Can Savage Worlds track Heat Buildup on a weapon?

[YggBjorn]

Hello!

I am importing a free fan created PDF for use in Fantasy Grounds and have encountered a weapon that can't be used if it builds up too much heat. The weapon acquires 1 Heat Unit for each round it is used or in use. At the end of each round that it wasn't used it cools off for 1 unit. It can have a maximum of 10 Heat Units. The weapon doesn't have ammo so for now I am using the ammo counter as a way to track the buildup in reverse. I give the weapon 10 shots and instruct the player to remove a shot at the end of each round that the weapon is in use. So the shots are acting as Negative Heat Units (NHU). If it has 10 shots (NHU) it can be used for 10 rounds. If it has 0 shots (NHU), it can't be used until it cools. It will work this way but is there a better way to track it? :confused:

All ideas are welcome!

[Mgrancey]

No, not really.. That sounds like the best way to handle it. You could track it via effects but I doubt that would be easier or less work for you.

I suppose you could create a new item type/class, code it and/or rename stuff and all that but unless it is something that you will be using a lot probably not worth the effort.

[YggBjorn]

The device will probably be used most sessions if not every session for this setting so I will take a look into coding something up. I have some very rudimentary coding knowledge.

[kronovan]

How about making vehicles that are actually weapons. Just populate a few stats like Group (Modern Military or Futuristic Military), Toughness, Cost and Availability. You could then track heat build up as wounds; 4th wound it malfunctions. You might even make it extra special and capable of sustaining targeted shots damage, which you could also track via wounds . If you want to get even crunchier/cooler/weirder about it, maybe allow a PC to burn a bennie and roll Shooting, Repair or Electronics (depending on weapon era & type) to dissipate heat build up and avoid damage - similar to soak rolls. Perhaps even use the Handling stat as a special bonus to that roll, reflecting a weapon designed with more durability - thinking of the good ol' drag-it-thru-the-dirt AK-47 here. Should probably create an edge for that similar to the Ace edge, or make the Marksman edge that much more powerful by allowing it.

[YggBjorn]

Those are all good ideas, but I would prefer to stick to the mechanics listed in the PDF. The player tracks heat buildup at the end of their turn if the device was used or in use on that turn. I am wondering if an extension could be made that would allow the player to check boxes for heat buildup/loss. It would need to be tracked individually for each player and monitored by the GM. Maybe add a tabbed page to the character sheet? There is another device that uses a unit of a substance each time it is used. If it isn't used by the end of the turn it regenerated a unit of the substance. Same mechanic but reversed. They can only have one of either device on their character at a time so only need to track one or the other.

[kronovan]

I am wondering if an extension could be made that would allow the player to check boxes for heat buildup/loss. It would need to be tracked individually for each player and monitored by the GM. Maybe add a tabbed page to the character sheet?

I wish I knew the answer - I've looked into adding tracks to the PS object a number of times and didn't get very far. In one of my setting there's a 20 increment Tekku (arcane-tech) track and the same for a Majikku (magic) track; both are crucial to the theme. I dearly wanted to add those to the PS for my campaign, but had to thrown in the towel and just have players track those via notes. There's just so many XMLs and LUA scripts that interact with the PS that without any kind of roadmap, unraveling it is quite a daunting task.

[Mgrancey]

Vehicle is probably bad idea anyway as you would be limited to at best six, then would need to fix Size differences and wound penalties.

Editing the character sheet and items arent too hard. If you want I can see if I can find original HQ extension I made so you would have an example.

[YggBjorn]

Yes please that would help!

[Doswelk]

Worst case each player has an image and drop a token on their "pile" when heat builds up, remove one as it goes down... or actually notes then the PC can update it.

Neither is ideal, but a short term fix until sheet hacking is down :)

[YggBjorn]

I thought about that, especially considering the setting PDFs have printable cards used for that purpose for IRL live play. I wonder about keeping track of which card belongs to which player if one of the players has connection issues and must reconnect. I suppose naming each image with a different number or letter should work, as long as the player remembers that was their card. For the time being I have adapted the device to contain Coolant Units (ammo) that are expended per use. It works, but I do like the concept of Heat Buildup more.

[Mgrancey]

Sorry, unable to find my original extension. Might be on my NAS but that is currently down. You will want to look at campaign/record_weapon.xml and then copy and modify the weapon window class

[YggBjorn]

I will look into it! Thanks for your time! :)

[ProfDogg]

How about adding an effect ("Heat Build-up" with a timer) that you just drop on the PC/NPC with the Power/Item? Then when the timer hits 0 rounds, you adjudicate that the Power/Item ceases. You'd just have to track the timer so that it reflects the usage properly (in case it's not just time but actual usage for example - you might have rounds where the Power/Item isn't used so doesn't build up heat) and occasionally round-by-round modify the duration based on the actual formula you use.

[YggBjorn]

That is a good idea, but doesn't cover the way the device is intended. Now that the cat is out of the bag, I can describe what it is I would like to do and what I have done to make it work for now. I recently converted Savage Ghostbusters for use in Fantasy Grounds under the SWADE ruleset. In the PDF, the Proton Pack builds-up heat as you use it. When you 'fire' the weapon at a ghost it builds up one Heat Unit. If you have a ghost snared by the proton stream it builds up one Heat Unit. You can use a full action to Vent the pack and you will cool off all Heat Units. Some attacks might have a Heat Unit build-up x3 meaning the one attack raises your Heat Level by 3. The maximum Heat Level of an unmodified Proton Pack is 10. Works great on paper at the table and you can even print a PDF that has a nice heat tracking counter that you just put some trinket on it to mark your heat level, you could use a coin, a glass bead, whatever. I can't find a way to have a weapon start at 0 and gain ammo in Fantasy Grounds.

What I have done, from a suggestion of the author/creator of the PDFs, is instead of Heat Units that build-up using the weapon, it has Coolant Units that are 'spent' when you use the weapon. You fire the proton pack and it uses one Coolant Unit. You have a ghost snared in the proton stream and it uses one Coolant Unit (GM or player must manually lower available shots by one for this to be tracked), etc. Mechanically it's using 'shots' and just telling the players in the game that it is Coolant Units. It's just flavor. The field you edit on the weapon still says 'Shots'. It allows most of the work to be done by Fantasy Grounds with a little upkeep by the GM and/or player. It will work for now.

It would be nice to have it work as intended in the module though.

BTW if you check the Savage Worlds forums you may have noticed the post with the available files free for download. :)

[ProfDogg]

Oh, that's a simple enough solution too... I like it...