WIP for SWADE Item Tables: SWADE 4.4 and FVTT v13
Added 2025-03-18 19:44:16 +0000 UTCSince the last update for SWADE Item Tables (SIT), I've been busy prepping several modules for v13, specifically all five Backstory Cards for Foundry VTT modules and Card Hands List. Now that those are all done (for now), I'm going to come back to SIT to update the remaining apps such as the Crafting Table and Mutator to AppV2. My goal there is to have everything running on AppV2 and have SIT ready to roll when v13 has a stable release.
With that in mind, there are some new things available in SWADE 4.4 that I think SIT can benefit from.
Crafting Table
Looking at the new "modifier" option for Active Effects on Items, I'm considering rewriting the Crafting Table app to utilize that feature. I could create Active Effects for masterwork and magic items that apply modifications to weapon, armor, and shield bonuses and costs. This could be a nice way to create reusable Active Effects that can be dragged and dropped from one Item to another for faster creation of such Items. It also means that the magical bonus could even be toggled off if there's an effect like an anti-magic field, for example.
Character Advances
The Active Effect approach for the Crafting Table actually inspired a potential enhancement for Advances in the Character Builder app. When advancing a character's attribute or skill, instead of modifying the actual die sides value on the Actor or skill Item respectively, it could instead apply an "Advance" Active Effect on the Actor that increases the die type. This could make tracking the increases easier in some ways by evaluating the AEs and not having to track actual changes to the skill or Actor. The same could be applied to reducing a Major Hindrance to a Minor Hindrance. The downside is that it does add more active effects to the Actor which could already be a relatively long list.
If I go this route, it'll take some time for me to make sure it's done right. I'll also want to carefully test data migrations for existing characters that already have advancements applied via the Character Builder.
I'd like to get a sense from you all regarding what you think of this approach. Do you prefer that character advances modify the data directly, or would you rather see a cleaner separation by using Active Effects?
Comments
Thank you for your votes. These polls help with respect to next steps and what approaches to take.
Kristian Serrano
2025-04-01 19:38:20 +0000 UTCThe challenge is creating an index of all the mod options, their costs, their effects, etc. I did it for the Fantasy Companion because it was pretty simple, but I might try something similar for the Science Fiction Companion. I haven't had a chance to really dive into it deeply.
Kristian Serrano
2025-03-19 03:12:15 +0000 UTCIf you can make the Crafting Table changes generic enough to work for something like Cyberpunk/Shadowrun weapon mods, that'd be amazing. I'm wary of the Character Advances, that sounds like a good way to end up with a PC with dozens of AEs eventually, and also seems to clash a bit with how AEs are intended to be used both in core Foundry and SWADE. Note that SWADE likes to disable parts of the sheets if modified by an AE, for example. Would be bad if that eventually ends up happening for things modified by advances. In general, advanced are meant to be permanent in 90% of cases, and thus should IMO be reflected in the data itself, not AEs. If not, this should IMO at least be brought up and discussed with the SWADE system people. I also think only being able to "undo" advances one by one, in reverse order, makes perfect sense. Otherwise, you'll end up with a lot of complexity quickly.
Zeras
2025-03-19 02:09:52 +0000 UTC
