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Ironclaw Second Edition

A Game System for Foundry Virtual Tabletop

Author: Hertzila Project Source: Project URL Versions 11.305 - 11 (Verified 11) Last Updated 1 year, 4 months ago

Ironclaw Second Edition system for Foundry VTT

This is a system for running the second edition version of Ironclaw (the corebook named Ironclaw Omnibus: Squaring the Circle) in Foundry VTT.

The system has full sheets for characters and simpler sheets for 'mooks', ie. relatively unimportant / minor NPC's to be mass-copied onto the field, still more simplified sheets for beasts which lack separate skills, and (currently work-in-progress) sheets for vehicles. The system also has multiple item types to represent gifts and the different gear characters can acquire, plus a general one with no mechanical systems to it.

For arbitrary rolls and for people that prefer external sheets, there are two sets of ready-made macros included that can be used to roll arbitrary dice pools without creating an actor for them. In addition, there are some other utility macros available.

While the system has compendiums, they do not contain characters, gifts, gear or other notable game content from the Ironclaw books. Instead, they include paraphrased basic system information for quick reference as well as the aforementioned macros.

This system was built from the Boilerplate system found here: https://gitlab.com/asacolips-projects/foundry-mods/boilerplate

Usage

For rolling actor dice pools, actor sheets have a button to open a dice poll popup, which allows you to select what pools to use for the roll. Weapons and gifts can also be rolled directly, as well as Soak, Dodge defense and Rally from the actor's sheet. The sheet's Rally roll will attempt to get the right range penalty if the user is targeting another token while Rallying. The system supports setting up gifts to grant a variety of bonuses to most of the roll types through the gift sheet, which can be set to trigger with specific conditions or when used with weapons that match its configured attributes.

Weapons and gifts can be set up to automatically select certain dice pools, as well as giving extra dice for the roll automatically. The system will also use the above-mentioned system to add relevant modifiers to the rolls. Armor and shields also work, and gifts that add dice (eg. Armored Fighter) can be set up through the special bonus system.

Extra Career gift is a special case and has its own item type, instead of being a normal gift. The system can handle an arbitrary number of them, but will only show the two top ones as dice pools.

The system has support for dragging items to the hotbar to create usable macros for their quick use. A client setting controls whether the default item macro will send a chat message with the item's information, or whether it will try to use the item. Holding the quickroll modifier key (default Control) when you drag an item to the hotbar will create the alternate macro type. The specifics vary by item type when using them, as weapons would ask how it is used (Attack, Spark, Parry, Counter) from its set pools or just pop up a dice pool selection with the only pool set, gifts would pop up either a dice pool, refresh or exhaust dialog, simpler used items would switch whether they are worn/held/lit, and simple gear will just output their info to chat.

 

In sheets, things with red outlines signify a clickable function, while blue signifies a double-clickable. Single-clicks are usually some function, like opening the dice pool dialog, whereas double-clickable is usually for outputting info to the chat about the thing. Double-clicking on weapons sends an info message to chat with buttons for attacking with the weapon, placing an AoE template for relevant weapons, as well as defending against the weapon as the current actor. Rolling the defense first will allow the attacker to right click the opposing roll and select a context option to attack against the defense directly, with the attack roll automatically taking the right values from the defense roll. Weapon attack damage messages also have soak buttons for different damage levels that allow quickly rolling soak against the weapon as the current actor. Attacks that automatically hit (eg. explosions) don't allow a resistance roll immediately and instead ask for the attacker to roll the attack first, then the Soak button rolls both the resistance and the actual soak to reduce the damage.

The system has some additional context menu / right-click options for chat messages. Rolls done with the system's own 'dice rollers' have options to change the roll type, the target number or reroll a one, as well as some additional functions to resolve resisted or counter-attacks while the "Auto-calculate attack damage" option is on.

