Any Power, even at Novice

[SeeleyOne]

I want to share a house rule that I came up with. Even if you do not want to use the rule, some of the techniques that I have used in order to make it work could be beneficial for other projects.

I wanted to make it so that any power can be available even as a Novice character. However, I also wanted to have the character's rank still matter. The solution that I came up with is that a casting roll is at +0 when the character is at the same rank as the Power's rank. So, for a Novice, all Novice powers are at +0. There is a +1 for all Powers that are of lower rank, and a -1 for all Powers that are of a higher rank. So, for a Novice the Zombie power is at -3, and at Legendary a Novice power is at +4.

I decided that the way to handle this is by modifying the New Power edge. Instead of adding +1 to the total Powers and referencing the Powers tab it provides a drop-down menu.

I have Arcane Backgrounds bootstrap the new New Power edge. I only want them to each start with one power as it is. I figure if you want more you could perhaps use ther autoadd. I figure that one power is plenty for the use of a single edge.

I find that for Powers I usually have to look things up in the book as it is, having the power summary on the page is not very helpful for me and wastes space on the sheet.

The next post will be my Magician arcane background details, followed by the new New Power edge. There is a limit to how big each post can be.

[SeeleyOne]

For the Arcane Background: Magician edge, I do the following:

1) It has the setting as "none" for Arcane Background.

2) It references five new edges, one for each Rank, for the Power Points edges. I do not like how it normally has to count after the fact as the normal Power Points edge. For Novice to Heroic it is once per rank, but Legendary is unlimited. The result will be displayed on the printout, along with the recharge rate.

3) It has my new New Power edge bootstrapped

4) It also references the Huckster edge, which is what I use instead of that being its won Arcane Background.

Eval Script
Traits 5000, (I do not know if this specific timing is is necessary, but it seems fitting to me and it works. The edges that it references are already on the character by this time)

~Output the Power Points
var PowP as number
var Legendary as number
var Regain as string
var hucks as number
PowP = 10
Legendary = 0
Regain = "hour"
hucks = 0

~Check for Rank-limited PP
if (hero.tagis[Edge.edgPPMag1] = 1) then
      PowP += 5
endif

if (hero.tagis[Edge.edgPPMag2] = 1) then
      PowP += 5
endif

if (hero.tagis[Edge.edgPPMag3] = 1) then
      PowP += 5
endif

if (hero.tagis[Edge.edgPPMag4] = 1) then
      PowP += 5
endif

~Check for Legendary PP
foreach pick in hero from Edge
    if (eachpick.tagis[Edge.edgPPMag5] <> 0) then
        Legendary += 1
    endif
nexteach

PowP += Legendary * 5

~Regain rate by faster recharge rate.
~First determine if is a Huckster.

if (hero.tagis[Edge.edgDLHucks] = 1) then
      hucks = 1
endif

if (hucks = 1) then
      Regain = "3 hours"
else
      Regain = "hour"
endif

if (hero.tagis[Edge.edgRapRch] = 1) then
      if (hucks = 1) then
            Regain = "2 hours"
      else
            Regain = "30 minutes"
      endif
endif

if (hero.tagis[Edge.edgRapRch2] = 1) then
      if (hucks = 1) then
            Regain = "hour"
      else
            Regain = "15 minutes"
      endif
endif

~Print the results
    field[livename].text = "Magician (PP " & PowP & "; regain 1 per " & Regain & ")"

[SeeleyOne]

ThNow for my new New Power edge.

1) It is not unique, so that it can be taken multiple times

2) Menu #1 source is "All Things", and Menu #1 Tag Expression is "component.Power".

Incidentally for reference to others, if the source is instead "All Picks on Hero" it would be an edge that would only look for powers that the character already knows (as per normal Arcane Backgrounds). This is good for edges where you want to augment a Power that you know in "normal" games, such as the Eureka edge for Deadlands.

Eval Script
Traits 5000

    var xp as number
    var prank as number
    var crank as number
    var modifier as number

    xp = hero.child[resXP].field[resMax].value
    prank = field[usrChosen1].chosen.tagvalue[MinRank.?]
    crank = 0
    modifier = 0

~ Determine if rank is beyond Novice.
if (xp >= 25) then
    crank += 1
endif

if (xp >= 50) then
    crank += 1
endif

if (xp >= 75) then
    crank += 1
endif

if (xp >= 100) then
    crank += 1
endif

~ Compare Character Rank to Power Rank to determine Modifier
    if (field[usrChosen1].ischosen <> 0) then
        modifier = crank - prank
    endif

~ Print out the Modifier
    if (modifier >= 0) then
        field[livename].text = "Power +" & modifier & " "
    else
        field[livename].text = "Power " & modifier & " "
endif

[SeeleyOne]

Oh yeah, the XP table in the New Power edge is based on 25xp per rank, feel free to change it to 20, 40, 60, and 80. It can also be based on the final rank, but it seemed better to me to have he xp table, but at the moment I cannot recall why I thought that.

[zarlor]

You sure house rule like crazy in your group! Not that I mind benefitting from seeing the code you're coming up with to handle it all, mind you. Thanks for sharing!

[SeeleyOne]

Some of them are house rules that I came up with, others have floated around the discussion boards (PEG inc forums or Savage Worlds yahoo group).

Sometimes I just want to see if something is possible with Hero Lab for certain settings. I have found HL to be very versatile. Mechanics are awesome.

Some things are not possible. For example, Hero Lab does not allow a character with the Necromancer edge to actually change the cost data within the Zombie power. Likewise, the Zombie power cannot change its own cost based on whether or not he Necromancer edge exists. The cost fields are not dynamic.