Hero Lab Support Plans for Pathfinder RPG
 

Just over a month ago, Hero Lab became the official character management software tool for the Pathfinder RPG. We've been hard at work developing a solid plan for how best to support Pathfinder, as well as beginning to get that plan implemented. The following is a summary of the plan, including pricing and release dates for a bunch of Pathfinder content over the next couple months.

Core Pathfinder RPG Package

The core Pathfinder RPG game system is where everything begins for Pathfinder players using Hero Lab. The content currently provided within the core package will be expanding beyond what is currently provided. The core package can either be selected as the free game system included with the initial purchase of Hero Lab ($30) or added to an existing Hero Lab license ($20). A complete list of all the material in the core package is provided below.

Currently included content:
* Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
* Player content from six Pathfinder Adventure Paths - Rise of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne, Second Darkness, Legacy of Fire, Council of Thieves, Kingmaker
* 20+ common PC and NPC races, including the Drow, Tiefling, Hobgoblin, and many others
* Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play
* Character Traits Web Enhancement (same as the Basic Traits from the Advanced Player's Guide)

Content to be included in the near future:
* Gamemastery Guide
* Pathfinder Chronicles: NPC Guide
* Player content from the Serpent's Skull Adventure Path

All the "future" content listed above will be incorporated via free updates for existing Hero Lab users.

General Details About Add-On Packages

In addition to the existing Bestiary package, we'll be creating a number of optional Pathfinder add-on packages for Hero Lab. These add-on packages will incorporate content from one or more supplements for the game, conveniently available in a ready-to-use state, with all of the material professionally entered and maintained by Lone Wolf Development.

Note that all of the material within these optional packages can also be manually entered by users, so the only component needed to fully utilize the Hero Lab data files is the core package for the game system.

Advanced Player's Guide Add-On Package

The Advanced Player's Guide add-on package encompasses everything from the mammoth new Pathfinder supplement of the same name. This package includes the new base and prestige classes, the new archetypes and custom abilities for classes, alternate racial abilities, racial favored class bonuses, and hundreds of new feats, traits, spells, equipment, and magic items.

The APG add-on package is not yet completely implemented, but the majority of the material is in place. In the interest of enabling Pathfinder players to utilize the APG content at the same time the book releases, Paizo has authorized us to release the APG add-on package early. On August 5th, we'll be releasing the APG add-on package to coincide with the official release of the APG book at GenCon.

This initial release will include the most critical elements of the new APG book, but not everything. In the weeks following GenCon, the remaining material will be incorporated and made available as a free update to anyone who purchases the package early.

Although the work involved in implementing this massive tome is extensive, we realize that this will be viewed as a "core" book by most players. As such, we're keeping the price as low as possible to make it accessible to the bulk of Pathfinder players. Price: $9.99. Availability: August 5th, 2010.

Bestiary Add-On Package

The Bestiary add-on package will remain unchanged. With all of the monstrous races from both the Pathfinder Bestiary and the Bonus Bestiary, this is an extremely useful resource for GMs that want to quickly setup encounters or customize monsters. Price: $14.99. Availability: Now.

Player's Companion Races #1 Add-On Package

This package incorporates all of the material from the first three Player's Companion supplements focused on races: Elves of Golarion, Dwarves of Golarion, and Gnomes of Golarion. Price: $4.99. Availability: September 2010.

Player's Companion Races #2 Add-On Package

This package provides the content from the following three Player's Companion supplements focused on races: Orcs of Golarion, Halflings of Golarion, and one additional (as yet unannounced) book. Price: $4.99. Availability: September 2010.

This package will initially only include content from the Orcs of Golarion book. When the Halflings book is released, the additional content for that book will be added as a free update. The same will occur when the third book is released.

Player's Companion Regions #1 Add-On Package

This package includes all material from the first three Player's Companion books focused on regions: Osirion, Land of the Pharaohs; Taldor, Echoes of Glory; and Qadira, Gateway to the East. Price: $4.99. Availability: September 2010.

Player's Companion Regions #2 Add-On Package

This package spans the content from the second three Player's Companion books focused on regions: Cheliax, Empire of Devils; Andoran, Spirit of Liberty; and Sargava, the Lost Colony. Price: $4.99. Availability: September 2010.

Adventurer's Armory Add-On Package

This package incorporates all of the material from the Adventurer's Armory supplement for Pathfinder. Price: $4.99. Availability: September 2010.

Bundled Discounts

For Pathfinder fans that want to purchase many of the above add-on packages, we'll be offering discounts when multiple packages are purchased together. The specifics have not all been finalized, but expect to be able to purchase both Races add-ons at a discount, as well as both Regions add-ons at a discount. Additional bundling options are being worked out and will be announced by the time these packages are released.

Additional Packages in the Future

We're still working out the details regarding all the Campaign Setting supplements for Pathfinder, but they should generally follow the above model. Details on those packages will be released in the near future. In addition, as the Pathfinder catalog continues to grow, we'll be creating new add-on packages to incorporate the new material.