 

The order of rolls for the system only really matters in cases where there is automation, which is generally limited to combat. The general preferred order is that the defender rolls first and the contender / attacker responds to the defender's rolls. Since there are context menu commands to change a roll's type or target number, mistakes on those parts can be corrected later for the system, which also usually means that the order of rolls can be fixed when needed.

The recommended way of handling attacks is that the attacker targets who/what they are attacking and sends the weapon's information to the chat, then the defender rolls their defenses first, the attacker right-clicks the defending message to open the context menu and picks the "Attack Against This Defense" option to automatically attack with the original weapon. By default, this will also send a message to chat with the weapon's damage information and buttons for the defender to quickly roll soak with. The exception to this flow are explosion attacks, as they hit automatically. In this case, the attacker places the explosion's AoE template and rolls to hit first, then the defender rolls the resist and soak rolls both to reduce the incoming damage. Counter-attacks can be resolved by a context menu option, and attack rolls have an option to deal "Slaying" damage to account for weaknesses against the weapon.

The system tries to track whether the user's target is being threatened by any of their allies and checks the Tactics use for the item automatically when posting its information to the chat. How the sides are split depends on the combat settings, being either players and allies versus neutrals and enemies, or players versus all NPC's.

 

Ironclaw's initiative system is supported, both the normal side-based and the alternate classic style. Configuring the specifics is done through the combat tracker settings as normal, the system supporting a few different ways to classify sides in a battle. The system also auto-rolls the initiative check for battle participants when 'rolling' initiative. Beginning the combat encounter saves the side and initiative settings to the encounter and lets the combat tracker settings be used for other encounters with different settings, unless the "Force settings" option is checked.

The Combat Tracker will show the result of the initiative check before the initiative itself for the GM, either as the number of successes, or as Tie (T), Failure (F), or Botch (B).

 

The system has support for the Drag Ruler module (https://foundryvtt.com/packages/drag-ruler). The distance colors represent Stride (blue), Stride+Dash (green), Run (yellow) and over max distance (red).

The system has support for the Chat Commands module (https://foundryvtt.com/packages/_chatcommands). If present and active, the system will register different commands that can be called directly from chat. The commands listed and explained below.

The system has an importable calendar configuration for Simple Calendar (https://foundryvtt.com/packages/foundryvtt-simple-calendar). Found under "systems/ironclaw2e/calendars", the configuration sets the names correctly and the start date to the spring of the corebook current year. Moon phases are based on actual historical data of year 881 and not in-universe lore.

For area-of-effect templates, the system can use Enhanced Terrain Layer's elevation setting (https://foundryvtt.com/packages/enhanced-terrain-layer). This can have an effect when fliers or terrain elevation matters, as otherwise templates are assumed to be on the same level as the attacking token.

Options

All world-scope settings are in sub-menus within the System Configuration menu. By default, certain automation options are turned off, in case they conflict with the way a GM wants to run the system. These can be turned on in the system configuration at their leisure. In addition, the system contains some client-scope settings, which can be seen in the default system settings menu.

Among the more notable options:

 

How to roll

To properly format and calculate the results from Ironclaw's dice system, the system has an internal 'dice roller' to parse the dice pools into the correct format for the FoundryVTT dice roller, accessible either through the actor sheets or by the included macros. Macros allow the dice to be set either by specifying how many of each die type is rolled, or though a 'one line' parser. Most popups also include an input for extra one line dice pools.

The 'One Line' macros allow the dice pools to be inputted in standard dice notation: "(number of dice)d(sides of the die), (number)d(sides)", for example "d12, 3d6,2d12". Each separate type of die must be separated with a comma, but the system automatically removes spaces between types. Multiple pools of the same type are automatically added together.

Right-clicking on a roll that has already been rolled will allow you to change the type of roll to another or change the TN of a roll. The copied roll will be shown as a new roll, but tagged as a copy and with static result numbers replacing the dice pools. For Favored Use, there's also a quick button to reroll a single die showing "1", which will copy the roll otherwise but reroll that one die. It will automatically pick the highest die showing a "1". There is also a reroll dialog button that shows up in the context menu if the selected actor has a gift with an applicable Reroll Bonus special, or always if a GM opens the context menu without an actor / token selected.

