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Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Metairie, LA, USA
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So far LWD hasn't expressed an interest in selling settings files for Savage Worlds, so the majority of them have just been fan-built. For official Pinnacle settings, however, they do have an agreement in place to allow those fan-built settings to go into the official updater, but the creator has to host the file and LWD does a sanity check of the file before allowing it to be added in that way.
All I can say for sure right now is that I have a partial Evernight file done, but nothing else that I, personally, have been working on and I've just been too busy with other stuff to bother trying to build one for anything else (especially not for Lankhmar since I don't foresee my own group wanting to use that setting anytime soon.) You could always try and take a shot at making a file for it, though. I tried writing a brief tutorial in a thread here called "So you want to make a data file?" which could help you get started. Even if you don't add any of the coding to automate things, just doing the grunt work of copying and pasting in all of the text for gear, edges, hindrances, etc. may be enough to get one of us on the forum helping to finish out the file for you. Lenny Zimmermann Metairie, LA, USA Data files authored (please let me know if you see any issues with any of these if you have/use them): Official (In the downloader) 50 Fathoms, Deadlands: Hell On Earth, Deadlands: Noir, East Texas University, Necessary Evil (requires Super Powers Companion), Pirates of the Spanish Main, Space 1889 (original file by Erich), Tour of Darkness, Weird War II, Weird Wars: Rome Coming Eventually Evernight (LWD has completed their review but I have some fixes to make first... although Pinnacle mentioned this might get an overhaul to SWADE so I may just wait for that first. If you just HAVE to have this now, though, just PM me) Last edited by zarlor; October 15th, 2017 at 01:57 PM. |
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Volunteer Data File Contributor
Join Date: Aug 2009
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Thanks, Z.
_ Currently In Development: Savage Pathfinder, SWADE Fantasy Companion Future Development: SWADE Super Powers Companion, SWADE Sci-Fi Companion _ Currently Running: Savage Unity Inc. (homebrew multiverse theme) Setting Files Supported: Deadlands: Reloaded, Flash Gordon, Gaslight, Hellfrost, Interface Zero 2.0, Seven Worlds, Slipstream, Solomon Kane Future Setting Files: Savage Judge Dredd |
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Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 874
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Just be aware that there can be a lot of little hidden pitfalls that will be anything but self-evident when building data files (or frankly, even just doing any custom content); I'd thought I was done with my Broken Earth file a year ago, but didn't realize until I'd used it for a few months actually running the game that there were some problems here and there with how I'd done specific things.
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Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 1,556
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Isn't it always the way, Paragon...
_ Currently In Development: Savage Pathfinder, SWADE Fantasy Companion Future Development: SWADE Super Powers Companion, SWADE Sci-Fi Companion _ Currently Running: Savage Unity Inc. (homebrew multiverse theme) Setting Files Supported: Deadlands: Reloaded, Flash Gordon, Gaslight, Hellfrost, Interface Zero 2.0, Seven Worlds, Slipstream, Solomon Kane Future Setting Files: Savage Judge Dredd |
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Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 123
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Ok, so there are several things I have found about Lankhmar which are a bit hard and/or clunky(in my mind anyway) to implement in the base game system. Some of these items I have already asked for in the Enhancement thread in some way. A few of the things I mention below are not impossible or ever hard to do, just work.
