text (*.prn) Use Excel's help search function and search for "Save As", you should find a help page with more info on the various file formats one can transform a Excel file to.
  2. And btw the descriptions are found not only in the d20 SRD but also in the MRQ Monster SRD and the d20 descriptions needs to edited, so the best would be to produce an editable intermediate file. Could you produce a RTF file with the help of LaTex?
  3. What about XML? It shouldn't be that difficult to export data from Excel to XML (even if I never have done so myself...). All it takes, I imagine, is defining a XML schema and map that to the data in the workbook.
  4. If you already downloaded Beta 0.11, you'll probably want to download Beta 0.12, that I just released, it fixes a few bugs...
  5. OK. Thanks for the info. I decided to stick with my assumption and we'll see if it works out in the long run.
  6. I have now released a beta release of my Creature Generator spreadsheet. It contains, among other things, two worksheets with creature data, a lot of which is converted from the d20 SRD. The sheets to study are "Data" and "Skills".
  7. How are skill bases designed? As pure skill bases or as either skill bases or average specimens skill levels? In my Creature Generator spreadsheet I treat all creatures as being of "average" experience and add 40% to all skill bases. Some creatures are given pretty high skill values in BRP and other BRP derived systems, I decided to view a skill base value of 75 as the average value for that type of creature and not the base chance. I'm not sure if that's the right interpretation however. Here's the function I use (it's VBA code): /*--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ' Procedure : getRealSkillBase ' Author : Peter Brink ' Date : 2008-07-27 ' Purpose : The skillbases given in the Skill worksheet are either the average skill ' levels of a creature or the base skill of a creature. Since by default ' we add 40% to the skillbase we need to make sure that we only returns ' the real skillbase and not the average skill level. '--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- */ Public Function getRealSkillBase(interimSkillBase As Integer) As Integer Select Case (interimSkillBase) Case 0 To 45 getRealSkillBase = interimSkillBase Case 46 - 85 getRealSkillBase = interimSkillBase - 40 Case Else getRealSkillBase = 45 End Select End Function[/PHP] As you can see I have (quite arbitrarily) decided that no creature has a base skill chance of more than 45%, but I might be dead wrong here...
  8. The latest edition (7th ed.) uses d100 instead of d20 but it also does not use any stat values, it just rate stats by its bonus. If you are looking for a Swedish RPG you're in luck, there are loads of 'em. Try Saga or Västmark, or even more exotic - Western. Saga is more BRP like than Västmark, although both would be very good for young players, IMHO. At the Saga site you'll also find a Saga conversion module for Trudvang... Western is a really good RPG, it belongs to the BRP family but you roll upwards instead of downwards. As for D&D (as Drakar & Demoner is called in Sweden) there are also unlawful download alternatives... :innocent:
  9. Thanks for the comment. When I studied existing statblocks for BRP (RQ III to be exact) I noticed that there was a very uniform STR = SIZ rule. Only very large creatures have more SIZ than STR, which I simulate by giving them a 120% increase in the fixed bonus to the dice roll. A large dinosaur with STR 10d6+30 would thus be given a SIZ of 10d6+36. Your observation that giants and other humanoids can get a bit of odd SIZ values are quite valid though. I changed the algorithm a bit and took the creature type in consideration. If the creature is large or huge and a humanoid or an animal then I reduce the number of dices by one and add the dice type to the fixed mod. A Hill Giant now has a STR of 6d6+4 and a SIZ of 5d6+10. I've also updated the html snapshot of my file (http://www.rollspelshornan.se/files/BRP_creatures.htm)
  10. This project is almost done. I've converted almost 500 creatures from the d20 SRD. Here's a partial list of the data, http://www.rollspelshornan.se/files/BRP_creatures.htm Is there any glaring errors in the stats that you can see?
  11. The best choice of platform for (any) BRP software would probably be Java, or possibly Mono. In an ideal world where I had the time (and skill) I would use a spreadsheet as the data source, so that the end user could easily alter the data. As it happens there are open source (and commercial) libraries for both Java and Mono that can read Excel files (and Excel files can of course be stored on any system). I choose to use VBA in my application (see upthread) because that would speed up development and also because I, falsely as it turned out, believed that a VBA application would also work in OSX. The ease of development was of course also a factor... Now - VBA has quite some faults and as I said, if I would do it from scratch, I'd choose Java or Mono instead.
  12. In Acrobat Professional go to "Forms" -> "Edit Forms" and all the fields will become "selected". Now right-click on one of the fields (for example Damage Modifier) and select "Properties". In the dialogue that appears select the "Calculate" tab. That tab has four options - the last is "Custom Calculation Script". That's where the code is stored.
  13. Well, I've made a spreadsheet that can generate NPC:s and a lot of different creatures with BRP stats. I've just updated it with new data from the BRP book. You can find the thread here.
