Negative STATS in equipment prefab

[Fekth]

Hi,

 

I have been trying to work out how to add negative stats to an equipment prefab. For example, armour that provides rPD, rED, but a -1 to OCV, due to its bulk. If this functionality isn't there, can we add it so you can add negative characteristics to a compound power? Or if there is a solution that would also be awesome.

 

Cheers

[Simon]

Negative Characteristic Powers are not allowed within the rules. OCV Penalties are handled via a minor Side Effect (automatically occurs; -1/2) Limitation.

[Fekth]

Right. So you can't quantify what the actual change is in HD that way? Is there a way to do it so that the power (equipment) will actually apply the penalty? I'm trying to automate it so that when I import the prefab into a character and then import the character into Roll20 the stat changes will be active when the equipment is selected.

[Simon]

No, because that's not how the rules work.

[Fekth]

Yes, you said. My question is in regard to HD functionality, not a change in the Hero System rules. Is there any way we can make the Side Effect more than just a generic footnote in HD so it can actually have an impact on characteristic totals? I see you can purchase the HD Java source, but I'm not that dedicated.

 

Cheers.

[Simon]

HD functionality at its core is to reflect the rules of the system, so I'm not entirely sure what you're after here.  Will I modify HD to be more deterministic so that it can be easily applied to programmatic solutions?  No, not until the rules of the system are similarly modified.  It's not an optional thing -- changing it to be a deterministic/hard-coded solution would deviate from the rules and the flexibility defined therein.

[Fekth]

Sorry if I am being ambiguous.

You advised that the way to apply a stat penalty to an equipment prefab (as per the rules) was to apply a side effect to the compound power, say for a -1 to OCV or running for bulky full plate for example. What I am asking is, is there a way we can expand the functionality of a side effect in HD so that you can specify some things (like characteristic penalties) so that they are applied along with the power bonuses when the prefab is engaged. I can see how it would be a bit of work to do that, rather than just assign a multiplier and make a note of whatever the limitation was.

 

 

 

Thanks, don't mean to be a pain.

[Simon]

We're talking past each other, I think. The purpose of HD is to allow building characters according to the rules of the system, not to expand on those rules or refine them.  
 

Believe me, there are plenty of areas that I would like to “refine”/change the rules of the system (would make the coding of HD vastly easier in many areas)…but, again, that's not the purpose of HD.
 

Get the rules changed so that Side Effect is more granular/specific and I'll happily modify HD to match.

[Fekth]

No worries, thanks Simon.