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Various Code - Fringeworthy for SW

S

Street

Member
I've used Hero Lab off and on for a number of years in my various Savage Worlds campaigns. Recently I've started a campaign based on the beta rules for the port of Fringeworthy to Savage Worlds. Last week I decided to create the necessary HL files for this. I thought it would be quick and easy. Nope.

Fringeworthy has an Arcane Background(Fringeworthy) that is non-exclusive. You can take other AB's alongside it. After stumbling down the two AB path for a bit, I researched on here discovering that was going to be filled with challenges of the unsurmountable kind.

Since AB(Fringeworthy) has a completely unique set of Skills attached to it, I decided to ditch the AB in HL and just used an Edge named AB(Fringeworthy) with Skills that require the Edge. None of this was linked to an actual AB.

Along the way to getting this all to work I've figured out a few items that I was unable to find in either the documentation or forums. I'll be sharing those in this post as I go along for others. Also, if there is a better way of doing any of this, please feel free to let me know.

______________________


First up, I needed to restrict some of the new Skills to certain Ranks and above. I placed this code in the Expression Requirements with 20 being the xp threshold for the desired minimum Rank.
Code: 
hero.child[resXP].field[resMax].value >= 20



More to come...
 
Sounds good. I have Fringeworthy, got it a few years ago, never ran it and forgot about it, so if you can point me to sources when doing something so I can get context that would be great.

I, too, would have suggested to make an edge simulate an AB. For reserving tanks to a certain XP, yeah, what you are doing should work. The only-one arcane background thing works great until ou want to have a character with both Super Hero Companion and a normal Arcane Background. One could use the Super Hero stuff to have an alien race, but alas that is currently impossible.
 
Back to the drawing board...

While this approach works in HL for the most part, it is too clunky mechanically. Two main issues:
  1. The Powers all function at the linked Skill die. This approach makes it look like they all have their own individual die levels. Perhaps hide the dice for these Skills? Not sure if I like that or if it is even possible.
  2. This is the HL mostly part, doing it this way precludes using some of HL's in game functions. I've only used HL as a character sheet, never at the table, but I might want to change that and others may use this at some point too.

Time to put on the thinking cap here. Maybe there is a solution using the AB functionality I'm missing. The AB(Fringeworthy) has 100% unique Skills and the setting uses the No Power Points rules.

Perhaps trigger the Arcane tab without an actual AB? No idea if that is even possible.

Hmmm...
 
It is possible if you make up an Arcane Background (not the edge, but what an Arcane Background edge bootstraps). You can bootstrap it to an edge, or to the setting might work.
 
Yeah, if I'm understanding this right, and being Fringeworthy is the Arcane Background at hand, I'd just build it as an Edge that has a number of bootstrapped traits. Do they actually use power points for anything? If not, there's no reason to treat it like a normal Arcane Background in the program at all.
 
Paragon said:
Yeah, if I'm understanding this right, and being Fringeworthy is the Arcane Background at hand, I'd just build it as an Edge that has a number of bootstrapped traits. Do they actually use power points for anything? If not, there's no reason to treat it like a normal Arcane Background in the program at all.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm thinking that going back to my original Skill based solution is the best path forward.

As all of the Powers function off a single Skill, Crystal Key Use, none of the other Skills need a die attached to it. Is there a way to hide to die for these Fringeworthy Skills(Powers) on the Skills tab?
 
If it does not have die rating, why is it a skill? You can make them Edges. If you want them cheaper, change the Advancement Slots to be 0.5 and they will only cost half an advance/edge.
 
Honestly, if it works like it usually has, they aren't really--anything. They're just things you can do because you're Fringeworthy.

I've never checked--can you bootstrap powers without actually having an arcane background? Will they even display? If not, the easiest thing would be to just list the effects in the Edge text and move on I'd guess. I ended up doing that with one quirky special power in the Broken Earth file because doing it any other way was way too much work--and there's some precedent in a couple of other specialty Edges I looked at when doing it, though it'd probably be annoyingly long given there's probably about five or six "powers" associated with being Fringeworthy.
 