1) the money system. As tends to happen in fantasy settings I have seen(I don't have any exposure to other genre setting files and don't care to), Lankhmar has multiple currency types. Unfortunately, of the setting books I have seen which have multiple currency types they don't even agree upon the exchange rates. As such I just don't think this can be ever accounted for without a full re-write of the gear/money system into it's own separate game folder, and I doubt anyone i willing to do that(I am not just for this "feature"), so we just have to live with this limitation. I include this solely for completeness. 2) This is another source book with some extra stuff and choices for "humans" which at least in my mind would make a race tab and either racial ability/racial property(I can never remember which is the "use this from now own") with one or more selectable things which can then bootstrap stuff. Here is the example from the book(I have to write it manually, so hopefully I don't mistype: Quote:
free Edge AND ( (d6 any skill) OR (cultural package) ) but after further reading, I THINK it's supposed to be: ( (free edge) AND (d6 any skill) ) OR (cultural package) Either way, for the cultural package of which there are 4, we could choose to just create 5 top level race objects(with the basic option being the free edge and d6 skill), ala: Human - Background A Human - Background B Human - Background C Human - Background D Human - Basic And each of the above would be bootstrapped with the stuff that it needs. Of course, the d6 in any skill is problematic and though there are some work arounds for that also, I don't think they are very pretty. In any event, that's the break down of what would be needed for Humans. The source also has two other races, but those look relatively easy to implement with no odd things that I can see. I still would like to see us having an optional race tab(ie, turn on the viability in a .1st file just like the various setting rules options on the starting screen) that showed the race stuff specifically, but with more options(ie, choosers) which would bootstrap other things. 3) Edges/Weapons: I found only one thing I am not sure how to handle: Named Weapon/Improved Named Weapon. This looks to be a renamed or tweaked Trademark Weapon, but with much, much lower requirements(d6 instead of TMW's d10). Basically, the player can name any specific weapon. They get bonuses when using that specific weapon. The player can take this multiple times, but only once per named weapon. So my first thought was: hmm, can stock individual weapons(or armor, or any gear for that matter) be named specific things by the player? So I checked Trademark Weapon in HL and it has a drop down prompt on the edge, YEAH! But since the weapon itself can't be renamed in the UI, so one would have to duplicate in the Editor and rename or do the same via xml. One possible issue with that is that any existing scripts anywhere which try to add to weapons typically seem to check the name field for comparison and would not find this "instance" because it may not have "Sword" or whatever else in the name anymore. 4) no PP for magic, but has Casting Modifier instead that would be nice to be able to add to the power(but we can't). In theory, IF PP could take a negative number and I assume it can, one could make copies of each power in the setting and put in the casting modifier in place of the PP cost. Basically, this is a modifier to the skill roll, BUT you can buy down during the actual casting by taking longer to cast the spell. For example, the spell Astral Walk has a -10 Casting Modifier, so no one with one or more raises and/or a very high skill dice can cast in 1-2 rounds, but if you spend 10 rounds, it the skill roll has no modifiers. Thoughts? Is there a better way to model this with what we currently have or would it make more sense to extend what currently exists. I have not thought to much about the details, but would the way Super Powers work in the current Hero Lab handle this since they don't have PP's but have some kind of negative casting modifier based upon the original PP cost? I have not played with it, so I don't know. 5) Spell Duration: this is not hard in any way, but it's extra work. Basically base spells have a much higher duration so every one would need to be re-written. 6) Arcane Backgrounds: three new ones, each with some different flavor stuff that would have to be dealt with and no existing core ones can be used: Black Magic Backlash earns "Corruption". At the end of each session player with any corruption points chooses one of the following: a) physical corruption(roll on table for result), basically things like your skill scales over, or your eyes turn into snake irises, webbed fingers,etc(covers 1 point) b) minor hindrance from specific list OR upgrade existing from list to major hindrance(covers 1 point) c) major hindrance from different specific list from the above(covers 2 points) This is an ongoing tracker and if you hit x corruption: new character and the GM takes over the newly jacked up one. Elemental magic Standard fare here, but you have to choose your type(new tag or what ever for the chooser?) You can take from your element, but you can also have some powers outside your element, but are limited in the number per rank. Limits on this would be a nice to have, but I don't think it's strictly required as the player should be able to know how many out of element powers(if any) vs their current rank. White Magic This one is a bit weird and I have no idea how to make this seem natural. Basically, you get a free "new power edge" per rank. I really like the idea here and was thinking for my personal campaign of this EXACT feature just a few hours before reading this in the book. Does anyone have any ideas of how to implement this? It seems like it would be very clunky. I am sure there are other odd things I missed, but those are some of the highlights. |
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So, largely, lots of copying and pasting to do for the setting. If that were done (hint, hint) then I'm sure at least one of us could take over doing all those fiddly coding bit. Lenny Zimmermann Metairie, LA, USA Data files authored (please let me know if you see any issues with any of these if you have/use them): Official (In the downloader) 50 Fathoms, Deadlands: Hell On Earth, Deadlands: Noir, East Texas University, Necessary Evil (requires Super Powers Companion), Pirates of the Spanish Main, Space 1889 (original file by Erich), Tour of Darkness, Weird War II, Weird Wars: Rome Coming Eventually Evernight (LWD has completed their review but I have some fixes to make first... although Pinnacle mentioned this might get an overhaul to SWADE so I may just wait for that first. If you just HAVE to have this now, though, just PM me) |
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Thanks for the replies! I have some more detailed replies, but honestly it's late and I need to go to bed.
