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Post by Ensign Trusin Den on Apr 17, 2015 23:34:18 GMT -5
I just joined up and I struggled to create a character. I read through the handbook and got lost several times. I had to rely on in game help to flesh it out and I still am not sure if it is right or not. I even used the excel help file. After I went through the process I thought surely this can be easier and more fun! so I started working on a character creator. Right now it just loads up the racial traits based on your Species selection and alters your stats based on the traits. My idea is for it to almost ask questions and for it to load the information based on the handbook. So eventually you just get to where you are dropping points into skills and stats and it is calculating everything for you creating your character sheet which will be the end output. I just thought it would be more fun to do it in LCARS style. Before I go to far is this something that would be useful or am I wasting my time?
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Post by Preacher on Apr 18, 2015 1:51:15 GMT -5
From personal experience, the act of creating a character sheet in our current system has scared of 50% (3) of the people I have tried to recruit for the Caelian, either because of; "zomg wtf?!? too much info" or "its pretty complex and I just don't have the time to devote to it right now, I sorta just want to RP". All of these guys are solid RPers that are confident with multiple systems (d20, diceless, cards, O.R.E etc). I have to admit that I still don't know how to derive the combat stats (and ive poured over the info several times).
I am 100% behind something like this and would be happy to help. For instance if people were open I'd love to try my hand at reformulating the PC traits to be a little more even keeled between flavour and benefit.
Anything that is more inviting to ease new players in.
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DGM Cygnus
Game Master Group
Assistant Admin / DGM of the USS Adagio
Posts: 2,191
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Post by DGM Cygnus on Apr 18, 2015 4:16:34 GMT -5
The base combat stats for "to hit" rolls is the average of Skill and Agility scores. i.e. 80 = Marksmanship, Modern Weapon and Agility: (50) will yield Ranged Attack (Modern) = 65
Hacking is the average of Computer Operation and Mind.
Wounds are derived from Body score divided by 10.
As for tinkering with the character generation and system in general, it is a timeless and cyclical debate. We have discovered there will never be a consensus to match what every player and game master wants, so any changes have to surmount a system that has stood the test of time as functional (for several years) as well as the work needed to adjust to changes, while hopefully not incurring fleet drama in the process. We do recognize it may seem daunting and confusing to some, however, it is functional and does force some thought and investment from players. Our experience is more niche and does not accommodate masses of rotating, absent players very well, it tends to work best with steady groups of tight knit regulars that are long term and play consistent.
If our character creation deterred a player and he or she is not willing to invest the effort while interacting with us for assistance, then it may be for the best...
Having said all that, if players what to make an interactive method to help new players create a character sheet, that is fine. It will have to embrace our system and not change it. There is also the issue of maintenance of it long term to be considered.
~the demoness
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Post by DGM Soft Kitty on Apr 18, 2015 5:43:19 GMT -5
Well its seems Xae got here first to nip this in the bud before this snowballs once more. The fleet boss ma'am [Nyoko] has made this very clear altering the system is not up for debate. So word of warning if the thread becomes this I'll lock it.Tru's original topic is for a character generator aid based on the current system...which is a rather simplistic but effective d100 system. And as Cyg has point out it has stood the test of time and is very easy to be creative and customized while not distracting away from the in depth story based rp. While Ny and the rest of us really appreciate the enthusiasm of any new player wanting to leap right in and make alterations, time has shown us again and again what we have is not perfect but it works. If anyone has questions about the system feel free to ask you DGM about them, which is why we ask the new applicants to do the very same. We will guide you through it. But please also try to avoid just openly posting how lacking you find it, or someone else new has deemed it too complex and they don't have the time...[which coming from a new player borders on contempt prior to investigation ] I mention this bit because such comments can come across as a tad insensitive and a little bit inconsiderate, for the people who may have spend many hours adapting the current system in use over the years to suit the players of the past [and present some are still here when the new system was rolled out]. I am not one of them, but several in the fleet have and did so on their own time. IF you are confused by the system...ask a DGM or one of the older players of the fleet, we do not fear questions. Also I've very little table top experience compared to some and each character I've made for the fleet [Talia, Liz, Alice and Valkriss] took on the average 30 maybe 40 minutes of my time per character. Dunno why just picked it up quickly. Now what Tru proposes is fine for a thread, he is not working on altering the current system he is offering to make the current one easier to access and understand, if I understand it correctly. Also lets show Tru some appreciation, not even one event and he has a character aid in beta! Tru, I say go on with the idea and if I can help in any way please by all means ask.
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Post by Captain Anja Malitzka on Apr 18, 2015 9:06:26 GMT -5
Something that hasn't been directly mentioned, and perhaps something we should make apparent: If people are confused by the system, they are not actually required to complete the skills section before they request to join the fleet. We've had lots of people simply state they'd like some help with it.
So, when you're looking into getting people to participate, tell them about how our episodes work, any fun experiences you've had as part of the fleet, and then when they're putting together their transfer request, if the skills section becomes too complex, let them know we're willing to help put it together with, their input of course.
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Post by Ensign Trusin Den on Apr 18, 2015 9:25:34 GMT -5
Exactly Soft Kitty,
I do not want to change anything. I do not have much table top experience either and it was a little daunting at first, I think I read the handbook 4 times before I even started to make a character and I got hung up on the education part and think I did it wrong 2 times and had to go back to the drawing board.
After it was all said and done I really enjoyed making a character (let's hope I enjoy playing it just as much, otherwise YIKES!)
