techniques

[corwyn]

I want to allow a player to buy up a default as a technique. For example, Spear defaults to Staff-2. The player spends 2 points on a technique to make the skills equal. Is there a way to do this in gca?

[Stormcrow]

In the Skills section of the library, add _New Technique (either one). Follow the prompts: name the technique "Spear," choose or type "Staff" as the skill it defaults from, set it as defaulting from the skill level, and select Tech/A as the difficulty.

Two entries will be added to your skill list: Staff at 1 point, and Spear (Staff) at 0 points. (If you already had Staff, just Spear (Staff) will be added. Raise Spear (Staff) to 2 points.

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

In the Skills section of the library, add _New Technique (either one). Follow the prompts: name the technique "Spear," choose or type "Staff" as the skill it defaults from, set it as defaulting from the skill level, and select Tech/A as the difficulty.

Two entries will be added to your skill list: Staff at 1 point, and Spear (Staff) at 0 points. (If you already had Staff, just Spear (Staff) will be added. Raise Spear (Staff) to 2 points.

After doing this you may need to change the name from Spear (Staff) to just Spear in order to get the weapons to recognize it as the Spear skill.

[corwyn]

Since this is a DFRPG game, I guess I'll have to add a datafile with the techniques section, right?

[Stormcrow]

Ooh, that's a problem. "_New Technique" is a rather intricate bit of coding that involves listing lots of other skills. It would take quite a bit of work to add that to the DFRGP library. I don't think there's any already-existing data file that you can load with DFRPG that will add techniques.

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

Ooh, that's a problem. "_New Technique" is a rather intricate bit of coding that involves listing lots of other skills. It would take quite a bit of work to add that to the DFRGP library. I don't think there's any already-existing data file that you can load with DFRPG that will add techniques.

The issue is that DFRPG specifically doesn't use Techniques to reduce complexity. Wanting to bring in complex rules structures from GURPS is going to to be problematic.

[Stormcrow]

Okay, try adding this file to the DFRPG library. It's the "type stuff yourself" version of _New Technique.

Encoding=UTF-8
Version=3
Description=Adds the ability to add custom techniques to a DFRPG library.
Requires="Dungeon Fantasy RPG.gdf"

[SKILLTYPES]

Tech/A, cost(1/2/3), base(0), defaultstat(%default), relname(def), subzero(yes)
Tech/H, cost(2/3/4), base(0), defaultstat(%default), relname(def), subzero(yes)

[SKILLS]

_New Technique ([skill]), %typelist%,
default("SK:[skill]%blockparryaliaslist%" [default]), needs("SK:[skill]"),
page(B229), cat(Techniques),
x(_
    #INPUTTOTAGREPLACE(_
        Enter the name of this technique.,
        name,
        ,
        New Technique_
    ),
    #INPUTREPLACE(_
        "Enter the name of the skill this technique defaults from. Include _
            any name extension (e.g., Armoury (Body Armor)).",
        [skill],
        ,
        New Technique_
    ),
    #INPUTREPLACE(_
        "Enter the default penalty for this technique. Include the negative _
        (or positive) sign, e.g., -4 or +0.",
        [default],
        ,
        New Technique_
    ),
    #CHOICELIST(_
        name(blockparry),
        title(Technique Default),
        text(_
            "Does this technique default from the skill's level, its Block, _
            or its Parry?"_
        ),
        picksallowed(1),
        method(bynumber),
        default(2),
        list(Block level, Skill level, Parry level),
        aliaslist(::blocklevel, ::level, ::parrylevel)_
    ),
    #CHOICELIST(_
        name(type),
        title(Technique Difficulty),
        text(Choose the difficulty of the technique.),
        picksallowed(1),
        method(bynumber),
        list(Tech/A, Tech/H)_
    )_
    #EDIT_
)

[Armin]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

The issue is that DFRPG specifically doesn't use Techniques to reduce complexity. Wanting to bring in complex rules structures from GURPS is going to to be problematic.

Yup. Which adds another problem: DFRPG also does not support raising skills from default, which is required for techniques to work correctly.

[Armin]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

Okay, try adding this file to the DFRPG library. It's the "type stuff yourself" version of _New Technique.

Encoding=UTF-8
Version=3
Description=Adds the ability to add custom techniques to a DFRPG library.
Requires="Dungeon Fantasy RPG.gdf"

[SKILLTYPES]

Tech/A, cost(1/2/3), base(0), defaultstat(%default), relname(def), subzero(yes)
Tech/H, cost(2/3/4), base(0), defaultstat(%default), relname(def), subzero(yes)

[SKILLS]

_New Technique ([skill]), %typelist%,
default("SK:[skill]%blockparryaliaslist%" [default]), needs("SK:[skill]"),
page(B229), cat(Techniques),
x(_
    #INPUTTOTAGREPLACE(_
        Enter the name of this technique.,
        name,
        ,
        New Technique_
    ),
    #INPUTREPLACE(_
        "Enter the name of the skill this technique defaults from. Include _
            any name extension (e.g., Armoury (Body Armor)).",
        [skill],
        ,
        New Technique_
    ),
    #INPUTREPLACE(_
        "Enter the default penalty for this technique. Include the negative _
        (or positive) sign, e.g., -4 or +0.",
        [default],
        ,
        New Technique_
    ),
    #CHOICELIST(_
        name(blockparry),
        title(Technique Default),
        text(_
            "Does this technique default from the skill's level, its Block, _
            or its Parry?"_
        ),
        picksallowed(1),
        method(bynumber),
        default(2),
        list(Block level, Skill level, Parry level),
        aliaslist(::blocklevel, ::level, ::parrylevel)_
    ),
    #CHOICELIST(_
        name(type),
        title(Technique Difficulty),
        text(Choose the difficulty of the technique.),
        picksallowed(1),
        method(bynumber),
        list(Tech/A, Tech/H)_
    )_
    #EDIT_
)

Yeah, I was going to suggest that this version should work without issues, other than the need for raising skills from default to also be turned on. (Not an issue in GCA4, where it couldn't be turned off.)

But, I can also add support for the 'pick from a list' easily enough, without needing the big Group that used to be used.

So my next post includes a bit longer version of your file here.

[Armin]

Stormcrow is correct that the 'type skills yourself' version of New Technique should work. However, I can also provide a version of 'pick from the list' that should also work for this.

In addition, you need to turn back ON the ability to raise skills from defaults. Without that, techniques will go bonkers very quickly. Unfortunately, there is no way to turn on raising from defaults just for techniques, it's all or nothing.

Here is a link to the Include Techniques.GDF on my OneDrive for you to download and use.

This explicitly adds technique skilltypes, in case you want to use this with other libraries elsewhere, and it explicitly turns ON the ability to raise skills from default, and it includes both versions of New Technique.

Dungeon Fantasy RPG characters shouldn't need to Resync, but you WILL need to go into Settings and TURN OFF the option for "No default level discount" which will have been turned ON for any characters made with DFRPG and not using this file.