Robert Wenner (robert.wenner@gmx.de)
All programs referred to in this documentation are distributed in the hope that they will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
This documentation explains how to use the rmprot package (Excel workbooks) to create a 2nd edition Rolemaster, Spacemaster or Cyberspace character record. All rights on Rolemaster, Spacemaster, Cyberspace and all the books mentioned in this documentation and in the described programs are owned by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE). This material is published with the permission of Iron Crown Enterprises, Inc., Charlottesville, Virginia USA, which reserves all rights in its intellectual properties.
The main reason for the sheets is to get rid of bookkeeping, browsing through various tables and books, and to avoid computing everything manual. rmprot works as a character generator with full character management for people with minor Excel skill (one rank should be enough). People with a higher Excel skill bonus can do character development without the dialogs and people very skilled in Excel can even modify character record layout, rules, and generation / creation processes.
These programs / workbooks are provided in the hope that they will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. All workbooks referred to in this documentation are published under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) 2.0 or later.
The worksheets are primary designed for ICE's 2nd edition Rolemaster (3rd edition Rolemaster is not supported yet) . They include rules and data from the core rules (referred to as core or standard or ChL, SL, or AL respectively), Rolemaster Companions 1 to 7 (referred to as RMCI to RMCVII), Creatures & Treasures I and II (CT1 and CT2), Spell Users Companion (SUC), Alchemy Companion (AlC), Arms Companion (AC), Elemental Companion (EC), and the source books Oriental Companion (OC), Arabian Nights (AN), Mythic Egypt (ME), At Rapier's Point (RP), Outlaws (OL) and Sea Law (SeaL).
2nd edition Spacemaster skills, races and professions are also included; from Spacemaster core rules (SM) and Spacemaster Companions I and II (SMCI & SMCII).
Some Cyberspace (CS) stuff is also included (as far as "compatible").
This results in about 250 races, 600 skills and 180 professions available - not to mention about 5 MB of data, program code, and documentation (zipped about 1500 K). And of course up to 25 pages printed character record per player.
Some character records may / will use the same options, the same reference data and the same Visual Basic code (this depends on their location in the directory tree, see the directory example in the configuration chapter). That means:
First switch off automatic calculation if your computer is not very fast (like mine). This will speed up the generation process and further working with the character record, as Excel doesn't try to calculate after each input you made. Somehow the guys at Microsoft didn't get it right, so a simple change causes the whole workbook to be re-calculated. (During the dialogs makerm will switch off automatic calculation itself, and restore it to its old setting later.) You turn off the automatic calculation in the Tools menu under Options and the register "Calculation" (or something like that, in the German version it is "Berechnen" im "Extras"-Menü, and I don't know the English name).
Excel has a switch telling it to stop after a Visual Basic run time error occurred. Turn it off! It disables the error handling in my VB code. You find this switch close to the previously mentioned automatic calculation switch in another register (Extras | Optionen, then "Modul allgemein" in the German version). It should stick with other options responsible for the VB code behavior.
You may also want to disable the macro virus warning for rmprot, but you are on your own risk by doing so.
Another main problem in Excel is the add in management. After you installed an add in Excel will try to load it every time you start Excel. If the add in can not be found Excel won't load it but also won't complain. Excel needs an add in in exactly the same path where it has been during the add in's installation. If the .xla file is moved, the add in will never be found again. It has to be re-installed using the add in manager. You can not switch the path. I found no way of automatically re-installing an add in. Thus, if you moved the add in you have to re-install manually.
If you create a character record and then move the rmprot files used by the character record (i.e. rmref, rmopts, rmcode, and rmhelper) Excel can not calculate the record any more, as the required files can not be found. You have to change the references to these workbooks. This is done using the Excel Edit menu then the (I think) links menu item. [German version: Menü Bearbeiten, dann Verknüpfungen.] A dialog box will come up showing all references to other workbooks. Select these references one after another and change them to the new paths [German version: Knopf Quelle wechseln]. Excel may ask for some workbooks while you are doing this (e.g. when changing the link to rmref you will be asked where to find rmopts and vice versa), just enter the correct new paths here. Note: It may take Excel some time to update all references to the workbooks.
The workbooks were created using Excel 7.0a for Windows 95. Microsoft states that Excel versions are compatible and even the Visual Basic code from old versions will be usable. This is not true. In fact the code can be compiled but in some cases behaves completely different. I made some short tests with Excel 5.0 and 8.0 (Excel 97 if you like big numbers) and may have missed some bugs or pitfalls. Please send me an email if you have any problems (please include detailed error reports with line number in VB code (if any), error message, the last thing you did and the last rmprot dialog you saw, as well as Excel and rmprot version number). Generally I suggest converting the workbooks to newer Excel versions to enhance speed and to make manual corrections possible. In Excel 5.0 and Excel 7.0 add ins are compiled by the Tools menu entry [German version: Menü Extras, dann Add in erstellen] while in Excel 8.0 you save a normal workbook with file type set to add in. The version 7 add ins should be working in Excel 8.0 ans later versions, too.
I didn't dare running the character record on an Apple (I don't have access to one), but there may be some further incompatibilities (as usual with Microsoft). At least the help file (this documentation) can not be accessed by the Rolemaster menu or the rmprot toolbar if running on an Apple.
makerm and rmhelper check for installed add ins and ask whether to install them. Add ins are described below. You don't have to install the add in as the workbook variant will also work, but add ins are faster and less error prone.
