Universal Gamemaster Tool

UGMT has moved to Pete Keller's Github. The following is historical.

The UGMT (Universal Gamemaster Tool) aims at Gamemasters of RPGs to aid them with their standard work. The basic structure of the tool is suited for many environments. Please see the section on Technical Details, if you want to adapt the tool to yours. However, the main part of work has been spent on implementing parts of the Hârnworld environment. Since a usable GM tool requires a lot of data, e.g. maps or NPC data, much of the data must be provided or at least authorized by the Copyright holders to such material. For Hârnworld material, these are N. Robin Crossby and/or Columbia Games Inc.. All material you will find on these pages here is either free to use, because it does not infringe on this copyright -- this being the "software" itself -- or has been accepted by the above parties to be published in this manner -- this being the samples/examples provided as data to the tool.

The UGMT is written in Java/Swing, which requires that you have a suitable version of Java installed. More precisely, you need J2SE 1.4.2 or later. This software is available at Sun's web-site. It is available for many operating systems (such as Windows) and it is often pre-installed; you will probably not have to download anything. Java/Swing has a lot of skins/layouts/themes. A different standard look-and-feel belongs to each OS, so the tool will look different on each. You can also supply your own. This gives the UGMT many variants, which is why any screenshots you may see here might look different from what you see when you run the UGMT.

The Tutorial section gives you a tour through the UGMT as it is currently available. For a more thorough discussion, read the Technical Details. To get the material, there is the download section (obviously). The licenses to use the software are rather general. If you any questions, comments, suggestions, or even help offers regarding the UGMT or these web-pages, let me know at the address below.

Volunteers are greatly appreciated. These may be programmers, documentation writers, testers, and web-page maintainers. You may also transform data available into a form usable by the UGMT. This requires the consent of the authors/right-holders of such material. Currently I may be the only one working here, but the tool is designed to allow many to work at it.

News

9-May-2015: UGMT has moved to Pete Keller's Github.

23-May-2010: I have added FFF-11 and a fog of war implementation in the combat plugin. This affects All.zip, UGMT.zip, and FFF.zip.

12-Mar-2009: It's been a while. Here's the scoop: Burrdan (thanks to James Watson). Jedes, Dyriza, Emete, Menekod, Minilaous, and the Silver Way Inn (thanks to Neil Thompson), which affects the Kaldor.zip and Other,zip files. You will also find Obew maps, showing surroundings of Huxuth and Bwaft (Orbaal.zip and Harn.zip affected). Avertu (thanks to Sophia Tribad) affecting the Other.zip. Nick Lowson's maps are in a new archive Lowson.zip. Im the UGMT.zip main archive we have: precision in visual adaptable, random map generator connection (requires internet access), incremental name search for maps, save skill group/skill selection, move (timewise) on calendar. Fyvria Expansion and Harnlore 3 spells are included in Spells.zip. As always, many bugs fixed.

30-Sep-2007: All.zip doesn't contain Examples.zip anymore; Irkhar Kyg (Azadmere), Townhouse A, Herebin, Small caves, Trading post, Hebon, Upper East Side, Will in the Way, Medarsin (Kaldor), Bastard Bailiff, Sleeping Heir, Aleath notes, Zaurial Townhouse, Sirion; Torture Skill as specialty of Physician; Harnlist spell compilation by Robert Schmuk; Restructure (All zips effected); make travel colors more specific than atlas; borders across atlases; export visual as screenshot (works only, if 3D image is locally displayed as well!); clone combatant; clone equipment; select combatant from map; index may start external pdf (viewer); abstract Harnmap, e.g. for autotravel (generous routes) or submap browsing; print an index page; distortion parameter for auto heightfields in visual (in properties); Global backup option on close; continue autotravel after interruption; optional stop for encounters in travel. As always, many bugs fixed.

11-Aug-2007: Maps: save state for checkboxes, blank map; Export: export root, save state; Combat: wounds (new) save, add/delete, on HTML export/printout, weapon add/delete, hex grid, move combatant off map without deleting, export map (directly as .../combat); Sketch: create synopsis; More feedback during startup; Data: Cyre, Goffin, Henewes, links between several Kaldoran manors; Skills: alphabetically sorted: Magic: incremental search; Weather: move more failsafe (menu driven); Index: full database search (highlight when clicked), page (incremental) search; Bugs fixed: major fog drawing problems in maps, improve heraldry consistency, add blank in index for map bubble help, sketch export for subimages sometimes failed, sketch export mixup, saved bottom line sounds as top lines, mixup of dowload zip-file contents, combat distance measurement (and correct hopelessly out-of-date sizes on webpage)

27-Jun-2007: Export logs, Combatants sorted by Initiative, Reading sound internet-streams, Reduce white space in sketch export, Combat and export map scales independent from maps' map. Durzhan, Kedis, Stybrin, Locate index on map makes location blink, copy and paste skills, keyboard accelerators (mnemonics). A few new spells, better SVG support (scaling and more supported images). New plugin "visual" with 3D display of maps, autodetect or dedicated heightfields, 5 degress of freedom for point-of-view, markers from combat plugin. Many bugs fixed.

24-Mar-2007: many bugfixes. Added: Auto travel (examples Sherwyn and Marby); improved overview (map directories); Nebulan, Nenda, Kolorn, Ravin, Setrew; Restructure free fog vs navigation in map plugin; flexible measuring in leagues or feet (combat and maps); maps: limitless layers, use more memory efficiently to speed things, unchecking layer doesn't remove all fogs; get sensible speed (ignore water close by) while travelling; index details on maps; keyboard scrolling in maps; sound playlists; temporary marker on maps

6-Dec-2006: many bugfixes, save log state and free fog, select heraldry, improve of combat sheet, different navigation and bubble helps on maps, backup logs, search sorted equipment, added prices/weights, splash screen shows loading phases. Added Eastside City Block, Charmic, Chewintin.

