The Daily Teaser — 7-4-2014: The Game

Oh, now that’s bloody annoying: AND embarrassing.

I’ve dropped my iPod!

Normally, dropping one on my floor’s not an option: they’re fairly tough bits of kit.

Unfortunately, mine’s already had its screen smashed.

Which meant that when I dropped it, this time?

When the whole screen came away from the main body of the thing, breaking a bit of connecting wiring in the process.

It’s embarrassing, as it was entirely my fault: there’s no one to blame that on.

It’s annoying for two reasons: mostly because repairing or replacing it’s going to be a devil of a job.   And frankly, one I can’t afford. 

It’s ALSO annoying, because it means I won’t have a thing to listen to, when I’m out and about.

That really DOES twang … !

~≈π≈~

Oooohhh …

Oooohh …

Now that does take me back …

Now, as you might no don’t have noticed, by now, I’m something of a Dr Who fan.

You could probably hardly miss it, could you?

Not by now, at any rate, says I, grinning to my self …

But at any rate, the point I’m trying to make is simply the fact I’m a fan.

And one who’s been — in his time — a former role-playing-gamer.

Which some would ague is a bit of a weird hobby to follow.

But let me ask you this: what do you call a bunch of saddoes that get together at the weekend to sing strange songs and wear funny costumes?

I call ’em football fans …

But I’m going sideways …

The point I’m making here, as I have many times, before, is simply that different people have different passions, causes, hobbies, what-have-you: which, a lot of the time, involves humans getting more tribal than we think we are.

And two of the tribes I happen to have been at various points …

You get me drift*!

•••••

Let me get moving on, shall I?

Yes.

I’ve old friend, over in the States, called Sean.

Now Sean and his wife, Laura, have run a little game store in Athens, Georgia, called Tyche’s Games, for many a year. And Sean, like me, is something of a Dr Who fan.

And managed to mention that a British company called Cubicle 7 have managed to do an updated take on a Dr Who role-playing game.

Now I was interested.

Certainly interested enough to have a look both at C7’s home page, and the link Sean sent me, to the page on their Dr Who gameº.

Which certainly looks rather good, and tempting enough to try.

Once I’ve got some disposable income to go and get a copy … !

* Going totally sideway’s, here, I’ve just taken a look in my mug. You know, if Tony Robinson and the rest of the Time Team crew don’t find some fascinating archeology at the bottom of my teapot, I’ll be bloody surprised …

º And certainly looks — to me, at any rate — as if it catches the feel of the new series rather well. Oh, I’ll give the FASA Dr Who rpg credit for being a nicely balanced — and very well presented — take of the series, but I always felt that it didn’t quite managed to get the continuity right. Or, at least, to my liking.

India … And Glorantha …

Hmmm …

Well, there’s a thing.

I managed to dig up a bit of an ol’ favourite that had been sitting on my shelves for some time.

I’ll admit, I was something of a rôle-playing-game buff, in my younger days.

One of those games was the rather yummy Chaosium produced RuneQuest.

Which, at the time, was rather special.

Dungeons and Dragons had paved the way for the hobby, but even it’s most die hard fans would admit that the game could be a bit clunky; rules sprouted at the drop of a die, and backgrounds proliferated like mushrooms in swamps.

RuneQuest went in a different direction.

For starters, the actual rules mechanics were a lot simpler; and came down to three different types of percentage-based roll.

And the background?

Whooh!

Dungeons and Dragons built up quite a few, relatively samey backgrounds; most being some sort of variation of Middle Earth: or Chivalric romance.

RuneQuest, by comparison, had Glorantha.

Originally invented by Greg Stafford in 1966, Glorantha was tied into “RuneQuest” on its original release, in 1978.

And was relatively influenced more by bronze age Greece, than by Middle-Earth.

Which, for me, made a very pleasant change to many of the games doing the rounds, at the time.

But the simple fact that there was a game with such a fresh background made it incredibly popular, and influential in its turn.

As far as I can remember, from my days in the business, almost every rpg, since, had to have its own background word.

That’s one hell of an achievement.

The script …

You know, I think I’ve finally — ish — cracked what I set out to do. I’ve finally managed to finish … the Character Generator!

So you know, this is a Character Generation script for 5th Edition “Tunnels and Trolls”, written in Applescript on on Script Utility version 2.2.1, on a Mac Mini using Mac OS X 10.5.7

Now I could’ve probably used OS X’s onboard version’s of Java or Python for this; except I don’t actually know either.

