Documentation
Everything You Need
Everything you need to know to get started with RealmSpeak, once you've downloaded the two files, is here.
Installing and Running RealmSpeak
Installing RealmSpeak is a bit easier now. Simply unzip the downloaded into a new folder. You won't need to expand any jar archives to play the game. You will have to get Java for your machine if you don't already have it: https://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp
NOTE: I had one user that ran into some strange errors, I think is related to the wrong version of Java. At this time, I recommend Java 1.8.0_381. If you aren't sure which version of Java you have installed, open a command prompt and type java -version
To run RealmSpeak on Windows, simply double-click the "run.bat" file, and the game will launch. The other batch files give you access to the GM tool, the Character Builder, and Cheat mode. If you are playing on a Mac or Linux system, simply unzip the files in MacRealmSpeak or LinuxRealmSpeak respectively, and run the scripts therein.
If for some reason the scripts don't work, you should be able to open a terminal, navigate to the folder where RealmSpeak.jar is located and run the following instruction:
javaw -mx384m -cp "*" com.robin.magic_realm.RealmSpeak.RealmSpeakFrame
java -mx384m -cp "*" com.robin.magic_realm.RealmSpeak.RealmSpeakFrame
or
java -cp "*" com.robin.magic_realm.RealmSpeak.RealmSpeakFrame
That should let you see any errors. If your error says "ClassNotFoundException", that just means you weren't in the same folder as RealmSpeak.jar when you ran the instruction.
Summary of Files
- changes.txt
A complete list of all changes to RealmSpeak going back to its birth. - RealmSpeak.jar
This is the RealmSpeak application, and contains all the compiled Java code necessary to play the game. Typically, this file is the only thing that changes between versions, and is the only file you really need to replace. - run.bat
If you are on a Windows system, this batch script will launch RealmSpeak. - runHere.bat
This batch script is identical to run.bat (above), except that all configuration files will be generated in the same folder as the script, as opposed to creating them in the default user folder for your computer. Use this script if you are playing at work, and you don't want any extra files appearing outside your game folder. :-) - cheat.bat
This batch script is identical to run.bat (above), except that it enables CHEAT mode. Read more about CHEAT mode below. - gm.bat
This batch script will allow you to edit any save game generated by RealmSpeak. It has many features to allow you to adjust character attributes, item locations, and the life or death of any/all monsters and natives. This is a good way to "fix" a problem when RealmSpeak behaves in a way you didn't expect. Click the link on the right to learn more. - launchCharacterBuilder.bat
RealmSpeak comes with a tool to build your own characters. If you are interested in trying this, then run this batch script. Click the link on the right to learn more. - battle.bat
Another tool that comes with RealmSpeak, is the battle builder. Use this script to launch the battle builder, and setup your own crazy battle scenarios. Click the link on the right to learn more. - LinuxRealmSpeak.zip
This is an archive of Linux scripts that allow you to launch RealmSpeak on a Linux operating system. NOTE: this script hasn't been modified in YEARS, so I have no idea if it is still useable. Check the RealmSpeak FAQ if you get stuck! - MacRealmSpeak.zip
This is an archive of Linux scripts that allow you to launch RealmSpeak on a Mac operating system. NOTE: this script hasn't been modified in YEARS, so I have no idea if it is still useable. Check the RealmSpeak FAQif you get stuck! - mail.jar, activation.jar
These two files are necessary, and should not be deleted. They contain the functionality to send e-mails when playing a server, and RealmSpeak will not work correctly without them.
Playing the Game
When the application starts, choose "Host New Game..." from the File menu, or press Ctrl-H on your keyboard. You will be presented with a host game setup dialog. For now, leave the defaults alone (you can change Host Name to your own name, if you like), and press the Start button. NOTE: You don't need to be connected to the internet to start a host game: other players in your LAN should be able to connect, or you can simply play "solitaire".
RealmSpeak will build a map, and construct the view. This may take a few seconds, depending on the speed of your system, but you can follow along with the progress by watching the status bar at the bottom of the window.
When the map is finished, two windows will appear inside the RealmSpeak window. The most obvious window is on the right, and contains the map. You can manipulate the map by clicking with your mouse, and dragging it around. If you want to change the scale of the map, click once on the map, and change its size by adjusting the mouse wheel. If you don't have a mouse wheel, or you don't like using it, then hold the shift-key down while you move the cursor left and right, or up and down on the map, and the scale will change.
