Hello

I created a small tool to aid the GMs roll less dice in a combat with many participants. The tools shows you a table of numbers. You just have to roll a d100 to see e.g. how many Space Goblins passed their ballistic test.

! It only supports roundabout up to 12 low skilled combatants ! or less more skilled ones...

the list looks like this:

WS: 13

1-13

2-24

3-34

4-43

...

so if you have for example 4 goblins in meele combat just roll a d100. if you roll a 43= 4 goblins hit, if you roll a 26=only 2 of them score...

in this case you have to roll high to score more hits.

or Malakai uses his flamer to grill some space zombies. He manages to get 6 of them into his range. now instead of rolling 6 times, simply look at the table, roll once, and deal damage to those who failed to evade.

known bugs:

-may not work with Vista and windows 7, will be fixed soon

-the numbers dont make sense if you have to many or to skilled combatants....so just use it as long as it feels right.

How to Use: just click on the stuff you would like to change and change it you can add up to 10 notes, just click at the empty space.

2mb

http://rapidshare.com/files/277859231/Mookalyser_v0.1.exe
p.s. if you have some webspace, feel free to reupload it and post the link.

Its only a beta, i will add more features later...

I hope you understand how to use it...I am getting tired, so excuse me please if I am writing confusing stuff

Levyten

Gah, so many things wrong with that table:

- Horrible font.

- No way to tell it how many enemies in the mob facing you. Since the result is dependant on the number of enemies, this means that the table is useless.

- No allowance for anything but single shot weapons that don't jam.

- Lots of editable fields that don't need to be edited.

- Fails on large numbers of enemies. In other words it fails when the gm is most likely to want it.

I wrote up a program to generate a mass of random numbers so that my gm doesn't have to roll his dice every time, instead he just tells it how many rolls he wants and it generates them faster than someone having to roll the dice. I wrote it in java and will give the source code to anyone that wants it.

This tool adds the probabilities. That the GM has to roll the dice once and not X-times (I like to roll a dice instead letting a program do the rolling). But the truth is that the tool is quite limited at the moment. It only supports roundabout up to 12 low skilled combatants I have to think of something else to simulate more...

I do not own DH, this tool is based on the Quick start rules from Forsaken bounty. I am waiting for Rogue Trader...

You can use the tables for as many combatants as you want, you dont have to insert the number into the program. If you have only 3 goblins, every roll above the number 34 is a total fail (based on the small table in the first post). This has the advantage that you dont have to change anything in the tool if u are playing. just a short look and yow know how many failed.

Its a "handwritten" font, that looks like the inquisitor notes from the Creatures Anathema. I will add a change font button it in the next version.

I hope to find a way to improve this tool...

Levyten

Then there's my in-perpetual-beta Combat Sheet that does all this in Excel and Visual Basic.

Give it a spin

Features:

- Rolls Initiative and sorts fighters in order

- Automatically resolves all To-Hit and Damage rolls for all participants in a fight

- Resolves Net damage based on selected targets Toughness and Armour, and keeps track of wounds

- Other things

By the way, you can make your own diceroller in Excel very easy. To generate a random Integer number between a and b inclusive, use:

=Int(RAND()*b+a)

Rand() generates a number between 0 and 1 (includes zero, but always smaller than 1). Multiplying by b scales it, giving a "roll" between 0 and b-1, and finally adding 1 makes possible values from 1 to b. Then simply convert to Integer by using int() and you're done. Hitting F9 will re-roll every cell with this formula.

Copy these into Excel to see how they work, they make D5, D10 and D100 respectively.

=INT(RAND()*(5)+1)
=INT(RAND()*(10)+1)
=INT(RAND()*(100)+1)

Then just make as many as you want, and F9 lets you roll as many Dice as you could possibly want at the same time.

The following line calculates Degrees of Success or Failure for a given roll. Assume cell B10 holds the formula for a D100 test shown above, and B1 holds the test score (IE the Goblins BS of 23) then:

=ROUNDDOWN((B$1-B10)/10;0)

Gives DoS for positive numbers, while negative numbers show DoF. If you just want a simple Hit/Miss use:

=IF(B$1-B10>=0;"Hit!";"Miss!")

To show how many hits you have, use

=COUNTIF(E8:E17;"Hit!")

In this example I had made 4 rows with dicerolls, storing the Hit/Miss formula in cells E8 to E17.

See this example file for more info if you're interested.

Of course, if you just want to know how many goblins with equal chance to hit (ie. 23%) will score a hit, it is even simpler: Just multiply that chance by number of goblins. If 10 goblins with BS 23 shoot, they will score 2,3 hits every time, on average (10 * 0,23). Not accounting for additional hits for auto-fire, etc. See this thread for more number crunching on the exact same topic

If you're running an actually massive combat, with armies and such, Rogue Trader has two optional sub-systems to cover it. There's a very simple, abstract one, which focuses on individual character's actions via tests that represent a great deal of normal combat or other rolling. Then, there's a slightly more complicated one where you can combine similar combatants into unit-entities that have bigger stats and cannot interact normally with anyone but other units.* My one gripe with that version is that unit wounds are based purely on the number of troops, so things like a troop of veteran warriors or a brood of genestealers will die approximately as fast as conscripted feudal worlder peasants.

*If you've played Exalted 2nd ed, or seen 1st ed Exalted Mail and Steel rules, its kind of like that...except its less byzantine and remains integrated to the main system.

Thanks for the info RPG. So the mass combat subsystem doesnt feel "real"? could it be fixed by somehow simply increasing the wounds of stronger combatants or is it more abstract?

and does it include things like : How far away is one group from the other, using cover... or do you just have to roll on attributes until one side dies/runs away?

Darth Smeg, your excel file doesnt work with open office...because OO doesnt support some macros or has some different syntax...It hope that one of my friends has some real excel so that i could check your work out.

Have to catch the bus and play some "quick start rule" RT...

p.s. how can i write a pm? i am feeling stupid to ask this, i might just be blind and not see the button...sry

Levyten

Darth Smeg said:

You can get the same effect more easily using the RANDBETWEEN function.

=RANDBETWEEN(1,5) gives a d5, =RANDBETWEEN(1,10) gives a d10, and =RANDBETWEEN(1,100) gives a d100.

Levyten said:

The advanced mass combat system (which I'm assuming is the one you refer to) seems to be designed for simplicity rather than depth or accuracy. That's not to say it isn't good, because it's amazingly compact and efficient without compromising detail. But it's a very basic system to which one can easily find situations where you need to tack on extra rules. In my opinion, no GM should have a significant problem making it work. But they will have to try and mod it at some point in their game.

N0-1_H3r3 said:

Yes, but these require the analysis toolpack to be installed, and I find most people don't have that. And trying to explain how to install it is more hassle than those formulae above

Sorry double post

Darth Smeg said:

Sorry for the threadack but this is an amazing little piece of excel sheet you've got there Darth Smeg. Make sure you keep us posted on any updates

If you're interested, the "WFRP Throw Sheet v1.1" (found here ) has some DH implementations (Crit tables & more, if I remember correctly)

Thank you kindly, always nice to hear some positive feedback.

Those crit tables could be handy. Wonder if I could work those into my sheet somehow....