|
The thinking behind validation errors is that the user is always free to ignore them when they don't apply. There are really three ways in which character creation can be managed for any given RPG:
1. Enforce all the official rules - which fails miserably for the myriad groups who have their own house rules.
2. Enforce none of the rules - which allows the creation of anything and provides no useful help to the user in the 98+% of situations where users want to observe the rules.
3. Enforce only the most fundamental rules and utilize validation errors to flag when a rule is broken. This is what we do with Hero Lab.
Using "Permanent Adjustments", many of the most common exceptions can be handled smoothly (e.g. granting extra dots in merits). However, there is no practical way to handle every possible exception perfectly. In those situations, Hero Lab allows the user to break the normal rules, but the validation error is reported. At that point, the user either needs to ignore the error or use the Editor to create a customized version that eliminates the validation error. Learning a discipline from outside the clan is is one of those situations.
|