The other window to appear is the "Character List" window. As there are no characters, the table is empty, and the "New Character" button is enabled. Press this button, and you will be presented with a choice of 16 available characters. Select your favorite, keeping in mind this will be a non-combat type of game, with looting and moving being the best advantages.
Selecting a character brings up a new window, where you can customize the character's level, starting location, and victory conditions. You only get one chance to do this, so make careful selections!
Pressing "okay" loads the character into a new internal frame along with a plethora of new controls. (At this point, you may want to maximize the RealmSpeak window to get the best benefit of the GUI.) Across the bottom of the Character Frame are a number of TABS which indicate different sections of information on the character you are playing. Each tab has its own panel and controls to go with it. Take a moment to click through the tabs, to familiarize yourself with the layout.
Now, click back to the first tab (Record Actions), and look at the icons near the top of the frame (below your stats). These are your recording controls. The first button is a Send button, that closes out your recording action, and sends the information to the host (which in this case is you). Once you have pressed this button, there is no going back! The next button is a backspace, that lets you remove the last recorded action.
All the remaining buttons are actions you should be familiar with, as a Magic Realm player. Clicking these buttons add actions to the table, and sometimes (like MOVE - more on that below!) require further input. These action buttons are dynamic, and will become disabled when they cannot be added. Because many characters have special extra actions, its possible to see all buttons disabled except one.
The MOVE action is a special case. When you press this button, the map immediately highlights all of the possibilities with color circles. The green circles indicate clearings that are available this turn without any further action. The yellow circles indicate clearings that would be available if a path or passage became available during the turn (ie., successful SEARCH). The red circle highlights your current position, and is a quick way to cancel a MOVE if you decided not to record it. Finally, the gray circles mark all other clearings in the current tile. This allows spellcasters who are planning to enchant the tile, to plot a move along paths that may not be available at the time of recording. If the spellcaster guesses wrong, or doesn't enchant the tile as planned, the move to that clearing is cancelled, and the player is blocked.
Once you are happy with your recorded actions, press the Send button (first button). The host will receive notification that you are done, and process turn order. The first player (only you at this point) will have the opportunity to play out their turn. A new tab is added to the Character Frame (dice icon), and your plotted turn is displayed as a number of rows in a table. Two buttons at the top allow you to step through the turn ("Play Next"), or run through it quickly ("Play All"). In either case, when further input is needed, you will be prompted, and all die rolls and results are shown in the table. When you have made it through the list (or have been blocked), the "Done" button will light, and you can finish your turn.
That's basically it. Finishing your turn cycles you back to Birdsong (unless you have combat to resolve), and you can record your actions for the next day. As you find treasures/spells/gold, take a look at the various tabs in your frame to see how they change. Especially keep an eye on the 2nd and 3rd tabs, as these detail the status of your chits, and inventory. Be sure to activate new treasures to gain their advantages.
If you would like to play with a friend, the setup is similar. One person will Host a New Game, and the other will Join a Game. The person joining the game will have to know your IP address, which you can find in the "View Connections" window at the bottom. If you are behind a firewall, you will need to give them the access point IP address, and forward the port (default 47474) to the host machine. If you don't know how to do this, let me know, and I'll see if I can put up some instructions on how to do this.
Once your friend has joined the host, both of you can pick a character and start playing as above. Keep an eye on the Character List window, as it shows a status depending on what is happening with each character. If one player (other than the host) loses their connection, no worries! They simply need to reconnect, and everything will return to normal. If the host computer dies, or disconnects, you are out of luck.
RealmSpeak will build a map, and construct the view. This may take a few seconds, depending on the speed of your system, but you can follow along with the progress by watching the status bar at the bottom of the window.
When the map is finished, two windows will appear inside the RealmSpeak window. The most obvious window is on the right, and contains the map. You can manipulate the map by clicking with your mouse, and dragging it around. If you want to change the scale of the map, click once on the map, and change its size by adjusting the mouse wheel. If you don't have a mouse wheel, or you don't like using it, then hold the shift-key down while you move the cursor left and right, or up and down on the map, and the scale will change.
The other window to appear is the "Character List" window. As there are no characters, the table is empty, and the "New Character" button is enabled. Press this button, and you will be presented with a choice of 16 available characters. Select your favorite, keeping in mind this will be a non-combat type of game, with looting and moving being the best advantages.
