4.0 D&D and Hero Lab

[Lawful_g]

Will Hero-lab be switching completely to 4.0 once it is out mid next year, or will it support 4.0 and 3.5 for those of use who will hold out to see how the new system develops?

When 3.0 came out I stuck with AD&D Second edition for a few years, until about when 3.5 was published. Good thing too, because I hadn't invested a large amount in 3.0 books that became defunct then.

What does everyone else think of this coming change?

[huntercc]

Personally, my group and I are planning on staying with 3.5 for a long time. We've all invested enough $ in it already, and have enough material to keep up busy for many moons.

As for HL and 4.0, I'd rather see a program that supported both 3.5 and 4.0 at the same time. I'm sure this depends on how 4.0 shakes out, and how much of the existing program is compatible.

[Lion_Knight]

From what I have seen there will be no point in Hero Lab supporting D&D 4th edition. D&D I. will include character creation and DM tools.

[Bomberg]

As far as I know, two things are to consider here:

1) The DDI Character Creator. I honestly don't think that this will be the one CG application to rule them all. I expect something along the lines of the different spreadsheets or PDFs, but without prerequisit-checking and the sophisticated application of bonuses. This is pure conjecture; it may become a wothwhile CG.

2) There is no hint whether the OGL D&D 4 will be published under will allow third party publishers to use the game data in any application or CG. There is a heated discussion going on in the Wizards' boards.

It remains to be seen.

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Huldvoll

Baron von Bomberg

[rob]

As has already been pointed out, there are still way too many unknowns at this juncture to say anything definitive regarding 4thEd. Assuming that there is a way we CAN support 4thEd under the OGL, we will absolutely do so. Assuming we do so, it would be ideal to integrate 4thEd support into the current d20 data files, having just a toggle setting to switch between them. However, that depends entirely on how much 4thEd differs from the current 3.5.

My best guess is that we WILL be able to support 4thEd under the OGL, but it's NOT likely that one set of data files can support both versions. The reason for this opinion is two-fold.

First, Wizards will alienate a lot of folks if they try to railroad people into DDI, so they will want to compete on what they offer beyond tools like HL. That means that tools like HL will be allowed to support 4thEd under the OGL. Personally, the online design of DDI makes me think that offline tools like HL will continue to have a place in the mix, since some folks will prefer running their tools offline.

Second, Wizards needs to justify why everyone has to switch to 4thEd, which means there must be some substantive changes, else it's going to seem more like a 3.6Ed. Those substantive changes will likely necessitate some fundamental differences in the data file behaviors that will probably preclude one set of data files working for both versions.

At this point, nobody knows anything, so it's all conjecture. If we CAN support both together, we will do so. But it remains to be seen whether that's feasible.

Once Wizards decides to share with everyone what the plan is, we can all start to figure out how we'll adapt. But all indications are that Wizards hasn't even nailed down all the details of the plan internally yet, so that means those of us on the outside won't know for quite some time still. :-(