GM'S GAME SCREEN INSTRUCTIONS LITE
The GM's screen possesses all of the features of the player's screen plus several functions that are unique to the GM. 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 eight buttons along the top row open small windows that are used to handle various functions. These are:
Roller - opens the die roller.
Players - opens a list of players info.
Controls - opens various game control functions.
Textchat - opens a text chat window.
Voicechat - opens a window that allows voice chat using an on site program.
Load - opens a screen that allows GMs to use on site maps, sounds, etc. and upload and store their own.
Chara sheets - opens a screen for handling character sheets.
Logoff - Closes and locks the game.
The windows are designed to "float" in front of the main display. You can move them wherever you want. 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
miniatures and map functions. They are grouped into four secions labelled "Minaitures," "Gird," "Maps," and "pictures."
Explanations of various buttons and windows follow:
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 AND you have "show GM rolls to player" checked off. See the textchat section.
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 AND you have "show GM rolls to player" checked off.
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.
Zero: sets the roll results of all players to zero.
Rlock: lets each player roll once then locks their die roller.
Lock: locks the die roller so that players can't roll.
Unlock: unlocks the die roller so that players can roll again.
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 AND you have "show GM rolls to player" checked off.
Show GM rolls to players (checkbox): Makes GM rolls visible to players when checked. The rolls also appear in the textchat and die rolls record if you have that activated AND you have "show GM rolls to player" checked off.
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: Replace the die rolling functions with card deck functions in this window.
The card deck simulator replaces the die roller when the "toggle card deck" button is clicked. This feature lets you simulate most of the physical actions that you can do with a card deck. It is currently under construction, but the features described below are currently implemented.
Layout: there are two card piles at the top left and top right, one labeled "deck," the other labeled "discards." Between them are a number of control buttons and a short status list. Below these appear a series of wooden looking areas next to each players name, with a few more buttons at the bottom.
Deck: This is where you pick up cards. To pick up a card click the deck, then click anywhere in your "table" area. A randomly chosen card appears face up to you, but is initally invisible to others. There is no "dealing" function yet.
Discards: Click one of your cards, then click the discard pile. The card disappears from your table area. It is gone for good, until you load a new deck.
You can also pass cards to other players. See the instructions for that below.
Top bottons
Deck loading buttons: The buttons below the "Load deck:" label at the top will load various types of decks: a traditional four suit deck, a Deck of Many Things, and a 78 card Tarot deck.
Lock: Locks the deck so that players can't draw or discard.
Draw then lock: Lets players draw one card, the locks the deck.
Unlock: Unlocks the deck.
Jokers: Click this to include the two jokers in the traditional deck. It does not effect other decks.
No jokers: Do not use the two jokers in the traditional deck. It does not effect other decks.
Toggle dice: Changes the window back to a die roller.
Status display (no buttons): This area lists the type of deck that is in play, whether jokers are being used, and lock status.
Card display area: The players are listed along the left edge. Below each player's name is a label indicating whether their individual card window is currently locked. You are listed last. Next to each player's name is a long wooden looking area where their cards appear. Cards that are hidden appear face down. Card that are revealed are shown face up.
The GM's table area is larger than the rest. The top half is labeled "revealed cards," the bottom half is labeled "hidden cards." Your own cards are always face up to you, but those that are hidden from others appear in the bottom half.
Passing cards between players:
Everyone can pass cards to each other by clicking on the card, then clicking on the player's table area. Cards will retain their revealed or hidden condition, but the player will be able to see the hidden ones.
Bottom buttons:
Show one: Causes one card to be revealed to the other players. Click the button, then click the card.
Show all: This button causes all of your cards to be revealed to the other players. Just click the button.
Opens a window with a row of pictures of the player's avatars (ideally, players should put pictures of their main PC 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. You have the designation "GM" instead of a character name.
Opens a window which lets you set various parameters of the game:
Maxminis: Lets you declare the maximum number of miniatures that each player is allowed. The default is two. Enter a number in the box to the left of the button and press.
Lock: Locks the gameroom so that no one can get in even with the right password.
Unlock: Unlocks the gameroom.
Lurk on: Lets lurkers view your game from a specialy lurker's window. CURRENTLY THE LURK FUNCTION IS NOT ENABLED. WE PLAN TO GET IT UP AND RUNNING AGAIN SOON.
Lurk off: Prevents lurkers from view your game.
Mini centering buttons:
Center: Miniatures are placed with their geometric center at the click point when players move them.
Base: Miniatures are placed with the center of their base at the click point when players move them.
NOTE: Mini centering changes take effect the next time someone does something with a miniature, the fog of war, or the grid.
Permit load: Grants permission for a selected player to upload images to your personal storage area, from which you can load them into the image display window.
Player delete: Temporarily deletes a player from the game, for example if they are going to be away for an extended period of time. Their player information disappears but their miniatures and character sheets remain unless they or you delete them. Such players can get back into the game any time they want to with the right password. Select the player's name from the drop down menu below the button and then press the button. A warning statement appears. If you are sure you want to delete them, click eject, a confirmation appears. Refresh or reload the control window to get the text fields back.