Selecting a character brings up a new window, where you can customize the character's level, starting location, and victory conditions. You only get one chance to do this, so make careful selections!
Pressing "okay" loads the character into a new internal frame along with a plethora of new controls. (At this point, you may want to maximize the RealmSpeak window to get the best benefit of the GUI.) Across the bottom of the Character Frame are a number of TABS which indicate different sections of information on the character you are playing. Each tab has its own panel and controls to go with it. Take a moment to click through the tabs, to familiarize yourself with the layout.
Now, click back to the first tab (Record Actions), and look at the icons near the top of the frame (below your stats). These are your recording controls. The first button is a Send button, that closes out your recording action, and sends the information to the host (which in this case is you). Once you have pressed this button, there is no going back! The next button is a backspace, that lets you remove the last recorded action.
All the remaining buttons are actions you should be familiar with, as a Magic Realm player. Clicking these buttons add actions to the table, and sometimes (like MOVE - more on that below!) require further input. These action buttons are dynamic, and will become disabled when they cannot be added. Because many characters have special extra actions, its possible to see all buttons disabled except one.
The MOVE action is a special case. When you press this button, the map immediately highlights all of the possibilities with color circles. The green circles indicate clearings that are available this turn without any further action. The yellow circles indicate clearings that would be available if a path or passage became available during the turn (ie., successful SEARCH). The red circle highlights your current position, and is a quick way to cancel a MOVE if you decided not to record it. Finally, the gray circles mark all other clearings in the current tile. This allows spellcasters who are planning to enchant the tile, to plot a move along paths that may not be available at the time of recording. If the spellcaster guesses wrong, or doesn't enchant the tile as planned, the move to that clearing is cancelled, and the player is blocked.
Once you are happy with your recorded actions, press the Send button (first button). The host will receive notification that you are done, and process turn order. The first player (only you at this point) will have the opportunity to play out their turn. A new tab is added to the Character Frame (dice icon), and your plotted turn is displayed as a number of rows in a table. Two buttons at the top allow you to step through the turn ("Play Next"), or run through it quickly ("Play All"). In either case, when further input is needed, you will be prompted, and all die rolls and results are shown in the table. When you have made it through the list (or have been blocked), the "Done" button will light, and you can finish your turn.
That's basically it. Finishing your turn cycles you back to Birdsong (unless you have combat to resolve), and you can record your actions for the next day. As you find treasures/spells/gold, take a look at the various tabs in your frame to see how they change. Especially keep an eye on the 2nd and 3rd tabs, as these detail the status of your chits, and inventory. Be sure to activate new treasures to gain their advantages.
If you would like to play with a friend, the setup is similar. One person will Host a New Game, and the other will Join a Game. The person joining the game will have to know your IP address, which you can find in the "View Connections" window at the bottom. If you are behind a firewall, you will need to give them the access point IP address, and forward the port (default 47474) to the host machine. If you don't know how to do this, let me know, and I'll see if I can put up some instructions on how to do this.
Once your friend has joined the host, both of you can pick a character and start playing as above. Keep an eye on the Character List window, as it shows a status depending on what is happening with each character. If one player (other than the host) loses their connection, no worries! They simply need to reconnect, and everything will return to normal. If the host computer dies, or disconnects, you are out of luck.
Combat
When you encounter your first monsters, a new window will pop up that looks like the combat sheets you use in the board game. In the upper right hand corner, you'll see the current combat round. Direcly below that, is a description of the current stage of combat for which you must participate:
Lure Denizens
At the top of the screen is the monsters you must deal with. Select as many (or as few) as you like, and click the shaded green "Lure" hotspot, and the monsters will be lured to your sheet. Of course, if you choose not to lure, they may be randomly assigned to you later, unless you are hidden.
Notice that there are a couple buttons at the bottom of the right-hand panel. One of these buttons says "Stop" and might be disabled. This button can be used to skip combat if all characters in the clearing are hidden, and everyone agrees to skip going through two rounds of uneventful mouse clicking. Press "Next" when you are finished with your activities.
Two other buttons below the title, are used to access views of your current chit status, as well as your inventory. These two buttons are repeated on most pages, so you can keep track of what is going on.
Midway down the right hand side, is a table of all characters that are in the clearing. If you are the only character fighting, there will only be a single row. When there are more characters, this table is used to examine everyone's individual sheets during Melee. The row that has a word next to the token, is the active character. If you are playing more than one character, please note which is active when the sheet comes up. By default, the active character will be selected and showing.