Note: Install the add ins after you have placed all files in the directory you want to use for them -- if you make some tests in a temp directory you will have to uninstall the add ins manually if you move the files from the temp directory to another directory.
To create a new character sheet, just open the makerm.xls workbook or the makerm.xlt template. A series of dialog boxes will appear, asking for data and choices. After Excel has calculated the workbook, you can access it just like any other Excel workbook; i.e. you have to save it, make modifications, print it or discard it.
You may also use the Rolemaster menu or the rmprot toolbar installed by rmhelper to create a new character record. To bring up this menu or the toolbar just open the rmhelper.xls workbook (or install the rmhelper.xla add in using the Excel add in manager).
You may want to move the rmprot.xlt workbook to your templates subdirectory, this will offer it in the new workbook list if you choose New... from the Excel file menu. You can also place a link to this template on your desktop for quick access. (Choose the "Install makerm template" menu item in the Rolemaster menu or click the fourth button from right on the rmprot toolbar to automate this.)
You can not open the rmprot.xlt template to create a new character record, as the template doesn't include the dialogs and logic placed in makerm. Opening a template will display a message telling you to open makerm instead.
There is one special thing about the creation process: in the dialog asking for temporary and potential stats is a button labeled "Lookup pots". If you roll your stats yourself, just enter your rolled numbers in both columns, for temps and for pots. Then click the lookup button, and the generator will treat your entered data as rolls and use the potentials table to lookup the corresponding potential values. Take care not to click twice as the generator will gladly do the lookup twice.
In the languages dialog the program shows a list of languages (the number is determined by looking at the number of starting languages from rmref). You can modify these names: click at the language to change, modify it in the text field above the list and click the "Modify" button. You can not add languages here, this is done using the development dialog (see below).
When the character sheet has been created, you can modify it, i.e. add skill ranks or change temps or pots values. After changing, you must re-calculate the whole workbook (Excel indicates this (in the German version by a "Berechnen") in the status line). After re-calculation your changes are visible.
Note: For calculation the workbooks rmcode, rmopts, and rmref have to be opened or (in case of rmcode) have to be installed as add in.
To remove a skill completely from an existing character record, just remove the whole row.
To add a skill that already exists in the reference workbook, copy a row in your character record from the same skill area (e.g. Academic skills) to get the formulas. Alter the data according to your needs. Take care when adding special skills like Ambush (skill rank progression), for which the normal formulas don't work (i.e. they do work, but produce wrong results). You also should take care to add to the correct range: the intra similar skill function only scans its defined range (i.e. only Academic Skills); if your new skill doesn't belong to the proper range it is not checked. (Consult a good book on Excel or a bad book as the online help on ranges.)
Skill development can be done by modifying the skill rank entry in the character record. Splitting a category skill into sub categories is done by inserting a blank line in the skill table (preferred below the category skill) and by copying the category skill entry to the new line. Then the new sub skill is modified, i.e. the specialization is added in column B. The super skill name has to remain in column A, as the character record may do some lookup for the skill and can not guess from the category to which skill it belongs. (This is especially true for character records using the flexible formulas option.) For character record layout simply change the cells font color to its background color (usually white on white). When using cyber ware (and if you have a cyber ware column (labeled equipment in the cyberspace skill sheet)) enter the cyber ware bonus in the equipment column. A number is added to the skill total bonus. A number followed by an r (or an R) is added to the skill ranks and used in rank bonus calculation.
Skill development and creating category skills may also be done using the rmhelper skill dialog provided by the Rolemaster menu or by using the rmprot toolbar. In this dialog you just select the skill to learn and click the buy skill rank button. For special skills as Body development and Power point development you are asked for your dice roll. The skill dialog also keeps track of your current development points and the development points spent, as well as the times a skill was learned during this level advancement.
You can reset these values using the "Next level"-button. This will reset all skills to be not developed during this level and restore the development points available to the number of development points for that level. rmprot also tries to keep track of how many levels you developed (with level zero being adolescense) and increases the levels done in the Stats sheet.
Splitting category skills in new sub skills can also be done using the development dialog. If a category skill is chosen, the program asks whether to create a new sub skill. If the unified skill system is used and a CdS is developed, the sub skill has to be created (in this case the sub skill dialog will always pop up).
The checkbox labeled "Do not check for skill category" determines, whether the character record will scan the reference workbook to see if the skill is a category skill. If you are sure it is not or if you are sure you do not want to create a sub category, you can check this box to speed up development.
Clicking the undo button will undo the development of the skill highlighted in the list box. Depending on the undo development option this may be possible for skills developed during this level only. Note: Changing the skill cost option during development may confuse the undo code and it may not be able to undo development. If a category is undone to zero developed ranks rmhelper asks whether to remove the sub skill completely. In case of languages, weapons, and spell lists the corresponding line from language table, weapons table or spell list table respectively is also removed.
When developing a new spell list by dialog the program asks for the realm and the type (open, closed, base, ...) of the new list. Do not leave this fields blank! The input box routine in Excel can not distinguish a click on the cancel button from an empty field, in the VB program both look the same. So leaving these fields blank will have the same effect as pressing cancel: the spell list is not added to the character record.
See the customizing chapter on adding new skills to the reference workbook and for modifying the template.