  14. The problem seems to me be that the EDU stat is quite elusive. It's supposed to be 'general knowledge'. Even today there are people that cannot be bothered to remember the names of well-known politicians and even heads of state (I have run into people who didn't know the name of the current prime minister or the name of the Crown Princess...). So I guess one has to first decide what's meant by 'general knowledge' and how good an average person would be at remembering this general knowledge. Would we, for example, know that the world was round unless we had been thought so in school? Would we know the name of the first person on the moon? Or even that man has sett his foot on the moon? I guess I'm a bit pessimistic about the level of knowledge people had in pre-modern times, even if I'm fully aware of that past generations knew lots of stuff that we don't remember today - but that lore is included in skills such as Knowledge (Natural History) and Craft (Bone Carving).
  15. I agree that the EDU stat certainly makes most sense with sentient beings. In fact it's probably best (and easiest) to rule that a fixed INT creatures never has any EDU. They might be cunning, act with a plan (as some RW spiders seems to do) and be able to learn things (dogs being good examples) but Knowledge is, at least in-game, defined as a sentient being's reflections on the world around them. That being said, one still has to decide what EDU score's people from various cultures have. In imperial Rome the children of the wealthy went to school, in mediaeval times the monks had access to lots of lore, but as we all know formal education is still even in these days reserved the wealthy (I here treat all who live in the developed countries as "wealthy"...). Another thing one have to decide is how to interpret the EDU stat. The rules mention one point of EDU per year in school as a benchmark. Informal education does count however. So what EDU would an average peasant in mediaeval times have? It would depend on what the EDU score means. Lets say we give the peasant 3 points of EDU. Would that mean that he would only have a 15% chance of knowing the name of the King? If reasoned that he would have, at least, a 50% chance of knowing such a fact - would that mean that the EDU stat should be generated by rolling 3d6? I think, but I'd like to reach some consensus here since I want my spreadsheet to be useful to more people than my self, that you need to keep the EDU score down until you get well-developed societies (in the sense we put in the word "well-developed") and instead award the mediaeval peasant a bonus to his Know roll when trying to remember the name of the King and other well known facts. I would grant a 50 percentiles bonus to a know roll for well known facts (such as the name of the King), a 25 percentiles bonus to less well known but still widespread knowledge (Is the King married?) and a normal Know roll for things that a peasant might know (what is the name of the King's eldest child, is this herb poisonous?). In effect what we get is a bonus to the Know roll that depends on either the distance between the object and the character or how widespread the information is. I would use the terms: local, regional, distant and very distant. [table]Region|Modification Local|+50 Regional|+25 Distant|0 Very Distant|-25[/table] So my solution for a fantasy setting would be to grant a base EDU of 1d6 and then grant extra points of EDU depending on background and profession. As an example one could rule that a child of a noble that enters the clergy would have an EDU of 1d6 + 3 +3.
  16. I'm in the process of updating the data in my creature generator spreadsheet with data from the new BRP book. Since I really only support the generation of fantasy creatures at the moment and I want to include the EDU stat, I wonder what a reasonable stating value is. Given it's fantasy creatures - maybe just 1d6?
  17. There are several good wikis out there, Mediawiki is one. DokuWiki and PMWiki are two other examples. What would make everyone's life's easier is a "bridge" that enables the wiki to use the user database of the forum. Wikis are good but they also comes with a fair bit of security issues. Spammers love to pester an poorly defended/configured wiki - and that part is a big plus on the side of NuWiki - all the security issues are already taken care of. That being said NuWiki is of no use if it's not maintained...
  18. Another application of effect values. You can use effect values to evaluate how much information a character knows or is able to find out about a given subject: What a character knows [table]Effect value|Result Critical failure or -3 or less|You know absolutely nothing about this subject. The subject doesn't even exist! 0|You do know that the subject exists, but nothing more. 3|You know the basics of the subject, given time you may find out more. 6|Your knowledge is equal to a well informed professional. You know what most people in the trade knows. 9|You know what a master of the subject is supposed to know. 12|You are very knowledgeable. You don't know everything, but know a lot and other skilled individuals are impressed by your lore. 15|You know everything that's worth knowing about the subject, and you know where and how to find out the things you don't know... 18|You know all there is to know about this subject.[/table]
  19. A few suggestions gathered from the net and other sources that, IMHO, may improve BRP:s conflict resolution system. 1) Change the way of reading the result of a d100 roll As been suggested on the RQ mailing list, treat 00 as the lowest possible result and 99 as the highest. 2) Change they way of determining critical successes/failures Also as suggested on the RQ mailing list, treat all doubles as critical successes/failures. All doubles under skill level are CS and all doubles above skill level are CF. 00 is always a CS and 99 is always a CF. Exemple: A has an Orate skill of 67. 00, 11, 22, 33, 44, 55 and 66 are CS. 77, 88 och 99 are CF. 3) Change the way of determining special successes/failures All rolls where the digit dice comes up with a 0 or 5 are specials. Some results, such as 00 and 55, are both criticals and specials, in those cases use the better (or worse) result. Example: A has an Orate skill of 67. 05, 10, 15, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 60 and 65 are special successes. 