Next generation BRP Central

Hi all!

BRP Central is now running on vBulletin 4 software and has been for some time. It's starting to show its age, as viewing it on a phone works pretty bad.

I have a license for the vBulletin 5 software, but it's still too bug-filled to be any use. It could be an option if the developers manage to iron it out though.

Invision Power Board is another option. I should be able to transfer posts from this forum to that pretty easy. I'm going to try it out for another forum first though, to get a feel for it before I consider it for BRP Central.

Other types of software may also turn up to be candidates.

An important question here is what kind of functionality you would like to see in the future? What are the most important aspects of this site's software to you?

Cheers,

Trifletraxor.

Would you seamlessly transfer all posts/threads/files etc to the new software? Continuity is important in a content-rich site like this.

As for what I want:

Viewing forums/threads in a simple way

Ability to see new threads/posts

Ability to submit new posts and reply to posts

Download site

Maybe a wiki, but not essential

Pretty much what you have now, but I am easily pleased.

As is, the site is great on a computer but hard to read on an Internet-capable phone. Also, triple-tap typing makes replying to forums on a mobile device a pain. Not sure if that's something you can control from your end, though.

...An important question here is what kind of functionality you would like to see in the future? What are the most important aspects of this site's software to you?

Versions of this: http://ouropa.planeetta.com/rq_tools/enemygen/ for the BRP BGB, Magic World, CoC 6th & 7th, Renaissance, OpenQuest...

It is an amazing resource - but sadly, it's RQ6 only at present. It's possible (with varying degrees of faff) to adapt the output to use in other D100 games, but wouldn't it be ace to have properly tailored versions for each major D100/BRP ruleset?

Cheers,

Nick

Nick, I believe much of the functionality derives from the templates for various creature/adversary types. Not sure how much the rule set makes a difference.

The main thing would be the weapon/armour/special ability stats and how skills are derived I suspect. As-is it would work for Legend (MGP RQII) though.

The author has some folks helping out with data entry but does the coding as an 'ad-hoc, as and when he can' type of project. When he's added the material from MI and the new features list he might be open to crowd funding development of the work to other D100 games.

Would you seamlessly transfer all posts/threads/files etc to the new software? Continuity is important in a content-rich site like this.

As for what I want:

Viewing forums/threads in a simple way

Ability to see new threads/posts

Ability to submit new posts and reply to posts

Download site

Maybe a wiki, but not essential

Pretty much what you have now, but I am easily pleased.

If vBulletin 5 shapes up, a transfer to that version would be seamless. So far the integrated wikis or mediawiki bridges I've seem for both vBulletin and IPB are 3rd party products which might not get continued support from the developers. It would be possible to set up a separate mediawiki, but then members would have to register and login to that separately. I've testet IPB now, and so far it looks like better software than vBulletin. All forum and blog posts would transfer fine, but the download section would have to be transferred manually IPB's download software.

As is, the site is great on a computer but hard to read on an Internet-capable phone. Also, triple-tap typing makes replying to forums on a mobile device a pain. Not sure if that's something you can control from your end, though.

Both vB5 and IPB are much easier to read on a cell phone.

Versions of this: http://ouropa.planeetta.com/rq_tools/enemygen/ for the BRP BGB, Magic World, CoC 6th & 7th, Renaissance, OpenQuest...

It is an amazing resource - but sadly, it's RQ6 only at present. It's possible (with varying degrees of faff) to adapt the output to use in other D100 games, but wouldn't it be ace to have properly tailored versions for each major D100/BRP ruleset?

Cheers,

Nick

Very nice! Beyond me, but I would host it in a second if anyone coded something like that!

Nick, I believe much of the functionality derives from the templates for various creature/adversary types. Not sure how much the rule set makes a difference.

Which is another reason I thought it would be a good fit here - all the site needs to provide is the basic framework and storage - we as a community would add the data we wanted.

The main thing would be the weapon/armour/special ability stats and how skills are derived I suspect. As-is it would work for Legend (MGP RQII) though.

Yeah, it's already fine for Legend. Skill names and hit locations are another point of divergence, albeit that's as much a presentational thing as anything.

The author has some folks helping out with data entry but does the coding as an 'ad-hoc, as and when he can' type of project. When he's added the material from MI and the new features list he might be open to crowd funding development of the work to other D100 games.

Depending on how abstracted the underlying framework is from the rules specifics it may not be that difficult to create an "empty" version for a different rule set...