Most buttons in the sheet or the chat that perform rolls can be "quickrolled" by holding a configurable keybind down, default Control. While not applicable with every button, most allow the popup dialog to be skipped and the roll or function performed with the default given values. Normal attack rolls are a big exception.

The "Using Tactics" checkbox in weapon item info messages controls whether the attack will use the Tactics skill automatically and is toggleable for the GM and the message's author (player sending it). Any gift bonuses that check for an attack using Tactics as a stat will work accordingly, eg. Counter-Tactics. If the checkbox is not visible, it means the attacker has no Tactics to use, or that the world configuration has hidden it from other players. Gift bonus checks will still work even if the checkbox is visually hidden. Note that if a weapon has Tactics set directly in the attack roll field, the checkbox is automatically removed as unneeded.

Setting up items

Setting up dice pools for items follows this format: "(trait or skill name), (another name);(any bonus dice in one line format)", eg. "Body, Melee Combat, dodge,weathersense;d12". The order of skills and traits are arbitrary and can include spaces in the name, but every name must be separated with a comma. The semicolon (;) separates the stat names from bonus dice, which are formatted the same way as one line rolls. If there is no bonus dice, the semicolon can be omitted.
Note that there is a difference between dice pools like what weapons and gifts have and the dice fields armors and shields have. The former can process trait and skill names as mentioned, while the latter expects only raw dice, as in "2d10".

Shields and armor that are being worn or held will automatically be added to any relevant pools by the system. Even if the dice field is empty, the system will show its use for information purposes. Note that the system will only account for a maximum of three worn armors and one held shield. Any extra ones will be ignored.

For gifts that only grant situational bonuses to certain things without any related skills, like Strength or Veteran, the gift dice pool can be set as either a one line roll "d12" or as a dice pool without stats ";d12". Both work, though if the system doesn't seem to recognize the dice, use the latter.

Gifts that grant situational bonuses can be configured from the "Advanced Settings" tab. More on that below. Items that have weight can have their weight value set up as either a fractional value "1/8" or a decimal value "0.125", the system will detect the presence of a slash and treat the value accordingly.

Gifts that give extra senses or improve senses can be toggled on and off by either a button on the sheet or, if the gift can't be used otherwise (no exhaustion or associated gift dice), by using it through a hotbar macro. The default vision values (mode and range) for the actor's prototype token will be saved when applying a vision mode when no other one is enabled and restored when all vision modes are disabled. Not all extra senses are active. Some extra senses are passive or have passive components that are applied automatically if the actor has the gift. In cases where there are no active components, the sheet will have an icon beside the sense name and the gift will not have the "activate sense" button.

Weapon-specific setups

Both the Effect and Descriptor fields in weapons should be formatted so that every attribute is separated with a comma, eg. "Damage +2, Slaying, Awkward", for the system automations to support them. Weapons also have a field to give its opposing defensive pool for system and quick reference, normally this is just standard "defense" but some weapons with special defenses may have different pools. Weapons with resisted effects should set the resistance pool in the opposing defense field and toggle the "Defense is Resist" checkbox on. Wands and rods should also include "Wand" or "Rod" respectively as a descriptor even if that's not normal for Ironclaw.

Weapons that would exhaust a gift on use can be set to auto-exhaust the gift in question when used to Attack or Counter. Depending on the world settings of whether weapons with a gift require an unexhausted gift, trying to use the weapon when the gift is exhausted will instead pop out a Refresh Gift dialog. A weapon can also be set to exhaust its gift when readied, in which case the popup to refresh a gift will happen when readying.

Weapons also support being upgrades from another weapon, in which case, readying the weapon will require the weapon it is an upgrade from to already be readied. If that's not the case, the system will pop out a confirmation box to ready the pre-upgrade weapon. This can result in multiple popup boxes if gifts are not set as refreshed or the pre-upgrade weapon is itself an upgrade from yet another weapon. Remember that each ready or refresh does require a separate action, even if the system allows the gifts and weapons to be refreshed and readied as needed.

