Tag: CozyVTT

Recently i dipped my toes into Battletech, I know, it’s a lot of number crunching and calculations. I do not understand myself most of the things. But, things can get better! I bring you BattleTech Character Generator! <3

What Character Generator?

Lately I was toying with CozyVTT. It is Virtual Tabletop project. Fully OpenSource and free. Before I was trying to work with FoundryVTT, but I found it over complicated and annoying to deal with.

My biggest issue with FoundryVTT was, that it was quite complicated for me to modify and add new features to it. I’m no code expert, but with help of LLM, I was able to modify CozyVTT to be quite good character generator for BattleTech.

Maybe my brain got lazy, as I’m getting older, but I always got bored during calculating stats. All those traits and attributes old fashioned way. Excel? Hell naw!

So, I made my own Battletech character generator, where you can click your character rather easily. Tt checks things for you and you can even modify character sheet based on game you are playing.

The whole thing is around BattleTech: Time of War, so if you are playing this book, this might get handy for you.

Warning

I must warn you though, this is not even ALPHA release. I created this generator for my friends and for myself, so expect bugs. Also, if I will see you guys doing bad stuff with it, I will turn it private again and no BattleTech character generator for you! 🙁

There is even possible to play campaign in it like in any other VTT, I added hexes support, which is not in vanilla CozyVTT and some sample mechs into NPCs …,but it’s far from finished. Now mainly, it’s just character generator.

NOTE: After register I need to approve you, if your approval doesn’t come within day or two, poke me on my emails. You can find them on the bottom of the Home Page.

After selecting modules, my stats didn’t show in sheet!

You need to first hit Apply build to sheet, and then Save.

Distribution

For those interested in hosting this Battletech Character generator on your own server, contact me, I can send you files (at least I will try).

Enjoy!

BattleTech Character generator showcase

Battletech Character Generator Selection
Character Creation selection
Battletech Character Generator Life Modules
Life Modules selection showcase
Battletech Character Generator Rules Verification
Rules verification check
Battletech Character Generator Inventory
Inventory Management
Finished Character sheet

Features included in Battletech Character Generator

1. BattleTech: A Time of War game system

Added a new native game system:

BATTLETECH_ATOW

Integrated across:

This allows a campaign to behave as a dedicated AToW campaign instead of using a generic or D&D-oriented character system.

2. Full AToW character sheet

Added a dedicated BattleTech AToW character sheet with support for:

The sheet integrates with the existing CozyVTT character infrastructure rather than creating a separate character database.

3. AToW Life Module character creator

This was one of the largest additions.

Added a Life Module-based character generator implementing the AToW character creation structure.

Features include:

The builder can apply the finished Life Module build directly back into the character sheet.

4. Expanded affiliation and faction backgrounds

Stage 0 affiliation choices were greatly expanded.

Added support for numerous subfactions under:

Clan caste packages were also added, including things such as:

Each affiliation package can contribute its own XP, skills, traits and flexible allocations.

5. Master Schools and Officer Candidate School

Implemented AToW education rules for Master Schools, including correct Basic / Advanced / Special Fields.

Supported schools include:

Also added an Officer Candidate School system with:

6. Age and aging system

Added AToW aging milestones:

21
31
41
51
61
71
81
91
101

The system can automatically apply:

The character sheet shows a visible breakdown of what aging changed.

Existing characters can also be recalculated through the Life Module creator without permanently stacking aging effects repeatedly.

7. Character portrait system

Added portrait support to AToW characters.

Features:

The same portrait can now also be reused by the platoon-management cards.

8. AToW equipment catalogue

Added a substantial personal equipment catalogue.

Features include:

This gives AToW characters an actual equipment-management workflow rather than a freeform text field.

Tactical BattleTech additions

9. Hex-grid support

Vanilla CozyVTT originally centered around square grids.

Added:

square
hex-flat
hex-pointy

Support covers:

Hex dimensions are treated consistently between visual rendering and snapping.

10. Hex-aware token snapping

Added proper geometric hex snapping rather than approximating a hex map with square coordinates.

Tokens now snap to the actual center of the nearest:

This also works when placing tokens from campaign rosters and other map interactions.

11. Grid calibration

Added a major map-alignment system for scanned or pre-printed BattleTech maps.

The generated CozyVTT grid can now be calibrated independently over the background image.

Controls include:

Persistent map settings:

gridOffsetX
gridOffsetY
gridScaleX
gridScaleY

Most importantly, calibration affects both the displayed grid and snapping calculations, so tokens continue to land on the actual printed hexes.

