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Warhammer 40,000 RPG Expansion

Which Warhammer 40K System do you want to see added to the Deathwatch system?

  • Dark Heresy

    Votes: 8 47.1%

  • Rogue Trader

    Votes: 5 29.4%

  • Black Crusade

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Only War

    Votes: 4 23.5%
  • Total voters
    17
  • Poll closed .
R

RavenX

Well-known member
As many of you are aware of, I've been working on the Deathwatch system for quite some time, nearly six months of actual coding (I took some time away from it for a while). I know there is much interest in the line of books produced by Fantasy Flight Games and I'd like to conduct a small poll of interest from hero lab users regarding which additional system you'd like to see added to the Deathwatch system. I basically want to see which system gets the most votes for support should I decide to expand this data later on.
 
Telenikros,

That is the goal of having this software. I am a gamemaster, I only run games, and Hero Lab helps cut down my preparation time immensely. Instead of doing everything by hand and spending hours pouring over books I can assemble my NPCs quickly with what they need to have. Deathwatch isn't a hard system to prep, but I like being able to use the tactical console to run encounters and manage important character elements. It makes my life easier overall, so the hours I've put into this are well worth it. Mathias has helped me immensely with his explanations of how things work within the mechanics.
 
It will be interesting to see the final results of this consensus. Only war is a pretty nice addition to the line of books. I am hoping for an Only Waaagh! System though as well. I'd love to see fantasy flight games release an all Ork RPG. I used to enjoy games of gorkamorka and love customizing Ork models. I use fantasy Orc models quite a bit in my conversion work. I use black orcs as nobs and ard boys. The heavy plate makes the models easy to identify in large mobs. I think FFG has covered all the humans of the 41st millennium now, so hopefully we will get some xenos books too.
 
Interested interest - the finest way to Chaos

I had two I wanted to vote for, Rogue Trader and Black Crusade. I ended up flipping a coin. Looks like I should have voted for Black Crusade, even if only to show SOME interest in it.
 
I've built this data set with expandability in mind. I may end up adding all of the systems eventually when time permits me to do so. I am mainly conducting this straw poll to see which one people would want added next once the core of Deathwatch is done. I'm pretty sure I will have to do Rites of Battle next as there are still many systems from that book that need implementation. Such as vehicles and custom chapters.
 
I see a large amount of interest shown in all the game systems except black crusade, Dark Heresy might not be a bad starting point for expansion.
 
Ok so Dark Heresy won in the poll, not too bad. I'll consider starting to add the first edition materials that I have once Deathwatch is knocked down.
 
Having Dark Heresy 2 already out, discontinued and Wrath & Glory that should arrive Q3 of 2018, what is the progress on the current packs?

What skills and tools are required to build ruleset (is this the term?) for Warhammer 40k?
 
Valyar said:
Having Dark Heresy 2 already out, discontinued and Wrath & Glory that should arrive Q3 of 2018, what is the progress on the current packs?

What skills and tools are required to build ruleset (is this the term?) for Warhammer 40k?
Click to expand...

Familiarity with XML source code, an ability to spend hours combing through these threads with a fine tooth comb looking for anything useful that isn't covered by the hero lab kit wiki (and there are quite a few topics missing there) and a lot of free time with nothing else to do but build structure file code. It does take a lot of time to do this. I have been doing it for nearly seven years now and it took me a lot of time to learn and get the hang of building structure files. You also need the Authoring Kit I think.
 
{nods} But you don't have to own the Authoring Kit as long as you don't need to save or print characters.

The good news is that also, with a decent foundation in place, a lot of the data entry can be done via the Editor. Unfortunately, that's less than half of the work in most systems.
 
Duggan said:
{nods} But you don't have to own the Authoring Kit as long as you don't need to save or print characters.

The good news is that also, with a decent foundation in place, a lot of the data entry can be done via the Editor. Unfortunately, that's less than half of the work in most systems.
Click to expand...

What I did for Vampire 20th Anniversary is to just create "Sample" things for data. Then I built the needed mechanics that the Character Sheet required and modified the Statblock output as I went. That is why V20 was done in One Month of coding. I did not put in the data as I went, there is far too much data to add for me to do on my own. I'd rather leave the actual data entry to the community. I built what I needed for the system and others will add the data for me.

Sadly I did not do this with Deathwatch and it took longer to create as a result. I don't recommend adding the data as you go, it will slow you down. Build just enough samples to cover what you need in the data.

Also you need the Authoring Kit License, Dugan is right you don't need it, but you do want it. If you intend to create a game system, then you definitely want to print and save sheets. It's very helpful to see sheet progress as you go along if you have the license.
 
I am willing to invest time in this, as Warhammer 40k is the primary setting I play and one of my favorite. With the new Wrath & Glory coming, it might be the refresh I have been looking for.

I haven't used Hero Labs myself, so I don't know how tedious the scripting part is and what kind of tools can be of help to automate or speed up the data entry process (I have all Dark Heresy 2 stuff into Realm Works, if there is way to export and import through some dark data manipulation)

I found a great looking PDF compiled from Noctifier (]https://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=49599) and will be browsing through it this weekend to get some feeling on the authoring process.
 
If you go to the Authoring Kit wiki, you can find a walkthrough for Savage Worlds, which gives you a general idea for the scope of implementing a system, with the caveat that the "skeleton" system they provide as a template isn't too far removed from Savage Worlds at the start.
 
The hardest part of it is figuring out how to implement the XP costs. That's where I got stuck working on Deathwatch. And I'm too busy working on Old World of Darkness at the moment to work on my 40k rp file. Its been on the back burner for a long time now.
 
Biggest tip I can give you, as you are looking at coding these things, Start with your phases definitions. And know how to add a phase for your calculations. You may have to recalculate things later than the skeleton file is rigged to do. And that may require some tinkering with Phases.
 
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