CARPS, the Computer Assisted Role-Playing Game System¶ ↑

CARPS is hosted on github:¶ ↑

• github.com/elginer/carps

To Install:¶ ↑

Windows users:¶ ↑

download the installer from

rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/73276/install_carps.exe

Windows developers:¶ ↑

First install win32console:

gem install win32console

Then follow the instructions for ‘Using gem’.

Using gem:¶ ↑

# # Install the gem

sudo gem install carps

# Initialize the carps user directory. Run this as your everyday user.

carps_init

Description:¶ ↑

CARPS, the Computer Assisted Role-Playing Game System, is a tool for playing pen and paper RPGs over the Internet.

CARPS differs from other such systems because CARPS is not a ‘real-time’ system. It suits people who want to log on once or twice a day, take a turn, and then log out again. While OpenRPG could be described as being similar to a chat-room, CARPS is more similar to an email client.

CARPS is an extensible system: game rules are provided by ‘mods’.

CARPS supports these mods by providing:

• Text-mode user interfaces for the players and the dungeon master.

• An easy to use probabilistic API which not only rolls the dice, but can report the probability of various game events occurring.

• Automated static character sheet verification, according to a schema defined in YAML. For example, a game might require your strength to be an integer.

• Support for the semantic validation of character sheets according to game rules. For example, a game might require the sum of character’s attributes to be below a certain maximum value.

• Together the validation features allow a mod writer to encode game rules cleanly, as they do not need to consider the possibility of receiving an invalid sheet.

CARPS has other strengths:

• Anyone can play or host a CARPS game! All you need is an email account.

• As a consequence of this, CARPS is completely decentralized. No-one can stop you using CARPS once you download it.

• CARPS is designed to be secure. Multiple email security options are supported, and all CARPS messages are cryptographically signed to prevent spoofing.

• You can instruct CARPS to use your favourite text editor and terminal emulator.

• CARPS is easy to configure because it includes a wizard.

However, CARPS is new and the following features, which you might take for granted, are not yet supported:

• No GUI

• No support for maps

• No chat - all communication goes through the Game Master.

• Games are currently invite only, at the discretion of the Game Master.

• Security mechanisms are not well audited.

Requirements:¶ ↑

For users:

• ruby 1.9

• rubygems

• openssl

• highline

For developing CARPS, you will also need:

• hoe

• rake

• newgem

• cucumber

Instructions¶ ↑

Instructions are present in the CARPS wiki

* http://github.com/elginer/carps/wiki

License:¶ ↑

Copyright 2010 John Morrice

CARPS is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

CARPS is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with CARPS. If not, see www.gnu.org/licenses/.