-Lone Wolf Development Staff

Wow! I'm amazed the prices are so low, but totally not complaining. You guys rock, as usual!

Will the Adventure Paths continue to be part of the Core Package after Serpent's Skull?

The player content from new APs will continue to be included in the core package, being handled in the same way that it has been thus far.

I can't seem to delete my message, because my previous message was all wrong.

I'm thinking that "Availability: August 5th, 2010." means that is when they post a link for ordering. Just a thought.

If you need help getting the grinding done for the data sets all you have to do is ask you have my email and phone #.

Exactly. :)

Anyone have an idea if the APG data will be available @ midnight EST? ;)

It will be sometime before 10am on Thursday (EST). That's all I can guarantee.

Cool ... thanks for the info Rob :)

I'm glad that Paizo is letting you guys be the official Pathfinder Character Generator. I LOVE Herolabs, even if the scripting is a LOT more complicated that E-Tools lol. Even MY limited database knowledge could make adjustments and insert new classes and new class features there, but the program was so much more limited than what you offer. Thanks guys.

The Pathfinder RPG Player Companion Bundle mentions a second Companion Races file. This is not yet done, isn't it!`? I ask, because in the listed files below the bundled-entry is only one Companiona Races file.

The second races package will contain Orcs, Humans, and Halflings of Golarion. There was a slight delay getting Orcs of Golarion ready to go, so the second races package wasn't released with the other packages last week. We should be ready to go with the Orcs book in a week or two.

Since Halflings of Golarion and Humans of Golarion haven't been published yet, those books will become available in Hero Lab to those who have purchased the package as soon as possible after Paizo releases those books (according to the player's companion section of Paizo's web store, those are expected for December 2010 and April 2011 releases, respsectively).

The races 2 package is included in the bundled companion packages - those who have purchased the bundle will get those three race books as we get them into HL.

Are Cleric subdomains in the APG data yet? I can't seem to get any to show up in Hero Lab.

edit: nevermind, I didn't have the APG data checked off. My bad.

I was wondering if Wolf Lair had any plans for getting permission/adding the "Pathfinder Chronicles: Campaign Settings" and what if any is either your or Paizo's stance on releasing the book for use with your awesome product?

Thank You,
mXcPotato

The Pathfinder version of that book is scheduled for February of next year - if we added the 3.5 version now, we'd just have to replace it in 4 months, so we're waiting to see the updated version.

Awesome, Thank you so much!

Any news on the data set for Orcs?

-Skeld

I've asked this elsewhere some time ago but I might put it forward here once more: will there be more options on character sheet output? Like, implementing the "official" character sheet and having HeroLab print all pc information into them? That would be great!

Greetings,

are we going to see the archtypes from "Companion: Inner Sea Primer" in HeroLab?

Will Goblins of Golarion be included in this now? :)

We'll do our best to make the player's companion books that aren't in HL yet or haven't been released yet available as soon as we can after they're released.

Inner Sea Primer will be available Soon™ (before Christmas if everything goes to plan). I'll be the first book in a new "Golarion" package, that will also include further books when they're released (exact list TBA).

We haven't made a decision on further "[Race]s of Golarion" books; further ones might be put into a new package, but that's not final yet.

What about Bestiary 2 is that just going to be a bestiary update or a whole new thing to buy?

Bestiary 2 has been quite a lot of work, so it's going to be a separate add-on. We're working hard to make have it available the same date that the book is officially released (currently December 29th according to the Paizo site).

=( this is getting to be alot of addional add ons i figured once you had the program better set to do monsters we wouldnt have to buy another add on

There are a LOT of supplements for Pathfinder. That means we've got lots of additional content that we need to get entered into the system, fully integrated with all the different game mechanics, and verified as correct. After that, we need to support and maintain the add-ons. All of this entails a definite cost on our end, and it needs to be paid for somehow.

In the case of the Bestiary 2 book, it took us weeks of time to get everything into place. That's a good bit faster than it took to get everything into place for the first Bestiary book, but it's still many thousands of dollars invested on our end. Mathias, Colen, and the rest of the staff all expect their paychecks every month so they can pay their rent. We need to charge for the data files in order to accomplish that.

We're just trying to recoup our investment and have a little left over to re-invest in new products and enhancements. Due to the reduced workload on the Bestiary 2 book compared to the first Bestiary, the price of the Bestiary 2 add-on will be 33% cheaper (only $9.99). We're passing our savings on to the users.

We realize that these touch economic times make every expense a careful assessment for folks. That's why we've made it possible for users with more spare time than spare cash to add whatever content they want themselves. It's not as if anyone is being held hostage here.

We do our best to keep our prices reasonable and make sure that users can invest the effort themselves if they prefer. That's not a philosophy shared by most business enterprises, regardless of the industry.

