NetRPG Server - ⌐1995 by Erich G Bratton - erich@kagi.com
Docs for Release 1.30
based on Chat 2.0.6 by Nathan Neulinger
with earlier version by Peter N Lewis
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This program is no longer free. It is now $10 shareware. Please use the enclosed Register program and register for your copy. If you register, I will listen to your pleas for new features... :-)
Also, major changes in the login procedure have been made. Read the MAJOR CHANGES files for details on the fun new stuff!
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Description of NetRPG:
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"Did you used to play Role Playing Games in the old days, but can't anymore because your fellow gamers have moved off to jobs or grad schools in other cities? Well, you're in luck! You can still play RPG's (especially D&D, copyright by TSR) with NetRPG!"
NetRPG is an expansion on Chat 2.0.6, with many added features that make it suitable for playing RPG's over the internet.
First, in order to understand the basic chat features, which were done by Nathan Neulinger and Peter Lewis, read the Chat Documentation files. They will answer a lot of questions.
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Now, on to the features available in NetRPG:
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Different features are available to players and the DM. In order to distinguish between a person being either a player or the DM, this simple method is used: If your name is set to 'DM', then you're the DM! Since duplicate names are not allowed, this results in a simple security method against players using DM features.
General Note: all commands ignore capitalization. ie, /ATTACK = /attack = /AtTaCk, as well as /ATTACK ORC = /attack orc.
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Help Screens
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The following help screen is available by typing a single slash "/":
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NetRPG Online Help
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Type "/help <topic>" without the quotes, where <topic> is one of:
chat - general chat commands
rpg - general characters' commands
sheet - working with characters' character sheets
dm - commands for RPG Dungeon Master
admin - commands for running the NetRPG server
Topical help is available via "/help rpg", etc.
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Player features
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Dice rolling: "/roll 2d6+3" would roll 2 six sided dice, and add 3 to the result. The individual rolls are shown, as well as the total with any modifiers + or -. The abbreviation for this action is "/.4d8-2" (no space between the "/" and ".") .
Readying of weapons: players can type "/ready 3 17 1d12+1 holding a sword" in order to ready a sword that has a speed factor of 3, a THAC0 of 17, and that does 1d12+1 damage. This information is used in the "/who" list, when attacking, and in initiative rolls.
Bookeeping of Hit Points: players type "/set maxhp 56" to set their maximum (and current) HP's to 56, or whatever. Then, when a player takes damage, they type "/damage 12", which would drop their HP's to 44. Or, to heal, "/damage -12".
Bookeeping of Armor Classes: players type "/set ac -2" to set their AC's to -2. This is used for automatic attack resolution.
Bookeeping of Who's in the area: players can type "/who" at any time to bring up a list of the current players and monsters in the area. This list shows the individual their character's exact HP's, but gives an estimate of the would level of other players and monsters. If a person is logged in with the exact name 'DM', then they have DM privileges which gives them exact stats on every player and monster. Note: "/who" will show names longer than 10 characters, but the output gets less pretty.
Automatic Attack Resolution: If a player types "/a orc1" or "/attack orc1", NetRPG will look to see if there is a monster or player with the name "orc1". If there isn't, a generic attack roll is made (using the player's current thaco) and the DM can handle things manually. If orc1 exists, however, then NetRPG will automatically figure out if the attack hit, and if so, how much damage is done. Damage is automatically recorded. Once a player has attacked, the player's LastTarget variable is set to be whoever they attacked and is visible in /who. Then, if the player wants to auto-attack the LastTarget again, simply omit the target. ie: "/a orc" followed by "/a" would attack the monster named orc twice. Also, the player may set their target variable with "/target orc2".
NEW: Attack modifiers - "/a orc1 -2" should attack orc1 with a modifer of -2. (both positive and negative modifiers should work)
NEW: Online maps - players may access the map by typing "/map"
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DM features
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A helpful list of DM features is available in chat by typing "/help dm".
Adding/Deleting monsters: This may seem a little complicated at first, but you can remember the pattern after a while... But, it's also a lot easier to type up the adventure beforehand with both text descriptions and commands to add the monsters, as in the example later on in this file. The DM can type "/add orc1 3 17 2d6+1 32 -3 with a sword" to add orc1 to the monster list, with speed factor of 3, THAC0 of 17, a weapon which does 2d6+1 damage, 32 Hit Points, an AC of -3, and the phrase 'with a sword' which shows up in the '/who' list. (the reason orc1 is used, is that when you have several similar monsters, they must have unique names in order to identify them. ie, orc1, orc2, and orc3) Monsters can be deleted by typing "/delete orc1", or by typing "/clear" which removes all monsters.
Monster Damage: DM can type "/damage orc1 12" to do 12 damage to orc1.
