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Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Ualaa, Aug 1, 2017.

  1. Ualaa

    Ualaa Member

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    I have some questions, regarding d20Pro.

    We play (Pathfinder) face to face, although having the option for remote play if a player cannot physically make a session would be a nice bonus.
    Our group would likely continue to roll their own dice, and I would apply the effects to the digital version of the characters.

    I'm primarily interested in using d20Pro as:
    a) a visual representation (on a horizontal HDTV, set into our gaming table) of the battlemap/terrain and relative positioning of PCs/opponents
    b) a tactical console (current health, initiative order, potentially automate the attack sequences of NPCs/monsters... but likely have the players actions (at least initially) entirely determined by dice at the table)

    Is it possible to cycle through the PCs, on their respective turns, showing each what they can see via dynamic lighting, using a single HDTV?
    Would that be possible with a DM Client and a single Guest Client?
    Could I accomplish this via multiple guests log-ins (one per PC) each set to use the HDTV as the display, and then to just click the tab for that respective PC, to bring their client to the foreground?

    Is there a better way to do that?



    Our group builds characters in Hero Lab, so we would likely continue to do so and export from HL to import into d20Pro. We're using all the base Paizo content, but also Ultimate Psionics & Path of War (Dreamscarred Press) and Spheres of Power (plus Spheres of Might, once it releases) (Drop Dead Studios). We can build the characters fine in HL, and would like to export them for use in d20Pro.

    At a basic level, even if the class did not exist within d20Pro, if the AC (touch and flat-footed too) and hit points imported and I could configure a variety of attacks (base attack or Path of War discipline options such as Standard action, two attacks vs flat-footed AC), that would work nicely.

    Ideally, if the class could be built (or bought on the Content Market), so when HL exports a level 7 Stalker with so many maneuvers/stances, d20Pro has the various possible maneuvers (attacks, counters, boosts) built in (even if I gradually add them over time) as predefined attack options.



    Also, how easy would it be to roll a random encounter (during live play) on a level of the dungeon, get a result which was unknown at the session preparation stage, and import that creature from the HL export?
    I've already got all of the monster types available, within Hero Lab.

    On the fly, I'd essentially only need relative size/reach, AC/Hit Points, and Attacks to import; I could show the players the image of the monster through Realm Works, on a side monitor.



    Our group uses 'Spheres of Power' as the magic system. We have the hero lab files for the assorted classes and archetypes for everything released to date.
    Spheres is basically a modular magic system, not based on Vancian concepts. There are 20 spheres, which are like magical schools except that they're types of things that can be done such as Destruction (Evocation-like effects), Life (Healing), and Warp (Teleportation).
    Either you have a talent (within a Sphere), or you don't; adding additional talents both expands what you can do and modifies what you can already do... the system is modular, so Warp my initially allow a Teleport effect with a talent allowing for multiple targets, another for hostile targets, another for affecting targets at range etc.. so a given cast may use 'x' of the available 'y' warp talents.

    At a basic level, if I can configure Point-Blank AoE, Bursts at range, Cones, Rays, Lines, etc, of various sizes for the AoE effects to determine who is affected, and then apply the effects manually (healed for this amount, hurt for that amount), that would work well.

    Eventually, I'd like to add the assorted talents, which usually scale the area and damage based on caster level (some classes are full caster, ala full BAB, others are 3/4 and others are 1/2), so a given character can select the talent such as Destruction's Blast Shape: Orb (almost Fireball) and have the blast radius sized according to their caster level (or, if need be, have multiple versions named 5 ft. radius through 40 ft. radius) and the damage based on the class (some get bonuses) and caster level (even if I manually enter the rolled damage, that works too).
     
  2. KainPen

    KainPen Member

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    I run my game the same as you at my table on single TV. for the players and another for GM and they roll dice at the table.
    Currently it is not possible to show each characters own vision automatically with out seeing others that the player own, single pc. You would have to setup several player sessions and different login for each player and toggle between them on the same screen, if you wanted to separated out each players vision, currently. I would not recommend doing this, as you may get lots of lag. you can use several pc, but then you are going to have to constatly toggle between the pc on the monitor/TV. It will get very annoying very quickly. I am not sure if d20pro crew plan on changing it. I hope they do. I made the suggest in the past that any non-public lighting is tied to character in initiative mode only show up on their turn.

    There are a few other thing you can do currently to emulate this effect for accuracy, but it takes work on GM side and will slow down game as you play. You can quickly toggle a creatures light sources by right clicking the creature going to each ones light source and turning off visibility, you can also do this from the lighting menu. easiest way to do more then 1 creature, I think. you have to re-broad cast the game after doing this so it updates on the players side.

