Quote:
Originally Posted by MPHopcroft
How did you make that work even as well as you did? I'm not a power user by any stretch of the imagination, and I'm wondering how I can use the .user file to help me with FAE.
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A lot of the information is in the Fate Core specific documentation for Hero Lab (located under Help > Fate Core Beta Manual), but here are the steps I took to create the user file in the Hero Lab Editor.
I started with a new data file, since I knew I would likely be distributing this one. The first thing I needed to do was to assess what needed to be added. The major changes to go from Fate Core to Fate Accelerated is the skills are replaced by Approaches, and there is only one stress track.
Important Note: After saving changes to a .user file,
compile the file (Control-C). This will test for syntax errors (such as typing the name of something incorrectly), and will tell you where they are!
The Stress Track is not covered in documentation, but I took a quick peek at the existing stress tracks (and found the Wealth and Mana tracks that were provided by the kind folks at LWD in this release), and found that they're defined very simply. You simply create a new stress track item, give it a name (in this case, Stress) and a UniqueID (in this case, strFateAccel).
I also took the opportunity to add it to a data source by clicking the Edit button next to Sources. Selecting a New Source then let me define the Fate Accelerated source which appears in the Hero Setting when configuring the character.
After this, save the object, then save the .user file. After compiling (not that the changes we've made so far should cause any problems, but it's a good habit to form), go back to Hero Lab and under the Develop menu, select Quick Reload Data Files. This will tell Hero Lab to load your new .user file as well as the Fate Core game files, which makes things in it available to you.
Now, we go back to the Hero Lab Editor, and reopen the .user file if it isn't already open. Now we need to put our approaches in. Since they behave in the same way as skills do mechanically, they can go into Skills. For the first one, give it it's Name (Clever), UniqueID (skClever), and then click the Edit button next to Sources. The Source you defined for the Stress Track can now be selected, so simply check the box and hit OK. Now, save the skill. Next, you need to duplicate that Skill five times using the button in the lower left of the Editor. That will save you a bit of time, since you just need to go through and rename them, clicking the save button each time (At this point, I also copied the aspect description from FAE to appear in the mouseover text).
At this point, I saved the file and compiled it again (good habits, since we're still not expecting errors at this point). Then, I returned to Hero Lab and did another quick reload.
The final step was ahead of me - creating the Fate Accelerated Campaign. Back in the Editor, I created a campaign, doing the standard Naming and adding it to a Data Source (you may need to scroll down for that). Since FAE doesn't use the skill pyramid, I chose Skill Columns as the Skill Style. Starting FAE characters have a skill cap of 3, and get 9 skill points. Refresh Rate is 3, so we can leave that blank. Initial Stunts and Default Stress are then set to 3. Then, click on the Edit Button next to Campaign Skills. Select the six approaches you defined above, and click OK. If you're using the latest version of the Fate Core Datafile, this will set the skills up (It was broken in the previous version). In the lower section of the options, you can set the Physical and Social initiative skills (Quick and Careful, respectively).
Then, you need to add the Stress Track. Click on the Bootstraps Button, and then click where it says "Click to add another bootstrap". You can then either click on the Choose button, and select the Stress Stress Track from the list that appears, or type the UniqueID for it in the text box. Just above the text box, it should say "Thing: Stress (Stress)" as it identifies the UniqueID. If it has, click OK, then save campaign and the file.
Compile the File
NOW - this is the first place where you may come into a problem (and that should only be if you typed in the UniqueID wrong when setting up the Bootstrap). Assuming it worked, do a Quick Reload of the data files, then go to Configure Hero. Check the Fate Accelerated box (or whatever you called it), then you should be able to select the campaign you just created from the campaign list. As a note, the stunts from Fate Core will not be in the stunt list (as their linked skills are not in the campaign), so you'll just have the Custom Stunts.
I've tweaked the .user file I uploaded earlier so the validation error won't block the transition to Advancement (although it does have the problem I alluded to in my second post), and suppressed the 1/scene custom stunt (which doesn't fit in FAE).