Quote:
Originally Posted by jfrazierjr
2) This is another source book with some extra stuff and choices for "humans" which at least in my mind would make a race tab and either racial ability/racial property(I can never remember which is the "use this from now own") with one or more selectable things which can then bootstrap stuff. Here is the example from the book(I have to write it manually, so hopefully I don't mistype:
Now, my initial reading of the above(last night) was:
free Edge AND ( (d6 any skill) OR (cultural package) )
but after further reading, I THINK it's supposed to be:
( (free edge) AND (d6 any skill) ) OR (cultural package)
|
Definitely the latter. The comma is the giveway separator for the sentence that breaks the two sections apart from each other so it's Edge+Skill OR Cultural Package.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jfrazierjr
[snip] One possible issue with that is that any existing scripts anywhere which try to add to weapons typically seem to check the name field for comparison and would not find this "instance" because it may not have "Sword" or whatever else in the name anymore.
|
I think most of the weapon-based scripts actually look for tags instead (or they usually should, anyway) as the tags should be the defining grouping for weapons rather than just the name, but there probably are some scripts out there that do work on now maybe because it affects a specific weapon or type of weapon that always seems to have that word in the name? I can't think of one right now, mind you. The only other "gotcha" on that would be that, at least in some of my settings files, dual-purpose weapons end up as two entries, such as a spear, for example, can be purchased under either melee or thrown weapons and doing so bootstraps an otherwise hidden, no-cost, no-weight version of the other version of that weapon. So if the named weapon was one of those it might seem a bit odd, I guess.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jfrazierjr
4) no PP for magic, but has Casting Modifier instead that would be nice to be able to add to the power(but we can't). In theory, IF PP could take a negative number and I assume it can, one could make copies of each power in the setting and put in the casting modifier in place of the PP cost. Basically, this is a modifier to the skill roll, BUT you can buy down during the actual casting by taking longer to cast the spell. For example, the spell Astral Walk has a -10 Casting Modifier, so no one with one or more raises and/or a very high skill dice can cast in 1-2 rounds, but if you spend 10 rounds, it the skill roll has no modifiers. Thoughts? Is there a better way to model this with what we currently have or would it make more sense to extend what currently exists. I have not thought to much about the details, but would the way Super Powers work in the current Hero Lab handle this since they don't have PP's but have some kind of negative casting modifier based upon the original PP cost? I have not played with it, so I don't know.
|
Honestly, that's the kind of thing I would have never bothered trying to code into a data file in the first place. There are just too many variables there, just like a normal No PP setting (Bolt has various casting modifiers depending on how you cast it, for example.) That's almost like trying to code in situational modifiers, like lighting conditions, cover or aimed shots. Not something you really code into Hero Lab at all. If it's coded anywhere it seems to me the place to do that would be in a VTT program.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jfrazierjr
5) Spell Duration: this is not hard in any way, but it's extra work. Basically base spells have a much higher duration so every one would need to be re-written.
|
Not uncommon for many settings that might change a base spell, so yeah, probably just a lot of precludes and copy and past work there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jfrazierjr
6) Arcane Backgrounds: three new ones, each with some different flavor stuff that would have to be dealt with and no existing core ones can be used:
[snip]
White Magic
This one is a bit weird and I have no idea how to make this seem natural. Basically, you get a free "new power edge" per rank. I really like the idea here and was thinking for my personal campaign of this EXACT feature just a few hours before reading this in the book. Does anyone have any ideas of how to implement this? It seems like it would be very clunky.
|
I'd have to check some of the other rank-based things, but I seem to recall some code for handling that being out there, and in this case being a relatively easy implementation of just bootstraping the Edge.
So, largely, lots of copying and pasting to do for the setting. If that were done (hint, hint) then I'm sure at least one of us could take over doing all those fiddly coding bit.