And I’ve a little — very little — familiarity with Applescript to put this together. I think I can probably refine, but …

Well, here’s the first part, used to generate the random numbers that you’ll need as the basis for your character’s statistics, height, and weight, and finds out what sex, and species you want to be.

display dialog "Would you like to generate a T & T character?" buttons {"No", "Yes"} default button 2

if the button returned of the result is "No" then

say "Ok, that’s cool." using "Vicki"

else

set numberslist to {3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 17, 17, 17, 18}

set Strength1 to some item of numberslist

set Intelligence1 to some item of numberslist

set Luck1 to some item of numberslist

set Constitution1 to some item of numberslist

set Dexterity1 to some item of numberslist

set Charisma1 to some item of numberslist

set Height1 to some item of numberslist

set Weight1 to some item of numberslist

end if

display dialog "Would you like to be Human, Elf, or Dwarf?" default answer "Your Character’s Race"

set playerRace to the text returned of result

The next part actually manipulates those figures, based on what you’ve told it, to find out what your actual characteristics will be.

if playerRace is "Human" or "human" then set Strength2 to Strength1

if playerRace is "Human" or "human" then set Intelligence2 to Intelligence1

if playerRace is "Human" or "human" then set Luck2 to Luck1

if playerRace is "Human" or "human" then set Constitution2 to Constitution1

if playerRace is "Human" or "human" then set Dexterity2 to Dexterity1

if playerRace is "Human" or "human" then set Charisma2 to Charisma1

if playerRace is "Human" or "human" then set Height2 to Height1

if playerRace is "Human" or "human" then set Weight2 to Weight1

if playerRace is "Elf" or "elf" then set Strength2 to Strength1

if playerRace is "Elf" or "elf" then set Intelligence2 to round (Intelligence1 * (3 / 2)) rounding down

if playerRace is "Elf" or "elf" then set Luck2 to Luck1

if playerRace is "Elf" or "elf" then set Constitution2 to round (Constitution1 * (2 / 3)) rounding down

if playerRace is "Elf" or "elf" then set Dexterity2 to round (Dexterity1 * (3 / 2)) rounding down

if playerRace is "Elf" or "elf" then set Charisma2 to (Charisma1 * 2)

if playerRace is "Elf" or "elf" then set Height2 to (round Height1 * (11 / 10) rounding down)

if playerRace is "Elf" or "elf" then set Weight2 to round (Weight1 * (7 / 8)) rounding down

if playerRace is "Dwarf" or "dwarf" then set Strength2 to (Strength1 * 2)

if playerRace is "Dwarf" or "dwarf" then set Intelligence2 to Intelligence1

if playerRace is "Dwarf" or "dwarf" then set Luck2 to Luck1

if playerRace is "Dwarf" or "dwarf" then set Constitution2 to (Constitution1 * 2)

if playerRace is "Dwarf" or "dwarf" then set Dexterity2 to Dexterity1

if playerRace is "Dwarf" or "dwarf" then set Charisma2 to round (Charisma1 * (2 / 3)) rounding down

if playerRace is "Dwarf" or "dwarf" then set Height2 to round (Height1 * (2 / 3)) rounding down

if playerRace is "Dwarf" or "dwarf" then set Weight2 to round (Weight1 * (7 / 8)) rounding down

display dialog "Would you like to be male or female?" default answer "Male"

set playerSex to the text returned of result

set w to 0

set x to 0

set y to 0

set z to 0

if Strength2 is greater than 12 then set w to Strength2 - 12

if Strength2 is less than 9 then set w to 9 - Strength2

if Intelligence2 is greater than 12 then set x to Intelligence2 - 12

if Intelligence2 is less than 9 then set x to 9 - Intelligence2

if Luck2 is greater than 12 then set y to Luck2 - 12

if Luck2 is less than 9 then set y to 9 - Luck2

if Dexterity2 is greater than 12 then set z to Dexterity2 - 12

if Dexterity2 is less than 9 then set z to 9 - Dexterity2

set CombatAdds to w + x + y + z

if Height2 is 3 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set height to "4 foot"

if Height2 is 3 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set height to "3 foot 10"

if Height2 is 4 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set height to "4 foot 3"

if Height2 is 4 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set height to "4 foot 1"

if Height2 is 5 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set height to "4 foot 5"

if Height2 is 5 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set height to "4 foot 3"

if Height2 is 6 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set height to "4 foot 8"

if Height2 is 6 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set height to "4 foot 6"

if Height2 is 7 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set height to "4 foot 10"

if Height2 is 7 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set height to "4 foot 8"

if Height2 is 8 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set height to "5 foot 1"

if Height2 is 8 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set height to "4 foot 11"

if Height2 is 9 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set height to "5 foot 3"

if Height2 is 9 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set height to "5 foot 1"

if Height2 is 10 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set height to "5 foot 6"