Encounter
This is where you can choose to run, alert weapons, etc.
Assign Targets
Pick your target by clicking on any of the monster piles on any of the sheets. Note, that the target you want might be on another character's sheet, so be sure to switch through the views by clicking on the different character rows!
Attack & Maneuver
Place attacks and maneuvers by clicking on the appropriate green hotspots. Only available possiblities (following all the rules as best I could) will be shown. For example, if you play a chit with two asterisks as your maneuver, only the non-asterisk chits will be shown, unless you have an activated treasure item that says otherwise!
Be sure to position your shield (if you have one)!
This is also the stage where you put monsters into the red boxes on your sheet. Click on the red boxes, and you will get to choose from one of the monsters. If you'd rather not go through them this way, click the monster stack, and they will be auto-placed for you (good idea when there are 4 or less). Remember, of course, that the monsters will go through a repositioning stage before combat is resolved, so don't expect them to stay put!
Change Tactics
This is probably misnamed, but seemed appropriate to me. You'll only see this page if you happen to have either the Battle Bracelets or the Elusive Cloak activated in your inventory, and all the monsters on your sheet comply with the conditions of those treasures.
Results
This is the complete combat resolution. All die rolls that were taken into account are shown directly on the page, including missile rolls. Dead monsters and characters will have a red X drawn through them. Be sure to look at all the combat sheets to see the whole picture.
Lather, Rinse, Repeat
If all the monsters (or characters) die, then combat is over. If two rounds go by without any hits, combat is over. Otherwise, it continues by rounding back to the Luring stage.
Really, that's all there is to it. I made a huge effort to make this as similar to the normal game play as possible, so I hope you are happy with the result.
Lure Denizens
At the top of the screen is the monsters you must deal with. Select as many (or as few) as you like, and click the shaded green "Lure" hotspot, and the monsters will be lured to your sheet. Of course, if you choose not to lure, they may be randomly assigned to you later, unless you are hidden.
Notice that there are a couple buttons at the bottom of the right-hand panel. One of these buttons says "Stop" and might be disabled. This button can be used to skip combat if all characters in the clearing are hidden, and everyone agrees to skip going through two rounds of uneventful mouse clicking. Press "Next" when you are finished with your activities.
Two other buttons below the title, are used to access views of your current chit status, as well as your inventory. These two buttons are repeated on most pages, so you can keep track of what is going on.
Midway down the right hand side, is a table of all characters that are in the clearing. If you are the only character fighting, there will only be a single row. When there are more characters, this table is used to examine everyone's individual sheets during Melee. The row that has a word next to the token, is the active character. If you are playing more than one character, please note which is active when the sheet comes up. By default, the active character will be selected and showing.
Encounter
This is where you can choose to run, alert weapons, etc.
Assign Targets
Pick your target by clicking on any of the monster piles on any of the sheets. Note, that the target you want might be on another character's sheet, so be sure to switch through the views by clicking on the different character rows!
Attack & Maneuver
Place attacks and maneuvers by clicking on the appropriate green hotspots. Only available possiblities (following all the rules as best I could) will be shown. For example, if you play a chit with two asterisks as your maneuver, only the non-asterisk chits will be shown, unless you have an activated treasure item that says otherwise!
Be sure to position your shield (if you have one)!
This is also the stage where you put monsters into the red boxes on your sheet. Click on the red boxes, and you will get to choose from one of the monsters. If you'd rather not go through them this way, click the monster stack, and they will be auto-placed for you (good idea when there are 4 or less). Remember, of course, that the monsters will go through a repositioning stage before combat is resolved, so don't expect them to stay put!
Change Tactics
This is probably misnamed, but seemed appropriate to me. You'll only see this page if you happen to have either the Battle Bracelets or the Elusive Cloak activated in your inventory, and all the monsters on your sheet comply with the conditions of those treasures.
Results
This is the complete combat resolution. All die rolls that were taken into account are shown directly on the page, including missile rolls. Dead monsters and characters will have a red X drawn through them. Be sure to look at all the combat sheets to see the whole picture.
Lather, Rinse, Repeat
If all the monsters (or characters) die, then combat is over. If two rounds go by without any hits, combat is over. Otherwise, it continues by rounding back to the Luring stage.
Really, that's all there is to it. I made a huge effort to make this as similar to the normal game play as possible, so I hope you are happy with the result.