PLAYER'S GAME SCREEN INSTRUCTIONS
There are two rows of control buttons along the top, with a large map display area occupying most of the page.
NOTE: The buttons and some text fields on the GM screen have a short line of explanatory text describing function and use that appears when you place the cursor over the button or field without clicking.
The first six buttons along the top row open small windows that are used to handle various functions. Starting
from the left these are:
Roller - opens the die roller.
Players - opens a list of players, main PCs, and avatar pictures.
Textchat - opens the text chat window.
Voicechat - opens an on site voice chat program.
Avatars - lets you choose a personal avatar to help identify you in the player's information list.
Chara sheets - opens a screen for handling character sheets.
The windows are designed to "float" in front of the main display. You can move them wherever you want and close them when you are not using them. They may dissappear (go behind the main screen) temporarily when you enter text in some fields, but they will pop forward again when you click the button associated with the text. If one gets lost for some reason, click its button to bring it back.
The remaining buttons control sound effects, miniatures and map functions. They are grouped into five sections labelled "Sound," "Minaitures," "Maps," and "Pictures." These buttons and the controls in the windows that they open are explained in detail here:
The die roller is a random number generator that simulates the rolling of dice. Clicking the "roller" button opens a window with a number of buttons and fields on the top and a large blank area with the words "Ready to roll!" on the bottom. At the very top there are seven blank fill in boxes below labels saying D100, D20, etc. down to D3. There are also two double sets of blank boxes labeled "custom1" and "custom2" plus two boxes marked "mod1" and "mod2". When you roll a die you obtain a random number between 1 and the number of faces on the die, inclusive.
The blank boxes are where you type in the number of each type of die that you want to roll. Just leave the boxes blank for the dice you are not using. Normally the dice that you roll are all added to one another to get the final result, but if you put a negative number in for the number of dice, these dice will be subtracted from the rest.
The two double sets of blank boxes in the right column are for dice with non-standard numbers of faces. For example, if you need to roll two dice with 16 faces each, you would type in a 2 in one of the left boxes and a 16 in the box to the right of it.
The boxes labeled "mod" allow you to add a modifiers (+ or -) to your roll.
The functions of the buttons in the first row below the die input fields are:
Roll!: To roll the dice, after you have entered the numbers of each, click this button. Your result and the results of all the other players are displayed on a results table that appears below all the buttons. Whenever you roll the results table will refresh itself several times over the next minute (roughly) to pick up and display the results of the players. Results will also be timestamped and recorded in the textchat and rolls record for future reference, if that is activated by the GM. See the textchat section. The GM's rolls can appear or not at the GM's discretion.
Show: This is a special roller that lets you see the rolls of all of your individual dice, plus the total. This info will also show in the saved text chat and die roll record, if that is activated. The GM's rolls can appear or not at the GM's discretion.
Reset: erases all the numbers of dice that you typed in.
Refr: Refreshes the results table once to pick up any new rolls that happen when it isn't refreshing automatically.
Purpose (optional text field): Use this to identify the purpose of your roll, 20 characters max. It shows up on the results table and in the saved textchat and die roll record, if that is activated.
Buttons in the second row: This row contains a drop down list labeled "Combos" followed by several buttons. These are used to save and roll commonly used combinations of dice and mods, so that you don't always have to type the numbers and mods in the boxes. These combos can be grouped into different catagories. You can also reorganize and move them around after they are saved. You can save up to 100 combos.
Roll combo: Select a die combo from the drop down menu and press this button to roll it.
Save combo: To save a die combination, type in the number of dice of each type and the mods in the appropriate boxes, Then press "save combo," You will get a message in the die rolling results window asking you to type in or select a catagory for the combination, and to type in a name for the combination. If you don't type in a category name or select an existing one, the combo gets listed under the classification "uncatagorized". Previously created catagories will be listed with check boxes above the text entry fields. The name of the die combination itself goes in the text entry field labelled "Entry:" Once you have filled in the fields, press the "save now" button. Then reload the die roller window.
Delete combo: Select a combo from the drop down menu and press this. You should get a message saying that deletion was successful.
New catagory: If you want to create a new catagory without adding any dice combos to it yet, press this. A text field labeled "New catagory" will appear. Type in the name and press the "Create catagory" button. If you reload the roller, the new catagory will appear in the drop down list.
Delete category: If you press this all the catagory names along with check boxes appear below. You can check one off and a click a "delete now" button. WARNING: when you delete a catagory, you delete all of the dice combinations contained within it. As usual you must reload the die roller for the change to show up on the drop down list.
Rearrange: If you press this button you get four drop down menus that let you select categories or individual entries and move them to a position before or after another category or entry in the list.
Toggle cards: Changes the window to a card deck simulator. See the next section.
You can try out the die roller at any time to familiarize yourself with its operation.
The card deck simulator replaces the die roller when the "toggle card deck" button is clicked in the die roller window. The card deck lets you simulate most of the actions that you can do with a card deck. It is currently under construction, so new features will be added in the future. The card deck simulator has two card piles at the top left and top right. One is labeled "deck," the other is labeled "discards." Below these appear a series of wooden looking areas, next to the GM's and each player's name, and there are three buttons at the bottom.
