No Power Points Option

[rodney418]

What exactly does the No Power Points setting in the Options menu do? According to SWADE:


Instead of using Power Points, characters with Arcane Backgrounds simply choose the power they want to activate and make an arcane skill roll. The penalty to the roll is the power’s total cost in Power Points (base cost plus all Modifiers), divided by 2. Round up.


But when I turn the option on in FG nothing seems to happen and no modifiers are automatically applied. Is there a way that can be added? Or have I missed something?

[rodney418]

Further to this, when I load the Lanhkmar module (which uses No Power Points rule by default) the correct casting modifiers are listed instead of Power Points, but once again they don't seem to do anything...

[wyndhydra]

I would imagine not, since there to my knowledge is no inherent removal of power points usually in their application. I would suspect that you would just use the modifier feature to apply the appropriate penalty to your die roll. A quick read through on the wiki states, "The amount of power points granted and/or used is not automated in the character sheet."

[Talyn]

Further to this, when I load the Lanhkmar module (which uses No Power Points rule by default) the correct casting modifiers are listed instead of Power Points, but once again they don't seem to do anything...

I'll jump in on this one anyway: the Lankhmar extension (not module) does indeed enable the No Power Points rule and it also removes the power points label from the power sheet and adds the casting modifier label. Getting some automation to work has been on my "To Do" list but I'm not that far along with my Lua learning yet.

[rodney418]

So... what exactly does enabling the No PP option in the Options menu actually do then? Anything?

[Talyn]

I have no clue what it normally does. It's a required setting for Lankhmar so the extension forcibly enables it, which has the effect of hiding the PP fields (if I recall) but I don't remember if the ruleset has built-in automation for No Power Points. Just saying that I'm not far enough along with my Lua studies to code automation for the Casting Modifier. Adding the casting modifier data fields under the hood would have broken any automation that was already there.

[rodney418]

It doesn't hide the PP fields - at least not in FGU. I don't think it does in FGC either.

33805

[rodney418]

And I understand about the automation, I'm not complaining, just trying to figure out what's going on and what the best workaround is. At the moment I'm just manually adding a Casting Penalty modifier to the Spellweaving dice roll (as you can see in the previous screenshot).

[Talyn]

Ah ok, I'll have to re-check the extension then. SmiteWorks has made one or two patches to Lankhmar on their own to account for some Unity changes so it's possible that part got killed. It does still 'fix' the power sheet though, at least.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=33806&stc=1&d=1587056866

[Moon Wizard]

The changes we made were purely for font substitution for FGU.

Cheers,
JPG

[rodney418]

The Lanhkmar extension may work, but the No PP option in the main ruleset does not change the Powers sheet. So as far as I can see, it does literally nothing.

33807

[Talyn]

You have to use the powers from the Lankhmar Player's Guide, which is explicitly stated in the in Fantasy Grounds Edition Notes page of the reference manual:

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=33808&stc=1&d=1587058059

There's no way to forcibly re-code the powers from the SWADE book, so everything Lankhmar allows has been duplicated with the appropriate changes made already.

[rodney418]

I see what you mean now. I guess I could use the Lanhkmar spell list even though I'm putting together a non-Lanhkmar campaign currently.

Note that the No Power Points rule isn't specific to the Lanhkmar setting, it's a general optional rule in SWADE. So that still needs fixing. Maybe a workaround could be to put an edited version of that alternative Powers list into the SWADE ruleset as well? Most of the spells in it aren't specific to the Lanhkmar setting but are straight out of the SWADE book. There's no reason why that functionality shouldn't be in the main ruleset.

[Talyn]

Sure, and I'm surprised there's no default Power Point automation in there already. Maybe there is? I dunno, I haven't managed to get into a game in two years now.

What the Lankhmar powers do specifically is remove the power point data and add the casting modifier data (plus whatever alterations were made in the text) so you wouldn't want to use those for a non-Lankhmar setting.

As for the character sheet, I'm just going to chalk that up to Lankhmar being my first-ever project for Fantasy Grounds, and I'd never touched Savage Worlds before. :) I'll start researching what I need to tweak on the character sheet tab.

[rodney418]

What the Lankhmar powers do specifically is remove the power point data and add the casting modifier data (plus whatever alterations were made in the text) so you wouldn't want to use those for a non-Lankhmar setting.


I absolutely would want that, and do. As I mentioned earlier, that's not a rule specific to that setting, it's an optional setting rule in the main Savage Worlds rulebook, and has been for years. It's not like I'm trying to do something weird and innovative :-)


33810

[Dr0W]

What the no pp option does is essentially remove the power points from the character sheet.

There's no automation related to it, it does not enforce mana and costs with this option on or not. Most of the powers in SW have variable costs that change when you add options to it, so there's little point in automating something that the cost may change whenever you want to cast it.

The tip is to create sub-attacks with the different penalties applied to it if you are using the no-pp option.

[rodney418]

What the no pp option does is essentially remove the power points from the character sheet.



Maybe that's what it's supposed to do, but it doesn't actually do that. See my screenshots above.

[Ikael]

Maybe that's what it's supposed to do, but it doesn't actually do that. See my screenshots above.

I doubled checked the NPP option, it does hide power points from character sheet. Tested in both FGC and FGU.

[Ikael]

Note that it hide Character Power Points (ones you use to keep track how many you have used). Not PPs listed in Powers because you need that information to know if cast has penalties

[rodney418]

Ah I see. That's what was confusing me. So it actually does do something after all. :D