Cepheus Engine Ruleset- Feedback BUG reports thread

[bayne7400]

https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/1140/view

This is the ruleset only and and is based on Jason Kemp's SRD.

This ruleset does contain much of the SRD material but it is integrated into the ruleset. Character Wizard, Ship design tool, Space Combat. There is no reference module to load but there is a module with multiple examples of each type record found on the sidebar.

It is also compatible with Moon Toad Publishing's supplements.

There is a ton of content for this ruleset and I plan on supporting anyone who wants to develop content for the FG Forge (This is to include coding changes as required to support any material based on CE SRD.)

See the first two videos on this ruleset here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy7kGA4xYlPUP2aU9TuyT516sfurroBgq

Key features:

Character Wizard

Ship Creation Console

Automated table lookups at the click of a button

Fully integrated Combat Tracker with vehicles, robots, ships.

An integrated effects system (includes conditional effects)

Anyone that wants to leave some feedback or request a feature can also use this spreadsheet. I am going to use it to to document changes as well.

If you have a bug or request do not send me a PM. Post it on the spreadsheet below. Then all can see it and will help me stay organized.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11K60v9IcXOLyyotOOhqmMffgpipPYCH3kJgIbRWATeo/edit#gid=0


CURRENT EFFECTS:

IFT DMGTYPE can be number or dicestring for the actual effect see 5e

AC (all incoming damage reduction)
ARMOR (non energy)
ABLATIVE (energy only)
PROT ship vehicles and robots
DMGO
REGEN
ATK

all abilities

STR DEX EDU END INT SOC (adding PSI soon) adds to SCORE

STRENGTH DEXTERITTY ENDURANCE INTELLIGENCE SOCIAL EDUCATION addds to modifer

PreRoll: Example: Sandcaster;IFT: DMGTYPE(beam):1d6

[damned]

Well done Bayne!!!

[Pharoid]

Love it! :-) Great job. Any planned add-on info you can share? Anyone working on SRD weapons and equipment yet? I'm reluctant to start entering too much data if it'll be available later. Already started a custom ship or 2. :-) Any chance the publishers can get involved and release official settings? Like a Hostile or Cepheus Deluxe refman to sit on top (maybe with extensions to accommodate the little tweaks each does, like Lifeblood in deluxe). Again, great work.

[bayne7400]

Thank you!

VegasErik offered so I "think" he is going to develop the SRD for the creator to sell on the Forge for a few bucks. The creator of CE is a FG user BTW. He is going tot talk to Moon Toad publishing so there may be a list of things to adapt with regard to that.

If he cant do it then I will go ahead, just so we have something.

I do not own a copy of Cepheus Deluxe. If you want to reach out to them to see if they want to sell their products on FG then that would be fantastic. I will support coding changes. I might be able to do it without an extension like I did with White Box OSR. Just depends. I simplified HP system is totally doable. I work with three other game makers so I can help them through the process.

I will add that this is actually my fourth try at making a space game. You would be surprised at the people that do not want to have their products developed and sold on a VTT. I had Mothership and SWN shoot me down and we had a different issue with WhiteStar. So I plan on going all in on this one since we have the creator onboard, have great SRD and there is so much material available.

I am pushing an update today to add more automation BTW

[Pharoid]

Ship builder suggestion here. The fuel you list is for the powerplant (from the table) and lists weeks of operation. The Big consumer of fuel would be Jump drives. Which says this in the SRD: "Fuel needed for a Jump depends on the size of the ship and the length of the Jump and is calculated as 0.1 x Hull tonnage x Jump distance. A single Jump of that distance consumes that much fuel. " So a 100 ton ship that you want to be able to do a jump 2 (or 2 jump 1's) would need 20 tons of fuel. So maybe another drop-down for something like "Fuel - consecutive max jumps:" #. then add that to total fuel (the powerplant weeks). So some people might want enough fuel for 2 max jumps which they'd need 40 tons. although that doesn't fit in a 100ton ship I'm sure you get the idea. thanks!

[bayne7400]

Ok thanks for the post. Fuel capacity requires tonnage whether it is filled or not and there are lots of variables with regard to how much space is available on the vessel etc. So in other words it should be an item created using "vehicle component" subtype fitting. You can specify tonnage and cost and when you add it to the vehicle it does all the math for you. The ship design tool gets you your base model. The items you add are customizations for that vessel.

[bayne7400]

OK here is how I handled this.

Ship starts out with enough fuel to two weeks operation and (1) Jump1. The notes section has details explanation for this. Additional capacity is given by dropping item components onto vehicle record.
Navigator can calculate fuel usage on his character sheet before the Jump. It is all automated.
Current Fuel is on PS and CT and they are linked.

[hawkwind]

the character wizard crashed on me at the roll attributes

[bayne7400]

LMAO apparently I removed my roller from the base.xml. I'll Update this right away got a little excited on last nights update.

[bayne7400]

Ok should be good to go. The file was "missing"

[hawkwind]

So I assumed all the careers for Cepheus are hard coded into yhe character wizard? If so how do I add my own?

[bayne7400]

yeah everything is hard coded. If you want to use a custom career you'll need to make up the character the old fashioned way using the lifepath method or some alternative. I made career records but turned it off as to not add confusion. Once VegasErik gets the SRD in it will make it easier.

if you want I can add the records back for you after I give them a once over? let me know.

[bayne7400]

Actually I'm going to add it but let me put together an example in the module. This way when i integrate your custom career into the wizard we are using the correct format. So hold off on entering until I can get the module updated.