When you develop a category skill, for example Riding a horse, you just create a new skill as described above and copy the category's row (i.e. the Riding entry). Then add the specialization (here horse) in column B. [You may wish to remove the italics attribute from the skill name, if you have category skills set in italics.] Do not remove the skill name in column A, as some formulas may need it for lookups. You may set its font color to the background color to make it invisible (that's the way makerm and rmhelper's dialog do it). This is simplified in the rmhelper skill dialog above).
As the skill sheet is somewhat long, you may want a shorter list to save paper and to reduce the strength required for lifting the character record. The rmhelper menu offers a new menu item labeled "Create short skill sheet" which will create (or update an existing) short skill sheet. The rmprot toolbar may also be used. It creates a second (additional) skill sheet that shows skill name and skill bonus only.
When creating the short skill sheet you may determine the layout. First you choose the orientation, i.e. whether skills should be listed by column or by row.
Next choose how many columns and how many rows you want. Once you enter a value (for columns or rows) rmprot will calculate the other value to have enough room for all skills.
Last but not least you may have rmprot tell Excel to place the skill sheet on a single page. If you use this option a ratio of 4 columns and 55 rows will produce good results on A4 paper.
The short skill sheet must be re-created every time you add a new skill to your character record and each time you remove a skill (e.g. if you develop a new riding skill, maybe camel after you've already learned riding horses). If you just buy new ranks Excel will take care of updating the short skill sheet. If you develop skills using the rmhelper development dialogs you will be told when the short skill sheet has to be re-created.
Note: The short skill sheet is additional to the original skill sheet, it can not replace it, as the information on skill ranks, similar ranks, and bonuses is stored in the original skill sheet. Do not delete the long skill sheet!
You can add weapons in the weapons table by hand, copying formulas or recreating them. An easier way is to use the Rolemaster development menu item or the rmprot toolbar.
As looking up some stat gain roll results is also some stupid work, the Rolemaster menu and the rmprot toolbar offer a dialog to which you just add your rolls. rmhelper looks up the new temps and offers them in the dialog to you. You can write them to the character record by clicking the "write" button.
To print the character record, make sure that all necessary sheets are selected. You can also use the print command in the Rolemaster menu or the button on the rmprot toolbar installed by rmhelper.
Some items in the Rolemaster menu may need further explanation.
The Rolemaster toolbar contains the same commands as the Rolemaster menu.
The buttons are from left to right the same as the items in the Rolemaster menu: the first
button is corresponding to the first menu item and so on.
The toolbar is installed the first time rmhelper is opened.
When storing character records for different campaigns using different rules, separate the campaign specific data in special directories. For example in your first campaign trolls have a +100 ST bonus, so you changed this in the reference workbook. In the other campaign trolls only have a +50 ST bonus, so you need two versions of the reference book. You might also have different options (campaign 1 uses smooth bonuses, campaign 2 uses the SI stat), so the options book would be necessary for each campaign, too. You might create a directory structure like this:
your_workbooks_directory
rolemaster
makerm
rmhelper
rmcode
rmprot.xlt
campaign1
rmopts.xls
rmref.xls
charcter1.xls
campaign2
rmopts.xls
rmref.xls
character2.xls
In the above directory structure names without extension (e.g. makerm) refer to the add in version (.xla) as well as to the workbook version (.xls).
(In the above example I assume you use the same character record layout, otherwise you also have to copy the character record template to the two subdirectories.)
If you use makerm or rmhelper it will look for the required files. If the file is an add in and it is installed and found in its install location, opening it again is not necessary. Otherwise makerm (and also rmhelper) will look for files in these locations in the following order:
As the names of the workbooks don't matter to the programs you may separate the campaigns simply by renaming the options and the reference workbook, e.g. to rmopt1.xls, rmopt2.xls and rmref1.xls, rmref2.xls respectively. This may lead to problems with very long names, as formulas get too long. Do not keep any of the original names (rmopts.xls or rmref.xls) as these workbooks will be opened without further questioning if they can be found and thus you may not be asked which version to use. As this is likely to lead to errors I suggest using the subdirectory variant.
Note: Take care when working with characters from different campaigns! You have to close campaign specific workbooks and open the other version, or you will use the "wrong" rules and options. To avoid this problem you should name your campaigns. You enter this name in the program dialog in the options. This name is written to all character records generated. (You can add the name manually to existing character records in the cell named "Campaign" (might be B3 but make sure the name is correct!) in the Portrait sheet.) By comparing this campaign name in the current character record with the campaign name in the active options workbook the character record itself as well as rmhelper can check whether options and character belong to the same campaign. They will display a warning in case of mismatch. If either of the two campaign names is blank or can not be read no campaign check is done.
Some workbooks (rmhelper, makerm, rmcode and the incomp workbooks) come in two versions, as a normal workbook and as an add in (extension .xla). An add in is a compiled workbook which contains only VB code and dialogs. It should be executed faster than its workbook variant and may be some kbytes smaller (for some strange reason the compiled version may be more than 100k bigger than the workbook variant - I didn't find the "pump up files" setting by now...) An add in is easier to use as in add ins no runtime error is shown in the code (this may confuse people without VB skill) and they can not be changed by accident. I also disliked 6 open workbooks to create one character record.
To use an add in the add in has to be installed in the Excel add in manager. This can be done manually (you find the add in manager in the Tools menu (German version: Extras | Add In Manager)) or you can have makerm install the add ins. Each time a new character record is created and makerm is looking for the workbooks it will first look for an add in version and ask whether to install it. Once the add in is installed it will be used without further questioning. If you do not want an add in to be installed the workbook variant will be used. If you don't want the questions whether to install the add in anymore just remove the add in file. makerm will only ask if the add in file can be found.
