[Addon] RPToolkit v0.5.2 - Available now! - New event/roll system addon

Argent Dawn
1

RPT (RPToolkit)

Version: 0.5.2 (beta)
Discord: discord.gg/jZVFqPCw6q
Curseforge: curseforge.com/wow/addons/rptoolkit
WowInterface: wowinterface.com/downloads/info26909-RPToolkit.html

TLDR

Addon for a 5e-based roll system that does everything for you - stat sheet, talking heads, unit frames, everything. Think Baldurs Gate 3, but it’s a WoW addon. Join the Discord to help test the addon and/or to see what it really does.

Ever joined a guild and been faced with a three page document about how their roll system works? Ever started up a guild and spent a week figuring out a roll system, only for people to express their confusion and/or leave after a few events because they can't get their head around whatever you've cooked up? We've probably all been there at some point (in fact, I'm guilty of both of these things).

Say goodbye to convoluted event systems. Based on D&D 5e and inspired heavily by the Dicemaster addon, RPToolkit is an out-of-the-box event system packed neatly into a single addon.

What is RPT?

RPT is an addon which handles everything for you. Statistic sheets. Equipping items to improve your stats. Displaying enemy health bars. Prompting you to roll to defend yourself when you're attacked. Cooking you breakfast in bed. The list goes on. It is designed to be as a hands-off for the guild member as possible, whilst being as flexible as possible for the guild master. Not only that, but it is designed to be as lightweight as possible when it comes to addon communications so that there is as little data lost as possible (the no. 1 cause of broken addons).

Although RPT development has only been going on for about a month (at the time that this thread was first posted), the actual roll system itself has been a fine-tuned piece of work for the past 5+ years. The addon encapsulates the roll system that I have used in the Holy Order of Lordain since we first started using Dicemaster in the middle of BfA, and can be roughly described as ‘5e with a Warcraft twist’.

Why RPT?

RPT has a whole list of attractive features for new and experienced dungeon masters alike:
  • Almost completely hands-off. Once you make your character sheet, which takes about a minute, you’re good to go. All bonuses to your stats are handled by the addon by equipping items. No more manually editing a stat sheet or your TRP profile to keep track of your bonuses.
  • Click and play. No more typing roll commands to check if you hit your target. When it’s your turn to act, attack enemies and heal allies with just a single click of the action bar. The only time you’ll need to type is to emote in the chat.
  • Works entirely in-game. Google sheets containing your spells and cumbersome import codes are a thing of the past. As the group leader, send collections of spells and items directly to your party members in a safe and efficient manner.
  • Fully integrated dice system. You’ll never need to memorise the rules of an event system ever again. RPT handles everything from turn order to player actions to prompting the player to roll to defend themselves.

More to the point, however, what is the RPT philosophy? As a guildmaster of almost twenty years, one of the biggest barriers to RP is the event system that a guild uses. All too often, people join a guild and are faced with overwhelming documentation on how the guild’s events work - roll thresholds, rules, exceptions. At the same time, the new and eager guildmaster might spend more time developing a rough event system than actually roleplay with their new members.

With RPT, these issues are a thing of the past. RPT is not just an out-of-the-box solution, but it is itself a black box: it takes inputs and it gives outputs. Now you can write stories, run events, and enjoy challenging, rewarding and interactive events without needing to reinvent the wheel!

The RPT System

The dice system is fundamentally based on D&D 5e, with ability scores, proficiency bonuses and the full set of 5e non-combat skills. However, where it differs is in the handling of combat-related rolls:

  • Attack rolls are largely the same. Each type of basic attack (melee, ranged, spell) has three modifiers: hit, power, and crit threshold.

  • RPT includes a special kind of attack called a haste attack, which is essentially a free action that is triggered by certain spells. Like other attack rolls, it has hit, power and crit modifiers. This essentially enables the player to create a ‘haste’ build which focuses on triggering and improving their haste attack.

  • Healing comes with a healing power and critical heal modifier.

  • Armour Class (AC) does not exist for players. This is one of the biggest changes to the 5e system which arose from the use of Dicemaster, where an AC field did not exist. Instead, the player has the following rolls, which they are prompted to use when an NPC attacks them:
    – Dodge, based on dexterity, allowing a counterattack on a critical dodge.
    – Parry, based on strength, allowing a counterattack on a critical parry.
    – Block, based on strength, but requires a shield to use. On a failed block roll, the damage taken is reduced by the equipped shield’s deflection rating.
    The player can only use each of these defensive rolls once on their turn, after which they take the full damage of the attack instead. This promotes the use of defensive spells and damage mitigation in situations where they may be subjected to many attacks per turn.

  • Spell Resistances. Seven spell resistances exist within RPT, based on the schools of magic in World of Warcraft. Like the physical defences described above, the player will roll to resist spells. The modifier is based on one of their ability score modifiers and, likewise, the damage they taken is reduced by the same amount:
    – CON - Fire, Frost, Nature
    – INT - Arcane, Fel
    – WIS - Shadow, Holy

Why not?

