Resting and Die Rolls

Here's what's new:

• Finished support for doing the REST activity. When you do resting, a window pops up and allows you move chits around and make change. Note that the window recognizes if you record multiple consecutive rests, and lets you work with them as a group, following the rules, of course!
  
• Mostly finished support for modified die rolls. The application recognizes characters with special abilities (ie., Woodsgirl rolls one die for SEARCH, MEETING, and HIDE in the Woods), and treasures which enhance (or hinder) your character (ie., Deft Gloves while Looting).
  

What's next? I'm thinking about putting in some code to handle Victory conditions. Though I've never been fond of this part of Magic Realm, I want to be faithful to the game in the first version of RealmSpeak. Plus, I thought it would be fun to have a live score in your character window as you move towards completing each of the conditions, much like TurboTax shows your refund/payment as you work on your return.

Lots of Progress

I think I may have come over the hump of this being a "wishful thinking" project, and moved into the plentiful valley of "playable game". Let me outline what the application can do now:

• Record all actions with phases applied appropriately (Recording Move actions now handle all rules of movement, including caves, mountains, hidden paths, and secret passages!)
  
• Once all players have finished recording, the game moves automatically into the game play stage: character turns are chosen at random (no Swordsman support yet) and each player, one at a time, is prompted to play out their recorded turn.
  
• Turn Play is fully functional, and works for move, search, and hide actions.
  
• Search works for Peer, Locate, and Loot tables. You can make discoveries (paths, passages, treasure locations), and they appear in your discoveries window. Yes, you can loot treasure locations, and collect the spoils (no support for die roll bonuses yet)
  
• Hiding works (no one-die or other bonus support yet), and is required if you don't want to be blocked by monsters.
  
• Summoning monsters works - a monster die is rolled, and all players are subject to its effects at the end of each of their turns. A character that fails his/her hide rolls will be blocked if encountering monsters in clearings. No support yet for character/character blocking.
  

What next? I want to start dealing with character action chits, allowing them to be fatigued when looting treasure locations, and allowing them to be rested with rest actions. I also want to have weapons be alertable, though the point of this without combat is rather silly right now.

What about combat? My goal right now, is to finish the Magic Realm game WITHOUT combat. It will play like the 1st encounter of the 2nd edition ruleset, where monsters are nothing more than annoying blockades. Once the bulk of the game is together, I'd like to schedule a play testing session with a number of interested people, and make sure everything is working as it should. Once I'm confident the game is solid, I'll start thinking about how to handle combat.

I would like to make a plea right now for ideas about how to present a combat on the screen in a manner that doesn't end up being too complicated, but still stick to a general look and feel of the game. If anyone has any ideas, please leave me a message!

On a Roll!

I'm currently finishing up the code that will handle how players will record actions for their characters. Right now it recognizes how actions (basic, sunlight) are handled, and can deal with all the rules of the map (caves, mountains, etc.). When a character cannot do a particular action, the corresponding button is grayed. The interface is coming together. Here is a preview. If you are wondering, the buttons across the top handle all the necessary input into the action field for the current day. In order, they are:

• Finished Recording
  
• Delete action
  
• Hide
  
• Move
  
• Search
  
• Trade
  
• Rest
  
• Alert
  
• Hire
  
• Follow
  
• Spell
  
• Peer
  
• Fly
  
• Remote Spell
  
• Cache
  

I think that covers them all. As it stands, about half of these actually work, including Move. When you select Move, the map is shown, and you choose from a number of available clearings. As you plot your turn, your entire path is plotted in yellow on the map.

That's all for now!