As for the hint.... well... I have a physical copy, so no copy/paste for me unless I really feel inclined to also buy digital(sometimes I do, sometimes I don't). On the flip side the book is really really small... there are only 3 races a dozen or so Edges and Hindernaces and a dozen or two new powers, so other than copy/paste rename, it's not significant work for the general data entry part(I might have just talked myself into actually doing some/all of that...) |
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I also noticed that when taking Trademark Weapon as my test case, it presented me with all weapons are listed(which is fine), but when taking Improved Trademark weapon, again, all weapons are listed. However, the latter should only show the list of weapons which have already been "assigned" trademark weapons status. Having the ability to set a name per item would allow that to be possible while it's not now. Quote:
See this is one thing that bugs me about that thought proccess. When I use a character builder, the goal is to both make it easier to build and maintain a character as well as help during gameplay in some way. For the later, that means to me that all the meta information, things such as PP, name, duration, range, etc be clearly and quickly available to me via a print out or pdf on a tablet at the table. I am a bit less pedantic about full rule details as that level of copy/paste can then potentially run afoul of copyright laws, but the high level stuff should be in the editor in some way so that it can get output to the character sheet and not have to be constantly looked up. Quote:
From technical level, I have the personal expertise to rebuild Savage Worlds from the Authoring Kit exactly the way I want it to be(with some guidance on how to accomplish certain tasks of course). But the primary issue is with time. I am still waffling on the decision if the "get it my way" is worth the huge time investment. Heck, I know enough programming languages that I could build a character builder from scratch for any specific game system, but that's even MORE time vs me extending Hero Lab via the Authoring Kit. I know for a fact I won't do the latter not only because of the actual programming time commitment, but also the data entry time which is humongous and would be a one game system thing. |
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As for technical expertise to do these things... well, plenty of folks here have more of that than I do. And time, and inclination, is always a bit of an issue for me was well. Still, if someone takes care of a lot of the copy and paste work (especially for Pinnacle produced stuff, since LWD has an agreement with them already in place, so a lot less worries acout copyright issues if we give the files to LWD to put into the official updater) then I'm more likely to put in the little bit of extra time to do some coding work to finish out a file than I am to just do the file on my own for a setting I'm not otherwise working with for you own gaming group. Lenny Zimmermann Metairie, LA, USA Data files authored (please let me know if you see any issues with any of these if you have/use them): Official (In the downloader) 50 Fathoms, Deadlands: Hell On Earth, Deadlands: Noir, East Texas University, Necessary Evil (requires Super Powers Companion), Pirates of the Spanish Main, Space 1889 (original file by Erich), Tour of Darkness, Weird War II, Weird Wars: Rome Coming Eventually Evernight (LWD has completed their review but I have some fixes to make first... although Pinnacle mentioned this might get an overhaul to SWADE so I may just wait for that first. If you just HAVE to have this now, though, just PM me) |
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