Deck: The deck is where you draw cards. Currently the GM can upload three types of decks: the traditional four suit deck, a Deck of Many Things, and a 78 card Tarot deck. To pick up a card, you click the deck, then click anywhere in your "table" area. The card appears face up to you, but is initally invisible to others. There is no "dealing" function yet - you have to pick up your own cards.
Discards: The discard pile is where you get rid of cards. Click your card, then click the discard pile. The card is gone until the GM loads a new deck.
You can also pass cards to other players. See the instructions for that below.
Card display area: The GM and the players are listed along the left edge of the area below the decks. You are listed last.
Card "table" areas:
Next to each player's name is a long wooden looking area where their cards appear. Cards that are hidden appear face down. Cards that are revealed are shown face up. Your table area is larger than the rest. The top half is labeled "revealed cards", and the bottom half is labeled "hidden cards." Your cards always appear face up to you, but those that are hidden from others appear in the lower half of the table.
Passing cards between players:
Everyone can pass cards to each other by clicking on the card, then clicking on a player's or the GM's table area. The card's revealed or hidden status stays the same.
Bottom buttons:
Show one: Causes one card to be revealed to others. Click this button, then click the card.
Show all: Causes all of your cards to be revealed to all the other players. Just click the button.
Toggle Dice: Bring the die roller back.
This button opens a small window with a row of picures of the player's avatars (ideally, players should put pictures of their main PC's miniature (see below) here to help identify who is controlling what). Below each picture is the name of the main PC and below that the player's name.
This opens a window with a large rectangular field at the top, where typed conversations show up. There are two buttons immediately below it:
Chat on: Turns on the chat window. You can see messages that you and others type.
Chat Off: turns off the window and causes the messages to disappear.
Text Input fields:
Name: If you want to speak in character, you can type your character's name in this field, and leave it there as long as you wish. This name will appear in boldface and italics before each of your messages. Your personal name/handle automatically appears in boldface before your character name. If you leave the name field blank, only your name/handle appears.
Message input field: To display a message to the chat window, type it in the message field directly below the name field and click on the send button. The text dissappears from the entry field when send is clicked, and shows up a few seconds later in everyone's chat window. You can send text, numbers and some symbols, but not HTML tags.
Text colors: To the right of the message input field there is a small white box that says "black." Clicking on the down arrow button next to it drops down a menu with several colors to choose from. Selecting one of these causes your message to appear in that color.
Message Buttons
Send: Pressing this sends whatever is in the message field to everyone's Main Chat Window.
Rset: Erases whatever is in the message field.
You can save up to eight phrases at a time using the buttons marked "Ph1" – "Ph8."
To save a phrase under one of these buttons, type the phrase in the message line, then click on the Rec button, then click on the button you want to save the phrase to (i.e. one of the Ph1- Ph8 buttons to the right).
After that, you can send the phrase to Chat Window simply by clicking on the appropriate Ph button.
To erase a message from any Ph button, either leave the message line blank and click Rec, then the Ph button; or you can click on the Eras button and then the appropriate ph button.
If you forget which phrase is stored under which button, you can use the Dsp button. Press this button, then press a Ph button. The phrase that is stored under that button appears in the main chat window, The phrase only shows up on your screen, not the player's. It disappears after a few seconds.
Toggle Buttons:
Toggle secret chat:Causes the window to expand and a second text display and message entry field to appear below the main chat area. This is for secret messages or conversations with certain people. Clicking it a second time shrinks the window and closes the secret chat functions.
The expanded window contains the following additional buttons and checkboxes
Secret on: This turns on the Secret Chat window.
Secret off: Turns off the Secret Chat window.
To hold a secret conversation, you first select the players to whom your messages will be sent. Do this by checking off the small boxes below the secret chat window. YOU MUST CHECK OFF YOURSELF IN ORDER TO SEE YOUR OWN TYPED MESSAGES IN THE WINDOW.
Message line: To send a message, type it in the message line beneath the secret chat window and click send.
Send: Sends the typed message. The message disappears from the text entry line when you press send, then reappears in everyone's secret chat window a few seconds later.
Reset: Erases the message in the text field.
Text colors: To the right of the reset button there is a small white box that says "black." Clicking on the down arrow button next to this drops down a menu with several colors to choose from. Selecting one of these causes your message to appear in that color.
NOTE: each person's messages are sent only to those people that they themselves have checked off. Opening a line from you to them does not automatically open a line from them to you.
Toggle chat record:
This causes the window to expand and display all the text chat and die rolls since the GM turned on the feature. To save this text on your own machine for permanent archiving, right click with your mouse in the window that displays the recorded text and choose "select all" from your mouse's menu. Then paste it into your favorite text editor and save it to a file. The GM can erase the textchat record.
Note: To use voicechat of any type we highly recommend use of a headset with a built in microphone, as opposed to a separate microphone with desktop speakers. The latter will pick up sound coming out of your speakers while you talk, creating echos for eveyone else. A standalone microphone sitting on the computer or near it also tends to pick up the vibration and hum of the computer, creating a background hum when you speak.
