hacking the tactical console

[Mapes]

So I've not used the console other than to poke around. I'm not sure if this is possible but, what I'd like to do is to add the ability to roll some skill checks (pathfinder) for my players (stealth, knowledge and perception come to mind). In order to cut down the meta game angle. Ideally it would be awesome sauce to have the tactical console up and just click once for all players or to click on a skill on a single player and have it display the result. That way I could just keep the tactical console up and use it that way and then when a combat happens import the bad guys into the console. I'm not sure this is possible as I've not really started looking at the HL code. While I wouldn't call myself a coder I'm very familiar with XML and I'm good at BASH shell scripting as well as getting most interpretive language based stuff to run in some environments if it's a case of needing a perl module or change some environment vars. Before I start looking at this though I thought I'd ask here if I'm going to be wasting my time. Thanks for any help

[bodrin]

I don't think there's an easy way to do this in or too the tactical console, however I may be wrong.

That said I use the tac console every session, I leave it open in the background and bring it to the front when needed.
There is a stand alone dice roller available in the tools menu of HL though which is functional but slightly clunky. Perhaps that would suffice before you delve into hacking the code?

[Mapes]

Yeah I figured not. I was hoping I could hack some type of template file or something. That said I think I'm going to use the Tactical Console but, also have a Google Sheet open where it's shared with the PC's. I can make a sheet macro to auto roll perception or stealth for each PC...

[bodrin]

Originally Posted by Mapes

Yeah I figured not. I was hoping I could hack some type of template file or something. That said I think I'm going to use the Tactical Console but, also have a Google Sheet open where it's shared with the PC's. I can make a sheet macro to auto roll perception or stealth for each PC...

For a quick and dirty calculation I usually add 10 onto the skill for my players as a passive check before asking them to roll a die.

If it beats the DC of the chosen skill, perception, stealth etc. Then I carry on without the die roll.

This works quite handily for surprise rounds, and allows me to quickly move on to the initiative order.

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by bodrin

For a quick and dirty calculation I usually add 10 onto the skill for my players as a passive check before asking them to roll a die.

Wait that is the not the standard rule? I guess I have been using the assume take 10 for so long I forgot its not in the rules. At night watch with nothing but "watching" I even assume the characters are taking 20 on perception.

Heck I even do the same for Diplomacy and Sense Motive of assume take 10. Unless its some major NPC interaction in which case to me its more like a combat and we go to rolls. But if they are doing gather information around town for basic stuff assume take 10 and give the players info to move the game on.

Note I do agree about HL's tactical counsel. I have never actually used it as I have a "old" tool that still does all my rolls and tracks turns.

[bodrin]

Originally Posted by ShadowChemosh

Wait that is the not the standard rule? I guess I have been using the assume take 10 for so long I forgot its not in the rules. At night watch with nothing but "watching" I even assume the characters are taking 20 on perception.

Heck I even do the same for Diplomacy and Sense Motive of assume take 10. Unless its some major NPC interaction in which case to me its more like a combat and we go to rolls. But if they are doing gather information around town for basic stuff assume take 10 and give the players info to move the game on.

Note I do agree about HL's tactical counsel. I have never actually used it as I have a "old" tool that still does all my rolls and tracks turns.

The thing with taking 20, it assumes you fail a number of times before success, so "watching at night" should include those failures!

[DorVLind]

Originally Posted by ShadowChemosh

Wait that is the not the standard rule? I guess I have been using the assume take 10 for so long I forgot its not in the rules. At night watch with nothing but "watching" I even assume the characters are taking 20 on perception.

Heck I even do the same for Diplomacy and Sense Motive of assume take 10. Unless its some major NPC interaction in which case to me its more like a combat and we go to rolls. But if they are doing gather information around town for basic stuff assume take 10 and give the players info to move the game on.

Take 10 is in the rules. You've been doing it correctly.

In order to take 20, you have to a) have no penalty for failure and b) be able to take 20 times as long as it normally would. If those don't apply, you can't take 20.

[Silveras]

Originally Posted by DorVLind

Take 10 is in the rules. You've been doing it correctly.

In order to take 20, you have to a) have no penalty for failure and b) be able to take 20 times as long as it normally would. If those don't apply, you can't take 20.

Yup.. and there was an interesting rule in an old 3.0 book for cities.. Take 5... for underpaid (and under-motivated) guards. I like that one.

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by DorVLind

Take 10 is in the rules. You've been doing it correctly.

In order to take 20, you have to a) have no penalty for failure and b) be able to take 20 times as long as it normally would. If those don't apply, you can't take 20.

I guess I didn't really explain that well. In 4e its called "passive". Basically unless told otherwise I assume PC's are taking 10 on a skill. They are walking down a hallway and Rogue's take 10 Perception is enough to see trap I just tell the player. I don't require a "roll" or anything. Same when talking to a NPC and the PC has a good Sense Motive I just assume they took 10 and I give them info that Sense Motive would give.

Thats what I meant more than I didn't know Take 10 Existed. Where the rules "assume" the player tells the DM when they are taking Take 10.

[Kendall-DM]

The other part of this equation is, when taking 10 or taking 20, I don't think it is allowed for rolls that are truly opposed rolls. Otherwise, the higher of the two totals always wins. For example, the character with a +11 perception always sees the thief with the +10 sneak. Also, if you assume that people on watch are always taking 20, you should also assume that anyone sneaking up on them is taking 20 as well. Same difficulty applies.

If you want to stop the meta-game, one rule I implemented way back in first edition of D&D was to zero the die. In other words, instead of saying that 1 was the lowest value, and 20 was the highest value, I would roll a d20 and zero the die on what was rolled, so that number is subtracted or added to the d20 roll. For example, if a character has the +5 to perception, I as the GM would roll a d20 and if I roll a '10' the die is zeroed at that value, so that an 11 is actually a 1, a 12 a 2, ..., a 1 an 11, a 2 a 12, etc. up the the value of 10 again. So, based on the roll, you can add 10 - the value rolled from the final total if the value is greater than 10, but add the value rolled to the final total is the value if less than or equal to 10. The great thing is that you only have to zero the die at the beginning of the night. Keeps the players guessing about successes and failures.