Update: newest version has the records on sidebar. Also has a hangar bay on PS.

[JazerNorth]

Fun! Thank you! I purchased it because it takes a lot of work to do these things.
I now get to work on converting an MPG2E module that I created to the Cepheus Engine (it was supposed to be Cepheus, but there wasn't one available when I created the module).

[JazerNorth]

Please look at this video: https://app.screencast.com/NjWDZmhCOM09P

Not a big deal, just something to look at if you happen to be in the code in that part sometime. :D

[bayne7400]

Oh yeah easy fix. Type out endurance +8 though. The goal is to check for modules for career records and then add them to the wizard. The reason I did not have careers on the sidebar was because I am not ready to implement that. Since Hawkwind asked I added but with a caveat be prepared to redo your career records.

The SRD is being worked on and I am actively asking content makers to sell their content on the Forge. So I'll keep everyone posted.

[bayne7400]

Ok new update now allows custom careers. You need to make a module and then load it. It will check all loaded modules and load all career records into the wizard. I included two example careers in the module. Should be pretty easy to enter.


IF you get an error please zip up the module and send it to me. This way I can look at your records and see what the issue is.

[Pharoid]

Did some more ship building using the builder. Love it. Most things I had to do were adding ship fittings which will probably be in the SRD? Like Weapon Bay (51 tons), Bay Guns for the bay. Air raft Hanger (5 tons). Repair drones are a percentage of the ship hull, so manual setting. But my calculations were still about 90 tons off on a 900 ton ship. I'm pretty sure it was the 2 layers of Bonded Superdense armor? (45x2) "Armor is added in 5% increments of the ship's tonnage." Will check more tomorrow.

[bayne7400]

I'll double check hull coatings and see what's up. Did you take into account fuel capacity?

edit: It is not the coating it adds 45 tons clicking x2. I tried making a few and cross referencing the chart and I did not see an issue.

[bayne7400]

Add D66 to desktop on next update. Drag and drop into chat just like other dice icons

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[gbhenderson]

Pew pew joy!

[bayne7400]

The D66 desktop die is now live. Can drag it into tables just like other desktop Die. I also removed a few unneeded die. As things get converted or I get feedback they may make a reappearance if needed.

[LeftCoastScott]

Good day, and thanks for doing this! I feel like I'm doing something noobish, but I'm not sure how to add a career in the character wizard. I can roll stats, but then just have an 18 year old character with no skills.

[bayne7400]

Did you see the two examples records In the included module?

Go to top right side bar. You will need to activate the modules from the module list. In FG this is how you load content.

Do me a favor and and export the record you made and send it to me. I want to see how you entered it. Type /export in chat. It will deposit a file with a name you specify in the modules folder.

If none of this makes sense to you it is ok just let me know.

[LeftCoastScott]

I did see those, and I have that module loaded. One of the other posts made me think I should also see the standard careers from the SRD - Merchants and Scouts and so on. If it's just a matter of me entering those, I can do that. Just thought I was missing something.

[bayne7400]

The standard careers are built into the Wizard as are SRD ship tables. Click the create button and go through the process. I apologize but without me looking at images or more details it is hard for me to help you troubleshoot.

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[LeftCoastScott]

I don't have those career buttons. I have the top bit (law level, anagathics toggle, etc.) but not the careers. When I get home tonight I'll try to get you more details.

[bayne7400]

You have to:

1. select homeworld and law level

2. click roll Button

At that point you get a series of choices.

It auto rolls ability scores and then you get initial skill selection based upon your education, and finally you get your first career choice.

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I see this was your first post so welcome to the forums. How new are you to FG? I don't want to tell you things you may already know.

Note: If you roll ability Scores outside the Wizard and type them in fields, it assumes you are not using the wizard. So it disables the roll button. I did this because players can not be trusted and will always click a button to "see what happens"

[LeftCoastScott]

I've been a player in games on FG (mostly D&D) but haven't run anything; I very much appreciate help that starts at the basics. I don't remember if I followed those steps in exactly that order - I did roll stats, but may have entered the homeworld info second. I'll try the correct order tonight. Thanks for your patience and help!

[bayne7400]

Yeah no worries. It needs to know home world to give you your initial skill choices.

Edit: I double checked and it does not let you roll unless you select your home world and Trade level.

[gbhenderson]

Hey Bayne, I was messing around with the character wizard and just kept re-enlisting over and over. When I got to age 50, I had an error pop up on the console. Never got the finish character button or anything.

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[bayne7400]

Wow you got so old you broke it! Thanks for the report I'll Investigate and update.

If I remember right you can only do 7 terms. So you reached the end with lucky rolls and the script forgot to retire you.

edit: ok That is only if switching careers (-2 for every other career). I found a few issues I am on it..

[damned]

Wow you got so old you broke it! Thanks for the report I'll Investigate and update.

If I remember right you can only do 7 terms. So you reached the end with lucky rolls and the script forgot to retire you.

Its usually the other way around. We get so old we get broken.

[gbhenderson]

Its usually the other way around. We get so old we get broken.

I passed that milestone a loooong time ago

@Bayne

It happened again right after that on a toon that was 38. If I remember correctly, it happened when it rolled on the Skills and Training section. The part with personal advancement and what not.

I'll see if I can duplicate it again later. Trying to finish building the ref module and test drive everything before our session 0.

Really digging it so far though.

[bayne7400]

I found a few issues. Should be resolved later today. I am adding a few fields to track terms and careers on wizard so you can double check.