Please note that the add ins were compiled for Excel 7.0 and will work with Excel 5.0 as well (as Excel 5.0 and Excel 7.0 use the same file formats) but will not work with Excel 8.0 - they have to be recompiled from the workbooks. See the Excel versions paragraph above.
Changing options is the common way to configure the character record and the generation process. It does not require any knowledge of Excel at all. The options dialog comes up, when you click its button in the start screen of makerm or select the Options dialog item in the Rolemaster menu or click the options button on the rmprot toolbar. Option changes are valid for every character record that is calculated after the option was changed.
In the following option description as in the options dialog I will not describe the options, but only give the source (e.g. RMCII for Rolemaster companion 2). If you don't know the option, you may leave it alone or try with different settings and watch the results. I won't explain them to avoid a copyright conflict with ICE. Anyway it would take me to much time and space in this documentation.
This is the list of options available:
All "Calculate"-options will only make suggestions and enter the computed values in the forms. You can always change them as they are presented to you.
Options marked with "Affects existing character records." may have side-effects on existing character records, so be careful. Options without this remark will only affect the generation process and / or new character records. All options may only affect character records created with a version of makerm with this version. Older character records can not use options introduced later.
I am interested in all changes you make to any part of the character record and other workbooks. Please send me a copy of your modifications and tell me, why you changed what you have changed.
Warning: If you have no experience using Excel, you can easily mess up the existing character records as well as the creation process and thus render the whole system inoperable by changing or deleting something important. I don't want to keep you from trying, but I strongly suggest you make a backup before you start. Anyway you should be familiar with named cells and formulas before changing anything or you might miss important details. You also need to know how templates (.xlt files) work.
Changing the names / locations of the workbooks in the directory tree should be possible without problems, but you'll have to enter the names / locations each time a program is looking for a workbook. This behavior comes in handy when working with different campaigns. Add ins should be renamed before installation, as Excel won't find an installed but renamed add in.
These workbooks names are the names of the workbooks in the archive. The workbooks may be renamed (before add in installation!!!), but when looking for workbooks the programs will always try to open these default workbooks and if you changed the names you have to enter the new names in the dialogs.
The makerm-workbook contains the code and dialogs to generate a new character sheet.
Just as makerm rmcode contains only code. These functions are used during normal calculation of character records and are necessary with every change to the data in a sheet. rmcode is provided as an add in and can be installed as an Excel library.
The rmhelper contains some code and dialogs to aid you in using your character sheet. It adds a new menu labeled Rolemaster to the Excel menu bar providing dialogs for weapon and skill assignment, and for printing and calculation of the character record. Thus it is an optional (but quite convenient) help for people not willing to do it manually. If you are not very firm in Excel, you should use it. rmhelper will also install a new toolbar labeled rmprot which offers the same commands as the Rolemaster menu. As rmcode rmhelper is also provided as add in.
The rmopts workbook keeps track of the current options and stores possible values for the options. It also contains the options dialog and some little visual basic code to control the dialog's behavior.
This is the character record template for the RMCII skill system. It is my version of a character record layout, but you can exchange / modify it according to your wishes. In the subdirectory layouts are some other sheets which you can replace with sheets in rmprot.xlt. You should do so if you use the unified skill system or just want some skills (e.g. only the Outlaws skills). Take care Excel copies all named ranges correctly, check this in the names dialog (pressing Strg + F3 and selecting a skill sheet entry, e.g. AcademicSkills; there should be a reference without a number sign (#) and without explicitly mentioning the sheet name).
This very large workbook contains all reference data: skill costs, level bonuses, races, professions, and so on.
The rmtools workbook is only necessary when modifying the reference workbook. It contains only Visual Basic code to do some routine work as indexing or generating skill costs. To avoid accidental use (and thus loss of data) you must adjust the macros in rmtools before you can use them. This is the point where some (minor) Visual Basic skill is necessary.
The incompatibility workbooks / add ins exist in a version for each Excel version (5 to 9, Excel versions greater than 9 use the version 9 workbook as well). Only the incomp version corresponding to the used Excel version is required. It hides incompatibilities in different Excel versions and allows the other workbooks to use features which were added in later versions (such as switching the mouse cursor to the hourglass cursor). Usually Excel can not use a workbook which contains unknown instructions. As this is somewhat technical, I suggest people interested in these mechanisms have a look at the documentation in the incomp workbooks.
Changing the character record template is the best way to make sure that all players use the same character record layout. Of course these changes have to be done before creating the character records.
You can simply create a new character record template or modify rmprot.xlt. If you only change fonts or colors or add something like a picture the generation process will most likely work quite well with your new character record. You can do so without deeper knowledge of Excel.
Be careful when deleting or moving something. The formulas in the character record as well as makerm depend on named cells and ranges. makerm will abort with a runtime error complaining about an illegal range method when you delete names. Try your changes on a normal (calculated) character record then try re-calculating. If no errors occur take the changes to the template. When changing the character record template you might find the rmtools workbook useful, it has a macro to set the relevant cells color to red. The Excel detective may also be helpful.
Remember that named cells are not only accessed by other formulas but also by VB code. Thus the Excel detective can not find all references to a cell and can only help in checking whether a cell is referenced, but only reading the code and using the detective will really show where and when the cell is accessed.
