Starting from Scratch?

[Territan]

This has probably been covered elsewhere, and I'm simply too new to the forums to know where they are yet.

I'm looking over the Authoring Kit, and the Savage Worlds build... and I'm seeing where you can build a whole lot onto an existing system thanks to the Savage Worlds tutorial. But working from the skeleton to create a brand new system seems much more arcane. Is there documentation on the process from the very early stages, like defining initial attributes and costs?

Incidentally, may I recommend Oxygen as a thoroughly kickass XML editor. Additionally, is there a published doctype or schema for HeroLab files, so my editor knows what it's doing?

[John]

Hi!

I wasn't certain from your post, but is this the type of info you were hoping to find?: http://hlkitwiki.wolflair.com/index.php5/Main_Page

Or is this the info you've already reviewed and you're seeking additional information?

John

[Territan]

I've been reviewing the wiki, and am coming to grips with the terminology and hierarchy.

The Savage Worlds tutorials cover things like adding races, creatures, edges and hindrances, weapons, armor, backgrounds—more about customizing an existing system and less on creating a new system with different attributes, entities, gizmos, definitions, etc. That's what I'm looking for.

If it's there in the wiki, I'll probably hit it sooner or later, but hints would be welcome.

[Mathias]

Here's the page from the Savage Worlds wiki about creating new attributes: http://hlkitwiki.wolflair.com/index.php5/Attributes_(Savage)

Here's the page where it discusses the necessary changes to the definition.def file: http://hlkitwiki.wolflair.com/index.php5/Initial_Changes_(Savage)

Entity and gizmo are not terms you should worry about until you've gotten far into designing your game system - they're not things you will need in order to implement the basics of character creation. Savage Worlds doesn't even need them at all - your game system may not need them, either.

[Territan]

Okay, fair enough. I have another question, too...

(Incidentally, I think I found an interesting Hero Lab test case: 6th edition RuneQuest. It's a simplified version of the original system, with a few concessions to modern convention; dare I say "forthified?")

I'm on the Mac version of Hero Lab, and I've noticed a few things from creating the first of the files.

First, Hero Lab wouldn't let me edit the thing_attributes.dat file; if the point is to modify the skeleton to create a new system, shouldn't this be possible?

Second, to get around this, I used HL Editor to create a new attributes file, one I could substitute and drop in to the main folder when I was ready. It had a .user extension instead, and it used a different convention than the original file; thing_attributes.dat used the attribute isunique="yes" but thing_attributes.user used the attribute uniqueness="unique" instead. Was this intentional?

Third, I went a little too fast and found a typo in my thing_attributes.user. I tried to go back and change it, but HLEditor wouldn't let me save changes. That just seems ...wrong.

[Mathias]

Change the extension from .dat to .user if you want to edit it in the editor. I'd recommend editing it as a .dat file in an XML editor, though - you'll have much more control.