The SRD is being created right now (The same one that's 8 bucks on DTRPG). I know he started working on it and is going to be offered for a few bucks on the Forge with the dev and creator splitting the proceeds.

if you want to see content then emailing the game maker is the way to go. I emailed Independence Games and Zozer before Easter. Omer at CE Deluxe emailed me but DTRPG apparently considers the FG module an E- Book and is giving pushback.

[bayne7400]

Ok this has been updated. I found a few bugs in the Character wizard. I am going to keep working on putting the output on the Notes page as a way to track changes to character as you progress.

[gbhenderson]

Works great. Couldn't get it to break yesterday. Had one of my players log in and use the wizard. He had zero issues.

There was one error, and I completely forgot to screenshot it.

When he finished a character, I tried to open it up as a GM and I got hit with errors (he didn't). I'll see if I can recreate it for ya.

[bayne7400]

OK just let me know. I do not see anything on my end.

[gbhenderson]

Here it is. It's triggered when a GM tries to open a PC sheet.

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And when you do have the PC sheet open as a GM, this is what it looks like (characteristics are missing).

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[bayne7400]

Lovely lets see what I did ! thanks

[gbhenderson]

No complaints man. I love the ship integration.

[bayne7400]

Ok so I got it updated. No idea why I did what I did there. Existing characters should be ok and you should not get the error anymore. After I did the character wizard I needed a break and I worked on something else for about a month or two. When I came back I gooned up attribute source nodes apparently.

I went through and checked some old characters and CT effects etc to make sure my scripting caught everything. I appreciate your feedback.

[bayne7400]

Did an update today working on the Character Wizard. The notes tab has a separate section to track career choices, attributes raised (this is automated) and age effects (not automated since it is player choice). Survival roll failures get recorded in normal notes section

Also an "enter draft" election no longer sends you to retirement. (was thinking T2K when I coded this)

You can no longer roll for Commission on your first try after being drafted. (per rules) You still get a choice of service skill and Rank 0 skill if any.

Age will also now update on the character sheet

[gbhenderson]

I love ya man! Thanks for putting up with my spam.

I did get 1 screenshot from one of my players with his error during character creation...

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[gbhenderson]

Me again!

Bug: Industrial isn't listed in the Home World Trade dropdown of the char wizard.

Feature request (simply because I don't wanna jank up your spreadsheet): Is it possible to add race to the char wizard? As it is right now, the only way we could get the modifiers added was to roll the characteristics in the char wizard, change the scores based on race bonuses, and then continue on with the char wizard. If you add the bonuses before starting your rolls, it won't roll because there are already numbers in the characteristics slots on the char sheet.

Feature request #2: On the background skills for Law and Trade, is there any way to set it so that once you pick your Homeworld Law Skill, it removes the remainder or even sets em so they can't be selected? It removes the one you picked, but leaves the rest up there. I had guys doubling up on Gun Combat and completely missing their Homeworld Trade Skill.

[bayne7400]

ok found it. It was an extra period (.)

[bayne7400]

Let me work through bugs before we do homebrew stuff.

[gbhenderson]

Let me work through bugs before we do homebrew stuff.

Sure thing. We'll cope with our Species workaround until then!

Can't apologize enough about the tables thing...

[bayne7400]

Feature request #2: On the background skills for Law and Trade, is there any way to set it so that once you pick your Homeworld Law Skill, it removes the remainder or even sets em so they can't be selected? It removes the one you picked, but leaves the rest up there. I had guys doubling up on Gun Combat and completely missing their Homeworld Trade Skill.

I don't think this is RAW is it?

Before embarking on your careers, you get a number of background skills equal to 3 + your Education DM (1 to 5, depending on your Education score).

BKGD skills are
Homeworld Skills and Primary Education Skills

You can select any skill that matches your homeworld’s planetary description and trade codes.

edit: I actually think I might need to recode this so homeworld and basic education is on on selection panel. This thing really makes my head hurt

[bayne7400]

haha what tables thing?

hey I also want to point out this should be done manually at the end of CC.

specializations – specialized forms of that skill. When a cascade skill is selected, the character must immediately decide on a specialization. Each cascade skill will list one or more specializations that may be chosen from. Upon taking a level in a cascade skill specialization, all other specializations of that skill without skill levels are treated as Zero-level skills. A character may have multiple specializations in a skill, such as Natural
eapons-2 and Slashing Weapons-1, under Melee Combat.

[bayne7400]

Ok check out the new build. I'm not sure what you mean about him taking gunnery multiple times. if it is a HW cascade skill then they can take slug and archery for example. That would be allowed me thinks...

[gbhenderson]

It could be RAW (regarding Law and Trade bg skills). We interpretted it as take one from Law and one from Trade after an asteroid insectan realized he was missing Zero-G. Ignore that request then! I'll just tell my asteroid bugs, if you want your Zero-G background skill, take it before spamming those combat skills.

[bayne7400]

Yeah there were some issues with the homeworlds trade table as well. I appreciate you guys really picking it apart. This was the toughest part of the ruleset.

I'll put species on the list. As of right now you can build it, add a ilities and drag and drop it.

That's also initially how I meant to code it. I messaged Jason to make sure.

[bayne7400]

Pushed an update today for item effects. (Cybernetics/implants etc). Also thanks to Pharoid some new graphic frames have been implemented.

[kronovan]

I'm been out of the loop for a bit on new rule sets, but just read about this today so I immediately bought it - nice job!

Wow that you can put vehicles into the Combat Tracker! The PC creation wizard is very cool. It's different to have a final skills listing for only the skills your PC acquired, as opposed to the Mongoose Traveller 2E character sheet which lists every skill in the rules. Despite having gone through the PC building process twice as a player for MgT2E and once for the Moon Toad Publshing flavor of CE though, I find it difficult to always know the place I'm at in the CE wizard.