Roll systems aren't for everyone and that is fine. A lot of RPT's functionality is set in stone because, ultimately, I wrote the addon to facilitate my own guild's RP. However, I strongly encourage anyone to give it a go, even if your guild/community already has an event system. RPT is designed to be intuitive, quick to set up, and easy to use, adding a level of immersion and challenge to events - something that I've found has made my events much more enjoyable both as a DM and as a player.

Along with the benefits described above, the ability to share spell lists means that cross-guild events using RPT will be easier than ever before. In the right hands, RPT has the potential to bring more guilds together for events than ever before.

The addon is currently in a testing phase. If you are interested in helping test the addon and provide feedback, please join the Discord! The link is at the top of the post.

For more direct enquiries, message ortellus on Discord.

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Thank you brother!

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I’ve waited years for this :partying_face: :partying_face: :partying_face:

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I used to wake up and dream of this.

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Will definitely give this a try looks dope

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The addon is made for roleplayers, so why implementing the atrocious way WoW is handling gameplay spells?

The way WoW does it is very contrived, it offers no possibility for variation and also teaches bad habits to new roleplayers who are going to mix everything between gameplay & lore.

Where is death magic?
Where is chronomancy?
What if I create a boulder from Arcane, why is someone needing INT to resist it?

Since we’re roleplayers why not creating something simple, but more appropriate for us:

You define the cosmic elements + elemental forces:

Light, Fel, Death, Shadow, Arcane, Life
Earth, Air, Fire, Water
Physical

Optionally you could add some of the schools that are slightly off to categorize: Elune’s magic,Blood, Time etc… though I believe they can be handled by the system.

When you create a spell:

[School 1].
[Optional School 2].
Main stat.
Resistance stat.
Flavor Spell Description.

Examples:

Arcanist casts Ice Lance:
Spell: Arcane + None, INT, CON.
You need INT to cast, the enemy needs CON to resist it.

Ebon Knight casts Deathfrost:
Spell: Death + none, WIS, CON.
You need WIS to cast and CON to resist

Druid of the Flame casts Flame Claw:
Spell: Physical + Fire, STR, CON

S. Priest casts Mind Control:
Spell: Shadow + None, WIS, WIS

Elune Priestess casts Moonbeam:
Spell: Life + None, INT, STR

Monk uses a CHI Punch:
Spell: Life + Physical, STR, CON

Corrupted Black Dragon casts Shadowflame Breath:
Spell: Fire + Shadow, STR, CON

This way players have full control on their spells, with the usual wow combination of magic and they can add their own personal flavor.

As for the addon in itself, it handles only two stats: The required stat and the resistance stat. The rest is pure flavor.

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I get what you’re saying - WoW’s schools of magic is pretty simplistic. You only have to look at Shadow, for instance, and see that it totally encompasses undeath and the void.

The answer to

why implementing the atrocious way WoW is handling gameplay spells?

is basically just one of familiarity rather than flexibility. I’m a big classic WoW enjoyer to start off with, so that’s definitely a factor here; I’ve basically taken the five classic WoW resistances and added Fel and Holy into the mix. I would argue that adding any more than that will simply be information overload - and there’s already a lot of information on the character sheet!

Regarding the latter half of your post, re: spells that are a bit difficult to categorise, RPT allows you to specify what modifier you add on to your roll in order to check if you hit / to add bonus damage etc. For instance, if I wanted to specify that a spell rolls 1d20 + WIS, I can totally do that!

See: https://imgur.com/a/J8CQynO

On the other hand, it does not currently allow you to specify what the enemy unit needs to roll in order to defend against it - for now, it simply rolls against their Spell AC (which you can specify). I think this is a pretty reasonable compromise as it boils the setup of enemies down to just a single number, but to add some more flexibility/customisation into it I’m planning to add immunities/resistances/vulnerabilities later down the line.

Regarding multischool spells: not currently implemented, but definitely planned.

At the end of the day however, the system that is presented here has flexibility in other regards. Take, for instance, what you’ve suggested: I could just put spell defences down to ability score saving throws, but when we factor in improving the player’s saving throw modifiers with items, it presents a problem. What if I want my constitution saving throw against fire spells to be higher than my constitution saving throw against frost spells? The answer is to then have a separate bonus modifier vs. fire and frost, which adds on to the constitution saving throw modifier… and that’s pretty much what we have here.

Sorry for the rambling, v hungry currently.

edit: tldr - it’s an addon in WoW, for WoW, and I wanted it to stay as true to WoW as possible without making 13256 different stats (there’s already like 100 variables or something in the character sheet!)

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Oh that’s pretty awesome actually.

This is my raw opinion for pure feedback: I think using Classic gameplay for Retail Roleplay is a big mistake and your personal preferences shouldn’t be taken in account when you make an addon open to the public, especially when it goes against something as basic as the cosmic forces.