Player ban: Permanently bans a player from the game. Thier player information disappears, and they are immediately lcoked out of game functions like chat. The gameroom is also locked. They can't get back into the game under thier current name, even with the right password when the gameroom is unlocked. Their miniatures and character sheets remain unless they or you delete them. Select the player's name from the drop down menu below the button and then press the button.
This opens a window with a large rectangular field at the top, where typed conversations show up. There are five buttons immediately below it:
Chat on: Turns on the chat window.
Chat Off: turns off the window and causes the messages to disappear until it is turned on again.
Record on: Starts recording all text chat and die rolls (except for GM's when they are hidden) in a file for future review and reference.
Record off: Stops recording text chat and rolls to the file, but does not erase existing recorded chat and rolls.
Erase recorded: Erases the recorded text chat file. There is no way to get the erased chat back.
Text Input fields:
Name: If you want to speak in character, you can type your character's name in this field, and just 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 and click 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, type the phrase in the message line, then click on the Rec button instead of the Send button, and 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 the Main Chat Window just by clicking on the appropriate Ph button.
To erase a message from any Ph button you can 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:
This causes the window to expand and a second text display and message entry field to appear below the main
chat window. This is for secret messages or conversations that you only want to be
seen by 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: Turns on the Secret Chat window. The secret chat window operates exactly like the main chat window, except that the messages will be seen only by the selected people.
Secret off: Turns off the Secret Chat window.
To send a secret message or hold a secret conversation, you first select the players to whom your messages will be sent. You 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 the selected recipient's secret chat windows a few seconds later.
Reset: Erase 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 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:
Causes the window to expand and a display to appear containing all the text chat up to the point that the button was pressed. To save this to 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.
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. When pressed, this button changes its label to "stop." 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.
The GM's screen has 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 in this line 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 window.
You can also enter a two simple commands when necessary: /mute playername, where playername is the handle of a player, turns off that player's voice chat. /unmute playername turns on their voice chat again. This lets you control problem players. You can turn off an offending player's sound for a few minutes as a warning that they must follow your rules regarding talking out of character, making obnoxious noises, or whatever. Note that the "player eject" function described above does not do anything to voice chat. To completely shut out an ejected player you must mute them.
The rightmost gray text field displays the message that you type into the white text field, and presents a confirming message whenever you mute or unmute someone.
This button launches a window that lets you do things with character sheets. See the separate character sheet instructions.
This button logs you out of the game, closes the gameroom,and removes it from the active game list. Since it does not show up on that list, players cannot log into it. Players already in are not ejected, however. If you want your players to continue to be able to log into the game "off hours," don't click this button. Then the game room will automatically remain open for 3 1/2 days.
Miniatures are small pictures of characters that you can move around on your map. Players can use more than one miniature if you allow them to (see explanation of the "maxminis" button in the control section). The default is two. As GM you can use as many as you want. You upload miniatures from the miniature upload fields acessed via the "Load" button. They can be uploaded from your own PC or selected from our thumbnail gallery. You can also upload an avatar in the same way. This is a picture that is associated with you in the player's info window. It is a goog idea, at least in the beginning, to have everyone use their main PC as their avatar. It helps keep track of who's running what.
Pressing the load button takes you to a screen that has, at the top, a table that says "access onsite collections." There is a line there that says "Select miniatures from onsite by clicking this button" with another load button after it. There is also a line there that says "Select a personal avatar from onsite by clicking this button" Further down in the page there is also a section called "My uploaded miniatures" with a browse button that lets you select miniatures from your own machine.
If you choose to select a miniature from the onsite collection, click the button next to the "Select miniatures from onsite..." line. You will be taken to another window which contains a list of several catagories to choose from. Follow the instructions in that window. When you choose a catagory, a large number of thumbnails of miniatures 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 a miniature by clicking on it. It will appear in the area at the top of the graphics window.
If you want to select a miniature picture from you own machine, use the browse button in the "My Uploaded Miniatures" section. It will open a second window that lets you browse your own files or network and select a .jpg or .png file for upload. You are limited to a file size of 50K. Once you have selected, click the Upload button.
You can upload multiple copies of the same image.
If you want an avatar from the onsite collection OR your own machine, click the button next to the "Select a personal avatar from onsite..." line. You will be taken to a window which contains the same list of catagories that are used for miniatures. Follow the instructions in that window. When you choose a catagory, the same thumbnails that are used for miniatures will appear at the bottom of the window. You select an avatar by clicking on it. It will appear in the player's information window the next time you open that window.
Use the browse and upload buttons near the top if you want to select and upload from your own machine. As with minaitures you must select a .jpg or .png file for upload. You are limited to a file size of 50K. Once you have selected, click the Upload button.
You can change your avatar at any time by loading a new one..