    The other thing I can think of you can do, is to tell your players not to meta game. Each character does has a their own ring of vision. The program does have the ability to change colors and how transparent the board ring is, you can even change the light colors, to give fading effect to determine brightness and adjust transparency of the color of inner ring. You have to be careful with that you could end up over coloring your map and not actually be able to see anything. You can assign a color to each player. Then each player will know exactly how far they can see. I recommend doing solid color on outer boarder only. Keep everything else to default the program provides. I have one player walking around with a magic lantern that put out massive amount of green light = to daylight spell. I thought it was cool at 1st, when i did the fading effect. But now I am finding it annoying now as huge chucks of map are faded green, and hard to see creatures and other lighting effects, even on gm side. This will take you time on the back and not slow down your game. This is the easiest, cheapest and less disruptive solution for actual game play.

    The D20pro crew can answer you better on porting from hero labs stuff. This may not even be necessary if you are rolling dice at table. If you want to use the program automated features, on GM side, for NPC, Monsters, ect. All you need from your players is initiative, hp, AC, Dex,Con, CMD and CMD Flat. You can damage targets by just pressing D on your keyboard and heal by pressing H. There is no need to worry about any other effects tracking. for Spells or abilities you can change save pass or fails, by clicking on the characters, in the save box when it effect comes back with results on gm side before confirming. This when you have your players roll their saves, them selves. Programming all the players stuff is just going to eat up a lot of time for you on back end. As game play time as the players will still have to be still be submitting all the players stuff if you are going to track everything. This is how I run my game now with the program.

    I used to do all the ability tracking and stuff, in the program also, but it is very time consuming on the back end. Especially when hero's labs does an update and the import function breaks, or if there is a d20pro update, and the import messes up. Or if hero's labs imports stuff wrong, or if hero's labs does a lot stuff wrong on pathfinder rule set anyway before the import. I had that happen a lot in the past. I end up basically build the character from scratch in d20pro any way. This happen a lot in the combat window, with two handed attacks or off hand attacks. they all have to be corrected, other wise power attack does not work correctly, automated. Huge time saver has been d20pro adding the ability for the players to edit their own characters. If one my my players is going to miss a game and playing remotely. Open up d20pro session and let them edit their own stuff, add their own attacks, the way they want them, few hours before the game or when ever they have the free time. Even for the remote players if they are still rolling their own dice, there is no need for them to even update anything else on their character.

    you don't even need to worry about class or level, unless you want to keep track of players spells per day. Which I do, i also like keeping track of the duration, but that stuff can be setup on the fly as the spell is being cast. If you want to add new class you can add them to txt. file, same for skills. I used unchain consolidated skill, so for I adjust the skill.txt to reflect those skill options. I don't think hero labs added news class,skill to those txt files, when importing.

    If you don't plan on using automation at all or, rolling GM dice also, basicly use the program as HUD. All you need to is input HP, initiative, Con for each character. you can pull up the SRD or PFSRD from inside of d20pro and get your creature stats from there while in play. Create a creature icon and adjust it size for spacing and set it's HP and con and initiative, and it is good to go on the fly add a picture of to the token of the creature and save it to your library for later use. the more of them you to library, the more time it will save you later for those on the fly encounters.I honestly really love all the automation in d20pro, I think it saves a ton of time in the long run, but my players want to roll their own dice, and it becomes a huge waste of time on the back-end if they are not going to use the automation, to program in a lot of the stuff. I would recommend buying the creature pack from market place. if you want to use system as just a HUD or use automation. I got this content from previous kick-starter they did. It give you large number of creatures you don't have to program at all with a image.
     
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  3. Wesley Gorby

    Wesley Gorby Production/Community Manager
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    Kain did a pretty good job there, so I won't repeat that. But yeah, D20PRO can do exactly what you are asking whether that be with a large TV and a Laptop or via lots of players in different locations each with their own PCs.

    There are some videos here on youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/d20pro of D20PRO in action.

    Likewise, there are some good bits of on features here http://d20pro.com/features/
     
  4. Wesley Gorby

    Wesley Gorby Production/Community Manager
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    D20PRO does support HL importing, though bear in mind there is usually lag in functionality when we do a Release, it can take a little bit to bring our HL importer up to speed depending on what changes where made to the software. On the other side of that, if HL makes large changes to how it operates, it can take a little time for us to adjust things accordingly. It's never straight forward trying to get 2 applications written by dif companies, in dif languages to get along :)
     
  5. Wesley Gorby

    Wesley Gorby Production/Community Manager
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    This is all easily done via our template system.

    upload_2017-8-1_14-25-30.png
     
  6. Wesley Gorby

    Wesley Gorby Production/Community Manager
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    You would just drag and drop the creature(s) from the Library onto the map for something as you describe. or if you know slightly ahead of time, you pre position them at the location and conceal them from the players via FOW.
     

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