Weird Science Gizmos (Savage)

Context: HL Kit … Authoring Examples … Savage Worlds Walk-Through 

Overview

We're going to dedicate a full section to this topic. The actual changes are not complex, but there are a variety of issues that need to be considered. This results in a series of steps that we'll address one at a time.

How Gizmos Differ

Gizmos are a special variety of arcane power. In addition to the power itself, gizmos need to be controlled. In general, the use of a gizmo entails use of the "Weird Science" skill. However, a "ray gun" gizmo might use the "Shooting" skill instead. We need to track the associated skill for each gizmo and allow the user to specify that skill.

Gizmos are devices, so they each have their own pool of power points. This pool needs to be tracked independently for each gizmo. That means we need to integrate the proper handling for trackers into gizmos and display them on the "In-Play" tab so that user can manage them.

The final wrinkle with gizmos is that they can be shared. This means that a character with no arcane background can possess a gizmo. We therefore have to allow all characters to possess gizmos, and gizmos from other characters must allow the player to specify the number of power points available to each gizmo. We even have to handle the case where a weird scientist has both his own gizmos and gizmos created by others.

Linked Skill

We'll start by a

Validation

-define and assign "Gizmo" tag via script -create new tab panel that shares the template -differentiate shared gizmo via "Foreign" tag -new table portal only shows foreign gizmos and old one only shows native gizmos -add fields for linked skill and power points -add Tracker component to Power compset -add portals to template for specifying skill and power points -determine whether menu and edit portals are visible - impacts height of template -position menu and edit portals -add tag to reset trackers to maximum -add script to setup power points -hide non-gizmos from list of trackers on in-play tab -verify gizmos have linked skill assigned -verify foreign gizmos have non-zero power points assigned -highlight menu in red if no selection is chosen