Since version 0.4.1 BETA there is a subdirectory named "layouts" included. It contains some sheets that can be used instead of the sheets in rmprot.xlt. You can replace sheets from one of these workbooks with the corresponding sheet in rmprot.xlt. For example you could remove the skills sheet from rmprot.xls and copy the sheet from skills_unified to the template to use the unified skill system. When exchanging sheets always check the names! Every now and then Excel doesn't get it right and keeps references to the old workbook after copying sheets. You will have to correct these links manually (the macro remove_names from rmtools may be helpful).
These examples may be helpful when customizing the character record template.
It doesn't matter whether ST or QU or whatever comes first in the stats list. Only the named cells are important. Check the names if you change anything. The easiest way to reorganize the stats is to cut / copy and paste on a row basis, i.e. delete and insert whole rows.
The resistance list is even easier to modify: just move the formulas and labels as you like. These cells are not referenced by other cells, so there is no pitfall here.
The OC Ki points work like PPs but use SD as power stat. So this is your starting point.
Since rmprot 0.4.3 alpha you may modify these tables, as long as they still have the data in columns and these columns are named (see my template for the names). makerm and rmhelper rely on these named columns.
Should you need further races or want to change some level bonuses and / or skill costs according to your house rules, you have to work with the reference workbook rmref.
Just modify the data according to your wishes. Be sure to use the right data types: if Excel expects a number and you enter text, the next calculation will fail. Remember that font changes in the reference workbook will have no effect on any character record - they may just enhance readability. Avoid switching columns or rows, as makerm may rely on column numbers.
Removing data is a bit tricky. You can remove similar skill ranks or armor types by just clearing the cells or removing the row. Alas, this won't work for professions, races and skills. If you delete a skill on the skills sheet, you must also remove it from the level bonus table, from the skill info sheet, and from the similar skill sheet. If you remove a profession from the skills table, you also have to remove it from the level bonus table and from the (sorted) profession lists.
When removing from one of the sorted lists, you have to change the numbers behind the entries: they are the index (line number), in which the value appears in the original list (the original list is the one with the data behind the values).
You can use the Excel sorting routines (from the data menu), but Excel can't track the indices. As creating the index manually is some work, I suggest you use the renumber macro provided by rmtools. Please note that rmtools macros must be adapted before they can be used, so you will have to go through some Visual Basic code. If you want to use the order macro, take care of the profession, race (or what ever you are sorting) names: they have to be equal in all lists, as otherwise the macro can't find the index. The only exception to this are leading blanks, which are ignored. If the macro can not find an entry in the original table, it leaves the field empty and shows a warning. This is interpreted as zero in makerm and thus the entry is assumed to be a heading and is rejected.
When adding data you have again to deal with the sorting problem mentioned above. As in removing data you have to take care to add the data in all places necessary (i.e. add a new profession to the different sorted profession lists, add it to the level bonuses table and add it to the skill cost table. Order data as desired, but order all tables the same way (except for the order-by-tables, of course).
The order of the sheets in the reference workbook does not matter, but their names may not be changed, as all formulas, makerm and the rmhelper code rely on these names.
This sheet contains all information on professions. The left most list is most important. It lists the professions in alphabetical order with all information on the profession, such as prime requisites, realm of power (may be empty) and a classification (whether a profession is non, pure, hybrid or semi spell user). The other lists aside the first one are different sorted lists. They consist of the profession and a number. This number is the index (line number) of the profession's entry in the original (left most) table. If this index doesn't match it's entry in the left table, you get another character than you chose. In the left lists I used indention and bold font to enhance readability. In combo boxes no font styles are displayed, so the bold fonts get printed non-bold, but the indention remains. The boxes around the lists have no special meanings, they are just for readability. Please note the named ranges in these lists: the left one is called "Professions", the others "ProfsByBook", "ProfsByRealm" "PrimitiveProfs", "AncientProfs", and "FeudalProfs".
This sheet contains all race information. The races are sorted alphabetically. Do not change the order of the race bonuses, as makerm depends on this ordering and will assign wrong bonuses otherwise. Some fields are left blank, as for some races no information was available (e.g. maximum power points for most races). These empty cells are treated as zero for calculation purposes. Sorted races are kept on the next sheet.
This sheet contains the race names in different orders. They work exactly as described above for the professions.
This sheets contains all (possible) skills (but no explicit category skills, i.e. only riding, but not riding (horse)). All skills in this sheets must also exist in the sheets other two sheets mentioned above, and these sheets must be in the same order (alphabetically). Not for all professions skill cost and level bonuses could be written to the sheets, as with RM, SM and CS in one sheet it is difficult to determine skill costs for Cyberspace skills for an assassin for example. This is also true for level bonuses. Maybe some skill costs are "incorrect", as depending on the order in which you enter data from different companions, you may enter different values. Anyway, with this amount of data I have problems checking all values. The Skill Information sheet contains information on the skills, such as stats, whether it is an ChL skill, the malus for having the skill not learned (no rank, see the skill rank zero option above) and other data.
This sheets works as the Sorted Races sheet above, except for it is used for skills. Sorted skills (which also appear (disabled) in the rmhelper Rolemaster menu) are to be used in later versions.
This sheet contains information on inter similar skills. It lists the appropriate skill names and the abbreviations for the skills the first skill "transfers" ranks to followed by the factor. As not every skill is used for inter similar skill computing, this sheet contains only few skills. An asterisk between the abbreviation and the factor means, that the similar ranks are only given if both skills come from the same area, e.g. you learned Xeno Lores (Fire Planes) and Hostile Environments (Fire Planes) and Hostile Environments (Ice Planes), you will get the similar skill rank from Xeno Lores only for the Hostile Environments (Fire Planes) skill.
