ACKS on Roll20?

I'm about to start a new game of ACKS, and due to the distance between some of my players I've decided to use Roll20 to host the game this time.  Does anyone have any experience with playing ACKS on Roll20?  I'm a little worried because there is no pre-built character sheet for ACKS, but I'm sure I can make it work.

I’ve done it, never had any issues.

ACKS doesn’t have the kind of math in it that a system like 3.X-and-later D&Ds do, so I never considered it an issue to just roll the dice.

If you prefer, you can use macros; I had set up a macro for my attack roll that spit out as its result the AC I hit (by taking d20 roll minus my attack throw), you could use macros for saving throws or skill throws that just output pass/fail by doing /roll 1d20>14 (or whatever the number is) as well.

We play on roll20 but use very very few of the build in features, mostly just a shared dicerolling app and sometimes a mini's board/drawing board.

The initiative tracker doesn't work because it functions like newer era editions where you don't re-roll every round.

I did the same thing with the Attack Throw - I did

Hits AC [[1d20-@{AttackThrow} ]]

as an ability on the character sheet, setting up AttackThrow as the character's throw as an attribute on the basic character sheet, and I guess if I meant to really use it I'd have to add something for the weapon-in-use and STR/DEX bonus.

Haven't looked into initiative yet. I know you can roll to the tracker, I'm not sure if that's perhaps groupable. 

 

I don’t know exactly how to do it but I know it is possible for the GM to have one button that rolls initiative for every character and sends it to the tracker.

It may rely on the API; I only know it’s possible because my 5E GM has managed to set this up for our new campaign, but we have not used it yet.

Is he a paying member? I'd looked into several things a while back including making a char sheet, but all the good stuff is locked behind a subscription. I have not yet needed to sign up (current game is 'live').

I was planning on getting a Pro subscription.  I wanted to get it for the dynamic lighting, but if it has other cool features, that's alright with me.

Yea - that'll get you the whole kit-and-caboodle. Plus you could be the hero that publishes an ACKS sheet for the community.

I've been debating making a "live table" using an LCD showing Roll20, but actual useful projects keep getting in the way. Something like this:

http://makezine.com/2016/07/27/make-simple-gaming-leaf-dinning-room-table/

but probably as a pool table insert. 

Yeah, he is, which is why I think it might be API-related :stuck_out_tongue:

I usually have a roll20 sub if I’m actively running a game on it, but yeah, all (or almost all) the benefits are GM-related, so it never grabs me as worthwhile as a player.

Anything involving initiative rolls going to the tracker for anything outside the one token you have selected is not possible without the API, as far as I am aware.

I don’t see why you can’t just use the tracker anyway, though. Add a custom slot to it to mark the start/end of the round, then just have everyone re-roll initiative every time that comes up. You’ve even got a handy “sort list by number” option after that’s done.

I like Roll20 but I don't understand why making character sheets is locked behind a pay wall.

Why is contributing to the Roll20 ecosystem something I have to pay to do?

I started designing an ACKS character sheet for Roll20 a while back. You can find the .html & .css here. Feel free to do with it as you will.

A few caveats:

1: You have to create a game on Roll20 and paste the code into the custom character sheet template to see what it actually looks like. Without Roll20's code behind it, it doesn't look like anything in a browser.

2: It's ugly, incomplete, untested, and probably buggy. My web design and coding skills are poor, at best (probably Feeble in FASERIP). 

3: It's designed for my heavily houseruled game.

4: I replaced "Attack Throw" with "THAC0" because I am a terrible person my players find that easier to understand.

 

I ran a bunch of ACKS sessions on Roll20 - a Hyperborean campaign called Astonishing ACKS. I started out just using the mapping and dice rolling functions, then later spent a lot of time with macros (with help from a more experienced user).

I think that the macros were more trouble than they were worth - I spent too much time on them in the end, instead of focusing on the game.

I had a similar experience with the mapping. Dynamic lighting was really neat, but takes a ton of effort for custom maps.

If I were to start a new Roll20 ACKS campaign, I would probably either try to focus more on the domain-level play, or on shorter simpler dungeon crawls (requiring minimal mapping work).

Well, I have just run the first session of ACKS: Ultima Ratio Regum (pretentious historical reference, yay!) on Roll20, and I have to say it's gone really well.  In no small part that's because one of my players has gone above and beyond and created a character sheet with built-in everything.  I really, really enjoy dynamic lighting, as while it does take a little bit to set up, it really enhances the feeling of crawling through a musty dungeon all alone, where every turn could lead to danger or death.  

[quote="Whirl_Bill"]

Well, I have just run the first session of ACKS: Ultima Ratio Regum (pretentious historical reference, yay!) on Roll20, and I have to say it's gone really well.  In no small part that's because one of my players has gone above and beyond and created a character sheet with built-in everything.  I really, really enjoy dynamic lighting, as while it does take a little bit to set up, it really enhances the feeling of crawling through a musty dungeon all alone, where every turn could lead to danger or death.  

[/quote]

 

That awesome!  I'm conidering subscribing, but I'm not sure how much I'd actually end up using the Dynamic Lighting as I tend to just draw my maps out and go with it.