Help complete Newb trying to make a new Hinderance

[Lord Norin]

Hi, I am trying to learn how to add new edges and hindrances...

Is there a place on the forums that has a walkthrough on how to do that?

this is what I am trying to add for starters!

Sink like a Stone (Major)

Non-buoyant: Your flesh is slightly denser than water, therefore you do not float. You must constantly kick your legs in water otherwise you will sink. this character receives a penalty of -4 to their swimming trait checks.

[CapedCrusader]

Have you used the Editor before? I can help you with this...

[CapedCrusader]

Actually, that one's pretty straight-forward. Are you more interested in learning how to build these, or in having an example to look at? (or both?) Here's an example file, and the steps to create it...

Steps:
1) Open the editor (Hero Lab Tools Menu/Launch Editor)
2) Open a new user file (File Menu/New Data File)
3) Click on the Hindrances Tab
4) Click on New(Blank)
5) Replace the ???? in the Name field with a name for the Hindrance
6) Replace the question mark in the Unique ID field with a unique name for the Hindrance. Don't remove the "hin" prefix. You'll have 7 characters left to use, as the Unique ID's are allowed to be 10 characters long.
7) Enter the description for the Hindrance in the Description Text field. You can use {b}text{/b} to create bold, and {i}text{/i} to create italics.
8) Put a short summary into the Summary Text field. This is what will appear on the printed character sheet.
9) Click on the check box if it's a Major Hindrance, or choose User-Selectable Severity if it's variable.
10) Set the source using the Sources [Edit] button to assign it to a specific data set if desired. This is also where you can create a new source that will appear in the Configure Hero window.
11a) Now the tricky part. You'll need to set up the code to perfoem the modifications the Hindrance will cause. In this case, we need to modify the Swimming Skill by -4. This will use an Eval Script. Click on Eval Scripts and it will open the Eval Script window.
11b) Click on the space where it says "Click to add another eval script".
11c) It will open the scripting window.
11d) This one will modify a Trait (skSwimming), and we'll want to set the timing. Click the Phase drop-down and set it to Pre-Traits. Then set Priority to 5000. This will set it to perform it's action when Traits are being determined.
11e) The you'll need to enter the actual code to make the adjustment. You'll need the Unique ID of the thing that you want to modify. In this case:
perform #traitroll[skSwimming,-,4,"Sinks Like a Stone"]
This will set a -4 modifier on the Swimming Skill and tag as coming from the new Hindrance.
11f) Click OK.
12) Click on Save.
13) Click the Test Now button. This will compile the code and inform you of any errors. If everything's alright, it will tell you that you may use the new object in Hero Lab. If you happen to make a change in something that the currently open character profile is using, it will ask if you will allow it to drop and reload that particular item in the character.
14) You're ready to rock.

If you want more help, and you don't feel like broadcasting it, feel free to send me a Private Message.

[CapedCrusader]

One thing, though. ::grin:: Unless the campaign takes place on a boat, I don't know that this warrants a Major Hindrance...

[Lord Norin]

Thank you so very much this looks exactly like what I was looking for... I should be able to extrapolate a lot of the other changes I want to make from these instructions!

[tatteredking]

the best way to make something new is to think, "is there something that exists that does something similar"? Once you figure that out, you can go take a look at how the existing thing does what you need to do in HL, and apply it.