Commodore Free 33R1/Commodore_Free_Issue_33R1_2009_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/geos rpg i

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   Geos & Role Playing Games Part I
      Lord Ronin From Q-link
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I have a habit of threatening the
#acug <irc.newnet.net> IRCgroup with
this subject when they are quiet on
CyberSpace meeting nights. But in
truth, I though it has become a
running gab. This is a real topic,
one that combines my love of the
Commodore, Geos and Role Playing
games, being a creative way to make
things for both my users group and my
game group.

OK then I have been in Commodore
since 1993. Been in Geos since around
I997. I progressed to  Wheels a few
years later than that, and the same
for PostPrint, But I have been in
Role Playing Games [RPG] since March
11th I978. I was 28 at the time, and
it was a new thing to make the mind
work. Well open truth time, Role
Playing Games; specifically Advanced
Dungeons & Dragons got me off of
drugs, and I have been clean since
I978. So yeah it is an important
thing to me.

For those readers that have no idea
of a RPG, Sorry this isn't the place
to really explain the game concept;
Also it has changed since I started.
Let's leave it as a form of mental
theatre, where the player takes is
puppet alter ego avatar and other
words for his Player Character PC).
Which he enters into a confused high
risk situation to attain some goal,
Besides staying alive to continue
along to the next adventure. In short
this is a from of mental theatre. A
game of "lets pretend" with guide
lines. Call that very vague, because
since the original game was released
in January 1974. thousands of this
style of game have been released.
Each with different guidelines and
ways to create the PC. Rant for a
moment. Not gamers making games for
gamers anymore. RPG is a multi
million plus dollar international
business, started on a kitchen table
in Lake Geneva Wise.

Let's leave that part for now. We are
Commodore users and this should
explain how Commodore hardware and
software is used to create the games.
Well this bit is on the use of Geos
for game things. But I do want to say
that the Commodore was used to make
computer RPGs, as well as tools to
use for the RPGS. I saved as many of
these as I could in the last days of
Q- Link. Dice rollers, data bases of
items to be found in different games.
Tools to create items as well as PCs,
and a mess of AD&D PC sheets to be
printed out. One example to present
is for the 40c mode on the 128. DMs
mnemonic enhancer is the name
probably spelled wrong. This 128 tool
will keep track of all the
characters, the time the torch will
burn, random rolls for monsters
appearing, the experience points for
the characters and more, for the DM
in an AD&D game. IMNSHO takes too
much away from the DM and the
players, But that is my opinion.

The elements of a RPG that deal with
the Commodore, when creating anything

Well that is simple to say at the
start; you need to write a story and
make the maps for the game that you
are playing. I say that means some
sort of word processor and some sort
of drawing programme. I started with
Word Writer 4 and FIexiDraw. Guy in
the international game group I was in
at the time, used an apple and there
where no maps EG).

Story is a plot line where things are
set with a lot of holes. These holes
are for the interaction of the
players with the environment of the
game. Each game is of course
different. I started 31 or so years
ago. Still like and use the original
style of writing up the text. Example
follows:

ROOM 34:
20x20
\door in the north and in the cast.
Cabinets line the walls, and there
are over a dozen desks in a cubicle
style in the room.
Party sees...

Well that is the simple thing. That
description would fit almost any RPG.
The writer puts in more descriptions
that the characters would see; and
then notes for that room, for the DM
the guy running the game. Things like
the loot, and or the clues and or the
opposition and the stats for all of
that is relevant to the specific game

Hey! Guess what man GeoWrite will do
that and you can code for an easy
scan of the information using
different fonts and different styles.
I do that in my adventures. I key
some of that to the map so I can take
a fast look to the map and then to
the text of that particular encounter
area, as no one likes the game to
slow down by having to look things up

