NPV info screen and a question

[TFWoods3]

^That should read "NPC info screen and a question"


This is something I put together in Photoshop. It's an idea for presenting NPC information to the players through an image. What I would do is have several quotes that can be learned depending on the players questions or skill rolls.

My question is: would it be possilble to do a reverse mask in a screen? Where everything is unmasked and what I draw around gets masked (maybe this is already doable but I am not at home to test it out)? I know I can still get what I want with the current masking but it would be more work.

[Griogre]

I'm doubtful you can get a "reverse" mask to work even if you build a ruleset for it specifically because I believe the unmask in FG is build into the code and not accessable to the ruleset.

Just for the record, have you considered just using chat frame text? You would then only need the NPC image and with chat frame text you can either share it with everyone by dropping it into the chat window or whispering it to the characters who made their skill checks by dropping it onto the character portrait in the top left of the FG desktop.

Here's an example with a monster lore check. You can see the various DCs. If a charcter gets a certain roll I drop all the information up to the roll and lower:
https://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m222/Griogre/ChatFrame.png

The example is for a monster but you would do the same for social information checks like for that innkeeper.

[TFWoods3]

Yeah Chat frame text is a good option, I was doing that with monster descriptions and lore checks. I just thought the image way I have above might be a little more eye candy, and also the text would not get lost once the chat moved off the screen. It's probably easier to do it your way though, thanks!

[TFWoods3]

Just got an idea that could maybe be added to FG. Much like the combat tracker works when you drop a dice roll on top of the target and it auto updates the damage... would it be easy to add a Skill Roll tree that a player can roll on and it will spill out all the info that their roll achieves?

For example I set up a Skill Target (for lack of a better name) that has all the possible results pre-entered based on difficulty. It has check boxes for what skills can be rolled on it. It has a description name ("Chat with the Innkeeper" or "Ask the Innkeeper about Kobolds.") and can be linked to a story page. I open it up reveal to the player(s), and they can drop the appropriate skill roll on it. All the info the roll uncovers is spilled into the chat window or is revealed through this new feature in Note style.

Something to consider :)

[Griogre]

This would probably be doable in a ruleset or maybe with an extension. However there is always a balance for automation vs. simplicity - its different for everyone.

One of the most tedious things about NWN was setting up the conversation trees for NPCs which among other things did what you want to do in FG. I personally would never go through that type of tedium just to automate the results of skill checks - but that's me.

[TFWoods3]

After I get some sessions under my belt I will probably figure out what is most comfortable for our group (and how much work I am willing to put into it).