Hero Lab support?

[DangerousThing]

Originally Posted by Roadie

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.

Sorry, but feedback is closer to something like "product X lacks feature Y"; a better form of feedback is to explain why this feature is useful or necessary.

Saying "product X is bad" is just rude.

Feedback is meant to improve things. Insults just make things worse.

[ClayDowling]

The current GCA has issues which are well known, espcially by the developer. Said developer (who has his own forum here for support) is addressing those concerns. I've seen the beta. The new product is going to be very nice. As nice as Hero Lab? I don't know, because I don't use Hero Lab. I do know that for a very small amount of money, you get a tool that fully supports the game, not just the parts you've paid for.

But even the current GCA offers some nice features that make it stand out. It is fairly easy to add new data files to support your campaign. If you are a programmer of any sort, you can create your own character sheets for it. Even if you aren't a programmer, it's pretty easy to do a little bit of customization to the existing sheets to add campaign-specific logos, or to tweak the options of the existing sheets to make it closer to what you want.

Honestly, even though I don't own a windows PC, I consider the package useful enough that I have a windows virtual machine on my laptop just so I can fire this application up when I want it.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by ClayDowling

As nice as Hero Lab? I don't know, because I don't use Hero Lab.

The big difference is that Hero Lab works very well in play, which I don't think is even something that Armin is addressing in the new version (although I could be wrong).

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

The big difference is that Hero Lab works very well in play, which I don't think is even something that Armin is addressing in the new version (although I could be wrong).

And a separate, perhaps smaller, application that took GCA sheets and did lots of campaign stuff, like combat, temporary buffs, easier tracking of money and found items, food, water, etc. would be really sweet. It is something that is very hard to do with GCA, but is useful on its own.

[DangerousThing]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

The big difference is that Hero Lab works very well in play, which I don't think is even something that Armin is addressing in the new version (although I could be wrong).

I'm curious about Hero Lab and what about it works well in play?

I trust your pants, Sir Pudding.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

I'm curious about Hero Lab and what about it works well in play?

You can adjust whatever game related adjustments make sense. It tracks damage, money, buffs, de-buffs, consumable gear, conditions and so on.

[ClayDowling]

GCS works very well for that, although only one of my players uses it that way.

[DangerousThing]

Originally Posted by ClayDowling

GCS works very well for that, although only one of my players uses it that way.

I've been thinking about porting GCS to the Android platform for my players' use. I need practice in doing a non-trivial program and this way I don't have to do the initial design.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

I'm curious about Hero Lab and what about it works well in play?

It's designed to be not just a character design tool, but to be a current-combat-status display tool. It's easy to mark down hit points, apply conditions which automatically update the relevant stats, and so on, track "spells used" or FP spent -- all those dynamic, temporary changes to the character that occur during play, particularly combat. It's an ease-of-UI question.

(In fact, it seemed to me back when our gruup used it for D&D 3.5 that the combat tracker was the real point of the tool, and the main reason it lets you design characters is just to have a way to input all the information it needs to do the tracking.)

[sir_pudding]

For the record I'd be very happy with GURPS support for Hero Lab, which isn't to say I don't appreciate Armin's work. I'd be happy if GCA was more like Hero Lab. And I'd be willing to pay for data files.