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Shadowchaser
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 223

Old March 15th, 2014, 08:00 AM
Couple of tweaks to the current version of Fate Core that we're using that would be helpful.

Mostly, an "Extras" section that lets you add an extra, describe it, and enter how it works. Each Extra should also have a variable Refresh cost that you set. This you can kind of do with Stunts, but when you want to call out certain things as different it makes it very hard to do so. For example:

We're doing a Venture City Stories game. Powers are generally grouped together in a separate part of the character sheet from the other stunts, and their cost in Refresh varies tremendously. Currently, I have to do a lot of math for the software and add or subtract a given amount of Refresh from the character manually. I also have to enter all the information about a Power in the Notes tab.

Here's an example:

Custom Stunt: (Super-Speed)
Quote:
Notes for stunt:
You can move Really Fast (tm). You get a +6 bonus to Athletics rolls involving moving quickly, and you can use Athletics to run up walls or across fluids. You also get a +2 to Fight rolls, provided you're up close and personal and you're fighting in a situation where superior speed would help you.

SFX:
Area Attack- Attack everyone else (foes and friends) in the same zone as your target using the attack value minus 2
Extra Movement- You can move up to two zones for free.
Lots of Actions- You can split your shifts into up to 3 different actions, adding +1 to each

Drawback: Burn-Out

Collateral Damage: If you're willing to tear up the streets with a huge shockwave, you can pretty much travel anywhere in the city in the span of a single exchange.

Cost: 5 Stunts
The reason I can't break those elements down is that (problem 2) the Stunts want to forcibly put everything in alphabetical order. So there's no way to organize things by calling them out in order unless you set aside a different place on your character sheet for Extras.

Extras can also be Vehicles (Like Mecha) or Sidekicks... things that we need to add for certain games.

The software is (as usual) proving super-useful in my current games, and I'm working around some of the limitations, but having a special area for Extras would go a long, long way towards making my life easier. Especially the user-controllable Refresh cost (a simple cost number with up and down arrows would be all I need).

James Dawsey

Vigilance Press at DriveThruRPG.com

The Vigilance Press Podcast

My Art on Deviant Art
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TCArknight
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Old March 16th, 2014, 03:20 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Viral Platypus View Post
When I created a campaign with a fourth history phase and 4 additional aspects, I set two tags and got it to display the fourth aspect, but it doesn't have the 'delete' button associated with the aspect. Not really a biggie, but all the other History aspects do have one and that one does not. I tried to find a tag to toggle for that but couldn't find it.

Someone posted how to change the names of the phases, but it didn't seem to actually work. I managed to get the default descriptive text for the phases to change. Does anyone know how to get the actual Phase names changed?
@VP: Here's how you can get it working (Although, I don't know about the delete button, as I'm in the same boat). This is based on my Dresden Files campaign data.

1) create a MyTags.1st file, and put this in it:
Code:
  <group id="Mechanics" name="Mechanics">
    <value id="HistRen"      name="History Rename"/>
  </group>
2) create a mechanic for your game.
a) add an eval script to the mechanic at Initialization/100 :
Code:
trustme

doneif (hero.tagis[Mechanics.HistRen] <> 0)

hero.child[eqHist1].field[UserName].text = "Background"
hero.child[eqHist2].field[UserName].text = "Rising Conflict"
hero.child[eqHist3].field[UserName].text = "The Story"
hero.child[eqHist4].field[UserName].text = "Guest Starring"
hero.child[eqHist5].field[UserName].text = "Guest Starring Redux"

perform hero.assign[Mechanics.HistRen]
b) bootstrap aspCustom thing to the mechanic with these tags: HistAspNum.4, portal.baAspect4, and thing.user_added

(I thought the user_added would provide the delete button, but no such luck. I'm wondering if it's a timing issue.)

I think that should be all you need to get the rename and an aspect for the 4th history phase. repeast the bootstrap and adjust the tags for 5.
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egg_green
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Posts: 103

Old March 19th, 2014, 05:37 AM
Hey, guys! Sorry I haven't been posting lately. My Fate group went on hiatus right at the time the beta came out :-(. We're starting up again this week, though, which will be awesome!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Colen View Post
Several people asked for "Extras". For everyone who wanted Extras, it sounds like some of you meant that you wanted a table to which you could add anything you want, and track a numeric value along with it. Would that satisfy what you need, or would you need something more complex?
I think the minimum would be the ability to add a Name, a big box for Description, and a Cost. (Refresh is the obvious choice. Stunts would be nice to have as an option, but stunts and refresh are at least somewhat interchangeable, so having one or the other would work just as well.) Some people might want more complexity than that, but I think the above is flexible enough that it should meet the minimum for pretty much everybody.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Colen View Post
Another common request was "The Fate Fractal - Using fate attributes to make sidekicks, vehicles, special weapons, and so forth". How exactly would this work?[/LIST]
I'm envisioning this working similarly to how Familiars/Animal Companions/Mounts work in Pathfinder. You'd create your fractal-ized thing (is there a generic term for these?), which would add a new "character" to the portfolio with a link to switch back and forth.

