Ultimate Mentalist optional rules template?

[Kaze9999]

Hey, it seems pretty obvious that a lot of people have a lot of very cool HDv3 templates that they've NOT gotten around to sharing on the HD website: Does anyone have character, rules, and export templates for HDv3 which incorporate the Optional rules from Ultimate Mentalist for Ego, Mental Speed, and Mental Defense?

Specifically, Ego costs 3, Mental Defense a starting characteristic figured off ego like PD is figured off strength, and Mental Speed is a starting characteristic figured off Ego?

I'm personally hoping to get that based off the 'Heroic' template and having a rollicking fun Dark-Champions/Psi-World game.... :thumbup:

[BobGreenwade]

Don't look forward to the alternate Characteristics rules any time soon. From what I understand, that kind of thing is a real bear for Simon to program.

As for the rest, it's probably just a matter of people getting around to creating the data: Simon for the new rules options, and somebody else for the templates and stuff.

[Kaze9999]

It seems like it would be much simpler then say, the Savage Earth Template that is already up on the Hero Designer web site. Not that the Savage Earth Template looks in any way 'simple'. Lots of work there!

I'm just wondering what other works of art are stashed away in virtual attics rather then being out on the HD site where we all can lavish praise and appreciation on their creators! And use their stuff. :D

[RPMiller]

The Ultimate Mentalist Character Template would be easy to do. You just need to use the Generic Characteristic tags.

[Kaze9999]

Okay, I have something that mostly almost sort of works (linked .hdt).

http://www.herodesigner.com/getTemplate/220316/Mentalist%20Campaign.hdt

The template has two additional custom characteristics (MD for Mental Defense and MSPD for Mental Speed) and figures them both from ego, and ego costs 3 per level, and buying the Mental Defense power does automatically add to the new, custom, MD characteristic.

Is it possible to:


(1) Get MSPD (Custom2) to only round up when ego is at an increment of 10? Currently it rounds to the next higher MSPD as soon as ego hits halfway to the next increment of 10 (like getting mental speed 3 for buying your ego to 15).

(2) Get Mental Defense in 'Powers' to stop offering to let me buy multiple 'quantities' of the power as well as higher levels of it?

(3) Get the 'rolls' not to show for the custom characteristics.

(4) Get a display on MSPD (mental speed) like the SPD one? Showing phases?

(5) Okay, the export template was easier then I thought it would be; must mean I really hosed it! :)

http://www.herodesigner.com/getExportFormat/220327/Hero%203-Column%20Mentalist.hde

[Simon]

(1) Get MSPD (Custom2) to only round up when ego is at an increment of 10? Currently it rounds to the next higher MSPD as soon as ego hits halfway to the next increment of 10 (like getting mental speed 3 for buying your ego to 15).

(2) Get Mental Defense in 'Powers' to stop offering to let me buy multiple 'quantities' of the power as well as higher levels of it?

(3) Get the 'rolls' not to show for the custom characteristics.

(4) Get a display on MSPD (mental speed) like the SPD one? Showing phases?


1) No

2) No (+5 points for x2 number of items applies to all Powers -- it's up to the player/GM to determine if it applies to a particular purchase/construct).

3) Within the app: no. On the export format it's entirely up to what you tell HD to output.

4) Not within the app, though you may be able to cobble something together in your export format (largely brute-force).

[RPMiller]

Would it be possible to have a new "SPD alternate stat" that could do #1? I personal wouldn't have a need for it anytime soon, but it is good to have options as it were.

Or maybe a "rounding" attribute would be easier to incorporate?

[Simon]

Would it be possible to have a new "SPD alternate stat" that could do #1? I personal wouldn't have a need for it anytime soon, but it is good to have options as it were.

Or maybe a "rounding" attribute would be easier to incorporate?
No -- there are a hideous number of rules surrounding the proper calculation of SPD. If what you want is simply to replace DEX with EGO in the calculation of SPD, then don't use a Custom Characteristic -- use SPD and change the definition of it. If you want SPD and "Mental SPD" then you're going to have to get by with things as they are.

There won't be any other Characteristics to support the type of rounding found in SPD unless/until Steve adds them in as core components of the system.

[RPMiller]

Cool. I was just curious. I figured it was a hell to program. It was worth finding out for sure though. Sorry Kaze999, looks like you have some Export Template work to do. I wonder if a REGREPLACE would work in this instance?

[Kaze9999]

1) No

2) No (+5 points for x2 number of items applies to all Powers -- it's up to the player/GM to determine if it applies to a particular purchase/construct).