Monster actions/speech: Just as players can say things and 'do' things with '/do', the DM can type "/do orc1 cocks his crossbow" in order to get "orc1 cocks his crossbow". Also, the DM can type "/say orc1 Stop or I'll shoot!" to get "orc1: Stop or I'll shoot!".
Changing of monster phrases: If a monster moves to a new location, or switches weapons, and the DM wants to inform the players of such, "/phrase orc with a sword" or "/p orc2 by the stairs".
Initiative bookeeping: DM can type "/init" to start a new round of initiatives. Initiative rolls (d10) are rolled for every player and monster, with each player's and monster's speed factor added in to their respective roll. The DM is shown a list of all the initiatives, while each player is shown only theirs. Then, the lowest initiative player or monster is announced to everyone. Once the player/monster has gone, either the DM or the current player types "/next" and the next initiative is announced, until the round is over, when it is announced that there are no further initiatives, and the DM can type "/init" again. (NOTE: There is a limit of 100 players + monsters in the initiative list. So I didn't want to bubble sort a linked list and just did an array. Nyah! :-) )
The best way to get used to all these options is just to crank up the server and play around with it. Check out the differences between DM commands and results, and regular player commands and results.
Automatic Attack Resolution: The DM may type "/a orc1 annoying_dog" in order to have monsters attack one another, or "/a orc1 Blade" to have a monster attack a player. Just like with players, once a monster has attacked, its LastTarget variable is set and is visible in /who. Then, to auto-attack the LastTarget, simply omit the monster's target. ie: "/a orc lupus" followed by "/a orc" would attack lupus twice.
NEW - Quick Attack. If during an initiative round, the DM types just "/a", the current initiative monster will attack its last target. This feature greatly speeds up the game.
Fudging of attack rolls: Just like in real RPG gaming sessions, it is sometimes necessary for the DM to fudge some die rolls behind the screen, in order to keep the adventure moving in the right direction. NetRPG has "fudge modifiers" to do this, which affect the next use of "/attack" by _anyone_. The DM can set up both a "to hit" mod and a "damage" mod with "/fudge". The options available are :
for "to hit" modifiers: H, M, C, F - which stand for Hit, Miss, Critical hit, and Fumble.
for "damage" modifiers: DH, DL - which stand for DamageHigh, and DamageLow.
H - causes an automatic, but random looking hit
M - causes an automatic, but random looking miss
C - causes a critical hit (a 20) to be rolled
F - causes a fumble (a 1) to be rolled
DH - causes the damage rolled to be at least half of the max damage
DL - causes the damage rolled to be at most half of the max damage
NOTE: if the DM wants both a hit modifier and a damage modifier active at the same time, the hit mod must be set first, and then the damage mod. To remove fudge mods, type nonsense like "/f blah".
Example: The party is on its last legs, and the demon is almost dead. Dirk the thief comes up from behind to make a backstab, and the DM feels it should be a good one, and therefore types "/f c" and then "/f dh". This will force an automatic critical hit, and damage that is at least 1/2 of the maximum. Dirk's attack consumes the fudge factors, so any further attacks are normal.
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DM privileges, notes, and comments:
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1) DM gets a copy of ALL whispers.
2) DM can do bookeeping with:
a) /add, /delete to keep track of monsters
b) /damage to keep track of monster damage
c) /init to start up the initiative rolls
d) /next at any time to move on to the next player or monster (if a player has stepped away for a moment, for example)
3) DM sees all stats in '/who', as mentioned above.
4) DM gets a message when any player types /damage.
5) DM gets a message when any player types /set maxhp
6) DM can do a '/who <name>' on anybody, while players can only look at people who are logged in.
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EXAMPLES!
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In order to make gameplay faster, the DM usually types in entries for various encounter locations througout the adventure. Then, when the characters get there, the DM simply copies a section from an open text editor in the background and pastes it into whatever terminal program they have connected to NetRPG. Here's a sample from a typical adventure:
/CLEAR
/ADD ogre 3 16 3d6 34 3 with a big club
/ADD orc1 5 18 1d12+2 20 2 with a bloody longsword
/ADD orc2 5 18 1d8 20 4 aiming a bow at you
You enter the corridor and are faced by a huge humanoid figure flanked
by two orcs. They advance toward you...
/SAY ogre Who dares enter my cave?
/DO orc2 pulls back on his bow
The DM would copy the above 8 lines and paste them into NetRPG. The result would be that the 3 monsters would be recorded in the monster list, the players would see a description of the area, and then they would get the SAY and DO commands. If the players were to type "/who", they would be able to see more accurate descriptions of the monsters.