We're gamers, just like you, and we're trying to make a living by creating quality tools that we can all leverage in our games.

I just wanted to put in my two bits. Hero Lab for Pathfinder is a great product and one I enjoy using. In the past I used the editor to make a LOT of things for my home game that I took from the various Paizo books I purchased. You cannot do that in many other programs out there.

That being said I gladly pay the extra money to have the work done for me in a professional way and maintained as it allows me to spend more time making stuff for our home game as opposed to setting up the system so I can THEN do the same work on my home game.

I like to compare this to the older Never Winter Nights game. You could buy the game, and you could buy the expansions to play. You could also use the editor to make your OWN game modules... or you can search the Internet and find some free stuff others have done. This is like that... once you have the base game you can have everything... you just have to decide if time or money is more important to you. For the amount of time I would have to spend entering the data myself I would have to work in a sweat shop to pay myself the amount it costs to just buy it for 5 or 10 bucks.

So thank you to the Lone Wolf team for making a product with options that allows me to play the game the way I want to play it.

I'll add my two cents worth as well - I love this product, and gladly pay for every PF data set to support those who write it.

+1

I can't say how happy I am with this product.

As Rob stated, the beauty of this product we know as Hero Labs, We can enter all the information from each book that Paizo puts out for Pathfinder should we choose to do so. We are paying Lonewolf to enter it for us though if we choose to purchase the datasets.

I prefer to pay for the datasets as entering the information in to Hero Labs is fairly time consuming and would take me much longer then I would prefer not to mention I do not have the programming knowledge that I would need to do it effectively. Therefor buying the datasets actually saves me money in the long run as I value my time against the cost of the datasets and purchase accordingly. In this way I am actually saving money in the long run then.

Is your time equally valuable? That it might save you money too :)

At $10 it's a pretty good deal for me to spend on having someone else enter the data. For the hours that it would take for me to enter the data, $10 looks to be a pretty good bargain (it's a lot less than minimum wage, that's fer sure!).

yeah Ten bucks is cool im not begrudging them money I thougt it was going to be another 30 dollar add on

I love hero lab its been an immense help with both npcs and mobs in my games. I would just like to know if there is any possibility of adding the monsters and npcs from the adventure paths to hero lab for loading? I am running the serpent skull campaign and being able to load up euryptids or dimorphodons would be amazing. i can make up the npcs with available stuff no problem but the monsters i cant

Rob, you guys are doing it brilliantly. The tools you're creating are the single best thing I have ever used in RPG aids. And the cost is extremely reasonable...I honestly don't know how you guys do it as reasonably as you do.

I just wanted to add my 0.02 gp as a resounding clap on the back for you guys. Thank you for your hard work, and thank you for helping make our games easier to organise and hence more fun to play.

A lot of the critters from the adventure paths are being added (you have to make sure you select the appropriate path in the "Configure Hero" screen) already.

If you want to add your own, it's not that difficult. Open up the editor, create a new file called "race.user", and then import something similar to what you want to create. Sometimes you can actually make a copy, other times you have to create from scratch (but you can still use an existing critter for reference). I find the easiest way is to create the base creature, then create a new NPC and give it the race of the creature you've created. From there, it's a matter of adding the bits and pieces (attribute bonuses, skills, feats, special abilities, etc) and then reloading your NPC until you have the thing you're after. I'm a big fan of trial-and-error! :)

Bear in mind you'll sometimes need to create new racial abilities/special abilities, too, but honestly, it's not that difficult if you use existing ones as a guideline.

Something to remember when adding in the characters from the adventure paths, Piazo ddint use all their own rules for the NPC creation. sometimes they refer to old D&D books for feats or abilities. dont know why they did this but they did. i have tried to enter in the NPCs from the kingmaker path but ran into a lot of difficulties.

i talked to Shadow about it on one of our converence calls and we came to the conclusion that the information should just be entered in, knowing that there will be errors, but to just allow the errors to stand.

I have been very busy as of late, new job coming up, business trips and such so i havent gotten nearly as far with this project as i wanted too. i will get back to it soon though. i hope to run a PF game this weekend and will try to get some of the players to help me out and create some of the NPCs themselves.

Yeah i have been running the serpent's skull path with my sca group after practice every week. Hero Lab is amazing as a dm tool especially for tracking mobs and the like. I have had trouble with the creating some of the new monsters like dimorphodons but its no biggie I can still run pen and paper. I was more stating that I hoped they added the mobs into the software soon. The adventure path isnt done coming out yet anyway. Thank you very much for the Great work on both Hero Lab and Army Builder without which i would have trouble playing the games I enjoy as much as I do. Keep up the good work and I will keep leaving feedback on things i might like to see.

Languages
 

For those of us who are not computer savy and cannot easily add to the race section (Ex: Human (Chelaxian)), how about a way to put in what region a PC is from that automatically adds their language? This way an Osirian does not have to put a skill point into languages in order to speak his native tongue.