This is also my opinion: The work you poured into the addon is great and at the end of the day it shouldn’t matter much. I’ll give it a try soon, looks dope.

Thank you for the quick reply, and keep up the good work :heart:.

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It’s something I can certainly consider later down the line! It’d require some considerable reworks of certain parts of the addon but I’m very much aware that, as its written currently, flexibility is relatively limited compared to other addons where you can simply just say “this deals [whatver] damage”. Hell, I’m sure someone will want me to change the schools of magic to be strictly 5e schools. Thanks for the feedback!

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Howdy, I think this is an excellent initiative Ortellus and will surely be very welcome to many, but since our guild already has its own system that works well for us (not made by me!) I do wonder how customizable this will be to use piecemeal for other systems?

You mentioned many parts of it was set in stone, but how many parts are flexible?

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As it stands, the addon is flexible in so far as you can choose what modifiers your spells utilise. I suppose you can also choose not to utilise certain statistics? Unfortunately, the addon revolves very heavily around the stat sheet, which is itself hard-coded.

Kinda hard to answer the question/figure out how suitable it would be for you without a little more info though! Feel free to drop me a message on Discord re: the system you use and I can probably answer your question better!

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Don’t really have access to your discord but I can tell that it is a very rules light system that is based on d10 rolls and armor with item bonuses, so all in all very different from 5e.

I do wonder though, what about things like unit frames and tools for DMs working on the system? Will that be a thing or does it suppose mental math?

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Unit frames etc are all handled by the addon. The player can actually target the unit frames and use their spells on them, and it calculates /deals damage under the hood, depending on how you’ve set up the spells. No mental maths involved whatsoever!

However, I intend to add in a specific ‘DM tools’ section of the addon, wherein the DM will be able to directly apply damage/healing to the the unit frames. At that point, the unit frames part of the addon will be usable regardless of the system that is used, since all it will be doing is displaying the health bar, etc. That’s actually how the addon started off - I intend to just make a unit frames addon and continue to use Dicemaster for the actual roll system.

As I mentioned to Neridris, I’m very willing to incorporate other systems into the addon where possible, so I’m very interested in what system you use in DPC. It might not take much work at all to adapt the existing code to accommodate it?

p.s. come join the discord and see for yourself :wink:

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The link has expired.

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https://discord.gg/jZVFqPCw6q

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This looks sweet. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this.
Have a cookie.

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Definitely keeping my eye on this, and even potentially adopting for use in my guild.

See a lot of potential!

Keep up the good work.

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Absolute gamechanger.
Can’t wait to point out flaws in the addon and force Ortellus to change his hardcoded addon and cause massive bugs in the system :bangbang:

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The only good bug is a dead bug!

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The first release of RPToolkit (v0.5 Beta) introduces most of the core features for the full release coming later this year. Much of the UI remains to be polished and the user feel enhanced, however, this release is fully usable for simple events. The core features include:

:page_facing_up: Character Profiles

  • Upon login, first time users will be introduced to a character creation wizard. The wizard uses the 5e standard array (16, 15, 14, 12, 10, 8), along with racial bonuses. After applying these, the addon is ready for use.
  • Most information about the character is displayed on the Character Sheet (command: /ct).
  • Profiles are saved and loaded at login/logout, including on UI reload.

:file_folder: Dataset Manager and Editors

  • DMs can create datasets for their campaigns. These datasets allow selections of spells and auras (buffs/debuffs) to be managed and transferred to party members /to the targeted player.
  • Currently, the item editor is not implemented.

:clock1: Turn Tracker

  • ‘/cts start’ begins the turn tracker. After receiving all Initiative rolls, the tracker can be advanced to the first turn, prompting players’ whose turn it is to act.
  • The turn tracker automatically advances when all active players end their turns.
  • NPCs’ turns are automatically ended when they run out of actions, and can be manually ended by right-clicking the button that appears on their unit frame on their turn.
  • ‘/cts end’ ends the turn tracker.

:person_raising_hand: Unit Frames

  • Unit frame visibility can be toggled by clicking the green button next to the unit frame.
  • Damage/healing can be manually applied by clicking on the red heart icon.
  • The unit frame’s statistics can be editted by clicking on the cogwheel.
  • When it is the unit’s turn to act, an icon appears on the bottom right of the unit frame and the name turns yellow.

:speech_balloon: Talking Heads
The talking head functionality is somewhat outdated, but can be accessed via ‘/th’. An overhaul of the talking head system, and integration with unit frames, will come in a later update.

:blue_book: Spellbook

  • Spells can be equipped by going to the character sheet ( ‘/ct’ ) and going to the spellbook, then right click the spells to add them to the action bar.
  • You must have a campaign dataset containing spells to add spells to your action bar.

RPToolkit v0.5 is now available for download in the discord!

(soon on Curseforge, hopefully, but come and join the discord anyway)
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