NEED HELP!!! - First Major Crack At The Authoring Kit

[SpecterFan]

Hello One and All!

I need your help again.

My friends and I are currently taking a crack at Fate Core (none of us have played it before and only one of us has even a minor understanding of the system). Our GM offered several options and we decided to use Tianxia: Blood, Silk & Jade, published by Vigilance Press as our campaign setting.

There is a good deal of material in Tianxia that is not in Fate Core AND not in Hero Lab - most notably the martial arts material. Kung Fu is the "life-blood" of this setting.

1. Is anyone out there familiar with Tianxia: Blood, Silk & Jade?
2. Can anyone help a "noob" with this material and the Authoring Kit?
3. Is anyone familiar enough with the Fate system, the Authoring Kit and Tianxia?

The "Noob" Needs You

Thanks,
SpecterFan

[TCArknight]

SpecterFan,

The issue I've found with doing Tianxia (or any other FATE game really) is having to work with the existing tabs and layouts.

However, I've made a lot of progress on it, using Stunts for the Forms and Techniques and adding a couple of trackers to keep track of Jianghu Rank and Movement Zones.

I've even gotten a statblock sheet available, and am working on a full sheet. Your and your groups input would be very welcome.

Name: Wolf-Eyed Yue

Fate Points: 2

Movement: 3 Zones

Aspects: High Concept: Wild Woman of Jiangzhou, Trouble: Shadows of the Past, "I Can Track Anything", Savage Beauty, White Widow Foundling

Skills: Athletics (+4); Fight (+3); Stealth (+3); Notice (+2); Physique (+2); Will (+2); Chi (+1); Lore (+1); Provoke (+1); Shoot (+1)

Jianghu Rank: 1

Kung Fu Form: Forest Serpent Form
Techniques: Forest Opens Its Path, Serpent Bites the Hand, Serpent Strikes First (Athletics)

Stunts: Leave No Trace; Mistress of the Wild; Untamed

Hero Lab and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com
Fate Core System © 2013-2014 by Evil Hat Productions, LLC.

Unzip the attached file into your fatecore folder and when you load it select both the Tianxia source and the Tianxia campaign and you should be good to go.

I look forward to any feedback. Right now, this just covers the basics of the Body and Element techniques, but I have plans for how to work out the Secret and Lost Techniques as well.

[SpecterFan]

Thanks for the reply.

I haven't done anything with it yet but I will. It looks promising.

Does custom material like this get installed when the program "fires up" and checks for updates or do I just "Unzip" to "C:\ProgramData\Hero Lab\data\fatecore"? I've always wondered about the Alternate Sources/Imports buttons.

The other part of my problem is how exactly do I enter this data into "Authoring Kit"? I'm not that familiar with this sort of thing; or is it just a matter of study the Tutorials plus trial and error?

Thanks again for the help.

[Mathias]

Once you're done, what you've created can be added to the alternate sources list. The instructions for that are in the Help menu in Hero Lab...Hero Lab Manual...Distributing Data Files, but that's not something you'll need yet.

The authoring kit is only used to create new game systems from scratch. If you're making modifications to one of our published game systems, like Fate core, you do not need the authoring kit. Instead, you'll primarily use the editor within that game system.

[SpecterFan]

Just wanted to say thanks "TC". The file you provided helped ENORMOUSLY. Unfortunately, my fellow gamers don't use Hero Lab at the moment but this may have some impact on the GM.

My only gripe is the poor quality of the Fate character sheet. This has nothing to do with your file; I know it is what Hero Lab produces by default. I have no idea if custom character sheets can be generated within Hero Lab. Any ideas?

Two new projects:

1. Add martial arts weapons to Fate for Tianxia. Either as Aspects or Extras.
2. Add "Age of Arthur" to Fate Core.

Thanks again, TC

[SpecterFan]

PS Mathias, I'm sorry. I almost forgot you. But truthfully I didn't forget. Thanks for your input as well.

[TCArknight]

Welcome Spector.

How's this sheet? I managed to hammer out something similar to the sheets of the sample characters in the book...

[SpecterFan]

The character sheet looks good TC but I have to be honest about something. After I filled in the entries under the History section and the default sheet "filled out" a bit more, the Hero Lab sheet looked better.

It still has one annoying problem - some of the items I add get cut off and never show up on the sheet. In particular - The Aspects!!

The character sheet you put together - does that get installed somehow? I'd like to see how that one works. For that matter, can you create custom character sheet layouts with Hero Lab?