3) Within the app: no. On the export format it's entirely up to what you tell HD to output.

4) Not within the app, though you may be able to cobble something together in your export format (largely brute-force).

Thanks Dan! I am very pleasantly suprised how easy it was to make a custom character and export template. I am far from an inspired coder, and was relieved that it was mostly just a matter of reading the documentation and following directions. :thumbup:

[Kaze9999]

Cool. I was just curious. I figured it was a hell to program. It was worth finding out for sure though. Sorry Kaze999, looks like you have some Export Template work to do. I wonder if a REGREPLACE would work in this instance?

I'm willing to use it as is for now. As an alternative, I think that I will just make what I did widely and easily available, and see if anyone else decides to run a mentalist campaign of their own and is moved to take it further, and share it on the Hero Designer site or on these forums. :)

[rjcurrie]

Thanks Dan! I am very pleasantly suprised how easy it was to make a custom character and export template. I am far from an inspired coder, and was relieved that it was mostly just a matter of reading the documentation and following directions. :thumbup:

Always glad to hear that the documentation is useful. :)

[RPMiller]

-SNIP- just a matter of reading the documentation and following directions. :thumbup:
:shock: He isn't human! He must not be from this planet! Reading the documentation to figure out how to use a program?!?! Are you insane?!?! :sneaky:







:rockon::cheers: I'm very happy to learn that I'm not the only one. :yes:

[Kaze9999]

Okay, I have something that mostly almost sort of works (linked .hdt).

http://www.herodesigner.com/getTemplate/220316/Mentalist%20Campaign.hdt

The template has two additional custom characteristics (MD for Mental Defense and MSPD for Mental Speed) and figures them both from ego, and ego costs 3 per level, and buying the Mental Defense power does automatically add to the new, custom, MD characteristic.

Is it possible to:


(1) Get MSPD (Custom2) to only round up when ego is at an increment of 10? Currently it rounds to the next higher MSPD as soon as ego hits halfway to the next increment of 10 (like getting mental speed 3 for buying your ego to 15).

(2) Get Mental Defense in 'Powers' to stop offering to let me buy multiple 'quantities' of the power as well as higher levels of it?

(3) Get the 'rolls' not to show for the custom characteristics.

(4) Get a display on MSPD (mental speed) like the SPD one? Showing phases?

(5) Okay, the export template was easier then I thought it would be; must mean I really hosed it! :)

http://www.herodesigner.com/getExportFormat/220327/Hero%203-Column%20Mentalist.hde

Hm...I just got the today's update to HDv3:

"Tuesday, February 6, 2007 RULES ADJUSTMENTS:
* SPD Characteristic allowed to go over 12 (phases remain capped at 12)."

And it occured to me that if I had SPD characteristic bought as a power set to not add to the primary, and had it increment up for each level of the custom Mental Speed characteristic, that should force a seperate display of speed and phases which could accurately reflect the character's Mental Speed and the Mental action phases without requiring any further mods to the export template.

Would that work? I don't have time to actually do it yet...so thought I'd toss it out there for informed opinions.

It wouldn't have been a good option before this latest update because it would have put a cap on mental speed of (12-Speed ).

[Simon]

If you had a "Mental Speed" characteristic which was set to affect SPD, it would affect the Base SPD of the character, not the SPD Power.

[RPMiller]

Yes, if you buy additional SPD and have it added to secondary up to what the "EGO SPD" should be that would display in the export assuming that you have the appropriate export to do so.

[RPMiller]

If you had a "Mental Speed" characteristic which was set to affect SPD, it would affect the Base SPD of the character, not the SPD Power.
But he could add it as Secondary SPD not primary and that would work right?

[Simon]

If he's talking about purchasing SPD Power and having it add to secondary, yes, he can do that and have a primary SPD and a secondary SPD (which includes the primary) tracked by the program.

If he's talking about having two distinct SPD characteristics, no, he can't.

If he's talking about having a "Mental Speed" characteristic which affects the character's regular SPD, but only SPD purchased as a Power, no, he can't.

If he's talking about having a "Mental Speed" characteristic which affects the character's regular SPD in a similar manner to DEX, yes, he can.

[RPMiller]

I was getting something totally different. I thought he was talking about the export specifically. He could buy the "base" "Mental SPD" to be the same level as his SPD, but not add to anything, and then get the additional SPD that would raise it to the correct level and have it added to secondary.

That would display a Secondary SPD that he could either use as is or create a custom export template and have it defined as Mental SPD.

