Battle wheels

wordman

wordman

Two Thousand Club
Finding limitations with both White Wolf's battle wheel and the one designed by Democritus (which you don't seem to be able to download any more), I'm in the process of building my own.


In some other thread long ago...

wordman said:
A suggestion for the battle wheel:
Add more concentric rings to it representing the DV penalties of the players. So, as they move around the circle, they also move towards or away from the center as their DV changes.
Click to expand...
Since no one took me up on this suggestion, it forms the center of my wheel design. I also assume that actions can have Speeds higher than eight (I go to 15). A preview of what I have so far (cooked up before work this morning, so I already see three things I want to fix) is here. This will be a PDF when it is done.


Any suggestions for improvements? What do you want on a battle wheel?
 
Actually, I don't use a battle wheel. But that could just be me as I tend to game online. So my post might not be appropiate here.


When I ST for a 2e game, I open up a notepad if there is going to be a battle involved.


I then get the order of the PCs and NPCs listed down. with the first 'set' of ticks listed behind.


Fighter1 - 1


Fighter2 - 2


Fighter3 - 3


Fighter4 - 4


Fighter5 - 5


I then start typing numbers counting up...


1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 and so on, with each PC/NPC doing their action on the appropiate tick. This requires that I get their speed from them as they do whatever it is that they do. I tend add the speed to the numbers... like so.


Fighter1 - 1 +6 +4


Fighter2 - 2 +4 +5


Fighter3 - 3 +5 +3


Fighter4 - 4 +6 +4


Fighter5 - 5 +5 +6


So, in this case, what would happen here is;


1 (Fighter1) / 2 (Fighter2) / 3 (Fighter3) / 4 (Fighter4) / 5 (Fighter5) / 6 (Fighter2) / 7 (Fighter1) / 8 (Fighter3) / 9 (no fight action) / 10 (Fighter4 & Fighter5) / 11 (Fighter1 & Fighter2 & Fighter3)


It's not a clean method, but it allows me to keep track of who goes when and it does depend on how the fight goes, but since it's open-ended...


EDIT - DV is tracked on another notepad.
 
GOD DAMMIT HAKU!


Every time you post, I end up zoning out staring at your sig. I can't get anything done!   :evil:
 
Flagg said:
GOD DAMMIT HAKU!
Every time you post, I end up zoning out staring at your sig. I can't get anything done!   :evil:
Click to expand...
:oops:


I -could- get rid of the boobies... but do you want to get rid of the boobies?


Imagine the forum without the boobies. Won't you think of the boobies?  :twisted:
 
Perhaps a photo-shop version with clearly marked layers for the background arts?


Personally, I would prefer to have a battlewheel that's simple, with a DV chart seperate from the wheel.
 
Haku said:
Perhaps a photo-shop version with clearly marked layers for the background arts?
Click to expand...
Problematic, since this is not using raster graphics for the most part. I could do a layered Illustrator file.
Haku said:
Personally, I would prefer to have a battlewheel that's simple, with a DV chart separate from the wheel.
Click to expand...
Why's that?
 
I like it.  Not sure about the background artwork' date=' but that is a personal thing really.[/quote']
Bits are cheap. I could put several versions in the PDF. Maybe one full color, one minus art work, one simple lines only?
Click to expand...
 
My ST made one that is similar, but oval, like a race track.  The inside has common actions and the speed/DV so we don't forget or have t look elseware.  I'll ask him to post a link.


He stuck it on top of corkboard and we use pushpins with names stuck on them to mark people.
 
Bah, he can't say dmoonfire, can he? :)


11"x17" Exalted Combat Tracker (PDF)


These are the combat trackers I was trying for the last game session. The base for the large one is a 11"x17" corkboard which I got at Office Max for several dollars. The combat-tracker was basically cut slightly to wrap around the edges and gray taped (scotch tape didn't work). I intended the rings to be -0, -1, -2, -3, -4, and -N DV penalties with N being relatively rare in our group and requiring us to remember. It also handles up to 20 ticks in the future so your third circle spells just move forward 15 ticks.


6"9" Tracker (PDF)


I also created a small-format tracker pad for my use. This was mounted with white glue to a pair of 6"x9" cork boards I got from Dollar General (for a dollar), and a cardboard back I got from an Amazon purchase. It make a nice, solid-feeling board I could use pushpins to track Essence, Willpower, Virtues, DV penalties, and health for about 3-4 major bad guys.


