And so I begin...

I've always had issues with running what I would call "smooth" combat. Specially when playing editions that do a lotta chart referencing. I really ran into this problem back when Hackmaster came out and I GM'd it. I've been in the system admin field for a long time now, do a lotta perl, php and C doing it. So I figured I'd just teach myself java and write a tool to make running combat easier... so instead of spending so much time looking up tables I can spend more time thinking up fancy ways to describe how my troll just chewed someone's leg off.

Well, so HackSACK was born... the tool was crusty, worked and if you saw the code... a mess. It was my first shot at java and wasn't really a lot of tools online at the time to teach me.

A few years later I went back to my old love, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, 1st edition. This time I decided I was going to do something similar but better. Try and use better standard practices and make it so anyone can grab the source if they want it and help out. So I spent a lot of time watching tutorials from lots of great teachers/dev.

My next goal for the project (for now) is to keep it focused on what I want it to be. A GM tool. Not going to add character generators or PC tracking in the combat. I expect my players to deal with that and frankly that's why my previous project gave me major headaches... and turn into an overly elaborate mess.

Why java? That's simple, it works on anything. It's "close" to C so far as what I know. I use a PC but have a mac (for work) so I can test it there. Should work on linux or even solaris.

So today I created the sourceforge project, uploaded the work I've been doing for the past two weeks and have a game tomorrow to have my first "alpha" test.