Then to make it adhere to the built of characteristics that he is looking for he can just use a custom adder to drop the cost down to what it should be.

Here is an example of what I'm thinking.

[Kaze9999]

I was getting something totally different. I thought he was talking about the export specifically. He could buy the "base" "Mental SPD" to be the same level as his SPD, but not add to anything, and then get the additional SPD that would raise it to the correct level and have it added to secondary.

That would display a Secondary SPD that he could either use as is or create a custom export template and have it defined as Mental SPD.

Then to make it adhere to the built of characteristics that he is looking for he can just use a custom adder to drop the cost down to what it should be.

Here is an example of what I'm thinking.

Hm...well Dan was right, I did mean "If he's talking about having a "Mental Speed" characteristic which affects the character's regular SPD, but only SPD purchased as a Power, no, he can't." originally. Sorry I wasn't more clear.

I am still thinking that it's better to have the players' character sheet just display the level of Mental Speed with no attempt to calculate the mental phases rather then to rely on the players to manually add to a 'speed bought as power displaying as 'secondary' rather then adding to primary' to bring it in synch with their mental speeds.

Okay, I could have worded that better but what it boils down to is, I don't want to make more work for the players in the character creation process and I don't trust them to do it right consistently and therefore don't want to make more work for me either.

I'd rather do the work of remembering what phases their mental speed gives them in game play then do the work of getting them to properly increment their secondary speed power in character creation and maintenance.

Still keeping an eye out for options though, and as always am very appreciative of the constant improvements to HD! Thanks Dan!

[RPMiller]

Thanks for clarifying. What I would do then is go with the modifying of the export as Dan suggested up above. Just do everything as normal and after you create the export file, just go in and edit it for each character. That way you don't need to remember each time and you also don't need to do that much extra work.

I'm actually interested in this as well, as it is something I may need eventually as well.

[Kaze9999]

Thanks for clarifying. What I would do then is go with the modifying of the export as Dan suggested up above. Just do everything as normal and after you create the export file, just go in and edit it for each character. That way you don't need to remember each time and you also don't need to do that much extra work.

I'm actually interested in this as well, as it is something I may need eventually as well.

Hm...is there a way to make the Power: 'Secondary Speed' not show on the export? Okay, what I mean is of course there is a way, and I will probably find it in the documentation, but where is it specifically? SO that way I or the players could increment the secondary speed power manually to match the character's mental speed, and then only the second set of phases would show on the export, not the secondary speed power in the 'powers' section of the character sheet.

[RPMiller]

That is a candidate for REGREPLACE. Give the power a name that is clearly distinct and then use REGREPLACE to remove it.

Hm... you may even be able to create a custom power based on the SPD Power and have it not visible in the export, but I haven't ever looked for such a thing.

Dan, do you have a Visible Property on powers that could make them not visible for export purposes?

[Kaze9999]

That is a candidate for REGREPLACE. Give the power a name that is clearly distinct and then use REGREPLACE to remove it.

Hm... you may even be able to create a custom power based on the SPD Power and have it not visible in the export, but I haven't ever looked for such a thing.

Dan, do you have a Visible Property on powers that could make them not visible for export purposes?

Hm...I thought I understood, but now that I try it I see that I can only ever have a secondary display of phases which is x+1 higher then the 'physical' speed where 'physical speed' = x which is not going to work.

So I am falling back on just not trying to display the phases for the mental speed on the character sheet for now. It's not really that big a deal. The rounding thing--break point for a 3 mental speed being at 15 ego--would be a higher priority for me if there were anything I could do about it. And since I can't it still doesn't ruin the fun for me of at least having a working template for the optional MD and MSPD characteristics. :)

[Kaze9999]

I uploaded a version customized with prefabs and disadvantages for a specific campaign I am preparing to play on the www.herocentral.net site:

http://www.herodesigner.com/getTemplate/220517/Psi%20World%

[Kaze9999]

Here's the blurb for the game I'm starting on Hero Central using a customized version of the custom character template for mentalists.

http://www.herocentral.net/campaignInformation.htm;jsessionid=afEzN2-Zsv-d?newCampaignId=625683

The PC's are all psionics who were identified as such at birth and 'placed' with foster families in psionic ghettos across North America. They each received educations through the charity, 'All God's Children', and were eventually identified as having great potential for a part of the ministry which is not publicized, and operates under the direct supervision of the ministry's founder, the Reverend and completely unpublicized tacit government approval and oversight.