This sheet includes the different bonus tables for standard and smoothed stat bonus, for power points and other values depending on a stat.
This sheet contains all armor available and the mali, ESF and other armor data. Note that this sheet consists of some ranges including the armors, e.g. the RM armor types are in the RMArmor range, but RM and SM armor are together in the Armor range.
Again, as other sheets described above, the Weapon sheet consists of some lists of weapons (the left most containing the weapon data, the other lists being just a different order).
This sheet summarizes the experience points required to gain a level dependent on the experience requirements (see experience requirements option above).
This sheet is in fact the ChL potentials table.
This sheet is the ChL stat gain / loss table.
This sheet contains some spell lists and their classification. It is used to write the spell lists of a spell casting profession to the character record during the creation process (see base lists option above).
These steps are required to add a new profession (example profession "Hunter") to the reference workbook:
Ok, now let's remove a profession, e.g. the Archmage:
If you want a skill (e.g. Climbing) to be in the General section not in the Acrobatics section, follow these steps:
Changing the options workbook is usually done by changing options as described in the options chapter above. (Remember to save the options workbook before closing it or all changes will be lost.)
You have to modify the options workbook only if you want to add or remove options. In this case you will also have to modify makerm to include your new options in the generation process and / or you will have to modify formulas in the character record template or existing character records. Anyway, you should be familiar with Excel, VB programming and the way the mentioned workbooks work.
When adding a new option find some room for a new dialog element (combo box, edit field, ...) and place it. Create a new field in the current options sheet and name it (I used the prefix "AO" for active option). If the option has a list of possible choices, create another range in the options sheet and enter the possible choices. (I used an "Opt" prefix on these names.) Connect the new dialog element to its output range (and also input range if applicable). When this is done modify makerm or the character record template to use your option.
When removing an option remove label field and combo box (or whatever input type was used) from its dialog. Delete the corresponding row from the actual options sheet and remove the block of possible options from the Options sheet (delete the rows). As some program parts may want to rely on options I suggest not to delete these fields but to disable them and add a default value (maybe a value which could not be entered using the dialogs) to avoid run time errors.
Changing makerm always requires VB programming. If you understand my makerm code, feel free to modify it according to your wishes.
As there are lots of ways in which you might modify my code I can only explain some general thoughts behind the generation process. First the maker tries to open the other workbooks it needs (i.e. rmref, rmopts, and rmcode (which may also be used as an add in). This is done by the function oeffne which returns the name of the opened workbook or an empty string in case of an error. After the workbooks are opened a main loop takes care of displaying the dialogs. Each dialog has a procedure which is called in the main loop after the dialog has been closed. These procedures check the inputs, prepare other dialogs according to already entered data, and write data to the character record. After the last dialog is done the main work begins with skill copying and formula creation. After that rmhelper will be opened (again using the oeffne function) to install the Rolemaster menu. After that a last procedure called aufraeumen is called to restore some settings and to close the makerm without saving (the maker is modified by entering data in dialogs).
All rights on Rolemaster and the books mentioned in this documentation are owned by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE). Any questions pertaining to the use of the material by any party, especially third parties retransmitting the material, should be directed in writing to ICE, P.O. Box 1605, Charlottesville, Virginia USA 22902-1605.
The Excel workbooks and add ins referred to were created by Robert Wenner (robert.wenner@gmx.de). They are published under the GNU General Public License 2.0 (or later). Should you have an intense wish to reward my effort, you may do one or more of the following:
I'm not sure whether I would have made this character record and the whole generation support without some prior work done by other people. I found many helpful tables browsing the internet, and I want to thank all the people entering all the data:
I am interested in any comments, bug reports and changes you make to any of the workbooks. Please send me your new character record layouts (Excel 95 format, please).
Usually a version number consists of up to four digits separated by dots (missing numbers mean zero). The last number is the bug fix number: it is increased with bugs fixed in versions or for minor adjustments as typos or code design. The second last number is the minor version number indicating minor modifications like code changes, added layouts or optional rules. The first and second number form the major version number indicating important changes like a new skill system or lots of new optional rules or some other drastic changes (from time to time an increase in the minor number will reset the minor number to zero and increase the major number by one).