if Height2 is 10 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set height to "5 foot 4"

if Height2 is 11 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set height to "5 foot 8"

if Height2 is 11 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set height to "5 foot 6"

if Height2 is 12 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set height to "5 foot 11"

if Height2 is 12 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set height to "5 foot 9"

if Height2 is 13 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set height to "6 foot 1"

if Height2 is 13 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set height to "5 foot 11"

if Height2 is 14 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set height to "6 foot 4"

if Height2 is 14 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set height to "6 foot 2"

if Height2 is 15 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set height to "6 foot 6"

if Height2 is 15 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set height to "6 foot 4"

if Height2 is 16 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set height to "6 foot 9"

if Height2 is 16 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set height to "6 foot 7"

if Height2 is 17 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set height to "6 foot 11"

if Height2 is 17 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set height to "6 foot 9"

if Height2 is 18 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set height to "7 foot 2"

if Height2 is 18 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set height to "7 foot"

if Weight2 is 3 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set weight to "75"

if Weight2 is 3 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set weight to "65"

if Weight2 is 4 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set weight to "90"

if Weight2 is 4 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set weight to "80"

if Weight2 is 5 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set weight to "105"

if Weight2 is 5 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set weight to "95"

if Weight2 is 6 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set weight to "120"

if Weight2 is 6 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set weight to "110"

if Weight2 is 7 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set weight to "135"

if Weight2 is 7 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set weight to "125"

if Weight2 is 8 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set weight to "150"

if Weight2 is 8 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set weight to "140"

if Weight2 is 9 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set weight to "160"

if Weight2 is 9 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set weight to "150"

if Weight2 is 10 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set weight to "170"

if Weight2 is 10 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set weight to "160"

if Weight2 is 11 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set weight to "180"

if Weight2 is 11 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set weight to "170"

if Weight2 is 12 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set height to "190"

if Weight2 is 12 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set weight to "180"

if Weight2 is 13 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set weight to "200"

if Weight2 is 13 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set weight to "190"

if Weight2 is 14 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set weight to "225"

if Weight2 is 14 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set weight to "215"

if Weight2 is 15 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set weight to "250"

if Weight2 is 15 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set weight to "240"

if Weight2 is 16 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set weight to "280"

if Weight2 is 16 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set weight to "270"

if Weight2 is 17 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set weight to "310"

if Weight2 is 17 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set weight to "300"

if Weight2 is 18 and playerSex is "Male" or "male" then set weight to "350"

if Weight2 is 18 and playerSex is "Female" or "female" then set weight to "340"

As you can see, I’ve also included the basic calculation of your character’s combat adds; that’s the bonus — or negative number — that’s added to the amount of hits you roll, for your weapon in combat. It also generates your height and weight.

say "Your Strength is" using "Vicki"

say Strength2 using "Vicki"

say "Your Inteligence is" using "Vicki"

say Intelligence2 using "Vicki"

say "Your Luck is" using "Vicki"

say Luck2 using "Vicki"

say "Your Constitution is" using "Vicki"

say Constitution2 using "Vicki"

say "Your Dexterity is" using "Vicki"

say Dexterity2 using "Vicki"

say "Your Charisma is" using "Vicki"

say Charisma2 using "Vicki"

if CombatAdds is greater than 0 then say "You have a combat bonus of plus" using "Vicki"

if CombatAdds is greater than 0 then say CombatAdds using "Vicki"

if CombatAdds is less than 0 then say "You have a combat modifier of minus" using "Vicki"

if CombatAdds is less than 0 then say CombatAdds

if CombatAdds is equal to 0 then say "You do not have a combat modifier" using "Vicki"

set Gold to (some item of numberslist) * 10

say "You have " using "Vicki"

say Gold using "Vicki"

say " gold pieces" using "Vicki"

say "You are a " using "Vicki"

say height using "Vicki"

say weight using "Vicki"

say "pound" using "Vicki"

say playerSex using "Vicki"

say playerRace using "Vicki"

say "Please enjoy your" using "Vicki"

if playerRace is "Human" or "human" then say "fantasy adventure" using "Vicki"

if playerRace is "Elf" or "elf" then say "Elven adventure" using "Vicki"

if playerRace is "Dwarf" or "dwarf" then say "dwarven adventure" using "Vicki"

That final part tells you what your stats are, as well as your height, weight and sex. And how much money you’ve got.

Phew!

Now I know I could probably have handled the height and weight section a little better; I think it’s throwing up some oddities.

Like a female elf, and a male dwarf the same height and weight!

But feel free to copy and paste, folks!!!!

And I’m sorry about the adverts, but I always think they’re fun …