Would it be possible to create something to identify what place your at in the process - especially during the career phases? I'm thinking something like descriptive text, an icon or something else as simple.

[bayne7400]

If you click the edit button next to the plus sign you will see all the skills. There are so many, I implemented it this way with a non trained roller for the rest.

As with career progression. I added two fields at the top to help track what term you are in. It also outputs the lifepath results on the notes tab of the character sheet. Once the SRD is out you can follow along with the step by step process. For now I would use the pdf or the online SRD to follow along.

[kronovan]

If you click the edit button next to the plus sign you will see all the skills. There are so many, I implemented it this way with a non trained roller for the rest.
Yes I like the cleaner skill listing window. That said, I have found it useful during gameplay to see the entire skill listing even though my PC's only skilled in a fraction of it. If only because it aids in party cohesion and dialog, in terms of suggesting skills another party member might roll/try. I haven't tried connecting to my Ultimate host witha player instance of the FGU client, so I don't even know if it's possible for a player to enter editing mode on the skill list. Even if they were, I'd be uncomfotable with a player doing so, in the fear that they might actually delete a skill by errantly clicking the delete icon.


As with career progression. I added two fields at the top to help track what term you are in. It also outputs the lifepath results on the notes tab of the character sheet. Once the SRD is out you can follow along with the step by step process. For now I would use the pdf or the online SRD to follow along.
Yep, I was far lesss than clerver earlier, in that I wasn't even looking at my character sheet as I advanced through the wizard. Now that I'm familiar with the Main, Skills and Notes tab, I'm finding it much easier to orient myself during the wizard's progression.

On another note...I'm having problems getting the character creation Wizard to work with a custom career. I've entered the WalkWarrior career, which is from one of my homebrewed CE settings - 6 subsectors that are heavily inspired by the Battletech verse. When I select that career, I just end up with a blank "Select Career" window and can proceed no further with the wizard. I believe where the problem is occuring, is the wizard doesn't like my custom "Walker Vehicle" skill that's part of my career's Service Skills. I do always make sure I precreate that skill in the charcter sheet skills list and set it to the correct characteristic of DX before launching the wizard. When I reogranize the Service Skills for that career, such that the Walker Vehicle skill is the last (6th), the wizard does advance but it just randomly substitutes in another skill in its place.

I've also tried just using the "Vehicle" skill (I'm assuming that's the Vehicle cascade skill) like you have listed in the Space Miner and Space Cowboys' Specialist Skills listings. But again the wizard just substitutes in a random skill.

[bayne7400]

You do not need to pre create any skills . In the module I gave an example how to setup the custom career. Did you look at both of those records? The wizard is setup to work with the SRD. Using it for a homebrew system YYMV wrt to the wizard. I cant help you anymore without you providing additional details on the career record. To have it use the "vehicle cascade skill" you need to use. for "vehicle".

When I try m custom career records they appear to be working. I am not getting random skills as you say.

[kronovan]

Thanks for the replies Bayne.


You do not need to pre create any skills . In the module I gave an example how to setup the custom career. Did you look at both of those records?
Yes, I most definitely did use your Space Cowboy and Space Miner careers as templates when I created my WalkWarrior.


The wizard is setup to work with the SRD. Using it for a homebrew system YYMV wrt to the wizard. I cant help you anymore without you providing additional details on the career record. To have it use the "vehicle cascade skill" you need to use. for "vehicle".
I did try using Vehicle as the 6th entry in my career's Service Skills list, but I did enter it with an upper case 'V'; I'll try it with all lower case.


When I try m custom career records they appear to be working. I am not getting random skills as you say.
I'm not getting randow skills when I use your example careers, however the Specialist skill listing is not working for me with the Space Miner career. I just rolled a [5] and a [6] twice when rolling on the Speicalist listing and my character didn't end up with a Medicine skill, nor was I given a vehicle skill choice. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the way in which the delimited lists work in the careers though, as I'm assuming the 1st skill entered will correspond to a roll of '1' and the last to a roll of '6'.

I'm going to test my career again with an all lower case vehicle in the Service Skills list. So this is a screen cap of my career with those changes.

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[kronovan]

After adding vehicle in my Service Skill list and having rolled a fortuitious [6] for a service skill. This is what I got as skill selections...

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That wasn't what I expected. While I can see that those are all skills associated with the Vehicle record type, I was just expecting choices for ground Vehicle skills; i.e. "Tracked Vehicle" and "Wheeled Vehicle".

I'd forgotten about the actual description in the SRD for the Vehicle cascade skill: i.e....
"Vehicle (Cascade Skill)
The various specialties of this skill cover different types of planetary transportation. When this skill is received,
the character must immediately select one of the following: Aircraft, Mole, Tracked Vehicle, Watercraft, or
Wheeled Vehicle."

Where are those vehicle skill choices being read from - the character sheet skill listing, or some XML file?

[Edit] I think what I'm leading to...would it be possible for me to write an extension that appends my "Walker Vehicle" skill to that list of choices? Or even better, an extension that presents a a custom set of vehicle skills for choices? I of course wouldn't have a clue where to begin figuring that out, because like other forge DLC your ruleset is locked away in my \vault folder.

[bayne7400]

On your first term you get All the service skills. So once you go through the cascade skills it auto adds the rest of them. Only on subsequent terms do you get to Choose "1" service skill. Finish the process then check your skills tab. you should see your homeworld/basic selections and all service skills.