Here's hoping, anyway!

Nick

...Very nice! Beyond me, but I would host it in a second if anyone coded something like that!

Hmm, would crowd funding it be an option?

Nick

What would be great would be a single interface with a series of radio buttons or other option choosing mechanism to select the system of your choice: RQ6, BRP, CoC, MW etc etc, and then hit the Generate button with the output formatted and statted to your selected system.

It would be quite a fantastic community development/achievement. How likely it is to happen... who knows?

I think there are all kinds of details - some more subtle than others - that make this hard but not impossible. For example, over the years different versions of BRP have had different ideas of how to relate skill level to "competence." E.g. Stormbringer characters basically didn't get out of bed for any skill under 100%. Alternately, in RQ2, 40% might be quite a reasonable combat skill for a militia guard. So if you wanted a tough town guard in stormbringer their skills would be quite different to a tough town guard in RQ2.

On the other hand, there is so much in common that probably what needs to happen is a meta description so that different systems can be defined. On the gripping hand, that's a full-time task taking a lot of work for someone.

E.g. every skill can probably be defined for all systems with something like the following parameters

Base chance: fixed value, formula or 0% (i.e. professional skills for the latter)

Category modifier: formula or null.

Category modifier skill set: list of skills affected by category modifier for a given system.

a current skill value consists of base chance + increases + category modifier + system specific adjustments* + if base value is 0% then value is 0% unless increase is >0

*E.g. CoC: skill cannot exceed 100%, RQ2 skill cannot exceed 100% unless Rune Lord

It certainly feels as though it ought to be do-able but it probably would need significant funding to achieve and then host.

Hmm, looks like this thread has been seriously usurped! I've done something similar on a smaller scale here for Aces High and here for RQ III. Neither of these were written for flexibility though... oh yes, and I've been working on this for RQ III too.

Thanks for the nice words.

This is 'skoll's idea and creation (thedesignmechanism forum's) - in addition there are two of us creating content so there are three active Gamesmasters creating content. Currently the generation follows RQ6 rules as we have tried to make the tool as useful as possible for GM's of a single rulesystem instead of trying to be a little bit of everything to everybody and not really good at anything. That said - we have on the backlog a generation possibility for other systems as well but it is not yet very high on the roadmap. There are so many things that we need to have that expanding to other systems has not been high on priority.

There are still so many things this can be useful for without going into nitty gritty of generation rules of every variation of d100 etc. There are many many features on the backlog we would like to do.

One of the things closer at hand is support for more settings - currently we have Generic Fantasy, Glorantha and Monster Island. In the future there could be more.

It is really easy to create a template for your own purposes - just clone an existing template or create something from a ready made race. Add weapons, spells, fighting styles, skills to your heart's content. Use that again as a template for your next creation. Say you want a Cimmerian - create a template for a Cimmerian human with base set of skills, spells, weapons etc. Use that as a template for creating Cimmerian Priest of Crom, Cimmerian Warrior, Cimmerian Lord etc. If your campaign does not use Stealth but has several skills instead of it - unmark stealth and create custom skills for hide in shadows, Move Silently etc for your base template. Races currently are only hitloc holders but a little bit more. In case the system generates stats that you do not need - disregard those.

So in near future we are likely to have a way to state that a template belongs to a certain setting or perhaps multiple settings. So you could likely have a setting Cimmerian and add your templates there. Create a party of Cimmerian Raiders with a leader, sorceror and a few mindless brutes... and so on. But before that - you could use the "general fantasy" setting to create your own content.

The system is very flexible and it is developing very fast both in features and content - it is also dependent on active GM's for crowdsourcing the content and ideas for cool features.

Cheers,

--hannu

And the standard 'advertisement' here:

RQ Encounter Generator (for RQ6) (the creation of skoll (at thedesignmechanism forums) has grown lately to have quite a bit of new features and content. Content is crowd sourced. So for the hard working GM's there is now an easy way to generate many types of enemies. You need a herd of allosaurs - click, select number press generate and unleash doom. The characters finished them off - need a bigger reserve herd - click a number and generate again. Other beasts got attracted to the noise - perhaps a tyrannosaur - click a number and generate again.

Endless supply of Lunar more what you need - pick from the list - generate again. In units nicely formed of up to 40 individuals - they will march to restore peace and order in the name of the Moon again.

Town guards noticed your character's getaway from the second story job - click a number and generate.