| Version | Date | Status | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| < 0.2.5 | < 9/1997 | alpha | Maybe not stable. |
| 0.2.5 | 9/1997 | alpha | First stable version. Had some problems with missing input or nonsense input in the generation process. |
| 0.2.6 | 11/1997 | alpha | Relative stable version, even with flexible formulas. Had some trouble with makerm's back button, as data could be lost or wrong data remained in the character record. |
| 0.2.7 | 12/1997 | alpha | Races from the Emer Master Atlas addendum, languages, back ground options, and armor combinations added. |
| 0.2.8 | 12/1997 | alpha | Some bug fixes. |
| 0.2.9 | 2/1998 | alpha | Skill dialog in rmhelper for easy skill rank, concussion hit, PP, and weapon skill rank development; rapid skill development option; stat gain roll option. makerm creates sub skills for base lists and languages. |
| 0.3.0 | 3/1998 | beta | Revised skill sheet (sub skills appear in an own column now, not in parentheses appended to original skill name). |
| 0.3.1 | 3/1998 | beta | Adapted to Excel 5.0 and Excel 8.0. Gets rid off the old #NAME? error in correct formulas. |
| 0.3.1 | 4/1998 | beta | Bug fixed in hit and pp development in rmhelper. |
| 0.3.2 | 4/1998 | beta | rmopts stores default character record template name. rmcode may be used as add in. Problems when an add in is moved without changing its path in the Excel add in manager. |
| 0.3.2.2 | 5/1998 | beta | Bugfix in formulas referencing the skill bonus. Usual races sorting added. |
| 0.3.3 | 7/1998 | beta | Some bugfixes, opening rmprot.xlt brings up a message informing the user to open makerm instead to create a new character record. makerm allows stepping back without having race and profession chosen. |
| 0.3.4 | 7/1998 | beta | Weapon development for new weapons shows only appropriate weapons. Short skill sheet with support for printing added in rmhelper. |
| 0.3.5 | 8/1998 | beta | rmhelper offers to recreate a short skill sheet if a new skill has been added to the character record using the development dialog. Races, professions, and skills from Oriental Companion added; skills from Arabian Nights added. Combat skills level bonus option added. |
| 0.3.6 | 8/1998 | beta | Campaign names implemented. rmhelper menu items check whether active workbook is a calculated character record. |
| 0.3.7 | 8/1998 | beta | rmhelper is now available as add in. No hard coded workbook name and path for options and reference workbooks (only hard coded sheet names) in makerm, rmcode, and the character record template. |
| 0.3.7.1 | 8/1998 | beta | Minor corrections in layout. |
| 0.3.7.2 | 8/1998 | beta | makerm is now available as add in and installs itself (after confirmation), rmhelper can also install the makerm add in. Some bug fixes. |
| 0.3.7.3 | 9/1998 | beta | Options and reference workbooks may have any names, as well as makerm and rmhelper. makerm and rmhelper produce a run time error right in the beginning to tell the user to enable VB error handling. (This is done only in the .xls variant.) About dialog displays information on current workbooks. |
| 0.3.8 | 9/1998 | beta | Excel version incompatibilities are now handled by the incomp workbooks / add ins. |
| 0.3.9 | 9/1998 | beta | Range names added to the rmref races abilities table. Bug fix in max PP calculation. Excel version check in makerm and rmhelper. |
| 0.3.9.1 | 10/1998 | beta | Some minor layout corrections and code documentation. |
| 0.3.9.2 | 10/1998 | beta | Bugfixes in rmhelper weapons table entry generation and AAD lookup. |
| 0.3.9.3 | 11/1998 | beta | Minor VB code changes in makerm and in rmhelper development. |
| 0.3.9.4 | 12/1998 | beta | This help file is now accessible via the Rolemaster menu. |
| 0.4 | 2/1999 | beta | RMCVI unified skill system added. Minor code changes. Help disabled for Apple MacIntosh. RMCVI resistance skills support added. New sheet layouts available (e.g. a new skill sheet for the unified skill system). Stat bonus from stat or from stat bonus option added. makerm automatic stat generation revised. rmhelper offers possible spell lists in spell list development dialog, spell list selection in rmopts. Skill development based on similar ranks added. rmhelper allows to undo development. If running under Windows the default path (for reference and options workbook) may be stored in the Windows registry. RMCI linear stat bonus distribution option added. Printing category skills in italics moved from rmhelper (menu) to rmtools. Race based special abilities are added to the portrait sheet. |
| 0.4.1 | 6/1999 | alpha | makerm shows the introduction screen before opening other workbooks. Outlaws professions added. rmprotu.xlt removed. layouts subdirectory added with optional skill sheets. Error handling for missing named ranges in makerm for better layout adjustments. makerm offers language dialog. Prime requisites for professions with free choice added to makerm, better step back behavior. rmhelper menu offers to convert old character records to the current rmprot version. Minor code changes in makerm for conversion. |
| 0.4.2 | 7/1999 | alpha | Generic template makerm.xlt with automatic installation support added. Bugfix in help code. rmhelper menus use the status bar for further information. "Remove Rolemaster menu" not available from rmhelper. Names in the VB code translated from German to English. |
| 0.5 | 12/1999 | alpha | Skill sheet, weapons table, and spell list table access is done using named ranges instead of hard coded columns for more flexibility. Support for a user defined specials column (must be named SkillOther2Col). Bugfix in AG modified by MIA calculation. Some bugfixes in conversion code. rmhelper development dialog may show sub skills in main list. Cyberware skill ranks support added (needs named column SkillCyberCol). Original Cyberspace skills and Cyberspace skill system added. New skill sheet layouts for Cyperspace. Some testing with Excel 8 done. At Rapier's Point professions added. Development offers possible choices for sub skills. Bug fix in development. Additional check for chosen skill system and skill sheet conformity in makerm. Better registry cleanup in rmopts.xls for default path saving. |
| 0.5.1 | 2/2000 | alpha | Registry access works now with NT 4 (and hopefully also with 16 bit Windows). Some tests and bugfixes with Excel 8 and NT 4. Click handler support added. |