Example Tags (PDF)


We use pins for the actual tracking. To make those, I bought a box of push pins of interesting colors. I ended up separating the colors so all the bad guys were red and the other colors were relevant to the players. Then, I created just a sheet of paper and printed it out on normal paper. To make the pins, I prepunched holes in the ends, then put a drop of liquid superglue (not gel) and pushed it through a box (again, I had one from Amazon) to push the paper all the way down and shove the paper, pin, and superglue together. Then, I pull it out and set it aside to dry. The superglue took about 15-20 minutes to dry, but it created a nice solid connection with the plastic pushpin so when you pick it up, the paper always went with the pin.


It worked out pretty well when we tried it. You may have to save the PDF files to your computer to view. Evince doesn't like it, but Acrobat Reader is just fine with it for me.
 
dmoonfire said:
Bah, he can't say dmoonfire, can he?
Click to expand...
A common problem, it seems. To wit, can you add some kind of URL to those PDFs? That way, if some nefarious character were to host copies of these files on his FTP site, they could be tracked back (and credited) to you?
 
wordman said:
Haku said:
Perhaps a photo-shop version with clearly marked layers for the background arts?
Click to expand...
Problematic, since this is not using raster graphics for the most part. I could do a layered Illustrator file.
Haku said:
Personally, I would prefer to have a battlewheel that's simple, with a DV chart separate from the wheel.
Click to expand...
Why's that?
Click to expand...
Because I like the KISS principal. Maindly, the DV notations in yours detract from the wheel itself.


Even a table with several boxes with DV values that you can put the pieces in would make it easier. Yes. there would be two pieces you'd need to keep track of.


Mind you, this is me grumbling... is all.


As for the illustrator, and such... that's understandable. But what are you using for the image maniupulation?
 
Haku said:
Flagg said:
GOD DAMMIT HAKU!
Every time you post, I end up zoning out staring at your sig. I can't get anything done!   :evil:
Click to expand...
:oops:


I -could- get rid of the boobies... but do you want to get rid of the boobies?


Imagine the forum without the boobies. Won't you think of the boobies?  :twisted:
Click to expand...
NEVER get rid of the boobies. its what keep me playing Exalted at all ^^
 
Haku said:
Flagg said:
GOD DAMMIT HAKU!
Every time you post, I end up zoning out staring at your sig. I can't get anything done!   :evil:
Click to expand...
:oops:


I -could- get rid of the boobies... but do you want to get rid of the boobies?


Imagine the forum without the boobies. Won't you think of the boobies?  :twisted:
Click to expand...
NEVER get rid of the boobies. its what keep me playing Exalted at all ^^
Click to expand...
It is too late, unless there are enough people who clap their hands and wish for boobies, my sig will no longer have Reon Kadena.
 
Haku said:
Haku said:
Flagg said:
GOD DAMMIT HAKU!
Every time you post, I end up zoning out staring at your sig. I can't get anything done!   :evil:
Click to expand...
:oops:


I -could- get rid of the boobies... but do you want to get rid of the boobies?


Imagine the forum without the boobies. Won't you think of the boobies?  :twisted:
Click to expand...
NEVER get rid of the boobies. its what keep me playing Exalted at all ^^
Click to expand...
It is too late, unless there are enough people who clap their hands and wish for boobies, my sig will no longer have Reon Kadena.
Click to expand...
*clap! clap* common people! for boobies!


Or, instead of taking them off, you could show us more! =)
 
I doubt that mister Stillborn's hungry ghost Flagg would like it if I post those NSFW Reon pics. ^_^
 
i did it, but i only get info in a pretty cute, but live person, not the manga. but again i'm in work, i can not acess many sites in here.
 
Oh, the Haku's current sig is Tomo from Azumanga Daioh pretending that she's even remotely as cool as Father Andreson from Hellsing. Tomo's cool, but she's no more than a mote of dirt compared to the ridiculous badassness of Andreson.
 
oh, i guess that i have an problem in my browser. i thought that i was reffering to that goat chick from the 1st age lunars sig


but thanks a lot, reon is really beautifull ^^
 
Oh, the avatar. Huh. I once stumbled across the original image once, but the imageboard is currently down. It's an original piece, I believe though. :S
 
Hrm, I don't see my posting. Well, I'll just post it again. I fixed the problems with my SVN repository (http://mfgames.com/src/exalted/trackers/) which will handle the PDF's just fine. I have the bandwidth and disk, might as well use them.


I use Inkscape, which is a free SVG program for Windows and Linux. It is the same program I used for my vector and online maps of Creation. Both trackers were only about 20 minutes worth of work each.


I think you could use the tracker as just a tick tracker instead of a tick/DV tracker. I didn't put the actual values in for the DV, so you could just use it as a tick tracker that uses lots of blue ink. :)
 
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