Thinking About Buying

[bbmike]

Is it possible to create characters for ANY RPG? Would I need the Authoring Kit if so? I was interested in creating characters for FASA Star Trek RPG.

 

[AndrewD2]

For that the Authoring Kit would be required and you'd have to completely create the system from the Skeleton Files.

 

[charlieluce]

It is doable in theory, but making a new system in the Authoring Kit is a major project. There are a number of topics in User Projects here about people working on games that they never finished, so it's not something to be undertaken lightly.

 

[bbmike]

Ok, thanks. Would it be easy to modify Hero Lab's existing d20 system to Amarillo's Prime Directive d20 Modern?

 

[Paragon]

I suspect it'd be a pretty good sized piece of work because of needing to replace the classes and add all the supplemental material. In addition, if that uses the D20 Modern style hero point mechanic you'd have to implement that, and probably the armors are all in class D20 style rather than the mix between that and damage reduction D20 Modern was set up for.

 

[ShadowChemosh]

Ok, thanks. Would it be easy to modify Hero Lab's existing d20 system to Amarillo's Prime Directive d20 Modern?

If using an existing game system you have access to the "Editor" not the full authoring kit. So you can't change "core" concepts like if Modern uses 7 Abilities Scores instead of 6 no way to do that. (This is an example ONLY not saying Modern has a 7th ability score). But inputting new classes, feats, spells, and magic items would be allot easier as the Editor and all the mechanics are built.

 

[Paragon]

Huh? D20 Modern only used the same six attributes as 3e era D20; they had some additional things like Wealth and so on, but the attributes were the same.

 

[ShadowChemosh]

Huh? D20 Modern only used the same six attributes as 3e era D20; they had some additional things like Wealth and so on, but the attributes were the same.

It was an example hence why I said "IF". I was letting him know something's can't be change why many others can. Wealth or modern money would be another area that can't be changed.

 

[Paragon]

Sorry, missed the "if" in the sentence.

There might be some ways to fake around the money issues, but it'd be annoying.

 

[RavenX]

I suspect it'd be a pretty good sized piece of work because of needing to replace the classes and add all the supplemental material. In addition, if that uses the D20 Modern style hero point mechanic you'd have to implement that, and probably the armors are all in class D20 style rather than the mix between that and damage reduction D20 Modern was set up for.

You can rig a source to preclude the base classes, feats, and items you don't need. It is possible to rig the base files but some features may need special items and tabs.

 

[Paragon]

You can rig a source to preclude the base classes, feats, and items you don't need. It is possible to rig the base files but some features may need special items and tabs.

You still need to put all the other stuff in, though; its nice not to need to play with having to manually preclude everything that doesn't belong, but it doesn't add all the material you do want.

 

[RavenX]

You still need to put all the other stuff in, though; its nice not to need to play with having to manually preclude everything that doesn't belong, but it doesn't add all the material you do want.

Every game system in Hero Lab started as a blank canvas. Somebody added all the character creation elements. If you want to turn an existing system into a new copy that has the system data you want, its going to be work. But starting with a copy of the 3.5 ogl files may be faster than building it from the authoring kit. Authoring kit is a lot of work to hammer out into a working game system.

 

[Paragon]

Every game system in Hero Lab started as a blank canvas. Somebody added all the character creation elements. If you want to turn an existing system into a new copy that has the system data you want, its going to be work. But starting with a copy of the 3.5 ogl files may be faster than building it from the authoring kit. Authoring kit is a lot of work to hammer out into a working game system.

Sure. I'm just not sure you're going to be able to implement everything in D20 Modern style games with just the editor; the classes, feats and gear should mostly be doable, but I'm not entirely sure how you'd go about the Talents, for example, and its not self-evident to me how to do Wealth and the hero points (but then, I haven't looked at the D20 files in the Editor, so perhaps I'm overestimating the difficulty of at least the latter two). It sometimes doesn't take a lot for added or changed subsystems to be enough outside the regular coding for the editor alone not to be up to the task.

 

[AndrewD2]

It is possible to add new structure to existing systems, its just difficult.

 

[EightBitz]

Learning the authoring kit to develop a game system is akin to learning a programming language. The documentation, with examples, is about 400 pages, and is incomplete and out of date.

If you use the editor to modify an existing system, you will still every likely have to use commands and scripts that follow the syntax of the authoring kit's programming language.

If you have the wits, the skill, the time and the passion to learn how everything works, you can do almost anything you want. But it won't be quick, and it won't be easy.

 

[Paragon]

If you have the wits, the skill, the time and the passion to learn how everything works, you can do almost anything you want. But it won't be quick, and it won't be easy.

Yeah this.