| 0.5.2 | 6/2000 | alpha | Sea Law professions added. Nicer open dialog: the user gets a explanation what the required workbook is used for. Bugfixes in spell list table and languages table formula generation. Bugfix in magical languages development. rmprot toolbar added. |
| 0.5.3 | 10/2000 | alpha | New GUI design for makerm character record creation wizard with information on chosen race and profession. Spacemaster weapon types added. Extended soul departure option from SMCI added. Spacemaster No Profession added. Bugfix in PP and hits development. New campaign check formula without link / reference to rmhelper, bugfix in campaign settings in options dialog. |
| 0.5.4 | 11/2000 | alpha | Racial restrictions on profession added; improved languages dialog in makerm. Bugfix in free choice of prime requisites and in race / profession information display. Mythic Egypt races added. Bugfix in hits development for races without given max hits and hit dice. Base spell lists dialog added in makerm. Sanity check for template in makerm added. |
| 0.5.4.1 | 12/2000 | alpha | Bugfixes in additional skill sheets. Missing skills logging added. Bugfix in hit and pp development. Bugfix in conversion code. Conversion messages may be saved to a new worksheet in the converted character record. |
| 0.5.5 | 2/2001 | alpha | Bugfix in similar skill development. Bugfix in languages development. Enhanced click handler support: click handler may be re-installed automagically when character records are opened. Some additional checks during creation process. |
| 0.5.6 | 10/2001 | alpha | Bugfixes in conversion. XML export for character records added. Spell list development option added. |
| 0.5.7 | 1/2002 | alpha | Bugfix in maneuver penalty for moving maneuvers. Bugfix in Sense Ambush Assassin skill bonus calculation. GM sheet command added: brief GM stats / skills / whatever summary of character sheets may be extracted. |
| 0.5.7.1 | 2/2002 | alpha | GM sheet entries are stored in options workbook. Forgotten QU penalty formula added. Bugfix in weapon development formula. |
| 0.5.7.2 | 4/2002 | alpha | Bug fix in GM sheet creation and level bonus calculation. |
| 0.5.8 | 7/2002 | alpha | Bug fix in skill list display update after undo. Bugfix in expanding table ranges. Spell mastery data is copied to magic sheet after developing new spell mastery skill (Feature request 575880). Bugfix in dialog headings when creating multiple character records. |
| 0.5.8.1 | 8/2002 | alpha | Bugfix for using rmprot with Excel 10 and higher (Bug 597895). |
| 0.5.8.2 | 8/2002 | alpha | Bugfix for temps greater than 100 (crashing character generation, bug id 598435). Bugfix for "illegal" values in Development point multiplier edit box (bug id 598436). |
| 0.5.8.3 | 8/2002 | alpha | Bugfix for development: warning when developing existing subskill, profession base lists added to spell list development choices |
| 0.5.8.4 | 8/2002 | alpha | This is adebugging version patch only, not intended for real use. |
| 0.5.8.5 | 8/2002 | alpha | Offers debugging as an switchable option to make bug tracking easier. |
| 0.5.8.6 | 9/2002 | alpha | Bug fix for wrong PP bonus calculation (bug id 604178). |
| 0.5.9 | 10/2002 | alpha | The Jonas Räntilä release: Enhanced the short skill sheet creation to allow choosing whether to print by column or by row and to enter the number of rows and columns to use. |
| 0.5.10 | 2/2003 | alpha | Non-official debugging build. |
| 0.5.11 | 2/2003 | alpha | Added tracking functionality for level development. Labeled "Reset" button in skill development dialog to "Next level" to better describe its purpose. |
| 0.6 | 4/2003 | alpha | Bug fix in ranks to skill bonus conversion. |
| 0.6.1 | 9/2003 | alpha | Bug fix in level bonus for levels over 20. Fixed some typos. Internal VB code improvements. |
The latest version should always be available from Sourceforge at http://rmprot.sourceforge.net.
Character records may not work with later or earlier versions, as some new program parts may require special named cells or rely on other character record layouts. Be careful when mixing versions! I always suggest using the latest version. If you made modifications update them in the new version.
Use the conversion menu item from rmhelper to update old character records from any version to the latest rmprot version. The character record you want to update must be the active workbook (i.e. it must be opened and in the active window). rmhelper will not modify the old character record but will create a new character record matching the old one, so there is no risk of messing up an existing character record.
Note: Converting the character record may result in different values. This is due to bug fixes in later rmprot versions or due to different options used for the old version.
The character record to convert and the currently used template (i.e. rmprot.xlt) should have the same layout in skill sheet, weapons table, spell list table, and languages list as these lists are copied column by column if column names were not used (column names came with rmprot version 0.5 alpha).
Please make sure you have the correct (new) versions of the options rmopts and reference rmref workbook as well as makerm. Do not mix workbooks and / or add ins from different rmprot versions! For the conversion the only workbooks from old versions should be your character records. Converting will use the current options workbook so make sure to adjust the options first.
Conversions have been tested with records from rmprot versions 0.3.1, 0.3.7, and 0.4; all have been successfully converted to versions 0.4.1 alpha, 0.5 alpha and 0.5.1 alpha. A character record from makerm 0.2.5 was also converted successful but the weapons table and the spell list table could not be copied so weapon and spell list development had to be done manually. There were also two cells with formulas from the inventory sheet that had to be removed manually. Make sure you check the converted character record carefully - the conversion is done by a computer! ;-)
The character record templates from old versions may not be usable with later rmprot versions as they may lack some named cells.
This is a list of known bugs and problems. Please note that most of them come from Excel or the operating system.
These items are planned for future versions:
Note that this list does not reflect any priority for changes. It may also be incomplete: mail your suggestions to me (robert.wenner@gmx.de).
To remove rmprot and all its files from your computer you have to follow these steps:
Robert Wenner (robert.wenner@gmx.de).