Setting up a character for Maptools

= Setting up in Maptools =
NOTE: This guide assumes you are tracking your character in GCA, or someone else is.
There are two versions of this guide. The "Quick" version is for people who do not need/want little macros for all their skill rolls, HP tracking, and whatever. Type in what you're doing, track with pencil and paper or a Word document, or whatever. The "Macroy" version is for people who DO want little macros for all their skill rolls, HP tracking, and whatever.
== Quick Guide ==
It looks like a lot of steps but I like to break stuff up into little nibbles. They're all pretty simple.
Log in to Google Groups and download the Maptools Macro export sheet for GCA here: http://groups.google.com/group/westmarchsaga/web/maptools_macro.gce
Save the sheet in your My Documents\GURPS Character Assistant 4\Sheets\ folder.
Open your character in GCA, go to FILE -> Export.
In the drop down box, look for maptools_macro.gce and pick it.
Make sure to select "Plain Text" and hit OK (otherwise it will happily not make any files at all).
Pick a place to save it in the file popup and hit OK.
On Game Night, right click on your Mini in Maptools, and pick Impersonate.
Open up the text file you created with GCA, and select everything, then hit Control C to copy it.
Go back to Maptools, and hit Control V to paste it all into chat. Hit enter.
Play the game!
== Macroy Guide ==
<OL>
<LI>Follow steps 1-6 from the #Quick Guide.
<LI>Go to back to Google Groups and save http://groups.google.com/group/westmarchsaga/web/LIB_GURPSDieRoller.rptok and http://groups.google.com/group/westmarchsaga/web/GURPS_player_token_macros.mtmacset somewhere
<LI>Open MapTools. Maptools will automatically create a new Campaign for you.
<LI>Go to EDIT -> Campaign Properties. The first tab will look messed up - switch to another tab and back again to fix it. Known bug.
<LI>In the big box with some D&D stats in it, delete all the D&D stats, then paste in the following:
Strength (ST):10
*Basic Speed (SPD):6
*Dexterity (DX):10
*Health (HT):10
*Will (WI):10
Fear (Fear):10
*Perception (PE):10
Hearing (Hear):10
Vision (VIS):10
Demon Lore:3
Elder Lore:3
Faerie Lore:3
Heraldry:6
Naturalist:4
Occultism:5
Thaumotology:3
Undead Lore:3
IQ:10
*@HP:10
*@FP:10
*@ER:10
MaxHP:10
MaxFP:10
MaxER:10
SkillList
SkillLevels
SpellList
SpellLevels
SpellPoints
SpellMaint:0
Block1:0
Block2:0
Parry1:0
Parry2:0
Parry3:0
Parry4:0
CombatReflexes:0
CurrentDB:0
Encumbrance:0
WeaponMaster:0
<LI>Hit the UPDATE button (THIS IS CRITICAL - it Does NOT save when you hit OK)
<LI>Now that you've HIT THE UPDATE BUTTON, you can now hit OK :D
<LI>Drag-and-drop LIB_GURPSDieRoller.rptok onto Maptools. 
<LI>Now to activate the new dieroller you just installed: Click on the new orange ! token and in the Selected tab, click "onCampaignLoad" - it'll take care of itself after you save the campaign out and re-open it, but you should run it the first time. If you don't have the Selected tab, go to WINDOW and check Selected. There should be some buttons on it.
<LI>Now that you have a campaign with the properties and a die roller installed, I recommend saving a copy of it so you never have to do this again.
<LI>Drag-and-drop a picture to use for your character token into Maptools, and name the new token. Make sure to set the radio button to PC. Pick OK.Character token pictures are up on the Wiki unless you have one you like better - at which point put it up on the Wiki so we know who you are.
<LI>Click on your new character token and Right Click (control click for MAC users) in the Selected tab. Pick Import Macro Set, and import GURPS_player_token_macros.mtmacset from wherever you saved it.
<LI>Right click on your character token, and pick Impersonate. 
<LI>Open up the text file you created with GCA, and select everything, then hit Control C to copy it. 
<LI>Go back to Maptools, and hit Control V to paste it all into chat. Hit enter. 
<LI>Customize the attack and defence and damage macros as they're set up for Ted's Gargoyle at the moment - right click on the button and pick Edit - you can rename them using the button on the left, and edit text in the box below.
<LI>Now's a good time to save the campaign again :D
<LI>To get your token OUT again - right click on it and pick SAVE. You'll get an rptok file.
<LI>On Game Night, drag and drop the token into Marks game.
</ol>
= Using the Dice Roller =
The Maptools dice system is pretty simple. At the very basic end it's much like OpenRPG: you can do [3d6] to drop 3d6 (or whatever).
