Runebound extension for Strange Eons - Work In Progress...

By talismanisland, in Runebound

Some people may already know about the great tool that Chris Jennings has developed for making fan cards and other goodies for Arkham Horror, called Strange Eons.

http://cgjennings.ca/eons/

Over the last year (or so) I have been working on Talisman extensions for it, and have decided to have a go at Runebound which might help a few budding home-brewers out there.

Progress has been slow, as real life has got in the way once or twice, but I figured if I announced something I would have to get things rolling again!

Currently only Hero and Ally cards are coded, but I hope to have Adventure cards added before too long.

The interface is pretty simple, and if you have used SE before you will know what it's all about.

I would welcome any suggestions that you might have and will consider any wishes, but cannot guarantee they will be granted! gran_risa.gif

Anyway, here are a couple of images to whet your appetite...

se_rb_splash.jpg

Splash Screen...

se_rb_text.jpg

Text Entry...

se_rb_testing.jpg

The Result...

Looking good, Jon!

Wicked!

I love strange eons for AH, and one of my first thoughts upon getting Runebound was "a strange eons-like character making for this would be awesome".

For card types (somewhere down the line), would love to see the "quests" from Sands of Al-Kalim. But of course the core card types should all come first. happy.gif

Wow, this is too cool! I love Runebound and would love to make my own cards :)

How is your work coming along? I'd be happy to be a beta tester!

Matt

This is exactly what this game needs. Thanks for your work.

I am glad that people might enjoy this addon!

I sent Gatharion a copy, but there was a bit of trouble installing it on a Mac. If anyone has some clues about where to put the file on a Mac it'd be cool to post gui%C3%B1o.gif

For the moment I have had to stop working on the tool, but thought it might be nice if people had a chance to use it for the moment to create characters and allies.

You can get hold of the current version using this link , not forgetting to rename it as a .seext file if your browser assumes it to be a zip file!

Let me know how you go on with it.

PS - Just to give people a heads up, there are a couple of macros to use within the text section.

As you can see in the picture above, using <sk> will put the Skill title in etc.

The rest of the macros are -

var MACROS = '<define ap "<b>Any Phase:</b>">'
+ '<define bc "<b>Before Combat:</b>">'
+ '<define ra "<b>Ranged:</b>">'
+ '<define ml "<b>Melee:</b>">'
+ '<define mg "<b>Magic:</b>">'
+ '<define rm "<b>Ranged and Melee:</b>">'
+ '<define mm "<b>Melee and Magic:</b>">'
+ '<define sk "<b>Skills:</b>">'
+ '<define cl "Climb +2">'
+ '<define cl+ "Climb +4">'
+ '<define di "Diplomacy +2">'
+ '<define di+ "Diplomacy +4">'
+ '<define en "Endure +2">'
+ '<define en+ "Endure +4">'
+ '<define hi "Hide +2">'
+ '<define hi+ "Hide +4">'
+ '<define ju "Jump +2">'
+ '<define ju+ "Jump +4">'
+ '<define lo "Lore +2">'
+ '<define lo+ "Lore +4">'
+ '<define pr "Prophecy +2">'
+ '<define pr+ "Prophecy +4">'
+ '<define re "Resist +2">'
+ '<define re+ "Resist +4">'
+ '<define sn "Sneak +2">'
+ '<define sn+ "Sneak +4">'
+ '<define sp "Spot +2">'
+ '<define sp+ "Spot +4">'
+ '<define sw "Swim +2">'
+ '<define sw+ "Swim +4">'
+ '<define sw- "Swim -4">'
+ '<define ti "Tinker +2">'
+ '<define ti+ "Tinker +4">'
+ '<define mi "<image res://runebound/elements/mind.png 4pt 6pt>">'
+ '<define bo "<image res://runebound/elements/body.png 4.6pt 6pt>">'
+ '<define sp "<image res://runebound/elements/spirit.png 6pt 6pt>">'
+ '<define wo "<image res://runebound/elements/wounds.png 7.2pt 6pt>">'
+ '<define ex "<image res://runebound/elements/exhaustion.png 4.2pt 6pt>">'
+ '<define go "<image res://runebound/elements/gold.png 4.4pt 6pt>">'
+ '<define me "<image res://runebound/elements/menace.png 5.1pt 6pt>">';

Just for information, I went with attributes of +2 and +4 because they seemed to be the most common. If there are any others that people would like to see, or know of, just let me know and I can add another set of macros.

Thank you so much for making this available :) !!!

I've already made my own character. This sure is cool!

Matt

Challenge cards done (base game for now).

se_rb_challenge.png

Events and Encounters next and then I'll upload an updated extension.

Events and Encounters are done, but need tweaking and I figured I might as well complete the Item cards before I upload the next test copy.

se_event_update.jpg

Stay tuned...

Everything is looking fantastic :) !!!

Can't wait to give this a try. The challenge cards are something I'd love to see the community build upon. Adds so much variety.


