Rest Menu Addition: Cycle Hoods/Masks

[JediMindTrix]

Greetings!

I was informed by DM Arawn that at one point players were able to change their heads to hooded/masked one's, but the system was cumbersome and later scrapped. To make a long story short, I suggested a possible less-cumbersome "simple" method that utilizes a rest menu option and a stored local variable on the PC. As I enjoy learning how to/doing these kinds of things I went ahead and coded it myself, and was directed to post it here.

The system works using two Rest Menu Conversation Nodes; one, in a nutshell, cycles through the available/suitable head models that portray a character wearing a hood, a mask, or combination of. The script attached to this node also records the player's original head and saves it as a local variable to the PC, as well as a variable determining if the default head has already been saved (to prevent accidentally turning a hood into your permanent head). The second conversation node will reset the player's head to the default and delete the pair of integers save to him (in case they want their head changed by a DM later).

I only included variations of hoods and masks; helms and hat's I skipped, save for a few halfling/gnome "hats" that look more like hoods. Half-Orcs unfortunately do not have any models and thus were not included in the scripts (no Text Appears When conditional needs to be used to keep them out of the script as it will not fire for them.).

Both scripts are heavily commented, all possible gender/race/head model combinations included in the scope of the script have been successfully playtested as well the default head reversion function.

JMT_HDSwitch (The main file, cycles through available heads)

JMT_HeadRevert (The small companion script that reset's the PC's head to their original.)

Cheers!

[Arawn]

To clarify, to do so required giving players a DM item which is not permitted, and so all such widgets were automatically pulled by a server script.

[herkles]

Hoods do not magically conceal your face, if you are in a well lite area and someone is close to you, they can see your face, rather easily.

[JediMindTrix]

Hoods do not magically conceal your face, if you are in a well lite area and someone is close to you, they can see your face, rather easily.

I don't dispute that at all! But I also don't know what has to do with the suggestion.
This is purely for aesthetics, to make use of models that would otherwise more than likely not get used, and to make it a streamlined process. With this a player could switch back and forth whenever they wanted without hassling a DM.
In fact, the majority of those models do not conceal the face, but rather leave some of the face (or sometimes all of it, if it's just a hood), visible.

To clarify, to do so required giving players a DM item which is not permitted, and so all such widgets were automatically pulled by a server script.

Thank you! I couldn't remember exactly what you told me last week and I forgot to ask today

[Jeebs]

Hoods do not magically conceal your face, if you are in a well lite area and someone is close to you, they can see your face, rather easily.

Given that elves (and other races with low-light/darkvision) are also supposed to see in darkness well enough to define colors and details, I've often had some of my characters ignore the fact that a character he knows is wearing a hood and just recognize them. (Can someone confirm or debunk that last statement? I was trying to find a link to quote, but it seems I could be thinking of a previous version of DnD).

I do like the idea for changing your head to the masked one. There are plenty of situations where you would want to conceal your face, and as mentioned, the hoods wouldn't effectively do that in every situation.

[Miuo]

Hoods do not magically conceal your face, if you are in a well lite area and someone is close to you, they can see your face, rather easily.

Given that elves (and other races with low-light/darkvision) are also supposed to see in darkness well enough to define colors and details, I've often had some of my characters ignore the fact that a character he knows is wearing a hood and just recognize them.

Iv mixed feelings about such, since we can not adequately show everything ig'ly some stuff just has to rp'ed out. For instance, there is a specific hood type most Halan witches use that iv been trying to get in as a helm. But as we don't have it as a option or anything fitting to look like it im left with pretty much just a hood to roleplay with. Knowing full well it doesn't suddenly make my face invisible i rp wearing additional things beneath it. In my chars case, a veil. If someone was to just assume that because iv a hood on they can see my face and started emoting things, or sharing such details with others down the line it would be completely meta gained information.

While not the best bet, i think just going with if someone has a hood on gloss over that you didnt happen to see anything. Unless you ask them directly in a tell for more information. That, plus height/head tilt/area lighting, there are a number of factors that go into such and just seems something better handled between two parties who communicate oocly and rp such out.

[Jeebs]

Hoods do not magically conceal your face, if you are in a well lite area and someone is close to you, they can see your face, rather easily.

Given that elves (and other races with low-light/darkvision) are also supposed to see in darkness well enough to define colors and details, I've often had some of my characters ignore the fact that a character he knows is wearing a hood and just recognize them.

Iv mixed feelings about such, since we can not adequately show everything ig'ly some stuff just has to rp'ed out. For instance, there is a specific hood type most Halan witches use that iv been trying to get in as a helm. But as we don't have it as a option or anything fitting to look like it im left with pretty much just a hood to roleplay with. Knowing full well it doesn't suddenly make my face invisible i rp wearing additional things beneath it. In my chars case, a veil. If someone was to just assume that because iv a hood on they can see my face and started emoting things, or sharing such details with others down the line it would be completely meta gained information.

While not the best bet, i think just going with if someone has a hood on gloss over that you didnt happen to see anything. Unless you ask them directly in a tell for more information. That, plus height/head tilt/area lighting, there are a number of factors that go into such and just seems something better handled between two parties who communicate oocly and rp such out.

I should clarify that I do emote something to the effect of peering into the shadows of their hood to give them a chance to tell me if their face is otherwise hidden. I just noticed a fair number of people ALWAYS have hoods on, so I started doing this sometimes instead of recognizing their voice, or what have you.

[Arawn]

I should clarify that I do emote something to the effect of peering into the shadows of their hood to give them a chance to tell me if their face is otherwise hidden. I just noticed a fair number of people ALWAYS have hoods on, so I started doing this sometimes instead of recognizing their voice, or what have you.

While I do recommend you continue this debate on the forums, let's keep this thread for the purpose of debating the specific proposed addition to the module, which is a purely aesthetic one!

[Feronius]

I think Arelith or another server (possibly both) have scripts like these in place, without requiring the playerbase to have access to any DM tools. Don't ask me how they did it though, but it is possible.

[JediMindTrix]

I think Arelith or another server (possibly both) have scripts like these in place, without requiring the playerbase to have access to any DM tools. Don't ask me how they did it though, but it is possible.

I'm not sure how Arelith does it (though I suspect the principle is the same). Since they do not use hak's there is a much smaller selection of hooded head models, which isn't true for Ravenloft (there was comparitively a lot), which meant I had to nest a switch inside of another switch rather than use a single switch or an if/then block. If you're interested in learning how it was done, I commented both scripts almost all the way through, so it is possible to learn using it.