[bayne7400]

let me know if the upper case V is the issue. I will fix it.

[bayne7400]

Deleted incorrect info on heavy weapons!


Let me fool with it this week and what I may do if it it sees a skill it doesn't recognize I'll have to add the skill verbatim.

Thanks for the career record screenshot. I double checked and upper or lower case should be fine.

[kronovan]

OK Bayne I'll do some more testing with that vehicle entry. I did do additional tests and managed roll a [6] for service skills post Term 1 and the correct Vehicle cascade skill choices did properly appear.

I just need to find a way to add a button for "Walker Vehicle" to those Vehicle cascade choices. :square:

Moon Toad Publishing's take on the SRD added a Ground Vehicle cascading skill and moved "Mole", "Tracked" and "Wheeled" to it. As well, they added Ground Vehicle choices of "Hover" and "Walker" in their Vehicle Design Guide. Well I realize that changes and adds to the core CE SRD, I do prefer it because it's more in line with the Drive skill in the Mongoose Traveller 1E Vehicle Handbook, which I'm more experienced with than CE.

[bayne7400]

OK disregard the bit about heavy weapons lol.. Send me your .mod for your career and I will look at it tomorrow.

Go onto the spreadsheet on post#1. Add as an improvement item. Cite the book from Moon Toad. For a cascade I need the Parent skill and all the children skills underneath it.

[kronovan]

Yep, you must have been thinking about the Heavy Weapon specialized skill in Mongoose Traveller 1E when you created the Character sheet. That tripped me up too, as I'd forgotten Heavy Weapons in the CE SRD is a specialization for the Gunnery cascade skill. I do like how CE put it under the same umbrella of the skill that's used for ship combat. Only because that's the way it is in a number of other SciFi TTRPG rulebooks I own.

And I'll just say I'm a big fan of Moon Toad Publishings take on the SRD - much prefer it to Samardan Presses'. MTPs Vehicle Design Guide is terrific stuff too, but unless you want everying CE you don't want to buy it - just the PDF alone cost me $46 in my currency! Their Spacecraft Design Guide is cheaper, but not quite the same quality. I also own Stellagama Publishing's CE Deluxe and Sword of Cepheus. Both of which I do like very much, but I often find myself browsing back to my MTP book. :p

[Edit] I'll export my career to a module and send it to yo.

[bayne7400]

Kronovan

I ran through the mod you sent me and I saw no issues. It is working as intended in the character wizard with one caveat. The wizard is making you roll for commission should you stay in the chosen career and are above rank 0. This is a general bug and has nothing to do with the custom career record. I'll get it updated today.

By the way please make a new posts with new information/requests if you want to make sure I see them. I happen to see an edit but normally I never go back and read older posts I have already responded to.

[kronovan]

I ran through the mod you sent me and I saw no issues. It is working as intended in the character wizard with one caveat. The wizard is making you roll for commission should you stay in the chosen career and are above rank 0. This is a general bug and has nothing to do with the custom career record. I'll get it updated today...

Many thanks for testing my career.

I encountered a script error when my PC flunked out of WalkWarrior academy and then got drafted into Maritime Defence. Unfortunately I didn't save the script log, but I believe the error occured when I rolled a [6] for Maritime Def. - Service Skills. That halted progress with the character creation wizard.

[Edit] The bigger issue I still have with my career, is that when the Vehicle cascade skill is evoked there isn't a choice for "Walker Vehicle". I just chose "Tracked Vehicle" in my tests when the Vehicle skill was evoked, because Tankers in my setting are about as close as you can get to a WalkWarrior. I rolled up one heck of a Tanker in one of my tests, with a side perk of having a deadly +5 in Energy Pistols !
I can manually rename the Tanker Vehicle skill to "Walker Vehicle", but it would be awesome if a Walker Vehicle button choice was given. Though less prevalent than Walkers, Hover Vehicles are also a thing in my setting, with a "Hover Vehicle" being a skill being a thing a PC can have.

[bayne7400]

Funny I got the same error on draft with Maritime defense but I also could not reproduce. Did you try with the latest build? I updated it about an hour ago.

It will be a little tougher with cascade skill. Lets see if we have this error resolved and ill look at integrating skills. I can probably update the skill record to allow it.

[kronovan]

Funny I got the same error on draft with Maritime defense but I also could not reproduce. Did you try with the latest build? I updated it about an hour ago.

It will be a little tougher with cascade skill. Lets see if we have this error resolved and ill look at integrating skills. I can probably update the skill record to allow it.

Awesome stuff Bayne. I'm away from my desktop now, but I'll do another test later this afternoon - PST time.

[bayne7400]

Ok I found the issue with Maritime defense. Can you send me the cascade skills that are different between Moon Toad and the SRD?

I am hesitant to hard code anything in. It is not looking good as far as getting a publisher to develop their content in FG but I am holding out hope. I have had CE deluxe and Hostile super interested but after speaking with DTRPG/Roll20 they would lose too much money with their exclusive agreement if we sell on FG.

If I can get a publisher onboard then there will be lots of changes to make it fully compatible with their version.

[kronovan]

...Can you send me the cascade skills that are different between Moon Toad and the SRD?
Moon Toad Publishing's version of the SRD (fully titled Cepheus Engine, Science Fiction Roleplaying Game, Core Rules), has an identical skill list to Samardan Press' System Reference Document PDF. The only skills MTP added is in their Vehicle Design Guide, in which they added a Ground Vehicle (Hover) and Ground Vehicle (Walker) skill. In keeping with how Vehicle skills are in your FGU ruleset, those should probably be created as Walker Vehicle and Hover Vehicle.