The GURPS roller library adds a couple of little functions to help GURPS players:
== Skill ==
The basic GURPS success test is called skill(), but you can also type sk() or just s() to be really short. Rolling against a skill or attribute of 12 looks like this:
 [skill(12)]
You can put text around this too:
 I swing my sword at him! [skill(12)]
It will spit out whether you succeeded or failed, and by how much. When you put your mouse cursor over the text, a little tooltip will pop up summarizing the modifiers, which dice rolled what, and how much you succeeded or failed by. 
If your skill roll has modifiers, you put in a comma, and then your modifiers, like so (example is a skill 15 with a -3 in penalties):
 I pick the hard lock [skill(15,-3)] -3 for that lock being hard
You can list modifiers individually too if you don't like figuring out the total:
 I pick the hard lock with my really good lockpicks [skill(15,-3+2)] -3 for the lock being hard, +2 for my really good lockpicks!
If for some reason your final skill level needs to be capped at a static value (14 for Fright Checks, 9 for Move and Attack, as a couple of examples) you can put that level in as the third value. Note that if there are no modifiers and you need a cap, that you should put a 0 in for your modifiers. Otherwise it'll read the cap as a bonus to your roll!
 I make a fright check! [skill(12,+5,14)] +5 for Fearless +5, capped at 14.
== Attacking ==
You can roll attacks with the skill() function because they are, fundementally, just skill checks. The attack function, however, adds in a feature to automatically Deceptive Attack if your skill is over 16 to bring your skill down to 16 or 17. This is just a handy thing to help because people keep forgetting it. Same features as skill().
Short versions are attk() or a(). Examples:
 [attack(25,-3)] or [attk(15,-2)] or [a(21,+2,9)]
== Rate-Of-Fire ==
To speed up handling of high rate of fire attacks, there is a helper macro called rof(). 
It is also useful for dodging against one (and other
very similar situations).
The function is used as follows: 
 [rof(skill, modifiers<, Recoil><, number of shots>)]
Skill and modifiers is as per the skill() macro, the other two arguments are optional.
If you don't provide a Recoil it assumes a Rcl of 1. If you provide Number of Shots, it will 
cap the reported number of hits to number of shots. If you don't, it won't cap anything.
For shooting, provide all the modifiers and rcl (and optionally number of shots)
and you get the number of hits the target needs to defend against.
Example: Gun Bunny is emptying 20 bullets out of a gun with RoF 20 with her Guns! skill of 17,
bonuses are +4 for acc, +4 for high RoF, and -5 for range, and this gun has a Rcl of 2. She'd use
 How about a nice order of BLAM? [rof(17,+4+4-5,2,20)]
If she rolls a 10, she gets a success by 10, for 6 hits.
For dodging, provide all the modifiers, Rcl is always 1, and you get the number
of hits you *successfully defended against*.
The feral vampire that Gun Bunny is shooting at has a dodge of 15 and flings
himself to the floor for +3. He'd use
 Yikes! I fling myself to the ground! [rof(15,+3,1,6)]
If he rolls a 6 he critically succeeds, by 12, which is capped to 6 hits instead of 13 because
that's all he needed to dodge against.
If you want to specify a cap, you have to specify Rcl.
There are no shorter forms of this, it's already quite short.
== Monster Hunters extendedritual() ==
This is another "Doing something that you could totally do by hand but takes time or is fiddly" macro. 
The function is used as follows: 
 [extendedritual(skill, modifiers<, EnergyGoal>)]
Like skill() and rof(), extendedritual() starts with the skill and modifiers is as per the skill() macro. EnergyGoal defaults to 1 if not provided - you probably need more than one Energy though. 
extendedritual() repeatedly attempts to gather energy for your ritual, as per the rules in Monster Hunters 1, and reports: 
* If you were successful or if you critically failed before finishing.
* How many attempts it took before succeeding (or critically failing)
* What your final energy total was.
* How many successes, critical success, or failures you encountered before succeeding (or critically failing.
This macro takes into account the accumulating penalties for repeated attempts.
If you have Luck or Destiny points or other ways to reroll or cancel out the critical failure, you can pick up where you left off, aiming to collect the "left over" energy - but you'll have to calculate what your current skill penalty is and apply it manually.
Example: Amilastet creates a Lesser Restore Undead charm, starting with effective skill 12, and +5 from a Grimoire she picked up cheap because it was written in Hieratic shorthand. She needs 38 energy to pull off this stunt.
 Create Fixme Charm! [extendedritual(12,+5,38)]
The macro reports:
 « You pulled it off! You made 11 attempts to accumulate energy and you ended up with 40 energy. You took 10 successes to get it (including 0 Critical Successes) You failed 1 times while doing it. »
Short versions are exritual() or exrit(). Examples:
 [exritual(16,+4+1,180)] or [exrit(13,+4+2+1,75)]
Category:Westmarch Saga
Category:Saga of Westmarch