Two Different Arcane Backgrounds?

[TCArknight]

I'm at a wall.

In Savage Rifts, the Mystic Iconic Framework (i.e. 'class' ) has the unique ability of having two seperate AB's, Arcane Background (Miracles) and Arcane Background (Psionics). Each set of Powers/Power Points is Seperate.

However, currently there can only be one AB per character, and if multiple are bootstrapped then the Power Points add together along with the Starting powers. Unfortunately, the Powers themselves aren't available for selection.

Any suggestions on how to handle this?

Thanks!
Thomas

[SeeleyOne]

Rifts is naughty like that. Well, at least we now have an official Savage Worlds product that does it --- I have been wanting to remove this limitation for many years.

I do have some ideas.

The better idea would require a special "New Power" Edge for one of the Arcane backgrounds, and this Edge would use a drop-down that would look for the Powers component. This will let you pick a power. I would make it user2, that way you can use a Domain to specify a trapping in text.

As for Power Points, they are totally 100% separate, right? I would consider going with a Derived Trait for the second PP pool, but my preferred method is to have the second Arcane background get its own free Edge that is used to display and calculate its own Power Points pool. This edge would have an eval script that would figure out how many power points it has, look up any of its own special "Power Points" edges and if present then they would be applied inside that script, then have it display this at the end of the script. You can also tie this into a custom-made Power Point counter so that it can also be used in the "In-Play" tab. I have done all of this, it can be done and is not very hard to do.

But ideally is for Hero Lab to start allowing for multiple Arcane Backgrounds. There are a few places to tweak, but not all that many overall.

[Gelfarin]

Hi TCArknight! It's cool to see you're working away on this. We communicated briefly through email, please let me know when you're ready for me to type up more descriptions. I can also do simple items that don't require that bootstrapping/scripting stuffs. Thanks for your hard work!

[TCArknight]

Originally Posted by SeeleyOne

Rifts is naughty like that. Well, at least we now have an official Savage Worlds product that does it --- I have been wanting to remove this limitation for many years.

I do have some ideas.

I guess until now, no one considered that that would be done that way.... Now we know.

Originally Posted by SeeleyOne

The better idea would require a special "New Power" Edge for one of the Arcane backgrounds, and this Edge would use a drop-down that would look for the Powers component. This will let you pick a power. I would make it user2, that way you can use a Domain to specify a trapping in text.

I somewhat have this prepared. In SaR there are two different 'types' of power points. PPE for arcane-related powers, and ISP for psionic-related powers.

I've created each as a new derived trait, so I just need to populate them as needed. However, now that I think about it, maybe they need to be two new Resources so they can sync up like current PP. I chose derived traits because it would be easy to show them in the summary/Statblock/Sheet. Should be just as easy to do as a resource, correct?

Originally Posted by SeeleyOne

As for Power Points, they are totally 100% separate, right? I would consider going with a Derived Trait for the second PP pool, but my preferred method is to have the second Arcane background get its own free Edge that is used to display and calculate its own Power Points pool. This edge would have an eval script that would figure out how many power points it has, look up any of its own special "Power Points" edges and if present then they would be applied inside that script, then have it display this at the end of the script. You can also tie this into a custom-made Power Point counter so that it can also be used in the "In-Play" tab. I have done all of this, it can be done and is not very hard to do.

But ideally is for Hero Lab to start allowing for multiple Arcane Backgrounds. There are a few places to tweak, but not all that many overall.

I was thinking, would it be possible to duplicate the Arcane tab and split it into a Arcane one and a Psionic table relating the PPE/ISP as appropriate? I guess I would need a new ArcPowers resource and PsiPowers resource as well in that case.

Thoughts?

[SeeleyOne]

I would do both, a derived trait and a resource. The resources do not print out, but the derived traits do. You can set the derived trait to also sync the resource.

We cannot mess with the tabs through our eval scripts. But ideally each Arcane Background could have its own. They would probably also need their own type of Power Points.

[TCArknight]

Is there a Hidetab tag that could use to prevent the current Arcane tab from showing?

[SeeleyOne]

Yeah, there is. That is why we do not see an Arcane tab all of the time.

[CapedCrusader]

Multiple Arcane Backgrounds presents a serious issue with the current architecture of Hero Lab. There's simply no easy way around it. It's designed with the idea that AB's are singular and mutually exclusive. Changing it is really difficult, because of a GM's ability to add new AB's at the drop of a hat. Changes to accommodate multiple AB's would likely interfere with that ability, or at least make it more detailed.

It would probably be easier to set up an AB that is that particular combination. The only issue I can see right off-hand is the whole keeping the Powers/Power Points separate issue. How important is that, really? The trappings description area gives you a place to differentiate them. I'm trying to think of ways that we can set it up so we can cover as many bases as possible using what's already available.

[salcor]

Could you set up an AB like the Supers AB which allows you to identify the specific powers each part of the AB supports.

Salcor

[CapedCrusader]

Are the two Power lists completely different? Are there Powers that are common between the two? I would assume that there are common elements between the two.

The bottom line is, does it really matter? It may not be able to tell you up front, but I'm thinking a validation could be set up to evaluate the choices after the fact and alert you that you chose too many off one list and not the other.