The voice chat button opens a long thin window containing a gray bar with voice chat controls. There are three buttons and two text fields within the gray bar:
"talk:" You must press this just before you start speaking. If you don't, people won't hear you. You must press it again when you stop talking, otherwise you will send a lot of dead air and slow down the voice chat system.
"vol+" and "vol-:" Press the vol+ button repeatedly to increase volume in steps up to a maximum limit. Press vol- to decrease volume down to a minimum limit.
There are two short text fields next to the buttons. The first, white text field, is labeled "Emergency Textchat. In the event that something happens to your microphone or for some reason your connection really slows down, you and your players can type short messages to each other, There isn't enough room to conveniently play a game this way. In the event that one or more of your players is having difficulty with voice chat we'd recommend switching to the text chat.
The rightmost gray text field merely displays the message that you type into the white text field, and presents a confirming message whenever you mute or unmute someone.
If you choose to select an avatar from the onsite collection, click the button next to the "Select avatar from onsite..." line. You will be taken to another window which contains a list of several catagories to choose from (fighters, clerics, etc.). Follow the instructions in that window. When you choose a catagory, a large number of thumbnails of avatars will appear at the bottom of the window. You may have to scroll down below the instructions and some other verbiage to see them. You select an avatar by clicking on it. You will get a message that you avatar has been selected. From then on when anyone opens the player's information window, the avatar picture will appear above your name.
If you want to select an avatar from you own machine, use the browse button. It will open a second window that lets you browse your own files and select a .jpg or .png file for upload. You are limited to a file size of 25K. Once you have selected, click the Upload button. You will get a confirmation message and the picture will appear above your name in the player's information window.
This button launches a window that lets you do things with character sheets. See the separate character sheet instructions.
There are two buttons that let you turn sound on and off. The GM can play looped background music and sound effects during the game. With sound on you can hear them. These sound on and off buttons have nothing to do with voicechat sound.
Miniatures are small pictures of characters that you can move around on your map. Players can use more than one miniature if the GM allows them to. The default is two. You upload miniatures via the "Load" button. They can be uploaded from your own PC or selected from our thumbnail gallery.
Pressing the load button opens a new window which contains a list of several catagories to choose from (fighters, clerics, etc.). Follow the instructions in that window. If you want to select a miniature from the onsite collection, click the circle next to the catagory that you want then click the select button. A large number of thumbnails of miniatures will appear at the bottom of the window. You may have to scroll down to see them. You select a miniature by clicking on it. It will appear in the area at the top of the graphics window. It will be sized to fit the space available but you can change its size later (see below).
If you want to select a miniature picture from you own machine, use the browse button at the top of the window. It will open a second window that lets you browse your own files and select a .jpg or .png file to upload. You are limited to a file size of 50K. Once you have selected, click the Upload button. The picture will appear in the area at the top of the graphics window. It will be resized to fit the space available but you can change its size later (see below).
You can upload multiple copies of the same image.
As you or upload miniatures they will appear next to each other in the blank area above the map. Anything that anyone else places in these areas will be invisible to you. The Miniature Upload Area is a good place to store henchmen, familiars, and the like when they are sent off on errands or are otherwise removed from the game.
Players can only move their own miniatures. GMs can move anyone's. You can move a miniature at any time by clicking on it, then clicking on the part of the background where you want to move it. Depending on how the GM has things set up, the miniature will appear either with its geometrical center at the click point, or with the center of its bottom edge at the clicked point. The latter is most useful for side view miniatures displayed on isometric maps.
NOTE: There is a small area below each miniature where you cannot click on the background.
Refr: Refreshes the map window. You have to click this button to make the map appear when you first log in. Use this button if something gets hung up or you have to get the map back after reloading the game screen.
NOTE: All newly loaded maps
will have an opaque black (to players) cover when they first appear (see below).
The GM has to clear it or create transparent areas on it using controls on the GM's screen. So if you see a big black area instead of a map, ask the GM
to do this.
Rset: De-zooms the map and returns it to the home position with its upper left corner near the upper left hand corner of the map window. This the button to try if your map goes missing for some reason.
Mve:
Changes the position of your map on yourown screens using this button. Click the button, then click the part of the map that you want to appear in the center of the map window.
Zoom+ and Zoom- buttons: You can zoom the entire image area in and out on your own screens using these buttons. The background and the miniatures will increase and decrease in size by a factor of 2X every time you push a button, up to a limit of +/- 4X. Click one of the zoom buttons, then click on the part of the map that you want to be centered after zooming.
This section section is used to display of non-map images - things like pictures of scrolls, magic items, runes, wanted posters, etc. The GM can store up to ten such images here and your can view them in separate window. There is a button marked "display" and a drop down list in this section. Select the name of the image that you want to view from the drop down list, then click "display."
If you have the GM's permission this button will allow you to upload pictures and maps to the GM, who can look at it or display it as a map or picture if they want to. Pressing the button opens a window that lets you select an image from your own machine (.jpg or .png) and upload it. The size limit for players is 500K.
The large frame covering the lower area of the page is the graphics window where all the maps and miniatures appear. It has no controls of its own.