If I were to send you the stuff...can you do it?

[rdowney1]

All-

Ok so the script editor is a little bit beyond me currently. If I were to put the stuff I need to put into some specialized edges, can someone do them for me so I can see how they are done? For example, I am doing a Judge Dredd game and I have the following edge:

Psi-Judge Requirements: Arcane background (Psionics); Smarts d8+; Psionics d6+
Famous for being "high-strung" and flaky, these gifted individuals are nonetheless an integral part of the Justice Department system.
Mental Fortitude: Psi-Judges are trained to resist demonic and rogue psyker influences and attacks. Add +2 to all rolls to resist arcane-based powers directed against them.
Constant Training: Psi-Judges have been intensively trained since childhood for service to Mega-City One. They begin play with 12 power points and 4 starting powers. (Already added in)
Quirky: Psi-Judges are considered odd, even by Mega-City standards. Their Charisma begins at -2.

That is a bunch of stuff, and I just can't seem to get my head around how to make that Edge. Any help would be appreciated. Also, before anyone asks that is not my Edge, I took that off of the very excellent Judge Dredd source file made by Randy Mosiondz and Teller. It is an unofficial source file that is free online.

 

[zarlor]

Your best bet is to work with what's already there. ABs are a bit tricky in that you basically need to work with several different tabs to get them set up, though. I'd say you want to make sure you start with saving your currently black file in the Editor to a new .user file (JudgeDredd.user, for example). Then it's off to create what you need.

Basically I like to start on the Skill tab and create the skill your caster will be using. I know there is already a skill for Psionics, but when making my own settings I find it's a lot cleaner to just make a new skill for that setting. However, you can always "Copy" the existing skill to help have some stuff already filled out for you. Just use the "New (Copy)" button on the lower left and you can even start typing "Psi" in the search box at the top to help narrow the list down so you can select "Psionics (Arcane)(skPsionics)". If you look at the "UniqueID" field you'll notice it filled in the first couple of letters for you ("sk", the prefix used for Skills) and it's pretty standard to use a two letter designation after that for the setting you want to use this in. I think JD, for Judge Dredd, would be pretty good which gives us "skJD" using the JD to replace the ? in there. Then just fill it out with something appropriate for the skill, so maybe something like skJDPsi would work fine for this. Cheange the Description and/or other fields as you see fit. If the "Containerreq" button is red you may want to click on that and clear anything out of that box since it's not really relavant for this. Also drop down the Arcane Background box and scroll up to "-New Tag -" and fill it in with what you want to call the AB this will be associated with, so in this case something like "Psi-Judge" should be good. And finally click on the "Edit" button next to "Sources:" and uncheck anything already checked in there and then check the "- New Source -" box. That should then prompt you to name your source so just type in something like "Judge Dredd". After that any time you want click on the Edit button for Sources you should now see "Judge Dredd" available on the list.

Next you'll want to go to the Drawbacks tab. I don't know if they use the standard "Brainburn" drawback for Psionicists or if "Quirky" is their drawback. If the former then just "New (Copy)" Brainburn, set the source and you're good to go. If it's supposed to be Quirky then you can just add a New (Blank) one, call it Quirky, fill in everything and then to set Charisma at -2 you'd use an "Eval Script". There are examples for that in the "Common Codes" thread stickied near the top of this forum. Don't forget to set your Source!

Next I'd go to the Arcane Background tab and again do a New (Copy) and copy something like Psionics (arcPsionic) to give you something to work from. Create your UniqueID, but don't forget your two-letter designator, so something like arcJDPsiJud. Fill in everything based on your write-up for what it should be able to do (12 PPs and 4 powers., etc.) and don't forget to click the "Edit" button next to Sources to select your Judge Dredd setting. Now you will want to click on the "Bootstraps" button on the right. It probably has Brainburn already in it. If that's what you are using then there's no need to change anything, but if it's suppsoed to be the Quirky one then you can either just type the UniqueID you used for Quirky (maybe something like drwJDQuirk) or you can click on the "Choose" button to try and find it on a drop-down list.

I would note here that the Mental Fortitude part is jsut something that will be in your AB description. It's pretty situational and there is no real trait to modify where we can show that +2 modifier so it's not something we can really do anything with in Hero Lab. If folks other than Psi-Judges can have it, though, you could create it as a separate Edge and Bootstrap it to the AB: Psi-Judge Edge you create next.

Finally go to the Edge tab and do a New (Copy) for something like AB: Psionics (edgArcPsi). On your UniqueID, however, you should name it edgArcJD and then whatever you want to use (so maybe just edgArcJDPs). There's a reason to have his start edgArc because it's used in some other places so that saves you from having to mess with some of the other Edges. Just trust me on that one. Fill out the appropriate stuff, be sure to select Psi-Judge from the Arcane Background drop-down list, set your source and on Bootstrap make sure it's selecting your new AB (so abJDPsiJud or whatever you named it). If Quirky is not a drawback then you will need to create a new Hindrance for that and also Bootstrap that here. Also Bootstrap Mental Fortitude if you made that an Edge.

That should give you an idea of how to do all of that stuff and trust me doing it really is the best way to learn it (and it is worth learning if you'll be using HL for any kinds of house ruled stuff or unofficial settings like this.) Feel free to ask questions, though.