What's the best way to add 5E Monsters?

[MintMMs]

Hi everyone!

I picked up Realm Works at Gen Con for use in my upcoming D&D 5th campaign. Since WotC decided to go the Morningstar route, it looks like I'll need to add spells and monsters to the system on my own. My question is, what is the best way to do that?

From what I can see (and I've only worked with the software for 2 days so far), is that I can go into the Mechanics Reference and either

A) Create a new "Monster/Enemy" entry, name it "Orc" and cut-n-paste in the stat block into the Stat Block space in RW. Quick and pretty easy.

or B) Make a copy of the "Monster/Enemy" category, call it "5E Monsters" and then customize that category to add Size tags, Alignment tags, HD and so on. Then I would create a new "Orc" entry from that new category and enter the stats individually. The advantages here would be that I could then sort/search by Alignment, Size, whatever.

So, am I missing any other options? Is there a tried and true method that works well? What can you wise and experienced users tell me?

-Mark

[Dark Lord Galen]

Mint,
It depends on how you wish to us the "orc"... you may find it more versatile and useful to create the orc in herolab and link the stat block to Realm works......

Though I cannot speak for LWD as to their plans to support D&D 5e (or Next if you prefer) you can cannibalize many of those creature types from various versions of what currently exists within Herolab ie d20 (3.0 3.5e) or 4e or Pathfinder just to name a few.... and if feeling very ambitious you could take a dive into the Authoring kit and design your own version.

This would save a from scratch approach.

[Parody]

Originally Posted by Dark Lord Galen

and if feeling very ambitious you could take a dive into the Authoring kit and design your own version.
This would save a from scratch approach.

Writing your own Hero Lab game system isn't a from scratch approach? :)


ObTopic: Personally I'd leave the generic monster stats out of Realm Works and look them up in books/PDFs/online/etc, rather than putting the entire Monster Manual into Realm works. Instead, I'd concentrate on specific encounters and NPCs using Stat Blocks.

If I were to put them all in I'd primarily use Stat Blocks, but also include some useful filtering/searching/linking information.

[Dark Lord Galen]

Originally Posted by Parody

Writing your own Hero Lab game system isn't a from scratch approach? :)

Lol may seem like it at times, but not exactly. If you recall, the design kit allows you to duplicate a system(think it starts with savage lands for free?) then modify to fit your need.. It is this stop gap I was referencing. As it is likely in the future there would be a 5e support.

Originally Posted by Parody

ObTopic: Personally I'd leave the generic monster stats out of Realm Works and look them up in books/PDFs/online/etc, rather than putting the entire Monster Manual into Realm works. Instead, I'd concentrate on specific encounters and NPCs using Stat Blocks.

If I were to put them all in I'd primarily use Stat Blocks, but also include some useful filtering/searching/linking information.

[/quote]
I agree, hence why I suggested HL. Why build what's already there?
And like u suggest, I leave RW to defining unique character types,,,, good n bad.
But that's just my approach.

[MintMMs]

Ok, so it looks like cutting and pasting in a stat block is probably the easiest way to go. It doesn't look like there's an easy way to print out an encounter to use at the table. Is this a feature I'm not finding?

[Ladyofdragons]

Originally Posted by MintMMs

Ok, so it looks like cutting and pasting in a stat block is probably the easiest way to go. It doesn't look like there's an easy way to print out an encounter to use at the table. Is this a feature I'm not finding?

Printing/Exporting is not a current feature.

[Parody]

Originally Posted by MintMMs

It doesn't look like there's an easy way to print out an encounter to use at the table. Is this a feature I'm not finding?

If you'd like printing and/or exporting, add your thoughts to the Print/Export Feature Request thread. (They know it's on our minds, but it doesn't hurt.)

Originally Posted by Dark Lord Galen

If you recall, the design kit allows you to duplicate a system(think it starts with savage lands for free?) then modify to fit your need.

I guess. I haven't gotten very far with the editor or the authoring kit; they're extremely opaque. But that's another forum on this site. :)

Originally Posted by Dark Lord Galen

... As it is likely in the future there would be a 5e support.

We'll see what WotC/Hasbro decides to let everyone do. They haven't announced a licensing plan yet, after all.

[Parody]

Dupe.

[Viking2054]

I believe Wizards/Hasbro has given the 5e license to DungeonScape

Their website is primitive at the moment, but it looks like they've done away with DnD Insider and moved all the 5e digital support to the guys at DungeonScape. One caveat the DungeonScape website, at least to me, looks to be in early development with a few pictures and teaser info mostly.

[rob]

Two items...

@MintMMs: Our approach would be to create a custom category that models the structure of a 5E monster. Then you can have auto-added snippets with appropriate tags to quickly filter and locate the monsters you're interested in. Using the statblock approach is definitely less work, though, and might be an efficient first step.

@Viking2054: At the present time, only DungeonScape has a license for 5th Edition (to my knowledge). However, we remain hopeful that the licensing situation will change in the months to come.