Jumping now to the idea of a map,

Well a map is a thing that is created
to indicate the play area. Wow that
is a fancy way of saying it is a
maze, with things the players want to
encounter and things that they don't,
stuck around in the maze, really it's
just that. Be it a cavern, dungeon,
castle, office building, ruined city,
interior of a space ship. Halls and
rooms make the maze. Enter GeoPaint
for map making, now the average RPG
uses a scale of 1" squares. Nice for
a map board, inaccurate for actual
scale in the game, Too large to use
in GeoPaint. or even in store bought
graph paper. Well unless you are
getting larger than poster sized
sheets of graph paper. Yeah I did
that as well. Now I made a 1/4" grid
for my game work, members of my users
group have made different sized grids
and hexes. Which work for indoor and
outdoor maps for different games. In
making these, well it takes time. 40c
GeoPaint or 80c, doesn't matter, it
still takes time. Many hours and days
will be spent trying to make them. Oh
yeah if you do that, leave constraint
OFF. Smegs up the map, especially in
hexes. Squares are easy to do, though
it still takes time. I have used the
line tool to make the X & Y axis
lines on the squares. Gotten to the
point that on normal edit I can put
the pencil where I want and just use
the cursor keys without too many
errors.

Tell you that there is a set of map
squares that where on GEnie and I
think before that on Q-Link for
GeoPaint. They  used larger than 1/4"
squares but the documentation for it
was excellent. IIRC it is about 8
files in cvt.Dox in it, blank map
page and the rest is a sample of how
the pages can be used. What is great
is that the author shows how to make
a map that is larger than one sheet.
Going up and down, that is easy. Here
he shows how to go off the one map
top, bottom, left and right. Great
idea here to have some sort of
indicator on the map sheet to work
like a matrix, row X column 7 sort of
thing. See one of the things that
happens in a game is that the players
will move through the map, sure that
is obvious to all of us. However not
all gamers play on a big map board.
One of the players is called the
"mapper" his job is to keep track of
where the group has explored. Some
add things found and notes about the
encounter areas. But for this piece
the mapper is actually making a copy
of your game map during the course of
the game. So what I do is simply
print out a blank copy of my map
form. When the game starts I tell the
mapper the X & Y starting point and
then it is my job to make certain I
describe all the rooms and halls in
direction and in size. The team of
players can look at that map to
figure out what they have missed, or
where they are at the time, as games
of this nature can take many days to
play.

OK then, back to the map and now the
contents.

Remember that no matter the game it
is still a maze. In the past I spent
hours with a ruler, pencil, fine
point pen, coloured pens, graph paper
just to make a map for the game. A
lot of frustration because my art is
so bad we say I can't draw flics in
Atlanta Georgia on an August day.
Enter again Geos covered the idea of
making or finding a map sheet. Ah.
duplicate it for your work. Sounds
obvious, but I know one old pipe
smoking radical hippy that got ahead
of himself and smegged the master
copy of the file.

What to put on the map and how.

First part is difficult to answer. I
mean unless I go into a specific
game. Sure you need a legend for
yourself. Which way is North, or what
will be effective for North. Hard to
do that in a space ship that you
found floating out there in the
darkness. Your symbols for the things
on the map, as I think about that one
I need to explain that part; You can
make a barebones map. By that I mean
you have created the rooms and the
halls. Oh yeah you can make maps for
out doors as well. The trees, bushes,
hills are the walls, and the trail to
go through the area is the hall.

The other type of map that you can
make is more detailed; I have over 30
RPGs in my collection. Each one has
examples of maps; mostly to show
movement and data for combat. Taking
that Geo Write example above a 20x20
room is easy; You cover that many
squares depending on the scale of 1
square equals how many feet, in that
legend thing. Here I will rant a bit.
Walls in games arc not made by the
contractors that make motels, they
really have some thickness to them.
So on your map; make the walls as
thick as you see fits the
environment. I mean by that the walls
of the office building are thinner
than the walls found in say an
underground complex/cave. Here we can
use the brush tool and adjust the
size to make the walls as thick as
you want. If they are very thick, you
can use the fill tool. Oh wait a
moment; new thing to state. Ah I am
cheap, so I use the gray looking fill
pattern for walls. Not only does it
take less ink on a print out, but
after looking at it in the game for
hours, the map isn't as hard on the
eyes.

       CONTINUED IN PART II