Serpent People to fill your jungle with silent death - select from the list.

A number of templates have already been created for Gloranthan, Monster Island, General Fantasy settings by the users of the system.

Need a new kind of enemy - use the templates from existing races and templates, modify to your heart's content and create away. http://ouropa.planeetta.com/rq_tools.../instructions/

Need new feature that does not exist - there is a discussion thread at the Design Mechanism forum to discuss new features.

RQ Encounters has a new version out:

Main new features:

1. You can create and save a party of enemies encountered together. For example "Dragonewts on a Warpath: 2d3 dragonewt scouts, 4 dragonewt beaked warriors - skilled, 1 dragonewt beaked warrior elite, 5 demibirds". Party can have notes as well.

2. PDF export of the generated results

3. Filter the enemies by "All/Glorantha/Monster Island/General fantasy".

4. Generate button to all the template pages.

5. Improvements in printing

Content has also grown quite a bit. Currently there are 350+ enemy templates including 60 group templates for available and you can easily create more from scratch or from existing ones. Over 120 creature types/races are represented. 

new version and some new features

Able to generate

- Spirits

- Shamans & Thanatari with priest and acolyte templates

Many parties can be generated

- Quiet Night at Gimpy's

- Bar at a port city

- Raiding parties for all major tribes in Prax

- Lunar parties for cities and outside cities

- Sartarite parties

- Morokanth Slavers

- ship crews

- caravans

- create your own

- Broos, lots of broos and Broo shamans

.etc

Many Monster Island parties and enemies added

- Primitive islander hunting and war parties

- Primitive islander village scenes day and night

- Serpent People parties - in the jungle and in the air

The tool is under constant development - random encounters for a region is on the backlog - might come in later.

RQ Encounter Generator (for RQ6) (the creation of skoll at thedesignmechanism forum) has grown lately to have quite a bit of new features and content. Content is crowd sourced. So for the hard working GM's there is now an easy way to generate many types of enemies. You need a herd of allosaurs - click, select number press generate and unleash doom. The characters finished them off - need a bigger reserve herd - click a number and generate again. Other beasts got attracted to the noise - perhaps a tyrannosaur - click a number and generate again.

Endless supply of Lunar more what you need - pick from the list - generate again. In units nicely formed of up to 40 individuals - they will march to restore peace and order in the name of the Moon again.

Town guards noticed your character's getaway from the second story job - click a number and generate.

Serpent People to fill your jungle with silent death - select from the list.

A number of templates have already been created for Gloranthan, Monster Island, General Fantasy settings by the users of the system.

Need a new kind of enemy - use the templates from existing races and templates, modify to your heart's content and create away. http://ouropa.planeetta.com/rq_tools.../instructions/

Need new feature that does not exist - there is a discussion thread at the Design Mechanism forum to discuss new features.

RQ Encounters in a recent version

Main new features:

1. You can create and save a party of enemies encountered together. For example "Dragonewts on a Warpath: 2d3 dragonewt scouts, 4 dragonewt beaked warriors - skilled, 1 dragonewt beaked warrior elite, 5 demibirds". Party can have notes as well.

2. PDF export of the generated results

3. Filter the enemies by "All/Glorantha/Monster Island/General fantasy".

4. Generate button to all the template pages.

5. Improvements in printing

Content has also grown quite a bit. Currently there are over 350 enemy templates including 60 group templates for available and you can easily create more from scratch or from existing ones. There are now parties and enemies both for Glorantha, Monster Island and Generic Fantasy. Most of them fit for Glorantha but can be used also outside.

new version and some new features

Able to generate

- Spirits

- Shamans & Thanatari with priest and acolyte templates

Many parties can be generated

- Quiet Night at Gimpy's

- Bar at a port city

- Raiding parties for all major tribes in Prax

- Lunar parties for cities and outside cities

- Sartarite parties

- Morokanth Slavers

- ship crews

- caravans

- create your own

- broos, lots of broos and their Shamans

.etc

Many Monster Island parties and enemies added

- Primitive islander hunting and war parties

- Primitive islander village scenes day and night

- Serpent People parties - in the jungle and in the air

The tool is under constant development - random encounters for a region is on the backlog - might come in later.

Howdy all,

I was pointed here from http://designmechanism.freeforums.org/rq-encounter-generator-rq6-stats-for-enemies-t268-20.html (thanks for the heads-up, Jason).