In order to make the players' lives easier, it helps to use a fun program like Muddweller (by Olivier Maquelin, available on info-mac and umich) or TinyTalk (don't know the author names offhand) which both allow macros. Muddweller runs on Macs, and TinyTalk is a curses based client that runs on UN*X. With either, you can set up nifty macros for readying weapons. Example:
The commands we want:
/READY 3 14 2d4+3 glowing morning star
/SET ac 3
/DO puts away his shield and readies his two handed monster masher
In Muddweller specifically, the macro would be:
send /READY 3 14 2d4+3 glowing morning star\n
send /SET ac 3\n
send /DO puts away his shield and readies his two handed monster masher\n
In TinyTalk, the macro would be (all on a single line):
/def ready_mace=/READY 3 14 2d4+3 glowing morning star%;/SET ac 3%;/DO puts away his shield and readies his two handed monster masher
Another note on tinytalk: Since tinytalk accepts commands preceded with slashes, just like NetRPG does, it requires you to put an extra slash in there if you want to send the slash to the server. (ie, "//who" instead of just "/who") To solve this problem, it is helpful to have a ".tinytalk" file in your home directory with macros like : "/def who=/who" along with your weapons macros, so that you can then type just "/who".
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Stuff in the preferences file
(NEW:These options no longer set in the resource fork)
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The NetRPG Prefences file gets created in the Prefences folder of the system folder of the boot volume, inside the NetRPG folder. Open it up with a text editor, and you'll find something like:
DontAllowPasswords: FALSE
DontAllowLogins: FALSE
DontAllowWhispers: FALSE
DontAllowYells: FALSE
PortNumber: 1420
NumberOfTicksToOtherApps: 0
NumberOfTotalConnectionsMade: 33
NumberOfTotalLinesSent: 379
AdministratorPassword: admin
The first four options are explained in the Chat documentation.
The port number is set to 1420 by default, but you can change it to 23 if you want people to be able to connect by just typing "telnet mymac.cs.uiuc.edu" instead of "telnet mymac.cs.uiuc.edu 1420"
The NumberOfTicksToOtherApps controls the relative speed of the server. It should run fine with a setting of 2. For more explanation, read the Ticks Explanation below.
The next 2 items are used to keep track of usage of the NetRPG server.
The Administrator password is the password used to do admin commands.
A note on logging: The default for NetRPG is to NOT store a log for channel 1, which is the normal channel my group uses for playing. If you want to keep a record of events/typing on channel 1, set a file name in the "log names" in the STR# rsrc.
The reason there is no default log is that Muddweller and other programs have their own logging facilities. See the chat documentation for further details.
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Ticks Explanation
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There are times during large games of NetRPG, with several players and monsters, where things start to get bogged down. Weird things happen like other players see what you type as soon as you type it, but it doesn't echo back to you for half a minute or so.
This happens due to MacTCP having fits. There isn't much you can do except wait it out, or abort your current connection in Muddweller and then open it again. This usually solves the problem.
Also, you _can_ affect how fast the NetRPG server processes data.
The Chat program was originally designed to be a background friendly, light load application. To this end, it allowed 15 60th's of a second to be passed on to other running processes via WaitNextEvent. (if you don't understand this, that's okay) Anyways, in order to make NetRPG run faster, you can configure the # of ticks (60th's of a second) that are passed to other processes after every loop of NetRPG. You can see what happens during each "loop" in NetRPG with high traffic: everybody gets about 12 lines of stuff, then there is a pause, then another 12 lines of stuff.
So, to change to # of ticks passed on, open up the NetRPG Preferences File (it gets created in the System folder of the boot volume, in a NetRPG Folder) using BBEdit or some other text editor.
I don't recommend setting the total ticks to be 0.
Personally, when running NetRPG on a Quadra 610 over PPP, I have the ticks to be the default of 2, and things seem to be fine.
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Please send me any suggestions you might have for NetRPG at erich@kagi.com.
Or, send me a postcard at:
Erich G Bratton
1003 W Clark #2
Urbana, IL 61801.
(this address good from August 15, 1994 - August 14, 1995. The joy of leases...)
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Legalese
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As quoted from Peter Lewis about Chat 1.1.0:
Chat 1.1.0 ⌐ Peter N Lewis, Mar 1992.
This program is free, but I retain the copyright on it.
As quoted from Nathan Neulinger about Chat 2.0.4:
This software is shareware - if you want to distribute it on any commercial
medium (information services, CD, etc.) contact me first - I would appreciate
a sample copy of the CD for example.
As quoted from me, Erich Bratton, about NetRPG:
The NetRPG extensions are Copyright Erich G Bratton,1994-1995. For distribution
privileges, contact me at the above address.
This program is $10 shareware, collected through Kee Nethery's KAGI company. If
you are a shareware programmer, contact kee@kagi.com for details on using the
service.
Nathan and Peter - Thank you both for your work on this program!
