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Gemini Ascendant Campaign


Nolgroth

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Re: Gemini Ascendant Campaign

 

Ok, I got the first character last night, and she looks great. Well thought out. with that I am starting a Dark Matter Rising thread over in the Dark Champions forum for this campaign. Please look there for inofrmation and posting questions.

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Re: Gemini Ascendant Campaign

 

Regarding the actual Gemini Ascendant campaign. As far as I am concerned, it is still very much a go. This work project will be done no later than December 1, so I should be ready to resume by then. If the MapTool experiment works out, I would like to switch to that. In building my macros for the DarK Matter campaign, I was impressed by the "Build a " macros that actually allow you to input the values for each skill or attack. Made the process very easy.

 

I do not want to step on Starwolf's toes. Whenever he feels he has reached a stopping point is good for me. I do not want to drop the Gemini Ascendant permanently until the story is finished.

 

Until next time.

 

 

-James

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Re: Gemini Ascendant Campaign

 

That sounds good to me.... maybe we can swap from story Arc to Story Arc. That a way I can have time work out the maps and character sheets for future events. I am guessing that if we play this week and next then break for one week for Thanksgiving, Then if you are ready, that would be good. This first story arc is kind of short and I expect one or two sesions at the most, the second one is, or can be somewhat longer.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Re: Gemini Ascendant Campaign

 

With that time nearing when I resume duty as GM, I have pondered the question of whether to switch to Map Tool or to stay with OpenRPG. I am going to solicit opinions from all of you based on the following Pros and Cons;

 

MapTool Pros

 

  • Easy to load maps and tokens from within the program.
  • Easy to load several maps and switch between them.
  • Easy to save campaign properties in a static state so that we can resume right were we left off.
  • Easy to manage token properties.
  • Because tokens each have their own properties, the information is decentralized. This can be both good and bad. See OpenRPG Cons below for what I am talking about.
  • Java.
  • MapTool is currently enthusiastically supported by both the developers and the fan base, which can only lead to one hell of a tricked out program.

MapTool Cons

  • No group whisper.
  • Some of the newer macros are somewhat confusing. We would all have to acquaint ourselves to a new standard of doing things. Alternately, we can return to the old style of macro, which I do not remember well. [11+-3d6]? How did CV work?
  • The constant state of development does lead to the temptation to upgrade to the newest version to try out the new goodies. We know where that can lead us.

 

*********

OpenRPG Pros

  • We already have established characters in a macro usable form.
  • We are used to it.
  • Information is easily accessed from a central game tree.
  • The alias tool is easier than the Impersonate command to use. At least for me it is.

 

OpenRPG Cons

 

  • Maps are a pain to load. Basic requirements are a web accessible site and a URL. Same with tokens. (Defense: Both can be saved to the game tree so once loaded its not too bad.)
  • The tools for the maps are not as comprehensive as in MapTool. One thing I noted this evening is that there is no designation for heading/facing that I could easily locate on the token properties in MapTool. Considering the migraine, I might just have missed it.
  • The centralized storage for game information (the game tree) has proven to be very delicate. For instance, there seems to be some unknown size limit. Also, it seems susceptable to dumping the whole game tree if you want to use separate trees for separate campaigns. Also, I have not thoroughly tested this part, but if I save a token that references my IP address and that IP address changes, the tree dumps.*
  • OpenRPG is not currently being developed or supported. There have been vague mumblings about somebody else taking over the development, but nothing solid has come of it. In the meantime, the last stable release is 1.7.5.

 

* Note that my tree once again died and this whole message is because no matter which program we decide upon, I have to rebuild everything from scratch. If OpenRPG was a little bit more reliable, then I wouldn't have even asked.

 

So, I think both programs have a lot going for them. Right now I am leaning towards MapTool, but I really need to sit down and take a look at how I would like to do Macros. I am not opposed to trying to continue with OpenRPG. Let me know what you think.

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Re: Gemini Ascendant Campaign

 

I like the MapTools interface quite a bit. I manage to grok the new macro system pretty nicely, though I haven't explored all the nuances yet.

 

the ORPG mass whisper and whisper tabs are a really big bonus though. But it's about as stable as a one legged elephant balanced on a pogo stick.

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Re: Gemini Ascendant Campaign

 

In MT you can set your tokens facing by right clicking and then select set facing. The option is at the top of the menu.

 

Brad finally cobbled together the macro tutorial videos. They show how to build you macros using his "builder" macros... which just tickles me, using macros to build macros :D Here are the links...

 

http://www.rptoolstutorials.net/random/genbuilders/genbuilders.html

 

http://www.rptoolstutorials.net/random/attackmacrosp/attackmacrosp.html

 

On the other hand, I too like the mass whisper and alias features in ORPG.

 

I am inclined to vote for MT but will go with the group...

 

Terrie prefers ORPG as she is more used to the interface.

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Re: Gemini Ascendant Campaign

 

MT Build 1.3b47 is out and has some major stability enhancements. They have tweaked it so that connected clients have a noticable speed increase. Campaign files going back to 1.3b42 are backwards compatible. One of the reviewers had a 32 mb map loaded with no glitches during a several hour game session. The new macro syntax has gained some great additional capabilities which allow macros to be nested (at least one level deep, but maybe more I am not sure). We can now do macro that can call other macros. And I am not 100% sure how thay work, but we can create macro lib files that hold macroized data, which can be called like complex variables. If this last one works like I think it works, we can build for example a skill lib file containing each hero skill and the base roll formula. On your token you would simply build a list which calls thr formula for a given skill and adds your character modifiers, then rolls and displays the results.

 

Brad is going to hold off on any further development of Hero macros until the final stable release for version1.3x, then he will rebuild everything using the latest and greatest for our macros. I have downloaded a Hero explosion macro. It works with our current mt version, I want to play with it then I'll ad it to the Hero base campaign file I am compiling. Once brad rebuilds the macrso for the final stable release, he is going to add a power builder macro in a similar vein as he did the skill builder, and the attack builder.

 

I think we should stay with 1.3b45 for the time being unless there is a compelling reason to upgrade, everything seems to be fairly stable and working OK.

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Re: Gemini Ascendant Campaign

 

I like the MapTools interface quite a bit. I manage to grok the new macro system pretty nicely, though I haven't explored all the nuances yet.

 

the ORPG mass whisper and whisper tabs are a really big bonus though. But it's about as stable as a one legged elephant balanced on a pogo stick.

 

So G-A you're saying you want to go with MT. Well thats ok with me now, as I was the one unable to hook up with MT. I'm a little unsure of how the new macro setup works. But will check out the tutorials and see if they can help me understand them better.

 

So Nol , I say lets which to MT for the Gemini .:thumbup:

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