#101 Subtask: Step 2 Family History

[Moonpile]

• Pick favored grandparent
• Pick favored parent
• Determine favored grandparent occupation
• Determine favored parent occupation
• Roll favored grandparent history by year, applying effects (like passions)
• Roll favored parent history by year, applying effects

Allow some way for the GM or mods to configure new homeland and/or timeframe specific event tables.

See #101

[Moonpile]

@wake42, @ChaosiumNeil

I have two design approaches to this in mind and want to see what we prefer.

First: Create a Family History item type with a sheet. On the sheet you could drag a roll table and it create a wrapper object like {startYear: 1582, endYear: 1582, ancestor: "grandparent", participatingHomelands: "All", rolltable: "rt..main-family-history-1582", modifiers: "Esrolia, Prax: -5 to D20 roll"}. On the sheet you would then be able to give it a year and a fill in the special instructions, and it would sort on the sheet by year.

Pro: Maybe looks nicer and is easier to set up. Con: One more Item and sheet and the work/maintenance that goes with it.

Second: Almost the same thing but we just get all this information from structured text in a Journal Entry.

Pro: Less work. Con: More finicky for someone to create their own histories.

Another consideration that is common to both approaches: Should we "split out" the histories and not try to make "One History to Rule them all"? This would mean we would have "Family History Esrolia" and "Family History Prax", etc. and the modifiers would be baked into the roll and for example if you are from Prax your history simply wouldn't include Year 1605 since Prax is not in the Participating Homelands. I'm leaning toward more discrete family histories for each homeland as I think it will be easier and also allow GMs to embellish them if they really want to focus on one homeland.

[TheChaosium]

There are multiple background event options coming in subsequent books. I will work on getting samples out to you. It should be part of the selling point for those products.

I think an automated model (like a wizard with roll/pick option) would be cool.

[TheChaosium]

But for the VTT System I wonder if we should just use the "skipping the family history".

Skipping the Family History

Step 2: Family History is optional. It can take quite a while to go through, and may be inappropriate for one-shot games. If you do not want to use the family history section, do the following:

• Add up to three additional Passions to start at 60% each.
• Add +20% to one Passion of your choice.
• Add +10% to another Passion of your choice.

[Moonpile]

But for the VTT System I wonder if we should just use the "skipping the family history".

That's fine. What I'll do is that there will always be an optional "branch" to Skip the Family History, but if there are no Family History Items or Journal Entries (depending upon how we decide to do it) then you have to do the Skip Family History option, and if you simply don't put those items in the System then it will make players skip it.

[Moonpile]

There are multiple background event options coming in subsequent books. I will work on getting samples out to you. It should be part of the selling point for those products.

I think an automated model (like a wizard with roll/pick option) would be cool.

Oh yeah, it's going to roll through the Family History in the blink of an eye. In the actual Actor Wizard each year will have a pre-checked checkbox for "Choose by Rolling" and if you uncheck that there will be a text box to simply enter your roll if you want to choose the result. This would require looking at the Roll Table, but that will be linked from the Actor Wizard.

[TheChaosium]

It sounds like we are all in agreement. It also lets people create their own history if they really want to (not sure how much this will happen once we start providing content).

[wake42]

I'm leaning towards using an item for storing that. Journals seem like it's going to be harder to set up and easy to break if you happen to add an extra new line or something.

And yes, we could simplify it for now by skipping that and create those family history items later.

[Moonpile]

Ok, I think we're in agreement on the design plan. I'll do Family History items. There will be a way to skip family history, which may just be the default on the System and get full Family Histories in later modules.