PC Gen: Doing house rules

[Gizzard]

My GF's DM has house-ruled the Armor Check Penalty and the Max Dex penalty on certain types of armor. Is there any way to create house-ruled items in PCGen?

I would have guessed LST Editors, but I dont see items here.

 

[Chacal]

Usually, you can create mw/magical stuff by right-clicking
on an equipment, but this doesn't change the basics properties so It wouldn't work.

You might try the following :
Create a "myhouserules.pcc" file if you don't have already one (you can use any pcc file as an example)
Add the following line :
EQUIPMENT:myhouserulesArmors.lst

In a "myhouserulesArmors.lst" you can type
Full Plate.MOD[tab]ACCHECK:-1[tab]MAXDEX:5[tab]SPELLFAILURE:5

This would change the Full Plate in a rather munchkin way

If you have trouble making the .pcc file, let us know, it can be a very useful tool for
loading all your preferred sources and setting the options you like, in just one click.

BTW, there's another good place to ask this kind of question :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PCGenListFileHelp

Good luck,
Chacal

 

[Gizzard]

If you have trouble making the .pcc file, let us know...

Hmmm, well, yes. ;-) Are there docs for the pcc files somewhere? I probably just need to sit down and read them a bit.

Anyway, I created a .pcc file by taking the Forgotten Realms pcc and stripping out everything past the #EXTRAFILE marker. I changed a lot of the header info, then I added the line

EQUIPMENT:davidshouserulesarmor.lst

When I try to load it in PCGen4.3.2 I get a dialog that says

! Invalid line: in C:\blah...

(It would be so sweet if it told me which line number it didnt like.) It does however change the Loaded Status to "Y" afterwards, though it wont load any of the remaining source material on my load-list.

If I try to push on, I get all sorts of errors like "Race:Human not recognized!" etc etc. Something very bad has happened by this point.

 

[Chacal]

Hmmm, well, yes. ;-) Are there docs for the pcc files somewhere? I probably just need to sit down and read them a bit.

Probably in the doc folder

Anyway, I created a .pcc file by taking the Forgotten Realms pcc and stripping out everything past the #EXTRAFILE marker.

I don't have forgottenrealm.pcc for 4.3.2 so I don't know what your pcc is looking like.

Here is the may I'm using pcc files :
One file to rule them all : mycampaign.pcc
CAMPAIGN:Mycampaign
RANK:2
TYPE: Campaign.MyCampaign
#skip other header infos

#This one makes a handy submenu
SHOWINMENU:true
PCC/wizardsofthecoast/sourcebooks/dnd/core/phb/phb.pcc
# you just add your usual sources here
PCC/customsources/campaignpccfiles/dungeonmgnorace.pcc
# and here you add your house rules
PCC/customsources/campaignpccfiles/myhouserules.pcc

#optionally, you can select some preferences here :
OPTION:ChooserSingleChoiceMethod=2
OPTION:autoGenerateMagic=false


Then, in your myhouserules.pcc (I've put mine in campaignpccfile but you're free to change that ) a separate folder could be better.
CAMPAIGN:HouseRules
RANK:2
GAMEnD
TYPE:Campaign.HouseRules

#here you put the entries for your lst files:
RACE/customsources/houserace.lst
EQUIPMENT/customsources/housearmor.lst



This is not the simplest way to add house rules, but I think it's better structured this way (1 top level, and 1 pcc for house rules) plus it worked around a small bug in a previous versions.

Chacal

 

[Gizzard]

I should have replied to my own message to mention that I found the docs (in the doc folder!) that night and after some fooling around got everything working.

I'm still not sure what the original bug was; possibly some stray embedded keystroke. But I restarted by taking a new .pcc file and stripping it down a couple lines at a time until I had what I needed.

One extra question; the house-rule applies to Masterwork armor. I ended up creating the item by making a duplicate Banded Mail and editing the Dex Check. This has two drawbacks: 1) It creates a weird "superior" Banded Mail that cant be bought in that DMs campaign, 2) if I wanted to make other custom Masterwork armors, I'd have to make additional "superior" Scale Mails etc.

Is there a way to change what the "Masterwork" option does or is that hardcoded somewhere?

 

[Knightcrawler]

You would want to look in srdequipmodsmundane.lst and alter the mod entry for Masterwork armor. Your going to have to fool around with the BONUS tag to get it to do what you want. Can't remember off the top of my head how to change the checks on armors. I think its in the docs.