I'm sure you're aware that the System Reference Document is based upon Mongoose Publishing's Traveller 1st Edition Core Rulebook via an Open Gaming Licence. Samardan Press made changes to some skills, as MgT1E used a cascading Drive skill instead of Vehicle. Mongoose Publishing later added Drive (hovercraft), Drive (walker) and Flyer (airship) skills in their 1st Edition Vehicle Handbook. It's interesting, that in Mongoose's 2nd Edition Traveller Core Rulebook, Hovercraft, Mole, Track, Walker and Wheel are all specialties for the Drive skill. It might just be me, but IMO you don't have a fully Science Fiction supporting set of rules unless there's support for stomping around in Mechs/Walkers.


I am hesitant to hard code anything in. It is not looking good as far as getting a publisher to develop their content in FG but I am holding out hope. I have had CE deluxe and Hostile super interested but after speaking with DTRPG/Roll20 they would lose too much money with their exclusive agreement if we sell on FG.

If I can get a publisher onboard then there will be lots of changes to make it fully compatible with their version.

Of all the publications that claim to be based upon the Open License Agreement, Stellagama Press' Cepheus Deluxe departs from it the most. That flavor of the rules ditches the SRD's task resolution system in favor of a difficulty ladder like the one in MgT2E. But IMO they sort of added confusion, by using a ladder with difficuly steps/rungs that don't align with the SRD(MgT1E) or MgT2E; its steps are "Easy", "Average", "Difficult", "Formidable" and "Impossible". It also has an equivalent of MgT2E's boon rolls of rolling 3xd6 and choosing the highest 2 results, which Deluxe calls rolling with Advantage. The other big difference are skills, for which they removed many (Battle Dress, Bribery, Broker, Comms, Electronics, Gambling, Gravitics, Linguistics, Mechanics and Navigation are all gone) and added the skills Deception, Repair and Investigation and renamed Vehicle back to the MgT1E Driving. They also made the various cascading skills speciaties their own seperate skills. The biggest difference is that they made significant changes to the career system for building PCs, but Stellagama created a free to download, alternate publication that gives referees and players the option of using the career build system in the SRD. I do really like Cepheus Deluxes' writing, presentation and organization, but IMO it's not an edition of the Cepheus Engine rules based upon the SRD - really its own thing.

For me, Moon Toad Publishing publications more closely align with MgT1E and thus the SRD. But more importanly, for me they're just a bit better written and ogranized than Samardan Press' publications.

[Edit] BTW, I used Damned's Universal Module extension to load Jon Bazer Enterprises' d66 Compendium for the MgT2E ruleset. As you migh expect its tables worked perfectly with your CE ruleset. Some of the tables included in that DLC are Traveller verse specific, but most are universal and usable in a variety of SciFi settings.

[bayne7400]

Yeah so I think what I am hearing is I don't need to make any changes for the MT core book.

[kronovan]

Yeah so I think what I am hearing is I don't need to make any changes for the MT core book.

Probably, although I've never owned the Hostile Rules PDF, so I can't comment on how closely it aligns with the SRD. I recall browsing the Hostile Setting preview at DTRPG and remember it stating you can also use the Samardan Press or Moon Toad Publishings CE rules publications for it. That leads me to assume/believe that it's close to the SRD too

I'm familiar with the publisher (Zozer), owning a number of their publications, all of which I've found to be quality stuff. I really appreciate that they've produced some setting content for the near future. Their Orbital 2100 setting for MgT1E and CE is the publication that 1st got me interested in CE.

[kronovan]

...I have had CE deluxe and Hostile super interested but after speaking with DTRPG/Roll20 they would lose too much money with their exclusive agreement if we sell on FG...

Out of curiosity; where is the Roll20 content/DLC for either of those publishers? I've done extensive searching on the Roll20 marketplace and I can't find anyting for searches of "Cepheus Engine", "Cepheus Deluxe", "Hostile", or just even "Cepheus". Do they have some agreement with Roll20 to produce content sometime in the future?

[Edit] Nevermind. I figured out that you're referring to the DTRPG OneBookShelf-Roll20 integration, which allows GMs to display their OneBookShelf purchased PDFs within Roll20 sessions. So are you telling me that Roll20 as a VTT has exclusive rights to any publication that's sold on DTRPG as a PDF? If that's the case, that's the most generous exclusivity agreement in the gaming biz I've heard of.

[bayne7400]

Yeah per what they told the publishers they consider FG mods e books . I emailed SW and asked them if they would engage One Book shelf on it but I'm not sure they are.

[bayne7400]

Small update. Npcs now have an inventory and tech level is available for all item records.

[kronovan]

Small update. Npcs now have an inventory and tech level is available for all item records.

Nice!

Something I've noticed in my PC building, is that the PCs dont' seem to be getting the trade skill associated with their world type. The selection of available skills displays at the beginning, but the choice I make doesn't end up on the final character sheet.

[bayne7400]

I will double check that Kronovan.

SRD update. VegasErik is working with Pharoid to get get it published. it an enormous amount of work to make all the records. That being said todays update is to support that.

The component section under vehicle records now has a count field. This way a standard record ("Escape Pods/3" ) can be added and then the number of fitting adjusted on the fly. This is fully automated and adjusted prices and tonnage.

For Powers I added the field for an Effect Multiplier. With a med kit the heal amount equals effect x 2 as an example. Once you add a record you right click to pull up the "SWORD" icon and add a heal, damage or an effect (just like with other FG rulesets.

