Serialized Advancement

[lifer4700]

I've been working through the Savage World example and I see that the skeleton game system has advancement lockout.

This forces the user to finish creating the character before applying XP and buying advancements.



My question is - before I get too deeply invested - "Is there a way to expand upon this concept in order to disallow the addition of a new class level until the current one is complete?"

i.e. Spend all skill points, buy all feats, etc from level 1 before being able to add a 2nd level. Rinse, repeat.

[Mathias]

In my opinion, if you have a level-based system, do not force that on the user. You're preventing them from just adding a few levels of assorted classes to play around with a build, and test the options.

[lifer4700]

I've thought about that.

After having used PCGen for so long before eventually discovering HeroLab, it was wonderfully refreshing to be able to throw 3 or 6 levels at it, then worry about skills, feats, etc.

The only problem is, in this system, class skills are only purchasable in that class, So, if you take 1st level as class X, and Acrobatics is a class skill, then you can buy ranks. If, for level 2, you take class Y and Acro isn't a class skill then you can't. (optionally, it can also work like cross-class skills in 3.5)

I suppose I could simply track how many class levels taken have Acrobatics as their class skill and only allow that many ranks to be taken... (for each skill, obviously)

I'm thinking that I need to define a field - say max ranks - in the skill compset that gets incremented by each class level taken?

[EDIT]
Ohh, now that I'm thinking of it, that's perfect, since there are abilities that allow someone to have more than the normal max ranks in a skill.
[/EDIT]

[lifer4700]

Hmm, but now that I think about it some more, I'm seeing a hole in that idea.

See, in this system, if I take a level in class X, then I can only spend those skill points on Class X's class skills. The class skills of Class Y don't matter at this point until I take a level in Class Y again.

So, somehow I'll have to determine or track where the skill points come from, so I know where they can go...

[Mathias]

Try the d20 files in demo mode - take a look at how they handle the same requirement for skills.

[lifer4700]

It took me a while to figure out what you wanted me to see, since I went straight to the data files. All the dat files, and a 1st file are present (which is nice), but no def, aug, str, etc.

But then I went into the UI. That's perfect! I've only ever used Pathfinder in Hero Lab, so that layout is new to me. Thanks for the pointer.

I'm wondering - since the system I'm using was originally based upon d20 then modified - if just modifying the d20 setup would be faster. But it doesn't seem like the source for the inner workings of d20 are available.

[Mathias]

I'm sorry, but the only game systems whose inner workings are available to study are the two sample games that come with the authoring kit - 4th edition and Savage Worlds.

[lifer4700]

Yeah, I was afraid of that... IP and all - I get it.

Thanks for the info and pointing me in the right direction!