Complicated racial ability

Paragon · January 30th, 2015, 07:14 AM

Okay, just because I thought the early part of this would be easy, Broken Earth has decided to show me I'm over-optimistic.

The Simians in the Broken Earth setting have a racial trait/handicap called Less Educated. Less Educated does three things, and I only have any idea how to do one of the three.

1. They get the Illiterate Hindrance. I suspect by parallelism I can use the code to give someone an Edge from the code thread and rework it into giving them the Hindrance.

2. It prevents them from buying certain skills.

3. However, it can be bought off either with two character creation points (I'm assuming they mean the kind you get from Hindrances and the like) or an Advance.

Any idea how to go about this? I've got the feeling that latter part in particular is not going to be easy to implement.

CapedCrusader · January 30th, 2015, 01:21 PM

1. Bootstrap the actual Hindrance. There's no background code for that one.

2. Preventing Skills could get interesting. Which Skills?

3. Bought off with Character Creation points? Which ones? They are all specific.

zarlor · January 30th, 2015, 01:57 PM

I don't have Broken Earth, but at a guess maybe they mean what Hero Labs normally refers to as Rewards? Like when you take a Hindrance?

Paragon · January 30th, 2015, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CapedCrusader

1. Bootstrap the actual Hindrance. There's no background code for that one.

That's what I figured.

Quote:

2. Preventing Skills could get interesting. Which Skills?

Driving, Lockpicking, Knowledge (Computers, Electronics, Science, and the like), Piloting, and Repair. I'm guessing the Knowledge is just going to have to be done manually, since they can take other Knowledges.

Quote:

3. Bought off with Character Creation points? Which ones? They are all specific.

The phrasing is "Simians, can buy this off with two character creation points, or as an Advance." I'm guessing they're talking about Rewards, but that's just a guess.

Paragon · January 30th, 2015, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zarlor

I don't have Broken Earth, but at a guess maybe they mean what Hero Labs normally refers to as Rewards? Like when you take a Hindrance?

That's my guess, too.

Paragon · January 30th, 2015, 05:09 PM

Went ahead and emailed Sneak Attack Press to ask them what they meant there, just in case.

Paragon · January 30th, 2015, 07:07 PM

It occurs to me a way to do part of this; I could replace the mentioned skills (other than the Knowledges, which I'm guessing will just have to be a case that people remember they can't do those kind) with copies, with an eval script which will make them unavailable if the racial ability is present, then Preclude the old ones. Kind of a pain in the butt to do, but I'd think it should work.

Still don't have any idea how to do the buy-off, though; maybe if I treat it as a Major hindrance? Do advances care whether something was a major or minor Hindrance when you buy them off?

SeeleyOne · January 31st, 2015, 08:12 AM

As for preventing skills -- as in that character can never get it -- is easy to do if you make it a setting tag. It is kind of annoying because if that hindrance is taken because you will have to manually click on a "Setting" in the Hero Creation menu. Actually, the best way to do that is to have the hindrance also require that setting. If the setting is on, you have that hindrance bootstrapped. You can make it manually give the Rewards points as a bootstrapped hindrance will not grant those normally (that is done in the eval script of the setting), and then preclude those skills using the Setting as the id.

Buy-offs are normally only possible for Minor, and an advance can take it off. If it is a 2-cost hindrance (a Major) it would require two advances.

Paragon · January 31st, 2015, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paragon

Went ahead and emailed Sneak Attack Press to ask them what they meant there, just in case.

Yup, it was Reward points; SW just doesn't have an official term for that, so...

Paragon · January 31st, 2015, 11:00 AM

I'm not quite sure I understood what you meant with the first part of this, SeelyOne. If I set the racial trait to evoke the Hindrance, that won't work? This is all going to be part of a source after all.

The problem I see is that this is treated like a minor Hindrance if you buy it off in play (i.e. it only takes one advance to get rid of it) but a Major when bought off at character creation (i.e. its treated as though it cost two Reward points).

Paragon Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 874 January 30th, 2015, 05:09 PM	Went ahead and emailed Sneak Attack Press to ask them what they meant there, just in case.
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