Did you know... ? [video series of how I play with FGU/Extensions/Modules]

Did you know... there are lots of tools to make game play faster and smoother? [FGU 5E Ruleset]

This one was exhausting. I can't count how many times I had to stop this to fix something that annoyed me in my extensions or someone else's. Anyway, I finish up the session creation from last time and start playing it out for a bit. Also, added a playlist on page 1 with all the "Did you know..." series in it. I think I've captured the essence of my Text walls I'm noted for, and successfully translated that into a VIDEO WALL. Prepare to be bored.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xipKY97TLE

Did you know... the standard FGU does not handle effect initialization when doing rolling init on each round?

Yep. Was stunned to learn that today as I always have the FGU option to re-roll init every round - who would want players to know who is up next to bat? Not this DM. And all this time the round count on effects was scrambled every time it did that. Fortunately, someone was on the ball and already had an extension made to fix it.

As MrDDT and this author taught me about this today - I figured I'd share.

I have added yet another thing to my FGU risk portfolio...

Effective Initiative by rhagelstrom

It is now in all my campaigns in addition to the ones I've specified in the first video in this series.

Oh, but I like the default way FG does it :) It adds chaos to the rounds and makes something just a little less predictable. Plus it means that spell last ~6 seconds, if you adjust to character init, they could last a fraction, or twice as long.

BUT, options are good :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LordEntrails

Oh, but I like the default way FG does it :) It adds chaos to the rounds and makes something just a little less predictable. Plus it means that spell last ~6 seconds, if you adjust to character init, they could last a fraction, or twice as long.

BUT, options are good :)

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We differ in our DM style. Mine is not to think and be as lazy as possible when it come to the game minutia - I just want to trust its doing its thing and play the game. Stuff like this? Annoyance. And for me, extensions solve annoyances :)

With RISK!

It's really one interpretation vs. another. If you're okay with randomized initiative, why not randomized effect expiration?

That said, it sounds like a different option that would need to be added and implemented. Possibly an extension?

JPG

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Moon Wizard

It's really one interpretation vs. another. If you're okay with randomized initiative, why not randomized effect expiration?

That said, it sounds like a different option that would need to be added and implemented. Possibly an extension?

JPG

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I admit confusion at this. This whole thing was in response to me getting an existing extension I was never aware I needed. And all effect duration timers scrambled and rendered no longer set properly as part of reordering init. That’s a unique interpretation of how that unexpected thing is not a bug. Can we expect other unexpected data value fluctuations as being declared potentially desired behavior? Because I did not know this one and would like to know about any similar “features” in FGU 5E ruleset.

Currently this is my understanding of how FG handles spells and re-roll initiative:
Round 1: Karmon roll a 15 for init and is the first actor on the combat tracker. Casts a spell that last one round. FG sets the effect to expire at init 15. Everyone is affected by the spell.
Round 2: Karmon rolls a 10 on init and is the last actor on the combat tracker. Others who roll above a 15 are once again affected by the spell cast in round 1 ('bonus' impact). The spell he cast on round one expires well before his turn. Once again he casts on a one round spell again and FG sets it expiration for init count of 10. No one is affected this round because everyone has already acted.
Round 3: Karmon rolls a 10 again, but this time everyone else rolls really low (>10). Karmon's spell expires before anyone is affected by it (never having affected anyone). So he casts it again this round, eveyone is affected by it this round.
Round 4: everyone rolls lower than a 10 , and Everyone is once again affected by the spell cast on round 3 (bonus impact).

So, the spell cast on round 2 had no impact, but the one cast on 3 had double impact!

So I like this, but I can see how others don't. And the extension SilentRuin mentions changes this behavior to adjust spell expiration to the new init numbers. But, adjusting effect inits does not prevent spells from having the affect of either limiting or doubling the rounds that a spell is effective. It just changes the situations in which spells had additional or reduced impact than if one is using static init.

Gist is in a normal game a round is typically measured by someone start or end of turn - this as you pointed out is completely lost. In fact many other effects given to FGU by extensions depend on this timing - as in break if it’s lost. Not that normal FGU isn’t broken by it also but it’s less noticeable to me.

As I said, it's not broken, but a different interpretation than what you want. There's a reason why D&D doesn't do randomized initiatives as part of the core system, and expirations denoted in number of rounds is one of them.

Regards,
JPG

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Moon Wizard

As I said, it's not broken, but a different interpretation than what you want. There's a reason why D&D doesn't do randomized initiatives as part of the core system, and expirations denoted in number of rounds is one of them.

Regards,
JPG

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We will have to agree to disagree :) If you provide something, it should be fully functional not just mostly functional. I had to find out the dysfunctional stuff by finally figuring out why certain things went haywire during turns in my games. Now I know. Now I have a fix. Hence, "Did you know..." comment that proceeded all this.

NOW if you want really good one...

Did you know... the FGU 5E ruleset hardcodes certain module data even if you are not running those modules to populate your PC action tabs with nonsense data that does not apply in your campaign?

Beware this risk - as there is no way to turn it off short of an extension as far as I know. And that parsedata list is growing every release to cover more and more common module terminology which may or in my case, won't match the logic its putting in the action tabs. Took me an hour to figure out how data I had nowhere in my campaign db or my module db was ending up defined in my PC action tab... finally I searched the raw 5E ruleset code and... POOF. There it was. A raft of specific module data that had nothing to do with my 5E modules. Good to discover as now I know why sometimes data that is not in my supplemental data modules that cover the same modules have been replaced by this mystery data!


And for most people if you see this the workaround is to delete it all out after you place whatever triggered it in the abilities tab. And don't put that ability back in without being prepared to clean up after it! My world I was able to just wipe that routine that does this as it would never be applicable in my SW5E world to have it done.

"Combat superiority" keyword ability in particular will spam a bunch of unwanted things in.