70, 75, 80, 85, 90 and 95 are special failures. 4) Effect values To make it even easier to determine the effect of a dice roll, one can use an ”effect value” system. Such as system is a way of getting a relative level of success out of a dice roll. Two different systems needs to be used, one that is used when comparing a dice roll against the characters own skill value and the other when comparing a characters performance relative another characters performance. 4.a) Effect value If you need to know how well you succeeded with a task, getting a license from the authorities for example, one way of doing that is to compare the 10s digit of your roll with the 10s digit of your skill value. If the roll is s critical, multiply the result by 2 and if it’s a special multiply the result by 1.5. You can also use negative results; use the same multiplication rules as with positive results. Example: A has an Orate skill of 67. If A rolled a 43 the effect value would be: 6 - 4 = 2. If A had rolled a 40, then the effect value would have been: (6 – 4) * 1.5 = 3, and if A had rolled a 44, then the effect value would have been: (6 – 4) * 2 = 4. If A had rolled a 77, then the effect value would have been: (6 - 7) * 2 = -2. The GM can use an effect value in many ways. If the characters need a permit or a license from a government agency the GM could (privately) decide that they need a combined effect value of 8 to reach their goal. Several modifications are possible, for example if the character has the law on their side they could get a bonus to the effect value. The GM can also use different characters effect values with the same skill to compare their relative performance. Assume for example that a character is taking part in a poetry competition. The GM could use the participants’ poetry skill effect values to decide who won the competition. 4. Success levels Steve Perrin has, in his BRP clone ”Steve Perrin Quest Rules” (SPQR), created a system with success levels. The idea is that a characters performance is dependent on the performance of the opposition. One cannot play better than the opponent allows. The system is primarily (as I understand it) meant to be used when comparing A and B:s performance, relative each other. I suggest that one uses it for resolving combat situations. The idea is as follows: one regular success gives you one success level (SL), a special success gives you 2 SL, and a critical success gives you 3 SL. A regular failure (obviously) gives you no success (0 SL). A special failure gives the opponent an extra SL and a critical failure gives the opponent two extra SL:s. You can thus at the most get 5 SL:s. If both A and B are successful, subtract B:s SL from A:s. Exemple: A has a skill level of 67 in 1h Axe. B has a skill level of 55 in Roundshield. If A rolls a 43, then he gets 1 SL. If B rolls 51, then B also gets 1 SL. B:s result is subtracted from A:s, with the results in no effect (1 - 1 = 0 success). If A had rolled a 45, then he would have had 2 SL:s and he would have scored a hit on B. If it instead would have been B that had rolled a 45, then he would have won and then he would have gained a tactical advantage. The result of the various combat actions are probably best summarized in a matrix or a table. 5) The level of success is linked to amount of damage done This system is inspired by the BRP clone HarnMaster, written by Robin N. Crossby. The idea is that the amount of damage done should be dependent on the relative level of success. 1 Success level: normal weapon damage + damage bonus. Armour protects. 2 Success levels: normal weapon damage + 1d6 + damage bonus. Armour protects. 3 Success levels: normal weapon damage + 2d6 + damage bonus. Armour protects. 4 Success levels: normal weapon damage + 3d6 + damage bonus. Armour protects. 5 Success levels: normal weapon damage + 4d6 + damage bonus. Armour protects. This system replaces the standard system with critical hits, specials, and impales.
  20. Ah, great! I simply assumed any such notes where at the end of the document... (they usually are).
  21. Just bought all three PDFs from RPGnow, unfortunately they are first ed. and so there's no RQ conversion notes... But still the books are a goldmine of ideas.
  22. I did a quick search for alternatives to NuWiki but none sems to have so good integration with vbulletin as NuWiki does. Unfortunately NuWiki does not support templates in the same way as many other wikis do. In NuWiki a template is a way of inserting fixed pieces of text in a page, in other wikis a template is used to pre-format a page. In the later case when a page is created in, for example, the "Spot Rules" category the new page is based on a template, it's a bit like a form. There is however a forms plugin available for vbulletin. One could set up a subforum for all Spot Rules and then people could post their rules there modifying the original post based on whatever comments they get.
  23. Well, sometimes it's just in front of you, and yet you can't see it... The wiki would of course be a perfect place to store new spot rules. As it happens the producers of the NuWiki plugin (that Sverrer already has in place) also produces a "digg" plugin (nuHIT.com - NuRatings Features) that enables posters to rate other posts and threads... It's not free however...
  24. From time to time a post or a thread on this forum (and lately on the RQ mailing list) contains nuggets of gold. It would be nice to have some organized way of storing those nuggets, otherwise it's a real risk that the same good ideas are rehashed over and over because the older posts get lost in the ever growing pile of information. One way would of course be to create a sticky thread where people could list the best posts and threads or (if such a plugin exists) one could allow readers to rank a posts utility and ideally all posts with a high utility rank would be accessible or searchable because of it. Another way would be to create a sub-forum for spot rules. It would be good to standardize the layout of such posts and one would ideally want to be able to categorize the rules. What do you think? Would it be useful? Is it doable?
  25. Frankly, Aki Ghost, I find your comment a bit to blunt. There's no reason to hurt someone's feelings. While it might be true that no one really can expect feedback - there are nicer ways to put it... Such as not using capital letters...
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