A great way to learn to use DM Genie is with the in-program
Tutorials
. You can also follow these steps.
Create PCs
- First, create the PCs and enter their data into
DM Genie. This is described in
New Creature Screen
and the
Classes Frame
. Put the PCs in the “PC's Party” group.
If you haven't created the monsters ahead of time
- Optionally,
create a group that will hold the enemies for this battle, for example
“Goblins
in Tower”. If it is a quick battle, like a random encounter,
you can add enemies directly to
the “Current Encounter” group. See
Group Manager
.
- Create
a set of monsters or enemies. This is described in the
New Creature Screen
.
Prepare the combat
- You
must put both the PCs and the monsters in the same group. The easiest
way to do this is to
select the group of monsters, and click “Prepare
Combat”. This will put all the
PCs and all the monsters of that group into the “Current
Encounter” group. (Note: You can run a
battle from any group, for example by putting the PCs in the same group
as the
monsters, but it is best to use only “Current
Encounter” because this keeps PCs and
monsters separated except during battle). The Prepare Combat
button also rolls initiative
for all combatants.
- Another
way to prepare the combat would be to use the
Group Manager
to move the PCs and the monsters they will be fighting into the Current
Encounter group
Start the combat
- You
can use the Roll Window to roll or enter initiative values. Select
“Initiative” in
the Roll List. Click “Make Roll” to open the
Roll Window
.
- If
the PCs have rolled their own initiative, then select the checkboxes to
display only the
friends. Click on “Manually” to open the manual
entry window. For each PC, call out
their name, type in the roll or total initiative that the player gives
you, and press enter.
- Click
Done to apply the initiative.
- Click
“Start Combat” to start the
combat. This sets all rounds to 1. You can
also set friends or enemies as "surprised", which will have them start
only in round 2.
Also, you can specify whether friends and/or enemies start out
flat-footed (normally all combatants
are flat-footed at the beginning of combat).
- At this point, it is a good idea to sort the list by
initiative, by clicking on the Init
column header (or right-click and select Sort by Play Order).
Each creature's turn
- A green arrow in the Order column points to the creature whose turn it is to act.
- If the creature is a PC, ask the player what his or her
character does. You can use the references
in the
Skills Frame
, the
Spells Frame
, the
Psionics Frame
or the
Feats Frame
to decide what DC to apply to a skill or what the effect of a spell or
power will be. You can enter
damage to a creature hit by right clicking on the target in the
Creature List
and entering the appropriate amount. You can apply conditions resulting
from the PC's action with
the
Condition Setter
- If
the creature is a monster or NPC, you can use the various frames
described above to select an
appropriate action. If you make an attack, the
Combat Log
reports what AC is hit. You can then inform the player who was attacked
whether or not his
character was hit. The player will adjust his hit points on his
character sheet appropriately, and
you may adjust them in the program as well, if you wish to keep track
of the players' statistics as well.
Going to the next creature
- The
“Done with '...'”
button signals
the end of the turn of the currently
selected character. You can click the button or press Ctrl+D. The green
arrow in the Order column now points to the next creature in the play
order.
- There is no effect if
you click Done With
for a character who should not act yet - his turn will still come up
normally. You can make a character skip one or more turns by clicking
in its Rd (round) column
entry, and typing in a higher round number. For instance, if a
character will be away for 10 rounds, starting round 12, type in "22".
The character will not come up for 10 rounds.
- The
expiration of conditions from spells, etc. is checked before each creature acts.
Expiration is reported in the
combat log if that option is set in the
Options Dialog
.
On each new round
- A
creature that is dying will automatically lose a hit point, unless it
stabilizes (10% chance)
- Creatures
in the current group are saved. See
Automatic File Saving
.
Delaying and Readying
- To
have a character start a delay or ready, select the
Actions Frame
and click Delay or Ready. You can also right-click the creature and select Start Delay or Start Ready.
- When
a character is delaying or readying a D or R appears in the Order column of the
Creature List. The creature remains at its spot in the play order until the delay is stopped.
- When a delaying character comes up, the Done With button becomes
the Continue Delay – click it
and you will move on to the next character.
Ending a Delay/Ready
- When
a player declares "I'm ending my delay/ready!", select him and use the End
Delay or the End Ready buttons (or right-click and choose the End Delay/Ready menu) to stop
his delay or ready.
- The
character is moved to the spot just before the creature who's turn it is to act.
- For
Delayers: you should End Delay after clicking Done With on the current character.
- For
Readiers: you should End Ready before performing the action that triggered the ready and before clicking Done With.
- The
character's init is also changed to match the initiative of the
creature who triggered the
delay/ready. A line in the combat log gives you the PC's new initiative
and indicated before/after
which character they now are placed.
- Delaying example: Alice declares a delay at initiative 22. She waits until
Bob's turn on initiative 14 and declares she wants to end her delay.
She will act after
Bob, so first you have Bob complete his actions for his turn. Before you have clicked "Done With" for Bob, you select End Delay
for Alice. You then click "Done With" on Bob, and Alice's turn comes
up. From now on, Alice's turn is just after Bob, and her initiative is
14.
- Readying example: It's
Alice's turn on initiative 16. Alice declares that she readies an
attack "if Bob casts a spell". When Bob's turn comes (on initiative 7),
he says that he will cast a spell. Before doing so, select Alice, click
End Ready, and run her turn. Alice's initiative becomes 7, same as Bob, but she will act just before him from now on.
Manually Changing Play Order
- When the creatures are sorted by initiative, you can change their
order by simply clicking, dragging and dropping one creature onto
another - it will then act just before that creature; its initative will be adjusted to match.
- You can also manually edit a creature's initiative, which is then resorted to end up at its right place in the play order.
- If required, you can manually specify which creature's turn it is. Right-click on the creature and select It is this creature's turn.
The current round and initiative are changed to match - if used
improperly this may cause you to run through the same round twice.
Clicking Done With afterwards acts normally.
- Behind the scenes: when
delaying or dragging characters around makes 2 PCs have the
same initiative, you will see that their play order is still
preserved. This is done by setting their initiative to a slightly
higher number. For example, if Alice acts before Bob, but both are at
initiative 16, the program will actually use 16.01 as Alice's
initiative, preserving its position in the play order. Condition
expirations will also use this fractional value - meaning that spell
expiration can occur correctly between several PCs with all the same
initiative value.
Adding New Combatants and Init
- If
you create a new monster and add it to Current Encounter, it will
automatically start playing
the next round. For example, if you are in round 5 and an Orc comes in
(is created), he will act on
his initiative (which is rolled automatically) on round 6.
- Moving
creatures into Current Encounter works similarly, except that the group
manager has a
textbox where you can specify which round the new combatants enter (which should never be earlier than the current round!).
Ending the Combat
- When
the combat is finished you can award XP to the PCs. Use the Battle->Encounter
Difficulty/XP menu or press Ctrl+F3.
- Afterwards,
you can use the Battle->End Combat menu to
clean up. You can select to clear
all conditions for everyone, reset their hit points to full, and remove
or permanently delete all
the enemies in Current Encounter.
- You
can also use the Battle->Rest All menus to restore HP
through natural healing, and restore
memorized spells, etc.
Documentation for DM Genie and Player Genie, page Steps_starting_Battle. Copyright © Mad Scientist Studios, 2006.
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