Interface Zero 2.0

[SeeleyOne]

Interface Zero is the data set that I have wanted the most.

[CapedCrusader]

Working on it now...

Be aware, though, that Hero Lab does not support Skill Specialization.

The reason for this is that Skill Specialization turns the whole game system on it's head. It's the exact opposite of the original design for Savage Worlds. And the program is written for the original system.

You know all of the oddness you have to go through dealing with Knowledge Skills as opposed to the others? Now do that for every Skill on the list. And then you'd have to find a way to designate which specialization each weapon belongs to. And then add to that the fact that there's no set list of specializations, everyone can use their own at whatever level of detail they desire. And that's just the issues I can think of right off-hand. It's basically impossible, and largely because it's so open-ended.

Also, it would take an complete re-write of the entire system. And there's just not enough demand for it. IZ 2.0 is the only Setting I've seen so far that uses it.

[SeeleyOne]

I looked into making it work, and looked into the specialization system more closely, and decided that I do not care for it. I can understand the rationale on not wanting to put in what is likely to be a waste of effort.

The majority of the specializations are not applicable to Hero Lab anyway. They are situational modifiers to turn on/off. The only specializations that would be used on the sheet are weapons. And using them is like using the "proficiency system" as it started in AD&D. All it does is limit weapon selection, which was its entire purpose in D&D.

[CapedCrusader]

Exactly my thought. And the whole purpose of Savage Worlds was to remove those limitations.

[Paragon]

Eh. Sometimes you're just running a setting where the broad competence that SW defaults to its not appropriate. It doesn't take anything particularly weird to have a situation where you don't want every pilot to be equally good at fixed wing light planes, helicopters and variable wing fighter jets.

Savage Worlds has grown in use well beyond its pulp-game roots, and some of its structural features don't always play well with that.

But if its not possible to implement it without backflips, its not.

[SeeleyOne]

There is a workaround if people insist. A GM can require half-cost edges that work as specializations when they are needed. The trick with the weapons is that it has to match up with the weapon types and then have a script apply a penalty to all weapons, and then give a +2 (to net +0) to weapons that the character has the proficiency, err "specialization", for.

[salcor]

Yeah As I started to look at IZ2, the skill specializations did seem a little odd to me as well. I too am looking forward to this Herolab file as well.

Salcor

[SeeleyOne]

How is this going? Out of all of them, this is the one that I personally want the most.

[CapedCrusader]

As soon as the update gets reviewed/tested/approved, I'll finish it up.

[SeeleyOne]

I thought of an idea for skill specializations.

They could use simples for their dropdown menu. For most things they do not really do anything on a character. Just those with weapon skills would have an eval script. They would essentially be edges that have a dropdown that looks for certain "simples". I have gotten this sort of thing to work and it is easy.

The easier way might be for an eval script within a mechanic to look for weapons that are on the character. Then it would apply a -2 to the attack roll unless it can find some sort of match between an edge with a valid simple. I suppose that a tag of some sort, or the weapon type, would be used to match them, and the eval script can be made to handle any variances.

A problem is that I have never figured out how to get a bootstrap to bootstrap something conditionally. It works fine in Pathfinder, but I have never been successful so far in Savage Worlds. So, instead, the player would add the specialization manually.

If I recall correctly, the character gets one per skill die. If that is the case what another script could do is figure out how many specializations are free for each skill. If it is free, it would add to the number of edges to pay for it after the fact and make it essentially free (even though it is retroactive). A problem area for this is that I still have not found out a good way to tell the difference between character-creation mode and an Advance while picking skills. I think that the best way would be to have skill specializations be taken as Advances. So after the person locks in their skills it would give free advance points for whatever number of edges. Are they half an advance each? If so then it would give 0.5 each.

I am pretty sure that the above would work.