The weapon upgrade action field notes what action the upgrade process requires instead of the standard ready action, whereas the upgrade condition allows for a condition to be auto-given to the actor when upgrading the weapon. Eg. if the upgrade action is "Aim", the condition should be set to "Aiming".

Currently, the system does not allow dice pools to include items. Instead, the system tries to track what items should be included in which dice pools, eg. including worn armor in Soak rolls, as well as adding the gift special bonuses. Where these bonuses go is hard-coded though, so I'm afraid it won't be perfect.

Template items

The Species and Career Template items are a way to group up the statistics, gifts and natural weapons they can involve. Actors do not own them like normal items, but instead dragging one over from the Items Directory onto an actor's sheet allows it to be applied onto the actor. In addition, the system has a configuration to automatically apply them based on the randomized token images of mooks and beasts as they are added onto scenes, if the settings are correct. More on that below.

The template data will overwrite the actor's own fields whether the template has data in them or not. By contrast, the system will ignore empty template item fields and will avoid creating duplicate gifts and weapons, basing the duplicate check on the exact name.

Vehicle rolls

Vehicle rolls work slightly differently, as vehicles don't roll much by themselves. Instead, vehicle stations call up other actors to roll for them. By default, a vehicle station will first see if the currently selected actor or the user's default actor can roll for the vehicle. If not, the station will check if it has a captain assigned to it and attempts to roll with that. If still not, the station will attempt to roll through the vehicle's default crew actor. If all that fails, the vehicle will abort the roll and pop up a notification.

Vehicles and their stations can be assigned actors by dragging an actor from the directory over to the vehicle actor sheet or vehicle station item sheet. Only mooks can be the default crew for a vehicle and only actors with their own traits and skills (characters, mooks, beasts) can be set as station captains. If successful, the sheet will show what / who the ID resolves as.

Vehicle station rolls use both a dice pool field - given in the same format as for weapons and gifts - and a separate field for gifts. Multiple gifts can be given by separating each name with a comma.

Chat Commands module support

The /iroll command can be used to quickly roll dice with the internal dice roller. It takes a one line format input after the command to roll dice as a highest roll type, with a semicolon followed by a number at the end changing it to a TN roll. Eg. "/iroll 3d6,d8" or "/iroll 3d6,d8;5"

The /popuproll command opens a standard roll dialog with the given dice pools already checked and optional extra dice and TN preset. It takes a dice pool format input, again with an additional semicolon and number changing the default roll type from highest to TN. However, the system will attempt to detect if the value after the first and only semicolon is a dice input or a TN. Eg. "/popuproll Dodge, Speed;d12;5" or "/popuproll will,presence;3"
In addition, /popuproll can take a simple "soak", "defense" or "dodging" as input. In the former case, it will open a standard soak roll popup, while the latter two open a dodge defense popup, since "dodge" would normally refer to a roll of pure dodge skill, rather than the defense.
The /quickroll command takes the same parameters as /popuproll, but rather than opening a dice pool dialog, the given dice are rolled quickly without any dialog opening up. The /directroll command is simply an alias for /quickroll.

The /itemuse command simply uses an item; it takes an item name and uses that to activate a normal item use, as if the item was used through a hotbar macro. The item in this case refers to all things FoundryVTT considers items (armor, gifts, weapons, illumination...), not just the gear type. The name must be an exact match.

