D&D Starter Set (5E)

[Fuzzy]

I was inferring that what you did not like (and this is partly coming from the tone of the thread in general, not just your post) was their licensing, leading to an inability for 3rd parties to make/release tools for their ruleset. Somewhat draconian licensing is something they apply company wide, not really restricted to a particular product, which is why I recommended simply going to another publisher.

Its my belief, that to make a product, that is supposed to be a storytelling tool, and then limit the scope of what can be done with those tools, is pretty contradictory.

The Hero Lab issue for them, I feel, is one of pride, more than actual business acumen. I feel many at WotC see the very close (near official) relationship between Hero Lab and Pathfinder, and feel that to connect themselves to the same 3rd party tool would somehow validate what they see as Paizo's 'theft' of their 3.5 gaming system (even though it was their open license that allowed it). Even if WotC could get more money in licensing DnD5 to Lone Wolf than they could get from their own in-house solution, I don't think they'd do it.

[rob]

For those of you who want to see Hero Lab support for D&D 5E, your best course of action is to POLITELY and publicly (e.g. on their forums), let Wizards know of your desires. If there is enough demand, they may just see fit to give their players what they want. It certainly wouldn't hurt to ask.

[Nikmal]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

My main point was that Paizo's policies are so much more friendly, which is the main reason I am going to stick to them. The game system is not the most important part of an RPG, so if I can play one that most freely lets me use it however i choose (Hero Lab, online documentation, etc), then i will continue to do so. People who complain about WotC, yet still buy the products, are WHY they haven't changed their ways.

Partly true, but not getting in to a debate about WotC's policies and customer service issues. This thread was started for D&D 5th Ed for Hero Lab.. not for debating WotC's issues in here. So lets put it to rest now

[Nikmal]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I was inferring that what you did not like (and this is partly coming from the tone of the thread in general, not just your post) was their licensing, leading to an inability for 3rd parties to make/release tools for their ruleset. Somewhat draconian licensing is something they apply company wide, not really restricted to a particular product, which is why I recommended simply going to another publisher.

Its my belief, that to make a product, that is supposed to be a storytelling tool, and then limit the scope of what can be done with those tools, is pretty contradictory.

The Hero Lab issue for them, I feel, is one of pride, more than actual business acumen. I feel many at WotC see the very close (near official) relationship between Hero Lab and Pathfinder, and feel that to connect themselves to the same 3rd party tool would somehow validate what they see as Paizo's 'theft' of their 3.5 gaming system (even though it was their open license that allowed it). Even if WotC could get more money in licensing DnD5 to Lone Wolf than they could get from their own in-house solution, I don't think they'd do it.

Fuzzy please don't speculate on what is on another companies mind and what they do or do not want to do. As Rob mentioned lets go to their forums and try and get them to let Lone Wolf support 5E through Hero Lab. Though I do warn everyone... you will have a negative response from a lot of people there. Be prepared. I have spoken out about Hero Lab and wanting it for Hero Lab

[Fuzzy]

Unfortunately, the lone wolf forums are about the only system agnostic board where this type of thing CAN be discussed. Bringing it up on either Paizo's or WotC's forums result in being trampled upon by one side or the other. About the only other gaming centric forum I can think of is Giant In the Playground, and they haven't even figured out that Pathfinder is different than DnD 3.5 yet.

[dafrca]

Originally Posted by rob

For those of you who want to see Hero Lab support for D&D 5E, your best course of action is to POLITELY and publicly (e.g. on their forums), let Wizards know of your desires. If there is enough demand, they may just see fit to give their players what they want. It certainly wouldn't hurt to ask.

I also wrote a polite letter asking if they would be allowing Lone Wolf to add 5th ed to their stable of supported games. I have not heard back and to be honest do not expect to, but I figure a letter does sometimes find it's way to the right people.

[RavenX]

WotC/Hasbro kind of dropped the ball in digital tool outsourcing last edition. They had outsourced the character builder to another company, along with the dm tools. They promised us 3d dungeon tiles and designs for running the game, but somewhere along the line they had a falling out with the company they outsourced it to. We ended up with their character builder as a result. I had to use Hero Lab after their builder went "online only" because their online builder crashed repeatedly. Hero Lab was a necessary evil in 4e, no one in my group wanted to write out all their powers by pen and paper. It killed the game.

I wish they would just License Hero Lab, if they can outsource writing of modules to Kobold Press (who also writes content for Pathfinder), I can't see why they wouldn't just license hero lab. WotC/Hasbro's track record on software hasn't been good. But this is the same company that decided to just throw four previous editions into a blender and call it 5th edition for fear of alienating anyone rather than producing a new edition and taking risks. I hope if this edition doesn't sell well that Mike Mearls gets the axe and that they bring in new talent (hopefully someone with experience). If you really want them to license hero lab, go write to them about it. You can sit here hoping for a license or go over to WotC's forum and raise a stink about it. If you get enough people petitioning WotC they might actually listen.

[dafrca]

Originally Posted by rob

For those of you who want to see Hero Lab support for D&D 5E, your best course of action is to POLITELY and publicly (e.g. on their forums), let Wizards know of your desires. If there is enough demand, they may just see fit to give their players what they want. It certainly wouldn't hurt to ask.

So I went to the WotC forum and started a thread. I asked real nice if there was any information regarding HeroLab being able to have 5th edition in the program. After 10 days I only had one person post saying they would like it too.

I hoped they might take notice if the thread pulled losts of "me too" posts but two posts in 10 days means the thread will be ignored for sure.

[mirtos]

Gong to be honest. One of the reasons you might not be getting as much traction is the simplicity of 5e. A lot of people might be thinking that software isn't as much a necessity for it as compared to pathfinder or 3.5 or even 4e because of its simplicity. Eventually, as book creep eventually takes over, that mig change.

[RavenX]

The only way to generate buzz about it over there would be to tell people you created a thread there. Share the thread here with interested parties and it might speed things up.