A Role Playing Game System
News - Latest rumours about the project.
Introduction - Some background informations
Documentation - Things you don't wanna read 8-)
Development - The project page
Download - Adventureous ? Then try it out.
21.08.2003 - Removed old News. Added section in introduction for the generic Pertergrin RPG editor goal
21.08.2003 - Some CVS updates and mails. Check the Pertergrin developer mailing list archive
Pertergrin is a role playing game where I work on quite some time now. I started it when I wanted to create such a system just for fun. I made my own rulesets based on the experience I gained from other RPGs I knew at that time. Some years later I decided to make a computer role playing game out of it as no other game had possibilities for real extensions of the game without programming. I started writing it on the Amiga Computer where I programmed an Editor where I could already edit maps but I was not satisfied with the result as the used GUI was too inflexible. I switched to the BGUI toolkit which is similar but a bit easier than gtk+. I started implementing a widget class for the map editor but never finished it as I had to invent most of my time in studying. Some time after I got to know and experience the Linux phenomen I decided to completelty switch to Linux and continue the development on this system using the mapedit widet concept I had and started implementing it in gtk+. This year I decided it was time to carry the project finally some steps forward and I started rewriting the game concept. End of March 2001 I opened the pertergrin project page at developer.berlios.de.
My goal is to create a game where the user can extend the world, towns, items etc. without needing to have knowledge about programming. So you can use the Pertergrin editor to create your adventure, save it and give it to friends so they can play your newly created adventure. Of course it can happen that there are things beyond the scope of the developers which might need to be programmed before they can be used inside the editor. If you have ideas you can join the Pertergrin user mailing list and discuss them there before sending them to the developers. The game is made up as modular as possible so to add for example a new magic system for a specific kind of hero type you or a developer would only have to create two modules, one for the game and the other one for the editor. The editor and game itself would not need to be changed any further.
Further more I plan big things with the Pertergrin editor: As the concept is already modular I want it to be able not only to create Pertergrin games but also games for any other imaginable RPG (which needs to support editing in some way of course). This is done by using an ability system wich defines what your RPG supports. This one including one or more modules for the game export enables you to the RPGs with the (hopefully) easy useable Pertergrin Editor!
For starters I very much recommand the concept on the documentation page. You don't need to read all parts of it, especially the technical parts might be boring to you. Also if you only intend to play the game you're probably not much interested in the editor part so you can skip this as well. As far as I have planned the game it uses gtk+ as the GUI engine at least for the editor, one game engine like SDL for the game itself and probably a database to store the game data. If you are interested in the development process take a look at the Pertergrin developer mailing list.
When I started writing the first rulesets of Pertergrin I also created a map on paper. The resolution of the map is too high for scanning and the result would be disappointing. So I took gimp and started painting the map again on the base I had making it bigger and improving it on the way. The resulting map can be found in the documentation section as well.
Pertergrin, all its documents and the graphics and sounds are distributed under the GPL. If you download the source or binaries you will receive a copy of the license. If you save this page or download any document or part of the page like pictures you automatically agree to this license. Any part of the page or the project is until otherwise stated Copyright (C) 2001 Reinhard Katzmann.
In practice this means for me that you must republish all your work based on any parts of the Pertergrin project or homepage. No one prevents you to make money from it (e.g. collect all modules, source (must be included!) and binaries and redistribute it on CDROM) but you should at least be so fair and contribute one author's copy to each developer.
Before you start downloading the docs you get some background informations on it. The docs were created with Lyx (LaTeX Editor). I have posted the docs here in HTML format, but you can also create PDF, Postscript or other formats from the sources. The sources will be available from the project page.
WARNING: The concept(s) is not finished! I hope that the finishing touches will be made in winter 2003. Until that expect major changes throughout the concept especially in the technical areas.
A basic concept is available now. Take a look at it here. On the project page (Project Documentation) you can find it as well, splitted into pieces. The project page might have a more current version of the concept. The second part of the concept is now available. Read the Editor Concept.
As soon as the concept is finished I or other developers or editors will start writing the documentation. Currently I plan a user documentation for the game, one for the editor and a developer documentation which describes how to create new modules for the game. It is thinkable that the game will have separate documentations for the game server and client. Also it might be possible to write additional clients. Documentation for that would probably added to the developer documentation as well.
Ok here is the map:
Pertergrin currently is in the planning stage. Though I have written some parts of the editor I will dump most of it and start rewriting it from scratch. If all goes well the first pre-alpha versions might appear late summer or autumn 2001. Take a look at the files section where you can find all official releases. Developers shouild browse the CVS archive for the latest bleeding edge changes.
Last update: 28.03.2001