Matt

The latest version is now up - http://www.talismanisland.com/Runebound2.seext

You can now create generic Hero, Ally, Item, Challenge, Encounter and Event cards.

Added a couple more macros - <al> All Phases: & <rw> Reward:

Don't bother trying to change the expansion as it will not work (I should really have taken it out for now), that willl come later and is an easy thing to add.

I realise the text and positioning might not be perfect, but that can be tweaked later. I would appreciate any comments on wishes, problems etc, especially if I have forgotten something obvious!

Really nice work, Jon, and a lot of work obviously. Don't have any suggestions as I think you've either covered all the needs or will cover anything minor that's left to do.

I think the next thing to do will be adding expansion icons (if they are really necessary and I can get suitable ones).

After that will be Island of Dread cards, but I am not sure whether to make them as separate card types or just add them to the mix with normal cards.

Captains can go with normal Ally cards I guess, and the Adventure backs are easy enough to add in to the main entry, even the Sea Adventure backs.

Thoughts?

Haven't gotten to playing IoD as yet; our favorite so far is SoAK, but perhaps because its the only big box we've tried. It looks like you've got the most sensible approach already planned out.

Overall, the only icons you really need are for cards that must be used with a big box expansion. All those other icons for the card expansions aren't really necessary... well, maybe the variants, if someone wants to add something for one of those game endings. Obviously you should focus on templates needed for the most commonly used stuff.

Oh wait! What about (for later) a template for making "equipment" tiles? Those do pop up in couple of big box expansions. It should be a pretty easy one to do, if FFG has shared the stock template with you, and if not....

We've played around with something similar using DQ / Talisman sized cards, and thereby can be sleeved. They take up more room than a tile but less room than a RB card. I'm still futzing now and then with the template, if that's of any use in the future, but I think most people would want to make something that matches those tiles.

Hmm. I agree about icons, and to be honest they are the bane of my life as far as the Talisman plug-in goes. That's what you get wanting to be as complete as possible when most people just want plain cards...

I am working on it this week and will have more to show by the weekend, I hope...

Icons... hmm... yeah, I can see the pain in that, though I'm not so certain Runebound would be any better than Talisman. You might just resort to pulldown list to set a "reguired" condition for the card; thereby an icon would be added by the plugin "if and only if" the created card(s) requires a particular commercial expansion.

This would limit the number of icons needed, maybe. It would also imply that anyone making a standalone custom expansion for a special purpose will have to mark it themselves outside of the system. For as much stuff as there is out there for RB on the commercial side, there really won't be a need by most for custom icon marking.

Indeed. As the expansion is generally identified by the card backs in use, there is no real need for a selectable icon.

I think perhaps I might just use a generic SE icon that will be watermarked on each card, instead of using a credit or some such to Chris' work...

...and as you can see, I have my work cut out with the cardback options!

se_rb_thumbs.jpg

...and this isn't all of the card types!

EEEK! Okay, I knew there were a lot but... that's insane!

Well, I am nearly at a point where I have all of the files sort that I need for cards, but wondered what option people might like to see. I can make no promises of course, but I am interested to see whether taking an "all bells and whistles" approach would really be worth it.

Will people just want to make Heroes to play with and new Challenges? Will they want to add cards to existing decks from the big and small box expansions, which would need all of the card back options shown previously? Will the standard "dragon" back do? Would it matter if a card used in MoZ used standard card fronts, for example?

Time to chime!

Wow,

I think I speak for everyone when I say what an amazing thing it is that you are taking the time to do this for the community :)

Yikes, there are so many options. I am just thankful for there to already be what you've done. I am excited to take advantage of the character creator and adventure card creator. Having all of the options and graphics isn't necessary, though I imagine people won't complain if they are there :)

Matt

It's really hard call, Jon. I think if you have the core card templates in, that's good enough for a start. Then maybe as life permits, do the others in stages based on big box expansions only. My preferrence would be for SoAK first, of course, but it would be more sensible perhaps to start with the latest expansion and work backwards chronologically. And stuff for Midnight probably won't have a lot of demand.

Between fronts and backs, backs would be the ones people would want. A front that doesn't match exactly won't matter for play, but the backs are needed to blend in (with some of us fussy ones wanting extras to slip behind commercial cards in sleeves for good blending).

Perhaps along with the basic template fronts, you might stick in some backs for the big boxers... if that's easy... if not, let it wait.

Okay, thanks for the feedback guys, though some more would certainly be welcome!

A lot of the files are pretty easy, but there are additions like in Frozen Wastes or Mists of Zanaga that require a bit more thought, so I will probably keep the fronts to match the backs but will have to see how it all gels together.

What I am interested in doing is having/making a generic Runebound/Strange Eons icon, so that people don't get too hung up on needing an expansion icon.

I am heading towards a standard Runebound 2nd Edition icon, but perhaps with a bit of a flourish or something. I have a standard flat file to use, but fancy something a little different...

Hmmm... now I'm curious. Why would you need a 'generic' icon if the cards would not be expansion oriented?