The /actordamage command pops up a damage dialog, either with the normal defaults or with inputted values. Every value should be separated by a semicolon, with the values being damage, soak, extra conditions and whether the damage should be added quickly / silently without a popup, respectively. For example: "/actordamage 4;3;Blinded;quick" or "/actordamage 2;-1"

The /requestroll and its alias /askroll commands are for requesting a specific roll from other players, and send a chat message which contains a button to roll the specified stats, dice and TN. It takes a dice pool format input, again with an additional semicolon and number changing the default roll type from highest to TN. In addition, after the last semicolon, a list of Gift names can be inputted, separated by commas, that are included in the roll. Eg. "/requestroll Dodge, Speed;d12" or "/askroll will,presence;4". The /whisperask does the same thing, but this time, the first part should be player names that the request will be whispered to. Eg. "/whisperask Alice; Will, Gossip; d8; 3; Fast-Talk" or "/whisperask Bob, Charlie; Mind, weathersense; 3"

 

Advanced Gift Bonus Settings

For gifts that should interact with the system by giving situational bonuses, the advanced settings can be used to add special bonuses to gifts. When added, the system will automatically see if a given bonus will be applicable given its configuration and add it in the relevant place.

List of possible Advanced Gift Bonus Settings

The system works by first checking whether the special bonus is applicable. This is done by comparing the configuration settings of the special to the actor and/or the item and seeing if they match the configured requirements. Any fields that are empty are ignored, but all fields that have something in them must match. If the field allows multiple values, match of any of them is enough.

List of applicability configuration fields

Any of these fields that aren't just checkboxes can include multiple values, separated with commas.

Attacker applicability configurations

These applicability configuration fields are applied from the attacking weapon, to allow defensive bonuses to determine what sorts of weapons they are applicable against.
Any of these fields that aren't just checkboxes can include multiple values, separated with commas.

If the special bonus applies, it's applied where relevant, with the bonus depending on the effect configuration.

List of effect configuration fields

Note on "Check Bonus Automatically": If it is set to "By Applicability" for a bonus, it alters how the above applicability fields are used. Normally, the applicability settings control whether the bonus is added to or appears on the dice pool popup. But when a bonus is auto-checked by applicability, the entire bonus is always added and the applicability system controls whether the dice bonus is auto-checked. The only exception is the gift exhaust state check. It is highly recommended that bonus sources and stats are not used when the "By Applicability" option is set. (The option is a sort-of kludgy special case for odd gift bonuses anyway, where a bonus might apply a lot, but is hard to reliably check for.)

 

Pre-Packaged Macros

The macro compendium for the system has some ready-built macros to use, both as a way to trigger certain rolls through the hotbar, and as an ease-of-access option in case ChatCommands is not for you. Most macros also include a comment in the macro if they can be customized in some way.

The macros include:

 

Conditions

The system has a full set of standard Ironclaw status effect conditions set up and supported, as well as a few extras (the Miscs) purely for GM to differentiate between tokens if they want. Information on them is provided in the status effects compendium pack.

Damage calculations have a separate pop-up function for simpler calculation. Just input the raw damage from the attack and the soak successes, even if the value goes negative. Do NOT include any added by standard conditions. The system will automatically add the damage from Hurt and Injured if they apply, as noted in the "Condition Damage" part.

 

The "Condition auto-removal" system will remove conditions from actors based on internal hard-coded logic. This is mostly for conditions that are necessary to actively manage while in combat.

The current logic is as follows:

Aiming will be removed after attacks and at the end of the actor's own turn.
Guarding will be removed at the start of the actor's next turn.
Temporary Ward will be removed when it takes enough damage to be reduced to zero.

License

Ironclaw © SanguineGames.com
This is a fan project, we are not associated with Sanguine Productions.

Available Versions

  1. Version 0.8.0

    1 year, 4 months ago
    Foundry Version 11.305 - 11 (Verified 11) Manifest URL Read Notes
  2. Version 0.7.3

    Foundry Version 10.279 - 10 (Verified 10) Manifest URL Read Notes
  3. Version 0.5.17

    Foundry Version 9 - 9 (Verified 9.269) Manifest URL Read Notes
  4. Version 0.4.5

    Foundry Version 0.8.7 - 9 (Verified 0.8.9) Manifest URL Read Notes
  5. Version 0.2.8

    Foundry Version 0.7.6 - 9 (Verified 0.7.10) Manifest URL Read Notes