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Old 07-31-2013, 07:17 PM   #1
Roadie
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Default Hero Lab support?

I'll be blunt here: Hero Lab blows GCA way out of the water in terms of ease of use, configurability, and general "cool" factor...

...and the Hero Lab developers have plans in place for a full-fledged iPad app (they already have a free character sheet app released that can be used for Pathfinder/D&D/d20 Modern).

The Hero Lab devs have reliably kept up with the endless tide of Pathfinder releases, so them being able to offer e23 releases in regular (licensed, paid!) packages would seem to be pretty likely.

Is there any way to get SJ to about face on the rather silly decision to deny licensing to Lone Wolf entirely because the software has the word "hero" in the name?
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Old 07-31-2013, 09:18 PM   #2
DangerousThing
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Default Re: Hero Lab support?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Roadie View Post
I'll be blunt here: Hero Lab blows GCA way out of the water in terms of ease of use, configurability, and general "cool" factor...

...and the Hero Lab developers have plans in place for a full-fledged iPad app (they already have a free character sheet app released that can be used for Pathfinder/D&D/d20 Modern).

The Hero Lab devs have reliably kept up with the endless tide of Pathfinder releases, so them being able to offer e23 releases in regular (licensed, paid!) packages would seem to be pretty likely.

Is there any way to get SJ to about face on the rather silly decision to deny licensing to Lone Wolf entirely because the software has the word "hero" in the name?
Have you really used Hero Lab? It looks good, but it could also nickel and dime you to death.

Second, I find it difficult to believe that SJ would really deny a license solely of the reason stated. I would have liked to see more contact and less insults.
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Old 08-01-2013, 12:06 AM   #3
Roadie
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Default Re: Hero Lab support?

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Originally Posted by DangerousThing View Post
Have you really used Hero Lab?
Yes. It's pretty solid, and the devs are remarkably good at handling things with a bajillion edge cases of interacting rules (e.g. the gigantic pile of Pathfinder rules).

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Originally Posted by DangerousThing View Post
It looks good, but it could also nickel and dime you to death.
Prices, as far as I know, are set based on whatever licensing terms the IP owner has. That's why there's a bajillion separate purchases for Pathfinder, a handful of bundles for Shadowrun, core/Vampire/Changeling all in one purchase for WoD, and a free Fate Core release in the works.
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Old 08-01-2013, 03:36 AM   #4
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Default Re: Hero Lab support?

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Yes. It's pretty solid, and the devs are remarkably good at handling things with a bajillion edge cases of interacting rules (e.g. the gigantic pile of Pathfinder rules)
I'm more interested in some specifics:

1. Does HL allow multiple skill groups (perhaps I want one for combat, one for magic, etc.)?

2. How flexible is HL's print formatting? If I have only a few advantages will the skills flow over to the other column on the second page? Can I hide some skills easily?

3. How much work would I have to do to get it to work with GURPS?

4. Is there any reason to suspect that SJGames will agree to a licensing agreement?

#4 is the sticking point for me. Right now I have taken on too much so I don't have the time to create a personal setup that I can't share with anybody else. I don't have the time.
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Old 08-01-2013, 04:00 AM   #5
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Default Re: Hero Lab support?

I havn't found anything that beats GCS for me.

http://gcs.trollworks.com/wiki/start

And I went into the java and added a few features, like being able to change what stat spells are based on and a few other tweaks. So it's the goto tool for me.
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Old 08-01-2013, 09:25 AM   #6
Fred Brackin
 
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Default Re: Hero Lab support?

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Yes. It's pretty solid, and the devs are remarkably good at handling things with a bajillion edge cases of interacting rules (e.g. the gigantic pile of Pathfinder rules).

.
Well, it's complex anyway.

There are multiple people who use it in my Pathfinder group. The first session after the free IPad app was released they all spent all session playing with their character sheets rather than than their characters.

Personally, I'm not impressed.

It was also my impression that HeroLab was expensive.
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Old 08-01-2013, 01:27 PM   #7
Roadie
 
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Default Re: Hero Lab support?

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Originally Posted by DangerousThing View Post
1. Does HL allow multiple skill groups (perhaps I want one for combat, one for magic, etc.)?
Yes - for an example, it handles WoD skills (1-5 ratings, three different groups with different sets of points), d20 skills, Mutants & Masterminds (point buy system with a pool shared with other traits), Call of Cthulhu (1% to 100% and can be independently raised at any time), and so on.

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2. How flexible is HL's print formatting? If I have only a few advantages will the skills flow over to the other column on the second page? Can I hide some skills easily?
Custom character sheet output uses XSL files that can output plain text, HTML, PDFs, etc, so it's pretty much "whatever you want as long as you're willing to spend the time on it". (Built-in options include a few standard character sheet types plus statblocks in plain text/bbcode/wikitext/html.) The community preference so far seems to be HTML, since this makes it easy to give lots of individual display options for the different sheet sections.

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3. How much work would I have to do to get it to work with GURPS?
Well, if you wanted to do it for yourself, you'd have to do all the setup for the game mode, and I imagine that would be tricky. It uses a combination of character trait stuff and a full-fledged scripting language to manage character traits.

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4. Is there any reason to suspect that SJGames will agree to a licensing agreement?
I have no idea. That's why I made the thread!

I'd certainly like it if they did, since it might be a chance to actually see a not-terrible GURPS character sheet app on a tablet within my lifetime.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
There are multiple people who use it in my Pathfinder group. The first session after the free IPad app was released they all spent all session playing with their character sheets rather than than their characters.

Personally, I'm not impressed.
It's not the most amazing thing in the world, but it's really quite solid for a first release, and it handles stuff like conditions, spell effects, etc, better than any of the previous efforts I've seen, including permanent or temporary ad hoc adjustments to character stats to reflect campaign-specific stuff.

Last edited by Roadie; 08-01-2013 at 01:32 PM.
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Old 08-01-2013, 01:33 PM   #8
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Default Re: Hero Lab support?

SJGames has been very consistent about -not- discussion contractual issues in public. I don't think that's likely to change.

They do have a very public set of instructions about how to engage them about these issues (specifically, if you have a product idea to pitch). But you're expected to find it on your own (it's really not hard). Until you're completed that step, it's considered very bad form to bring these matters up.
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Old 08-01-2013, 01:44 PM   #9
Roadie
 
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Default Re: Hero Lab support?

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Until you're completed that step, it's considered very bad form to bring these matters up.
My response to this is a distinct "meh", given that I'm posting this as an SJ Games customer giving feedback on their product (e.g. "GCA is kind of lame, what about working with these other guys instead"), not as someone working with a business.

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Originally Posted by GodBeastX View Post
I havn't found anything that beats GCS for me.

http://gcs.trollworks.com/wiki/start

And I went into the java and added a few features, like being able to change what stat spells are based on and a few other tweaks. So it's the goto tool for me.
GCS has been my go-to resource for a long time, but the little annoyances (tiny text, lack of output formats, no ongoing data support, etc) have been enough for me to keep an eye out for other apps.

(Not that I expect any particular ongoing effort with it, being free and all, but that's a reason to look and/or advocate for something paid that handles the system at least as well as GCS does.)
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Old 08-01-2013, 02:00 PM   #10
lexington
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Default Re: Hero Lab support?

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My response to this is a distinct "meh", given that I'm posting this as an SJ Games customer giving feedback on their product (e.g. "GCA is kind of lame, what about working with these other guys instead"), not as someone working with a business.
Allow me to translate that to something less formal: "You've come into someone else's house and been distinctly rude."
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