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BRP for Fantasy Grounds: Hit Locations


Foen

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I've been working on a project to convert BRP to run on the Fantasy Grounds (FG) virtual table-top software, as part of an official product licensed by Chaosium. By far the toughest feature to implement has been the use of optional hit locations, and I thought I'd share a few screenshots on the progress to date.

The FG ruleset includes the facility to turn hit locations on or off, and the following screenshots are taken with the hit location option enabled (they would be fairly dull screenshots otherwise), but the ruleset does support non-hit location play (like standard CoC).

The first screenshot shows the default view for hit locations: the Vitruvian Man figure has indicators for each of the locations, and the spots (here all grey) change colour to show the health of each location at a glance. The colour goes from grey (healthy) through yellow, amber and red, to black (the location is severed/destroyed).

The second screenshot shows how you can click on any location to call up more detailed information about it.

In either of these two views, you can drag damage results and drop them onto a location to apply damage to that location, and similarly with healing results. Finally you can double-click anywhere on this screen to roll d20 to resolve where a blow lands (if you hold the SHIFT key while doing this, the ruleset resolves against the missile hit locations if applicable).

The third screenshot shows an alternative tabular view, for folks who want to see everything in one go. This view is freely selectable by each player, from the preferences list. The screen is more 'busy', but everything is readily accessible.

The fourth screenshot shows non-humanoid hit locations for a player character. Firstly it should be noted that only the GM can swicth a player character from humanoid to non-humanoid, and secondly that if there are no missile hit locations (such as in this case), then that column isn't displayed.

The final screenshot shows the GM view when the hit location template is switched to 'Custom'. Using the BRP ruleset, many built-in templates are available straight from the rules, but it is sometimes useful to have complete freedom over the hit locations for a given character. In custom mode the GM can freely edit the chance for each location to be hit (melee and missile), the location name, and can even add/remove arbitrary additional locations. The method of HP calculation can also be selected ('Standard BRP' is built in, but others such as RQ3 can be added).

The editing screens aren't available to players: only the GM can switch templates or use the Custom mode.

This is still work in progress, but hopefully it gives a small look into how the FG conversion is shaping up.

Stuart

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Cool! Looks pretty sharp so far.

My thoughts:

1. If only the GM can switch to a non-humanoid template, can the GM switch the player's views to non-humanoid templates? In other words, does it support games where everyone plays a lizard man or a dragon-newt?

2. I suppose there is no vitruvian man type view for non-humaoid hit locations?

3. I know this isn't relevant to hit locations, but I see dice across the bottom of the sceen, which I suppose are clickable to get a roll. I also see a modifier. But I don't see percentile dice and it looks like the modifier only goes up to six dots. I assume that eventually this will change to reflect the percentile nature of BRP. Would it be possible to get a d3 and a D2 as well? Useful for those half damage bonus times.

"Tell me what you found, not what you lost" Mesopotamian proverb

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1. The GM can switch a player's template for them, but the player can't do that themselves (to prevent pesky players mucking about with templates...).

2. The Vitruvian Man view only applies to humanoid templates: if you are playing a dragon newt, you are stuck with a tabular view.

3. The FG platform supports D100 quite easily, in addition to D2 and D3, and the spots on the modifier box are used for tracking the number of modifiers, not their values. So you might see two spots illuminated if two modifiers were applied (say +10 for good circumstances, and +5 for another player assisting you). BTW, half damage bonus for missile weapons is calculated automatically.

Cheers

Stuart

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I don't actually use hit locations, and nor do any of the 8 official BRP adventures released by Chaosium either.

If I did, though, I'd want to know how well it handles my favourite recurring villains: a four-armed broo priest and his two-headed walktapus sidekick... ;)

Britain has been infiltrated by soviet agents to the highest levels. They control the BBC, the main political party leaderships, NHS & local council executives, much of the police, most newspapers and the utility companies. Of course the EU is theirs, through-and-through. And they are among us - a pervasive evil, like Stasi.

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Impressive. If it can handle two-headed walktapi and other wacky body configurations, you're doing a good job!

(I know - I did an RQ monster-generator prog years ago, which included that sort of thing).

The rules I do use are more like old-style BRP - i.e. they don't include the opposed-roll "Attack/Parry Matrix", but each side rolls independently. Also a different HP formula, and Major Wound/Death thresholds (i.e. characters can go into negative HP). Can Fantasy Grounds accommodate that?

My concern about VTTs is that they can be overly prescriptive. Mainly what I'd want is just the display & communication, perhaps with dice-rolling added, and possibly monster HPs/stats. (Characters etc can be separate text files or whatever - I'm not convinced incorporating them is an advantage).

Britain has been infiltrated by soviet agents to the highest levels. They control the BBC, the main political party leaderships, NHS & local council executives, much of the police, most newspapers and the utility companies. Of course the EU is theirs, through-and-through. And they are among us - a pervasive evil, like Stasi.

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The rules I do use are more like old-style BRP - i.e. they don't include the opposed-roll "Attack/Parry Matrix", but each side rolls independently.

I have built this ruleset around separate rolls - there is no automatic resolution of combat. There is an option to enable the ruleset to flag fumbles, successes, specials and criticals, but that can be switched on or off.

Also a different HP formula...

The HP formula is specifically customisable, this allows standard BRP to work alongside Mongoose RQ1, for example. Standard BRP uses a series of factors, MRQ1 uses a series of +/- adjustments. To change the formula requires a little bit of script editing, but should be easily achievable (and could be done for you if you posted a request to the forums).

... and Major Wound/Death thresholds (i.e. characters can go into negative HP).

There is no automation of major wounds/death.

My concern about VTTs is that they can be overly prescriptive. Mainly what I'd want is just the display & communication, perhaps with dice-rolling added, and possibly monster HPs/stats. (Characters etc can be separate text files or whatever - I'm not convinced incorporating them is an advantage).

The ruleset tries to strike a balance between doing everything for you and allowing you flexibility to run the game how you want it. It is a difficult balance and some folks will say I haven't automated enough while others will want the automation disabled :confused:

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Sounds pretty sensible design so far, and FG itself looks quite good. (Main problem now is it's not free...;))

Britain has been infiltrated by soviet agents to the highest levels. They control the BBC, the main political party leaderships, NHS & local council executives, much of the police, most newspapers and the utility companies. Of course the EU is theirs, through-and-through. And they are among us - a pervasive evil, like Stasi.

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