Tips

This Tips section is to help you get the best out of RPM.

Since RPM is a comprehensive RPG utility (incorporating a fully integrated database with scripting engine), rather than a game, there are many different and inventive ways you could use it. The purpose of this section is to regularly provide ideas that perhaps isn't too obvious.

• Quick and easy generation of fully fledged creatures/characters
• Adding and improving reports
• Importing maps from different sources
• Basic scripting - for the advanced user

This tip showcases the power of RPM  reasonable well, with a demonstration of how to generate a fully calculated set of creatures, using just a few mouse clicks and lines of text.

Although the integrated "Jamis Generator" screen is a great tool for generating creatures on-line, with full skill, feat, spell lists, you can also use it off-line for generating creatures very quickly, with the following steps:

• Press the "Clear" button to empty the edit window of the full example text.
• Enter the floowing example text:

Erik, elf (high) Ftr4/Wiz3 -------------------- Disp1, Displacer beast -------------------- Airy1, Air Elemental, elder Sor7

• Press the "Import" button.
• The creatures are automatically generated with the following short form statblocks:

Erik, male Elf(High) Ftr4,Wiz3: Size M; HD 4D10+3D4-14; hp 21; Init 1; Spd 30; AC 10; Dodge 1; Attack 5, SV Fort 3, Ref 3, Will 4;  Str 10(0), Dex 13(1), Con 8(-2), Int 11(0), Wis 11(0), Cha 11(0) Skills: Alchemy 1, Climb 1, Concentration 1, Craft 1, Handle Animal 1, Jump 1, Knowledge (arcana) 1, Knowledge (religion) 1, Knowledge (nature) 1, Profession 1, Ride 1, Scry 1, Spellcraft 1, Swim 1. Feats: Armor Proficiency (heavy), Armor Proficiency (light), Armor Proficiency (medium), Martial Weapon Proficiency, Shield Proficiency, Simple Weapon Proficiency. Class Features: Bonus Feats (Ftr), Weapon Specialization (Ftr), Bonus Languages (Wiz), Familiar (Wiz), School Specialization (Wiz), Scribe Scroll (Wiz), Spell Mastery (Wiz), Spellbooks (Wiz), Spells (Wiz). Racial Abilities: Elven Traits.

Disp1, male Displacer Beast : Size L; HD 6d10+18; hp 52; Init 2; Spd 40; AC 14; Dodge 3; Attack 6/1, SV Fort 8, Ref 7, Will 3;  Str 18(4), Dex 15(2), Con 16(3), Int 5(-3), Wis 12(1), Cha 8(-2) Feats: Alertness, Dodge. Racial Abilities: Displacement, Resistance to Ranged Attacks.

Airy1, male Air Elemental, Elder Sor7: Size H; HD 24d8+96  + 7D4+28; hp 220; Init 15; Spd 100; AC 16; Dodge 12; Attack 13/5, SV Fort 14, Ref 27, Will 13;  Str 22(6), Dex 33(11), Con 18(4), Int 6(-2), Wis 11(0), Cha 11(0) Skills: Alchemy 1, Concentration 1, Craft 1, Knowledge (arcana) 1, Profession 1, Scry 1, Spellcraft 1. Feats: Dodge, Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative, Mobility, Simple Weapon Proficiency. Class Features: Spells (Sor). Racial Abilities: Air Mastery, Whirlwind. Sor Spells (6/6/6/4)

You can place the Reports window into "Design Mode", to either modify existing reports, or to create your own new ones.
You need to understand HTML.
The reports are actually HTML templates, with special hooks into RPM. The hooks as simple field references, or scripting expressions contained within double square brackets. For example, a creature's name is displayed  using. "[[Name]]", wheras their abbreviated classes list would use "[[ClassDesc]]".

A special square bracket command allows you to repeat HTML code blocks, based on traversing a set of records.
For example, to list all the items for a creature (perhaps in a table), you use "[[:Start:CreatureItems]]", and "[[:End:CreatureItems]]". This will repeat any HTML code between these 2 commands, starting at the first item belonging to the current creature, and working through to the last.

With a comprehensive tutorial/manual for designing reports still a while off, your best bet is to look at the existing reports to see how they work.
Certainly the current reports are pretty "bare and ugly", which you can "pretty up" using only simple HTML knowledge.

Whilst RPM comes with it's own integrated tile mapper ( NWmap - by Jason Harris), you can import a bitmap (BMP) from almost any source.
The commonly used mapping programs used in the RPG community include:

• CC2 - Campaign Cartographer - which has a free viewer.
• AutoRealm - a free, open-source mapper.
• Dungeon Crafter - a free mapper.

The scripting language of choice is VBScript.

A detailed tutorial/manual of the integrated scripting engine is still a way off, but you can preview and play with the scripting capability.

The scripts that are compiled into RPM can be found in the "Database" tab of the "Configuration" window.
These can be modified, and new scripts added for customization.

The "CreatureFieldInit" script is the script used to initialise all variables, before applying the effects of the modifier calculation engine.

At the time of writing, I've left sample scripts in there which I used to configure the monster race table. The code in those scripts demonstrates how you can manipulate the database using the scripting environment.