Robert Wenner (wenner@rheinsieg.de or robert.wenner@usa.net)
All programs refered 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 mentioned Excel workbooks to create a 2nd edition Rolemaster character record. (Rolemaster is the fantasy role playing game, copyright by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE).) The main reason for the sheets is to get rid of bookkeeping, browsing through various tables and books, and to avoid computing everything manual. The workbooks work as a character generator with full character management for people with minor Excel skill (1 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.
All workbooks refered to in this documentation are published under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) 2.0 or later. That means in short terms something like:
All rights on Rolemaster are owned by Iron Cron Enterprises (ICE).
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. 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 behaviour.
This is the character record template. rmprot is my version of it, but you can exchange / modify it according to your wishes. Customizing is described below.
This very large workbook contains all reference data: skill costs, level boni, 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 accidential 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 8). 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.
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 (refered to as core or standard or ChL, SL, or AL respectively), Rolemaster Companions 1 to 7 (refered 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), Oriental Companion (OC), and Arabian Nights (AN).
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 160 professions available - not to mention about 2.65 MB of data, program code, and documentation (zipped about 700K). And of course 8 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. This will speed up the generation process, 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 (I think) the Tools menu (left to the window menu) under Options and the register "Calculation" (or something like that, in the German version it is "Berechnen" in the "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 occured. 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 behaviour.
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.
The add ins in the zip archive are add ins for Excel 7. They should be working with Excel 5, too. If you use a higher version than 7 you will have to recompile the add ins. Open the corresponding workbooks and use the Excel menus (Tools Menu, I think) to create the add in.
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 Excel's 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 7.0 for Windows 95. Excel 7.0 is not 100% compatible to Excel 5.0 or Excel 8.0, so there may be problems when using these versions. I made some tests with Excel 5.0 and 8.0 (Excel 97 if you like big numbers), but I may have missed some bugs or pitfalls. Please send me an email if you have any problems. Generally I suggest converting the workbooks to newer versions to enhance speed and to make manual corrections possible. You will have to compile add ins, this is done by opening the corresponding workbook and then compiling the add in via (I think) the Tools menu. (German version: Extras, dann Add in erstellen.)
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).
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 deinstall 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 workbook. 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 installed by rmhelper to create a new character record.
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 rmprot 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.
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. Accademic 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 (prefered 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).
Skill development and creating category skills may also be done using the rmhelper skill dialog provided by the Rolemaster menu. 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 reset button; but unfortunately you can not undo the development, i.e. you don't get back any spent development points. Splitting category skills in new sub skills can also be done using the skill menu. If a category skill is chosen, the program asks whether to create a new sub skill.
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.
When developing a new spell list by menu the program asks for the realm and the type (open, closed, base, ...) of the new list. Do not leave this fields blank! Excel's input box routine 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.
Note: the skill development dialog is adjusted for my character record layout and may destroy other skill sheets by writing data to "wrong" columns.
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 menu do it). This is simplified in the rmhelper skill menu (see 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. This sheet only shows skill name and skill bonus. It 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, simiilar ranks, and boni 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.
Take care: This may not work with every character record! This dialog is designed and adjusted for my character record layout and will produce garbage for a character record with a different weapons table, maybe destroying some data in the character record.
As looking up some stat gain roll results is also some stupid work, the Rolemaster menu offers an 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 installed by rmhelper.
Some items in the Rolemaster menu may need further explanation.
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.)
When opening the makerm workbook, it will ask you for the reference and options workbook and you can select them from the appropriate directory. It is very important that no campaign specific rolemaster workbooks are in your Excel default folder as in this case makerm will find these and will never ask for workbook you want to use.
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. You should not keep one 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 actual 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...) It is also 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 Excel's 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 simplest way to configure the character record and the generation. It does not require any knowledge of Excel at all. The options menu comes up, when you click its button in the start screen of makerm or select the Options menu item in the Rolemaster menu. 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 proccess and / or new character records.
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, 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 behaviour 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.
You can simply create a new character record template or modify an old one. 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.
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.
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. Excel's 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.
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.
Warning: If you change any of these list, you can not use the makerm development dialog as it relies on these specific layout. makerm will also ingnore your new structure and thus fail to generate correct entries. You have to modify the VB code, if you really want to change the lists.
Should you need further races or want to change some level boni 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 Excel's 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 reorder 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 boni 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 menus 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 copntains all race information. The races are sorted alphabetically. Do not change the order of the race boni, as makerm depends on this ordering and will assign wrong boni 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 boni could be written to the sheets, as with RM, SM and CS in one sheet it is difficult to determine skill costs for cyber space skills for an assassin for example. This is also true for level boni. 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 the fact 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 abbrevations 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 abbrevation 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 dependend 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 actual options sheet and name it (I used the prefix "AO" for actual options). If the option has a list of possible choices, create another range in the options sheet and enter the possible choices. (I used a "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 ws 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).
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).
The Excel workbooks and add ins refered to were created by Robert Wenner (wenner@rheinsieg.de or robert.wenner@usa.net) (Paper mail: Robert Wenner, Am Park 4, 53757 St. Augustin, Germany). 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!
| Version | Date | Status | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| < 0.25 | <9/97 | alpha | Maybe not stable. |
| 0.25 | 9/97 | alpha | First stable version. Had some problems with missing input or nonsense input in the generation process. |
| 0.26 | 11/97 | 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. |
| 0.27 | 12/97 | alpha | Races from the Emer Master Atlas addendum, languages, back ground options, and armor combinations added. |
| 0.28 | 12/97 | alpha | Some bug fixes. |
| 0.29 | 2/98 | 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. |
| 0.30 | 3/98 | beta | Revisted skill sheet (sub skills appear in a own column now, not with brackets appended to original skill name). |
| 0.31 | 3/98 | beta | Adapted to Excel 5.0 and Excel 8.0. Gets rid off the old #NAME? error in correct formulas. |
| 0.31 | 4/98 | beta | Bug fixed in hit and pp development in rmhelper. |
| 0.32 | 4/98 | 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. |
| 0.322 | 5/98 | beta | Bugfix in formulas referencing the skill bonus. Usual races sorting added. |
| 0.33 | 7/98 | 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. |
| 0.34 | 7/98 | beta | Weapon development for new weapons shows only appropriate weapons. Short skill sheet with support for printing added in rmhelper. |
| 0.35 | 8/98 | 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. |
| 0.36 | 8/98 | beta | Campaign names implemented. rmhelper menu items check whether active workbook is a calculated character record. |
| 0.37 | 8/98 | 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. |
| 0.371 | 8/98 | beta | Minor corrections in layout. |
| 0.372 | 8/98 | beta | makerm is now avaliable as add in and installs itself (after confirmation), rmhelper can also install the makerm add in. Some bug fixes. |
| 0.373 | 9/98 | 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. |
| 0.38 | 9/98 | beta | Excel version incompatibilities are now handled by the incomp workbooks / add ins. |
| 0.39 | 9/98 | beta | Range names added to the rmref races abilities table. Bug fix in max PP calculation. Excel version check in makerm and rmhelper |
| 0.391 | 10/98 | beta | Some minor layout corrections and code documentation. |
| 0.392 | 10/98 | beta | Bugfixes in rmhelper weapons table entry generation and AAD lookup. |
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!
The latest version should always be available from my home page as http://www.rheinsieg.de/hp/rw/rpg/rmprot.zip.
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:
Robert Wenner (wenner@rheinsieg.de or robert.wenner@usa.net).