Current Basic Fantasy Game

Here's how we currently are using Maptool to play our Basic Fantasy games. Like any software, Maptool continues to evolve, as does my macro framework for playing the game. Having said that, the macros we use have remained pretty stable over the past year or so. If you're not yet sold on using a VTT for gaming, hopefully this post will peak your interest.


Hovering a mouse over a token reveals the most relevant stats for a character. You can customize this summary in whatever way you wish for your game. I've tried to arrange this info into the most compact and sensible way possible. 

If you're a gamer, many if not most of these abbreviations are obvious. I've coded the framework so that a lot of the info can be referenced automatically instead of needing to be manually input. The BAB is a great example. Base Attack Bonus is derived from Hit Dice (HD or level) and from the character class. My framework can calculate the BAB on the fly for display.

I should also note that we use Dungeon Grappling from Douglas Cole. Several of these items are stats from his optional ruleset, which themselves are derived from other attributes. Again, I don't have to enter a GrplCM (Grapple Control Max); my framework calculates it. 

One feature I was really excited to implement is Encumbrance. Encumbrance is a wonderful constraint for players, a great game balancer, but a royal pain in the ass to track. I use another tool I built in Excel to track PCs' inventory and I've got a VBA macro that will output this inventory to a JSON string to my Windows clipboard. Then, switching to Maptool, I can click a button, paste the string into an input box, and the PCs carried weight and movement will be recalculated. You'll note in the above image our poor dwarf is 'HL' or Heavily Loaded, given that he's lugging around over 100 pounds of stuff.

When my players stumble upon that rare treasure hoard, they can click another button to find out how much loot they can carry. 




They can also click another button to view their current inventory. I need to get this to output to an HTML form instead of using the basic input controls in Maptool, but this will suffice for now:



Yeah, it looks cruder than I'd like but it gets the job done. Overall, I love the fact that Encumbrance is enforced and that it takes so very little effort!

Next post, I'll show how I'm using Maptool to handle standard PC and NPC attacks, spells and Dungeon Grappling.



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