Yes.

I have a strong antipathy to online tools that I don't host myself; I do use a VTT but its Maptool. Basically, I dislike being dependent on anyone else's server.

I'm an analog guy with digital support. I use Hero Lab instead of printing out sheets, but I don't generally use the Tac Console myself. I like to shuffle and deal cards, and I prefer real dice. I even built my own dice tower.

We often use Dicenomicon since one of the guys has a tablet so it's a combination of digital dice but you still get to see them roll and all (which FG does as well.) As for FG at the tabletop I don't use it online, I use it locally. As a player I can just run it on my laptop and still use it for dice rolls and such but as a GM I have an LCD display with a touch-screeen that I lay down on my tabletop with a computer under the table to run it, so that is a client to the host version of FG I'm running on my laptop. If any of the guys bring their laptop they can then just use that for FG or they can gather around the touch screen to make rolls off of their sheets or move characters and such.

I can't say that I found the Tactical Console in Hero Lab all that useful, though, which is why i was asking. Mostly because I hadn't really heard of the experience of using it from others. I can see some use of the Encounter Builder but if you're not using the Tactical Console, at least for SW baddies, it's not really a huge help, i don't find.

Well, yeah, I was using the Tac Console before the Encounter Builder. I tend to find most games I like to have some kind of initiative tracker, and Savage Worlds is not the least of these; the other Tac Console functions are almost gravy.

Of course I was using it in M&M before I ever did SW.

Zarlor,

Thanks for this tutorial. I an one of the newbies that is stumbling through this process. Of course working on the Savage Bestiary files is a lot of creatures. I just wish there was a way to add the creature to the encounter library/tac console default list or critters. O was also wondering has there been any discussion of creating a script to make custom pc races, Al la sci fi companion?

Salcor

Paragon: I guess I would really need to see the Tac Console in use in Savage Worlds to get a better feel for using it. Just as an initiative tracker wouldn't be all that helpful for us. One of those visceral things for my group is they definitely love to have cards. I even got a bunch of those little stands people use for putting nametags on for dinner seating that we use for displaying who has what card.

Salcor: I'm assuming you mean building out a race from within the main Hero Lab interface rather than in the Editor? I don't know if that is in the works, but doing it in the Editor is pretty easy. Just create the Race on the Race tab then use the Boostrap button to pull in any Racial Properties you like. You'd have to keep track of their costs but at least once the Race is in you can see it in the standard interface where it will show the total racial cost at the top (normally it should even out to being +2) If you needed to create a Racial Property that would just mean creating it on that tab and setting the appropriate cost on it.

Of course if the Racial Property you want to use isn't already in there as something you can use you'd have to create it. That's fine if it's just some description of something for a race that you wouldn't need to have HL do anything for (say your race has Telepathy but that doesn't boost a skill or modify anything, you just need to know about it) then you're all goo. If it needs to do something with game mechanics then it can get a bit tougher and that's where I suggest looking at other examples, the common code thread and/or asking here in the forum for help with stuff like that.

And if you missed it before, Salcor, if you put the creature portfolio--or a a .stock file including that portfolio (.stock files are just multiple portfolios really) in the "savage" directory, the creature will be available from the default list.

As to the cards and such--part of it is that I've slowly moved over to an almost entirely digital GMing style; I don't do much of anything with physical dice, cards, miniatures or anything like that any more; issues of physical landscape started to progressively make a lot of this more an more irritating (having to hop up and down to get at a place the battlemap was placed on for example). Add in the fact that I kind of find having to pause to make sure I haven't skipped someone more than a little annoying, and having something that can just list out (and better yet, walk through) initiative is a real virtue. All the moreso with a game like SW that wants you to re-randomize every round. I can't imagine how I'd deal with the card draw in a way that wasn't clumsy given available space and positioning.

Thanks for the updates. And you know I think the .stock has been pointed out to me before. My bad, but thanks for the reminder.

Salcor

One of the things my players enjoy is that we usually use decks themed for the game we are playing. We've got Batman/Mr Freeze cards for Superheroes. For Deadlands, I had to use Hoyles. I've got Star Wars decks, Batman decks, Marvel decks, 007 decks, all kinds. My buddy likes these decks that have an extra card in each suit (The X card).

Paragon, I can relate - ever played a game system called "Hero" (Champions)? Hopeless even with all-digital initiative assistance. I know, I wrote several programs over the years to handle it.