When I started developing this tool, I did have the ambitious idea of supporting all/most D100 systems. Quite fast I realized that to begin with, it's easier to support just RQ6 and MRQII/Legend. Eventually I decided to concentrate on RQ6, as even a second system would have introduced a lot of complexity. Nonetheless, the idea of widening the range of supported systems is something that has been on my mind.

There are two possible approaches.

1. The easy way would be to keep the systems separated. In other words you would need to enter the specifications for each NPC/monster type separately. This would be easy to implement (shouldn't take more than a day or two per system), but it would require a significantly bigger effort from the community to enter all the NPC specifications/templates.

2. The more ambitious way would be to build some kind of conversion from one system to another. So if somebody has already entered a dwarf musketeer template for OpenQuest, but could use it with Legend, RQ6, whatnot. This approach would be far from trivial, but I am intrigued with the possibility.

3. A mixture of the above, where some systems share the template pool (e.g. RQ6 and Legend), and some have their own.

Realistically speaking (I'm currently the only developer on this, and my time is limited), I could implement a decent support for Legend easily enough (and I have been wanting to do that for a while already). I know Legend well as we used it before RQ6 and the differences to RQ6 are quite small. Anything else would require more work. I'm not too familiar with any of the other D100 systems and I know that some systems differ more. For example if the stats used are different, the approach #2 above won't likely be feasible.

But, if there's support from the community, I'd be happy to turn the Encounter Generator into a generic D100 tool. Hosting has not been an issue so far, but basically I have nothing against moving the hosting someplace more suitable.

So, if there is interest, to get started we would need to

1. Identify the first one or two systems to support

2. Figure out if it's possible to come up with a simple translation formula we could use to convert the (currently) RQ6 based templates into the new system.

3. See where we get from there...

The development backlog is visible at: https://trello.com/b/qtZ31uxJ/rq-enemy-generator

In case there are other developers here, the backend runs on Python/Django. The source is available at https://github.com/skoll69/RQ6-Enemy-Generator. If you feel like contributing, please contact me by email.

<duplicate post>

Uh, quite interesting topic. Too bad I saw it only now.

First of all, the forum: moving to another software is not guaranteed to preserve the database, so it could be a bad move. Are we really really sure that there is no CSS magic that can make vbulletin readable on portable devices? At present, BRP central is readable on my 7" tablet, and many smartphones are not much smaller than that.

As for the RQ6 tool: I had already seen it and I like it a lot. It could be useful to have it for other D100 systems, too. Crowdsourcing further development could be an option, just make sure skoll has a "window" during which he can actually pause his regular job and do the tool enhancement, otherwise it would take forever in any case to develop the new functionalities.

Technically, it is possible to create a "framework" for multiple rulesets that is rather expanded in such a way as to have common functionalities that you code once and use for all game systems, with parameterized values (for example the formula for damage modifier) and special functionalities that are specific to a ruleset. But I have never seen it done in an easy way in a scripting language, so I am quite unsure you can do it painlessly (i.e. without duplicating huge chunks of code) in Python.

There is now a tagging feature available. With this you have the support for multiple campaign settings. On your template add your setting as a tag for example one of the existing ones (Glorantha, fantasy, monster island) or create a new one "Cimmeria" or ""Steampunk" and tag all of your templates with that. if you would like existing templates to add the tag ask on thedesignmechanism forum or here...maybe the authors of templates will add the tag.

A note on crowd****ing.

Crowdsourcing in this context means, that the community participates in generating content for the tool - i.e. the NPC/monster specifications. This is already happening on the lead of hkokko and some other active members of RQ6 community.

Crowdfunding on the other hand, I find extremely unlikely to happen. The target audience for this tool is very small, as are the sums of money - I believe - people would be willing to pay, so it just doesn't add up.

Nonetheless, adding simple support for new systems is relatively easy and shouldn't take forever. (The implementation is already quite modular under the hood.) By simple support I mean, that the NPC templates entered in one system would not be usable in other systems, but all other features would be available for all systems. With just the current feature set the tool could be quite useful for many GM's.

It's the advance features (e.g. support for chaotic features, or randomly naming the generated NPC's), system specific rules (e.g. RQ6 mysticism) and special cases (e.g. spirits who can manifest physically) that will require more time. Exhausting that list probably would take forever, even if I would work on this fulltime. That again, most of these advanced features are not needed 95% of the time.