3-Oct-2006: New Maps, Sketch export can be saved, override map export, mp3 and ogg support, minor bug fixes, sound samples, added heraldry icons, automatic backups

7-Aug-2006: House rule option for armour values, minor enhancements and bug fixes, Chelemby calendar, weapon list in combat, Skill specialisation, FFF#8, "The Warrior's Grave"

1-Jun-2006: Tactical map in combat plugin. SVG support for maps.

20-May-2006: Mappack corrected and added maps from Thomas Shook; print synopsis and char/combat sheets; old age rule; several bugfixes; distance measurements on map

2-Apr-2006: Add generic chars (thanks to Fenhorn). Export weather. Improve chars popup menu. Weapons to combat character sheet. HarnMaker export. New attributes/skills: Move, Endurance, Dodge. Clone characters. Improve regex for weapons. Remove bugs in maps, log, chars, export plugins. Review calendar events. Include Eliten, Mercin package.

24-Feb-2006: Import of HarnMaker characters. Combat plugin. Bug fixing.

2-Feb-2006: Easier addition of maps to UGMT data. Freely editable fog for maps, support of layered fog. Bug fixing. Completed encounter tables. FFF part 7.

12-Jan-2006: Use first-level sub-directories in index, thereby making all indices available. You may need to update your sound triggers! Wait-cursor for map loading. Going back in time. Suppress certain events in the calendar display and save such supression. Alow fine-grained calendar events. Weather dump redone. New encounter plugin. Add Athelren and other fan material.

22-Nov-2005: Completed Harn barbarian rules and birthplace tables. Separate editing from normal usage and extend editing. Auto generate tactical movement rate. Add Lorkin map.

30-Oct-2005: List choices for character creation and small fix. (Also do not install the UGMT into the java directories from Sun.)

10-Oct-2005: Overhaul. Allow popups of tabs. Add/edit/remove index entries. Sophia Tribads stuff in examples. Several bugs fixed. Remove active entry list. Exported map streamlined to other exports. Interlink maps. Gui change for equipment and spell plugins. Adapt groups/chars plugin (send character to active group, link to char from group), Adapt sound (send location/event to plugin), Add FFF5 and FFF6 (Restructured FFF), Add partial birthplace table. Update webpages, in particular screenshots.

22-Aug-2005: New Magic plugin, added tool-tips for most buttons. Fixed some minor bugs.

14-Jun-2005: Added "UGMT.bat" and "UGMT.sh" for easy starting of the UGMT. Allow grouping of skills and even skill groups to allow streamlining of displays. Fixed some character generation bugs. Improved character sheet.

5-Jun-2005: Add keyboard tabbing "Ctrl->" and "Ctrl-<". Add Abriel. (Abriel currently requires "-Xmx128m" as option to the JVM. Shall be automatic soon.)

15-May-2005: Minor bugs fixing. More usability. Add equipment plugin, more "Friends, Foes & Followers", and Marby map. Add another creation tutorial page.

24-Apr-2005: Minor bugs fixed in chars-plugin. Improved usability (Popup menues instead of buttons and more). Legend to weather. Added tutorial on website to show how to add own data. Restructured data and downloads. A complete new data installation is advised. Added "Friends, Foes & Followers" to data section by kind permission.

1-Apr-2005: Bug fix in maps/index cooperation, calendar- and in travel plugin, changed structure of All.zip. Add title line to index-plugin view. Added "Install" section on download page. Framework saves window size, simplified copyright screen. Char plugin: group chars via drag/drop, synopsis, add notes. Export plugin has standard export property, export sketches. New sketch plugin: txt, html (read-only), png; editable, organize via drag/drop. In effect all plugins have been touched.

2-Mar-2005: Bug fixes in travel- and maps-plugin and HM3 rules (chars-plugin). Added a Locate-feature between index and map plugin. Added layers to maps and changed example maps accordingly. Extracted state files from plugins to separate archive. UGMT now creates multiple windows instead of multiple panes in one window. Add Leriel example.

29-Jan-2005: Added Copyrights splash-screen to the UGMT framework.

15-Jan-2005: Added a character-plugin and connected skills plugin to it. Modified the web page to suit this update. Sort news reverse. Restructured the tutorial section of the webpage.

27-Nov-2004: Fixed bugs in group-plugin and modified index and maps-plugins. Added Skills-plugin. Modified the web page to suit this update.

22-Aug-2004: Added a screenshot section. Added an export plugin. Fixed bugs and modified index and maps-plugins. Modified the web page to suit this update. The Thoen and Monthel data sections were corrected.

17-Aug-2004: Split download into plugins, framework, and data parts. Modified the web page to suit this update. The maps- and index-plugins have changed to allow easy addition of new data sections.

14-Aug-2004: merged the separate data section with the core UGMT.zip. Fixed minor bugs throughout. Added a sound plugin. Added feature between map and index plugins. Modified the web page to suit this update.

Copyright Issues

The UGMT works on data, which may be provided by third parties and is subject to copyrights different from the license with which you use the UGMT and the plugins you find on this website. When displaying copyrights of such materials, the author(s) of the UGMT and plugins make no claim to the validity of such copyrights. Moreover, certain data sections are made available only when such Copyright notices are added.

The situation is somewhat akin to the license of the web browser Mozilla and any webpage you view with it. While Mozilla can be shared rather freely, it is generally illegal to distribute the content of a webpage you view with it - regardless of who claims to have copyright to it.

So far, all data sections you find on this website may be freely distributed as long as the Copright notices remain intact as I understand the people involved. For details contact the appropriate claimants.