Finally to make a smallcraft use "smallcraft" as the type not ship or starship or vehicle

[bayne7400]

Nice!

Something I've noticed in my PC building, is that the PCs dont' seem to be getting the trade skill associated with their world type. The selection of available skills displays at the beginning, but the choice I make doesn't end up on the final character sheet.

This is working for me. When you make your roll all your home world skills populate along with the standard education that all PCs get. I used "Garden" as a trade world and selected farming. The skill populated.

So I cannot reproduce. As with all bug reports please provide specific steps you took and I can look at it.

[bayne7400]

Updated the ruleset with a few tweaks based on feedback as the SRD is being completed. I added a protection base field to ships and smallcraft. This will allow you to drop item records (type: "ship components" subytype:"defenses") onto the ship to add additional armor. The field hides on lock but it automates adding or removing armor fittings from the hull. For existing ships this value will need to be set. The newest version of the ship building tool does this for you.

[Claybor]

This is for the original Cepheus Engine rules correct? If that is the case, how difficult would it be to adapt it to the most recent Cepheus Deluxe enhanced?

[bayne7400]

The main difference is the use of lifeblood for PCs. The rest are easy to handle or code around as options. Omer had reached out to me and we were all set with developing it for this ruleset but DTRPG got in the way.

[Claybor]

The lifeblood and traits were the 2 that stood out most to me, and traits are an easy enough add on to track manually. These are the 2 additions/changes that have actually drawn me towards the system. It's unfortunate that you have been blocked by dtrpg. Thanks for the quick reply.

[bayne7400]

Lifeblood would just require an option in the options menu. Pretty easy to do. NPCs are essentially on that system already, although it tracks the three attributes.

[kronovan]

The main difference is the use of lifeblood for PCs. The rest are easy to handle or code around as options. Omer had reached out to me and we were all set with developing it for this ruleset but DTRPG got in the way.

Actually there are quite a few differences which I commented on in an earlier post. Some of those are IMO every bit as significant as Lifeblood...

~ Core Dice resolution system uses a difficulty ladder like MgT2E for which rolls are made against varying Target Numbers, in contrast to the CE SRD's varying Dice Moddifers being applied against a universal TN of 8.

~ Steps on the diffculty ladder represent varying TNs and are named differently; "Easy TN 6+", "Average TN 8+", "Difficult TN 10+", "Formidable TN 12+" and "Impossible TN 14+", in place of the CE SRD's "Simple DM +6", "Easy DM +4", "Routine DM +2", "Average DM +0", "Difficult DM -2", "Very Difficult DM -4" and "Fromidable DM -6." That would require you to recode and redesign your difficulty buttons at the lower left of the desktop.

~ The option to roll with Advantage; similar to MgT2E's boon rolls in which the 2 highest results of a 3d6 roll are taken.

~ Removal of many skills; Battle Dress, Bribery, Broker, Comms, Electronics, Gambling, Gravitics, Linguistics, Mechanics and Navigation.

~ Addition of new skills; Deception, Repair and Investigation, and the Vehicle skill was renamed to Driving.

~ The additon of Player Character Traits.

~ Vehicle armor is represented by 3 bands (Unarmored, Light Armor & Heavy Armor), instead of the CE SRD's varying numbers.

I'm sure I'm missing some, but those are what come to mind. As I said earlier, I do really like Stellagama Publishing's CE Deluxe Ehnanced rules, but IMO they differ enough from the Core CE SRD to be considered different rules. IIRC the differences in CE DE is the main reason Mongoose Publishing was wanting their new/rewritten Open License Agrement to be based on the MgT2E rules instead of MgT1E. Fortunately for those publishers who have a wealth of publications based upon CE rules that allign with MgT1E, Mongoose relented and the new OLA is again based upon MgT1E. There's no arguing CE DE is very popular though and players less familiar with CE might assume it's the defacto default. Personally, I'd prefer if the CE DE changes were implemented via an extension.

[bayne7400]

Did an update to fix the attack roller. It was applying defensive effects twice.

[talislanta]

Question: When you enter the draft it rolls a d6 regardless of how many Careers are available. Is that just for visuals? behind the scene does it select all careers as draft options?

[talislanta]

Is there a setting to turn off the built in careers? It would be nice to be able to add a bunch of house careers and not have the stock careers included.

[bayne7400]

When you enter the draft there are maybe six careers it rolls on. So that is why the die is rolling. No the wizard is based off of base SRD and base game. If you want to homebrew something you will need to make characters the old fashioned way.

[talislanta]

I'm curious, how hard would it be to pull the hard coded careers out to the visible careers tab?
Same question with skills?,

[bayne7400]

You would use an extension to do this and replace a table. Pretty easy

[Pharoid]

The Cepheus Engine SRD is on the Forge!

Check it out here (https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/1272/view)

Thanks to VegasErik and Bayne for all your work! Great ruleset and great core rules.

Here's a brief description of the SRD's content:

Main module:
The Cepheus SRD Rules refrence manual.
The rules, tables, robots, psionics and more
All the guns, armor, and items from the SRD
All the vehicles, small craft and ships from the SRD

Ship Records Module:

Customize your vehicle with 7 vehicle fittings

Customize your small craft with 19 small craft fittings

drag-and-drop from around 100 ship components onto the ship you built with the "build ship" wizard included in the ruleset.

Tonnage auto calculates when fittings added
ship weapons automatically added to combat tracker for damage
create your own custom fittings and use those too

All the ships, small craft and vehicles from the SRD included with fittings added.