Being somewhat of an excel officienado I took the current build aid and said what if I just loaded in the skills and stats and cross referenced so it automatically loaded my points and kept up with my stats and had the formulas in to calculate my character sheet. After I got it to work with trait selection I thought, This would be more fun if it was interactive LCARS, because who doesn't love LCARS!
With that being said I tend to get carried away which is why I posted and to make sure I was not offending anyone as once you get the hang of making a character I think I could do another one fairly reasonably and accurate (I think).
Also on a side note even after I got help from someone in game I noticed in the hand book on (can't find it now but will keep searching) the description said to add 7 but the example added 10 and this had to do with the # of skills to improve by +5 so could make a big difference. But both myself and my in game help was confused. )
I definately do not wish to offend anyone and the work that has been done is amazing! I had a lot of fun just building a character and can't wait to play!
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Post by Kossuth on Apr 18, 2015 9:27:16 GMT -5
Fun fact, the current skill system is based off Star Trek: FASA, which was the tabletop Star Trek RPG in the 1980s. It should be very possible to turn this into an Excel spreadsheet, since the original system used character sheets that were not unlike a spreadsheet.
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DGM Cygnus
Game Master Group
Assistant Admin / DGM of the USS Adagio
Posts: 2,191
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Post by DGM Cygnus on Apr 18, 2015 9:50:18 GMT -5
I do want to reenforce what Anja mentioned, one does not need a character sheet to get started role playing with us.
~the demoness
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Post by Kossuth on Apr 18, 2015 9:51:27 GMT -5
That's true, I just think an excel spreadsheet would be cool.
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DGM Cygnus
Game Master Group
Assistant Admin / DGM of the USS Adagio
Posts: 2,191
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Post by DGM Cygnus on Apr 18, 2015 10:13:15 GMT -5
Exactly Soft Kitty, I do not want to change anything. I do not have much table top experience either and it was a little daunting at first, I think I read the handbook 4 times before I even started to make a character and I got hung up on the education part and think I did it wrong 2 times and had to go back to the drawing board. After it was all said and done I really enjoyed making a character (let's hope I enjoy playing it just as much, otherwise YIKES!) Being somewhat of an excel officienado I took the current build aid and said what if I just loaded in the skills and stats and cross referenced so it automatically loaded my points and kept up with my stats and had the formulas in to calculate my character sheet. After I got it to work with trait selection I thought, This would be more fun if it was interactive LCARS, because who doesn't love LCARS! With that being said I tend to get carried away which is why I posted and to make sure I was not offending anyone as once you get the hang of making a character I think I could do another one fairly reasonably and accurate (I think). Also on a side note even after I got help from someone in game I noticed in the hand book on (can't find it now but will keep searching) the description said to add 7 but the example added 10 and this had to do with the # of skills to improve by +5 so could make a big difference. But both myself and my in game help was confused. ) I definately do not wish to offend anyone and the work that has been done is amazing! I had a lot of fun just building a character and can't wait to play! I believe this is the example you are referring to: "Example:Lee Sterling has a Mind score of 71 Because he's very intelligence he will be able to select up to 7 skills. (71/10 = 7). These skills will all have 10 rating in them." This encompasses elective Pre-Academy "education", it is done in this manner make players distribute skill points rather than just try to lump it all into one skill. It is Mind/10 equals the number of +10 skill point allotments available and the rules governing that section of distribution. We also have progression systems in place that allow players to improve their characters over time based on their participation as well as role playing quality and effort. So what was created and how a character evolves can look quite different in time. ~the demoness
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Post by Captain Anja Malitzka on Apr 18, 2015 10:40:30 GMT -5
"To find how many skills may be improved, divide the Mind score by 10, round up, and add 7. Improve all these skills by +5. For example, Lee Sterling's INT is 75, and so he could improve 18 skills (71 / 10 = 7.5, rounded up to 8; 8 + 10 = 18).."
Is probably the trouble spot. I'm just going to update it to Mind score divided by 10, round up, add 10. This exists because we updated the system and combined a few different parts, I think somebody forgot to update the addition to show that two sections were being combined.
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Post by Ensign Trusin Den on Apr 18, 2015 11:05:51 GMT -5
That was it commander Malitzka. I went to go find it before reading all the posts and saw the correction but thought I was losing my mind because I was sure it was 7 yesterday lol...
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Post by Lt Cmdr Jonathan Cameron on Apr 18, 2015 12:19:15 GMT -5
I definitely think improving the current Excel spreadsheet would be a good idea. As a new player it was completely overwhelming tbh. As Kitty said, I think we are all set with the system in place, but a better character creation system, I'd be all in favor of. also welcome to the fleet!
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Post by Ensign Trusin Den on Apr 18, 2015 13:37:47 GMT -5
Thank you Lieutenant. My kids Tee ball game was canceled so I got to work a bit more on this. I sort of redesigned the front and back end. I added LCARS style tables for Traits and Skills. I have some examples of selecting different things so you can see how the interface changes. I removed the trait descriptions from the bottom and instead just have a data base reference where you can select any trait or skill and it will give you info int he window. The racial traits automatically show up based on your species selection and if a field requires input the LCARS button is red next to that field. If information isn't required it isn't even visible. For example when you select Alien you get 4 selective traits & no racial traits. When you select Joined Trill you get the previous hosts selection boxes. Constructive feedback is always appreciated.
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Post by Ensign Trusin Den on Apr 18, 2015 13:49:05 GMT -5
Also while you were in the process of fixing the handbook, Section 4 (Attributes - Races - Skills) has redundant entries. You can go through Attributes, races, and skills twice. Was very confusing to me at first. Seems like a lot of information on that page but it is just because it is duplicated.
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