As you or others upload miniatures they will appear next to each other in the blank area above the map in their Image Display Window. Your players all have an equivalent area. Anything that anyone else places in these areas will be invisible to other players. It is a good idea to plan the types of NPCs and monsters that you are likely to need during your session, then open your game early and load them into the top of the screen.
You, as GM, can move all miniatures. Your players can only move their own. You move a miniature by clicking on it, then clicking on the part of the background where you want to move it. The miniature will appear with the center of its bottom edge located at the point where you clicked. The coordinates of the center of the bottom edge should be used as the position of the miniature when calculating ranges, etc.
NOTE: There is a small area below each miniature where you cannot click on the background.
The controls here are used to add, size, and move grid lines to maps:
Top: Produces a square grid pattern for use on top view maps. Enter a value in the text field to the right of the "off" button to cause the squares on the grid to be of that dimension in pixels. This is explained more fully below in relation to the size button. The default is 50.
Hex: Produces a hex grid pattern for use on top view maps.
Iso: Produces an angled grid pattern for use on isometric drawings. The X and Y axis lines are angled by 30 degrees to the horizontal.
None: This erases whatever grid is on the map.
Scale: This button has a field next to it where you fill out a number. This number tells the script how big to make the grid boxes. The number that you input is the number of pixels between all the grid lines on the top grid, between the hex centers on the hex grid, or between the X or Y (diagonal) grid lines on the isometric grid. Press the scale button after you've entered the number, and the grid will change size. You can also use the text input field with the Rec, TOp, and Iso buttons to size the grid when it is created.
Shift: This button allows you to shift the position of the grid. It has two fields next to it where you type in the number of pixels you want to shift left or right (first field) or up and down (second field). Use positive numbers to shift to the right or up. Use negative numbers to shift to the left or down. Click the button after you enter the numbers.
Refr: Refreshes the map window.
Hide: This button places an opaque "roof" over your map. A semi transparent, dark gray layer will cover your entire map, but the map will still be visible to you. Your players will see the entire map covered by a black, opaque layer, making it totally invisible. The players and you will still be able to see and move miniatures.
NOTE: All newly loaded maps
will have an opaque (to players) cover when they first appear.
You will have to clear it or draw
transparent areas in it (see below) to allow your players to see the map.
Trans: Causes your entire map to become visible to players.
Tsqr: Creates a transparent rectangle in the opaque layer covering the map. Press the button, click your mouse in one corner of the area you want to be transparent, and then click it again in the opposite corner. A rectangular area between these two points will become fully transparent. You can keep creating overlapping rectangular areas by clicking points inside and outside the transparent area.
Bsqr: Creates an opaque
rectangular area in a transparent background. Operates the same way as the transparent rectangle button.
If a player's miniature happens to wind up in an opaque black area, they will still be able to see it and move it.
Tcir: Draws transparent circles. Click the button, then click a point on one edge of the circle, then click a point on the opposite side of the circle.
Bcir: Draws opaque circles. Click the button, then click a point on one edge of the circle, then click a point on the opposite side of the circle.
If you need a dungeon in a hurry you can download one of the onsite "floor" images and use the Trec and Tcir buttons to create transparent shapes in the cover to form corridors and rooms. You might not want to try this with dialup - it can be rather slow.
Prxall: Turns on proximity vision for all the miniaures, allowing all of them to see out to the radius in pixels that you type in to the field at the left of the button. Type in the value, then click the button. On the GM screen you will see red circles of the specified radius appear around all the miniatures. The players will see an opaque cover appear with transparent circles of the proper radius around all the miniatures. The opaque cover used for proximity vision is placed on top of the one used for other transparent shapes.
Currently All players see all the transparency circles around all other player's miniatures. They do not see the circles around the GM's miniatures.
Prxmini: Turns on proximity vision out to a specified radius for one selected miniature. This allows you to give different vision radii to different minis. Enter the radius, then click the button, then click one of the miniatures. A red circle of the specified radius appears around the miniature on your screen. A transparent circle appears around the miniature on the player's screens.
Prxoff: Turns proximity vision off. Everyone can see to the edge of the map, except for opaque areas created with the "Bsqr," etc. buttons.
Range: Places a range circle around a miniature or a point on the map. Enter the range in the same field that you use for proximity vision, then click range, then click the mini or a point on the map. A purple circle of the specified radius with hatch marks at ten degree intervals will appear. This is only visible on the GM's screen.
Rngoff: Erases range circles that you place on the map (as opposed to around miniatures, see NOTE below). Click this button then click the "+" mark in the center of the range circle. NOTE: this button will currently not work for range circles around miniatures. To erase those, enter "0" in the range field, click the Range button, then click the mini.
Mve:
Changes the position of your map on your own screen. 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: Zoom the map in and out on your own screen. The map, miniatures, and grid 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 intended for the display of non-map images - things like pictures of scrolls, magic items, runes, wanted posters, etc. Store up to ten such images here, both you and players can view them in a separate window. There is a button marked "display" and a drop down list. Select the name of the image that you want to view from the drop down list, then click the "display" button.
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.