[Flyteach]

I bought this, but it doesn't appear to have anything except the record examples. I created a new new campaign, used "Cephus" as the rule set, but it's very empty. No character wizard, ships, skills, and very few items. What am I doing wrong?

[bayne7400]

Wizard is accessed via a button on character sheet. This is just the ruleset. If you want the content it is via the SRD also on the Forge. See the post above yours.

[damned]

I bought this, but it doesn't appear to have anything except the record examples. I created a new new campaign, used "Cephus" as the rule set, but it's very empty. No character wizard, ships, skills, and very few items. What am I doing wrong?

Hi Flyteach do see the first post also


https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/1140/view

This is the ruleset only and and is based on Jason Kemp's SRD.

This ruleset does contain much of the SRD material but it is integrated into the ruleset. Character Wizard, Ship design tool, Space Combat. There is no reference module to load but there is a module with multiple examples of each type record found on the sidebar.

You can add the content via the https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/1272/view link for a total of $13 which is pretty cool

[bayne7400]

12/15/2023

-Updated ruleset for New CORE RPG build
-Added a separate rollable initiative field for NPCs and Robots on the combat tracker
- Fixed a bug where if skill were left blank it could throw an error on doubleclick or drag

[bayne7400]

Did a small update to fix an error with NPC inventory

[Pharoid]

Still poking around after the 4.5 update. Here's 2 things I've noticed so far:

no extensions loaded.

opening up an NPC throws a warning and doesnt show the NPC. (attached screenshot) for clarity, I also attached a screenshot where I just loaded the ruleset and tried to open an NPC.
60405
60406

The vehicles don't have an unlock button unless you open the tokens for it, then unlock from there. then you can re-open the vehicle to see the unlocked fields.

Thanks! :-)

[bayne7400]

Ok Pharoid thank you I will look into both!

[bayne7400]

Apparently I forgot to finish the 4.5 update and never posted it ! The file is updated. There are a few deprecated warnings the console that are not urgent and I will take care of them soon.
- Fixed pcvehicle and vehicle records
- Fixed typo on NPC record code that caused the error

[Pharoid]

Wow. That was quick. :-) I noticed another when I'm trying to add a fitting to a newly created ship. I'll attach the screen grab.

I was trying to make a ship building video during my lunch. :-)

60410

[bayne7400]

OK there was another typo :)

[Pharoid]

I started a new campaign after updating and it looked like it updated. I'm still getting this error when adding fittings to a new ship made by the wizard. I make a new ship. doesn't matter whats in it. 400 tons,jump 1,man 5... whatever really, just takes a sec. Then I add a triple turret and that works w/o error. then I add a "missile: smart" and I get the error shown. then it seems like whatever I add gets the error. I included the chat info to see if I have the latest cfengine ruleset. (V.01.009) seems to only happen consistently when its a newly created ship. Once I started removing and adding to an existing ship the errors seemed to go away some. But then I created another new one and added a triple turret, set it to 4, then tried to add a missle rack and it threw the same error as in the screenshot. 60420 I can try to remove the PAK and update again but its in the vault right? So I'm not sure which one it is. they mostly have those long random names. no rush.

[bayne7400]

Ok thanks for the additional details. Let me go recreate it today and see what is going on.

[bayne7400]

He changed how tabs are created so it is causing this issue. If you click over to the action tab the error goes away because it is created in the database. Ill have to Mcgyver a work around.

[bayne7400]

OK Pharoid it is updated with a NON IDEAL solution. Hopefully Moonwizard answers my post in laboratory.

[Pharoid]

Works now. thanks! I did get an error when I linked the ship as a player ship, but then I did it again and it worked. Building the ship and adding fittings and stuff worked perfect. I'll create a new campaign and start fresh and if it throws an error when linking the ship I'll post the details here. Don't have time to do a proper test tonight. :-) I'll walk through the character wizard too once or twice. Thanks again!

[kronovan]

The Cepheus Engine SRD is on the Forge!

Check it out here (https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/1272/view)

Thanks to VegasErik and Bayne for all your work! Great ruleset and great core rules.

Here's a brief description of the SRD's content:

Main module:
The Cepheus SRD Rules refrence manual.
The rules, tables, robots, psionics and more
All the guns, armor, and items from the SRD
All the vehicles, small craft and ships from the SRD....

You say it's the System Reference Document, but when I go to the Forge storepage I see the front cover graphic for Moon Toad Publishing's

Cepheus Engine
Science Fiction Role Playing Game
Core Rules

While I'm aware MTP's publication is a reorganziation and editing of the SRD, it is still different than Samardan Presss Publication's edition - IMO superior. Does the rules book in this FGU DLC use the writing from MTP's version of the SRD, or Samardan Press Publication's version?

[bayne7400]

I worked with Jason Kemp on this, who is the author the core book on the forge and invented the game. We used what he said to use. The is really nothing materially different between the online srd and the MTP published version

[kronovan]

I worked with Jason Kemp on this, who is the author the core book on the forge and invented the game. We used what he said to use. The is really nothing materially different between the online srd and the MTP published version

Correct, the content is the same. However, if you read the MTP book I listed up thread that's authored by Jason Kemp and then Samardan Presses' CE System Reference book, I believe you'll find MTP/Kemp's book as a better organized, more lucid presentation of the rules and overall better quality. I also own Cepheus Deluxe as well as Hostile Rules (both quality publications) and I consider MTP's take on the rules/SRD to be as good or better.

Glad to hear Jason Kemp was involved with this DLC - will definitely be buying it.