[Paragon]

Originally Posted by SeeleyOne

That is a personal choice. I am curious how you know it to be "most people". I would think that the answer is really "most people do not want to have to code just to add something into their data set. Period.". That is something that could be said without having to make a survey (which I usually will not fill out).

You're certainly correct about the second half of your statement, but as to your first, that's a simple extension of the fact that most people in any hobby or with any product don't do forums, so why should this be any different?

my primary users, but the ease of use is a key design consideration. One of my groups is composed entirely of software developers and even then I am the only one that is willing to muck around with Hero Lab code. That shows me that even people who write code do not want to have to do it just to manage their characters.

Well, the answer of course is, that they can; it just requires a game system that is extremely self-contained and where extensions to it are still in the context of the already present game system elements. The problem is that game systems like Savage Worlds or Pathfinder aren't those systems. When new elements are added to them, they're essentially ad-hoc components that do one-off things in many cases.

But if you're running a game that entirely just uses the SW core, there's no need for a player to every mess with the editor, and for the GM only to the degree that he wants to do custom monsters or not. Its only when they want to forge into new territory that you run into that necessity.

But as a contrast, you have games like Mutants and Masterminds where you can have people who never have the need to use the editor at all.

So its not an intrinsic problem, but in part a problem because some games, while they might have a consistent structure, don't have notably consistent elements.