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jfrazierjr
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 123

Old September 6th, 2017, 04:23 AM
Rob, what is the level of customizability within HeroLab online AND will the creation/configuration of game systems be substantially different from classic?

First and foremost, I no longer care about any d20 product, so I am not interested in Starfinder, Pathfinder, or D&D(any edition) as a GM(I will still play D&D if required by my gaming group). My primary interest currently(and likely far into the future) as a GM lies with Savage Worlds. This game system has many settings, with each setting utilizing one or more variations on the base rules(some in fairly simple ways, others in drastically different but still "same feel" ways).

With those things in mind, will creating a new game system(or rather converting an existing Classic version) require/allow rebuilding from scratch the base config files? Specifically, I have some concerns with the existing original Savage Worlds game system's base configuration and would hope that IF a re-write is required some of these types of things could be taken into account. One problem I see with Savage Worlds is the utilization of directly editing the relevant ability/skill vs utilization of one or intermediate variables which are then layered on top at run time.

Here is an example xml output from D&D 5e:

Code:
				
<abilityscore name="Strength">
	<abilvalue text="8" base="8" modified="8"/>
	<abilbonus text="-1" base="-1" modified="-1"/>
	<savingthrow text="-1" isproficient="no">
		<situationalmodifiers text=""/>
	</savingthrow>
	<situationalmodifiers text=""/>
</abilityscore>
While here is a relevent and roughly analogous Savage Worlds output:

Code:
<attribute name="Smarts" value="d4">
	<description>Smarts is a measure of how well your character knows his world and culture, how well he thinks on his feet, and his mental agility.</description>
</attribute>
Notice how the 5e example is far more robust in terms of the available modifying properties. In the former case(D&D 5e), temporary adjustments would be layered on top using the abilbonus tag as opposed to directly modifying the base ability score. This makes it really easy to apply things such as various type conversion comparison(for example, you get 2 different bonuses to Strength, but only the higher(ceiling()) is taken into account.

On the other hand, Savage Worlds would directly modify the //attribute[@name="Smarts"]/@value via edges(feats in D&D terms) or various spells.

The unfortunately problem here is that there are a number of setting books built upon this base( MOSTLY fan made and supported) and thus conversion is not something easy to accomplish. On the other hand, such a conversion would drastically simplify the Savage Worlds game system.

I guess what I am asking at the end is: will converting a game system require a new copy of each existing game system be made in terms of the various configuration files required? Also, will I be able to customize to the same extent I can today or even make game systems from scratch in HLO?

If the answer to that is yes(which I hope the answer is in the long term), can the Wolflair team work with the various authors(or do it themselves fully) to determine best practices as each system is being converted? If the answer to that is no, then I really don't see much reason right now to convert. I have been frustrated a bit by the lack of my personal game system(D&D 4E 4 years ago when I purchased HL) and Android on a tablet.

HLO solves only one of those issues(Android support) in the near future(next year or more???), so it's kind of useless for me at this point. I see merit in the HLO, but just not for me in anything I would consider the near future and perhaps not at all depending upon the answers to the above questions.
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