This program can be used for the Rolemaster FRP game to test the combat capabilities of a character. After input of the combat statistics of a combatant and his opponent it may execute a series of combats between these two opponents. These are rolled similar to a normal Rolemaster Combat, including the use of various attack tables, critical tables (also for large or super-large creature) and the standard Rolemaster Combat statistics.
It tries to stay as near to the Rolemaster Standard System as possible but there are quite some limitations:
The attack tables are internally represented by a starting point where the first hit point(s) start and a step value which determines when the next hit increment happens. This does roughly result in the Arms Law / Spell hit values per armor. In a similar way the steps where the criticals occur are determined,
Only the attack tables from the Arms Law and Spell Law books but not those from Companions are included. If your character requires another attack table you have to find the table which most closely resembles that of your character and perhaps slightly modify his OB.
The critical tables from Rolemaster Arms Law and Spell Law are not directly used but instead critical tables which are closer to the (condensed) MERP tables are included.
In the current version 1.0 some features are still missing:
Automatic determination of the amount which is available for parrying depending on the wielded weapon
For whom is this program useful? Well, good question. Maybe if you want to test whether a character concept results in a (combat-wise) better character than another one this is a good starting point. Or if you just want to see whether your character is stronger in combat than that of one of your fellow players. Or if you want to test how to good your character is when fighting a monster which often appears in your campaign to see how offensive or defensive he may act.
If you have suggestions or comments (other than „this program is crap“, I know this tool is more useful for followers of the „way of the munchkin“ and not for everyone) just send me an email to epost@joergjahnke.de.
The program requires a JRE 1.4 / JDK 1.4 or higher installed on your system.
On Window systems you should be able to simply double click the .jar file to start the program. If that does not work or you use another operating system you may start the program from a command-shell by typing „java -jar RMCombatTester.jar“.
If you start the program from the command-line you also may specify the „-debug“ option as additional parameter. This activates the debug output in the result window giving you a complete overview of the actions which took place during combat. If you do activate this option you should not use the default value of 1000 fights for the simulation as otherwise you will most likely run out of memory.
After that you should see the main window. Here you can either load one or both combatants from existing .rmfight files in the file-system or enter the combat statistics for both combatants. Both may also be saved to the file-system. Use the „File“ menu for these operations.
Fields for the combat statistics include:
Combatant name: Only important for the identification. The program lists this name and the number and percentage of fights won after the simulation is ended.
Hit points
Attack#1-3: By clicking the button „Click to enter statistics for attack#X“ you get to another dialog where you can specify OB, attack table etc. for the attack. Entering an OB of 0 completely removes the attack.
Armor Type
DB: Normal DB including armor bonus and spells which are active during the whole combat without the need to repeat (e.g. „Blur“).
Shield bonus: The full DB granted by the shield including material bonus.
Initiative: Initiative modifier. Initiative is determined during combat each round by rolling 2D10 and adding this value. The higher initiative then attacks first during this round.
Parry amount: Amount of OB dedicated to parrying. Unless the opponent is stunned or out this amount will be subtracted from the OB and used to parry.
Parry efficiency: Percentage of the amount parried which is added to the DB. E.g. for 2-handed weapons against other weapons you could specify a 50 here as only 50% of the OB can be used for parrying in these cases. This is based on a House-Rule in our group which replaces the maximum parry percentage by this parry efficiency. As long as no OB is specified as „Parry amount“ a maximum percentage and parry efficiency will have the same effect.
Defensive spell: The button „Click to enter defensive spell statistics“ brings you to an optional dialog where you can enter the details of a spell that can be cast each round to improve the DB of the combatant. Such spell are e.g. „Bladeturn I“ or „Deflect I“. During combat the combatant tries to cast these spells each round to improve his defense (at least if able to cast) as long as he has PPs or charges and the opponent is not out or stunned (he may be fooled though if the opponent casts Unstun at the start of the round).
Unstun Spell #1: The button „Click to enter Unstun spell statistics“ opens a dialog where you can enter the details of an Unstun spell that the combatant can cast to get rid of accumulated stuns. During combat the combatant will try to cast these spells at the beginning of a round as long as he has PPs or charges to remove stun rounds received.
Power Points: Only important if a Defensive Spell or Unstun Spell has been specified and uses up PPs.
Critical size: Change this radio button if criticals are rolled on the large or super-large creature table for this combatant.
Cannot be stunned: Activate this checkbox if the combatant cannot be stunned (e.g. for most undead).
Cannot bleed: Activate this checkbox if the combatant will not suffer from hits/rnd (e.g. most undead).
Aura critical: Here you can specify a critical (type and severity) which the combatant delivers every round e.g. the cold aura of a wraith or the fire aura of a balrog.
Once all necessary stats are entered you may start the simulation using the menu entry „Fight -> Run fights“. An input dialog will pop up and ask for the number of fights. After pressing OK the simulation will run. Once it is finished it prints a short summary at the bottom of the main window where it lists the number and percentage of fights won by each character.
Have fun :-)
Created 2004-12-20, last updated on 2004-12-22