I think the new "character" would have to be simpler than normal, since it might be just a set of aspects. However, it could be more complex than that, having its own stress, consequences, skills, or even stunts. If you really want to embrace the fractal part, it would have to be recursive, allowing the sub-character to have its own sub-sub-character!

I don't know if it would make sense for it to just be a full-blown character with some/all of the tabs being optional, or if it would be better to have some kind of variable-complexity options. The latter would be harder to implement, but might make things easier for people to build characters.

Last edited by egg_green; March 19th, 2014 at 05:41 AM. Reason: Fixed list quoting
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egg_green
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Old March 19th, 2014, 05:52 AM
I tried to edit the skill list for my campaign, and I went and checked all the skills I was intending to use. When I compiled the campaign, I ended up with duplicates of all the skills that are in the base skill list.

I'm concerned that a) this is confusing, and b) it seems to indicate that there is no way to easily hide skills for a given campaign.

Let me know if I'm just missing something; I don't have a ton of experience with the editor yet.
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bombaatu
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Old March 23rd, 2014, 10:49 AM
I don't know if this has already been suggested or not, but in the campaign tab of the editor, there should be a means to add a third field in with High Concept & Trouble - to hold (for instance) Race in a fantasy game or species in a sci-fi game.

Also a means to edit the text displayed in the character phases - both the phase name and the text displayed to the user.

Lastly, documentation on how to use the editor would not go amiss.

Last edited by bombaatu; March 23rd, 2014 at 10:53 AM.
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MPHopcroft
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Old March 24th, 2014, 12:27 PM
I can see a point at which it becomes clear that you can only do so much. Fate is so hackable, and so frequently hacked, that I can't think of very many actual campaigns that will be using a completely standard character sheet. For example. now that I've read the Fate Freeport Companion, which replaces the skills pyramid with "skills" based on the d20 stats, and character sheets that include both those and the FAE Approaches, it's obvious that a chargen program as hackable as Fate itself is not going to happen.
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Viral Platypus
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Old March 25th, 2014, 08:25 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by MPHopcroft View Post
I can see a point at which it becomes clear that you can only do so much. Fate is so hackable, and so frequently hacked, that I can't think of very many actual campaigns that will be using a completely standard character sheet. For example. now that I've read the Fate Freeport Companion, which replaces the skills pyramid with "skills" based on the d20 stats, and character sheets that include both those and the FAE Approaches, it's obvious that a chargen program as hackable as Fate itself is not going to happen.
Yes, but to easily customize what's there is important.

1. Add and subtract aspects (mostly done) and rename the phases
2. Toggle skills and add new ones (done)
3. Toggle Stunts and add new ones (done)
4. Add/change Stress Tracks (done)
5. Set base Stunt and Fate Points (done)
6. Defining Extras (sort of done as stunts, but not fractally)

This is all done through the editor, but it would be nice if some of it could be done in Hero Lab for those who aren't proficient with such editing and are intimidate by it. Especially if you just want to make minor changes.

It would also be nice to be able to use the Fractal Concept and have 'children' of a character that can also have 'children'. So you can define items and followers and even places if you want.
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Viral Platypus
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Old March 26th, 2014, 09:55 AM
Is there a relatively easy way to add in another High Concept and Trouble? I want to be able to add aspects for the group of characters in to each character and want them to have labels to distinguish them from regular aspects (group concept and group trouble). I'd also like them to appear at the top and keep them separate from the historical aspects.

Edit: Looks like I've 'added' it, but it won't display. Anyone know what the two eval scripts look like for the High concept and trouble? That's where I think my problem lies. I don't know what to put in for the eval scripts.

Last edited by Viral Platypus; March 26th, 2014 at 01:16 PM.
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Viral Platypus
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Old April 10th, 2014, 09:16 AM
Is anyone using Realm Works and Fate Core together?
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Shadowchaser
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Old April 14th, 2014, 01:56 PM
Hey guys, just wanted to chime in after having used the Fate Core stuff for a while now.

I'm finding the Extras panel INCREDIBLY useful, thanks for adding it! Overall, this has made compiling characters and prepping for games very streamlined and helpful. I really appreciate the hard work you've put into the ruleset.

I'd still like an "NPC Light" version of a character setup, something like the "Nameless NPCs" section (Page 214 and 215 of Fate Core System). It'd make setting up encounters or adding a "sidekick" style NPC to a player much easier, but overall things are working pretty well.

James Dawsey

Vigilance Press at DriveThruRPG.com

The Vigilance Press Podcast

My Art on Deviant Art
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