Does a character have to pay for the different things? If so, it should be something that can be bought (like the half cost edge above). If not, as Paragon suggested, just put it in the body of something else if it even needs to be in Hero Lab in the first place.

If the sole purpose to it is to itemize what a character can do, then you can make an Edge cost 0. I do this to make things show up on the character without having to buy it and I bootstrap them to the thing that gave it to them. For example, for my were-dragons and were-wolves, I keep the normal form untouched but have a "free edge" that displays strength when in that form. I also have additional weapons that are bootsrapped to the character so that they can see their "Claws (Dragon)" and have it display. In the case of strength, if needed I make scripts that use the were-strength instead.
 
Paragon said:
I've never checked--can you bootstrap powers without actually having an arcane background? Will they even display?
Click to expand...

Yes, you can Bootstrap an Arcane Background. Doing so removes all other Arcane Backgrounds from the Edge selection screen though.
 
TLDR; I've decided to go down the Edge route for the associated Powers with the Arcane Background(Fringeworthy). It behaves the same as all other AB's except that it utilizes the No power Points rules and has a 100% unique set of Powers. I need to think on this some more and I'll let you know how this works.



Long version and answers...

AB(F) operates just like any other AB though the setting does use the No Power Points rule. All characters get AB(F) for free. Without this characters could not access the main feature of the setting and there would be no point in playing it. The required Skill is called Crystal Key Use. This is what's rolled anytime a Power is used and does determine the outcome of the Power.

The setting includes a total of 21 Powers available at a various Ranks. All of these Powers are completely unique to this setting. When the AB(F) Edge is taken the player gets two specific Powers, Find Fringeworthy and Locate Portal. Additional Powers can be acquired by taking the New Power Edge.


I'm off the tinker and think now. Let me know if you have any other thoughts.
 
That'll still have the side effect of forbidding other Arcane Backgrounds--and there can certainly be psionic Fringeworthy.
 
This is why I was recommending to go the Edge route. If they do not use power points and you want to pay for them, which seems to be the case with using an Arcane Background, then just make them Edges. The effects of Edges can require the user to make a skill roll.
 
I don't even think they need to be separate edges, since every Fringeworthy can do all of them; one Edge with the text will probably do it, its just bulky.
 
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Frankly, I'm not even sure why Fringeworthy is an edge, since essentially every PC is going to need it, but I guess they decided they wanted to represent it in some fashion.
 
Hiya, Street, been away for a bit.

"The setting includes a total of 21 Powers available at a various Ranks. ... When the AB(F) Edge is taken the player gets two specific Powers, ... Additional Powers can be acquired by taking the New Power Edge."

How about this? The idea of using Edges is a good one, I think. Create Fringeworthy as an Edge. There's no need to actually make it an Arcane Background or even call it one, just call it Fringeworthy as a Background Edge.

If they get two specific abilities when taking Fringeworthy, just add those abilities to Fringeworthy. If you want to create them as Edges, go ahead, just attach eval script code so they don't cost Edge points and bootstrap them to Fringeworthy. This has the advantage of listing them separately with the other 19.

For the other 19, rather than creating a New Power Edge and the AB baggage that goes with it, just create them as regular Edges under the Power Edges type. That way they cost Edges to buy like the New Power Edge would have. Also, you don't have to worry about any of the Arcane Background widgets that (from the sound of things) Fringeworthy doesn't need anyway.
 
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Ah. I'd somehow completely missed the fact that the new assumption is that they don't get all the Fringeworthy related stuff in one bundle. So, yeah, what Caped Crusader said.

Though it seems at that point it'd be nice if the "powers" had a display space of their own.
 
If you make your own separator it will work during character creation. However it does not show up during advancement. Maybe have the edge name say FRINGE or something, and the short name say its printout name and you can search for FRINGE or whatever and it will just show those while selecting an edge.
 
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