Existing maps default to:

offset 0 / 0
scale 100% / 100%

so installation does not disturb old maps.

12. BattleTech unit facing

Added BattleTech-style facing to tokens.

Facing snaps to:

0°
60°
120°
180°
240°
300°

Features:

This was added specifically because facing changes are mechanically important in BattleTech.

13. Terrain marker system

Added BattleTech terrain directly to maps.

DMs can place terrain markers snapped to hexes and click them to open rules cards.

Current terrain includes:

Terrain is stored using normal CozyVTT object tokens with BattleTech metadata, so it did not require a separate terrain database.

Automatic LOS/movement penalties are not yet implemented; currently the markers primarily provide visual and rules-reference functionality.

BattleTech Unit Library

14. Generic BattleTech unit system

Vanilla CozyVTT’s NPC/unit creator was replaced for BattleTech campaigns with a dedicated BattleTech unit library.

Supported top-level types:

Infantry
Ground Vehicle
Aerospace
Mech

Examples of subtypes include:

Infantry

Ground Vehicle

Aerospace

Mech

Unit records can contain:

Units can be placed onto maps and damaged/repaired through the existing CozyVTT creature/token infrastructure.

15. BattleTech preset browser

Added a searchable unit-preset browser.

Features:

No artwork from the sourcebooks was embedded.

16. TechManual example presets

Added a number of example units derived from TechManual worked examples, including:

These serve both as usable units and as examples for the Unit Library.

17. Record Sheets: Succession Wars BattleMechs

A very large number of BattleMech presets were transcribed from Record Sheets: Succession Wars.

The added catalogue includes:

Examples include:

The preset catalogue now contains well over a hundred BattleMech variants.

Platoon management

18. Platoon Board

Added the beginning of a dedicated BattleTech Platoon Manager.

This is intentionally designed more like a card table than a traditional spreadsheet.

A character created in the AToW character generator becomes a soldier card automatically.

Cards can show:

Soldiers can be dragged between:

Groups can represent:

The board layout and membership are persistent.

19. Platoon accessibility

Originally the Platoon Manager was reachable through:

Campaign → Roster → Platoons

It was then expanded so BattleTech platoons can also be accessed directly from the main Dashboard, making the feature much easier to reach.

20. Soldier status and casualties

Platoon members can carry states such as:

ACTIVE
WOUNDED
INCAPACITATED
KIA
MIA
EVACUATED
RESERVE

Only active soldiers contribute to the active combat calculations.

This means removing or incapacitating a soldier immediately changes platoon statistics without deleting the underlying AToW character.

21. Squad/platoon Skill averaging

The Platoon Manager calculates collective infantry skill values from the individual AToW characters.

This includes:

Missing required Skills are reported rather than silently inventing a value.

22. Infantry motive type

Platoons can now select their conventional infantry movement type:

Foot
Motorized
Jump
Mechanized Hover
Mechanized Tracked
Mechanized Wheeled

The choice affects:

For example, conventional mechanized infantry cannot make Anti-‘Mech attacks, so the manager marks that appropriately.

23. Live platoon speed

The manager displays BattleTech movement and the corresponding AToW tactical distance.

Examples:

3 Ground MP
45 m / 5 seconds

or:

5 Hover MP
75 m / 5 seconds

Jump infantry separately displays jump and ground movement.

24. Support weapon system

Platoons can now be equipped with infantry support weapons.

Current support catalogue includes things such as:

Support weapons are assigned to squads rather than just being freeform equipment.

25. Crew requirements and weapon legality

The manager understands that support weapons need operators and sometimes additional crew.

It checks things such as:

An under-crewed support weapon can therefore be identified automatically.

26. Support weapons affect movement

TechManual support-weapon encumbrance rules are incorporated.

For example, depending on motive type, carrying the maximum secondary support weapons can:

So the displayed platoon speed is not merely a static motive-type value.

27. Dynamic infantry damage

The manager is beginning to act as the conversion layer between individual AToW soldiers and the single conventional-infantry unit used in BattleTech.

The calculation considers:

The platoon therefore loses combat effectiveness automatically as soldiers are killed or removed from active duty.

This is one of the core goals of the platoon system:

Individual AToW soldiers
        ↓
Squads / equipment / weapons
        ↓
Calculated conventional infantry platoon
        ↓
BattleTech tactical-map unit

The final direct deployment/conversion into a tactical infantry token is still a future phase.

Database / backend changes

Vanilla CozyVTT’s database has also been extended to support these features.

Major additions include:

All production schema changes have been handled through Prisma migrations and prisma migrate deploy.