Hero Lab Support Plans for Pathfinder RPG

[Laerlorn]

Greetings,

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

[djc664]

Originally Posted by Mathias

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).

Will Goblins of Golarion be included in this now?

[Mathias]

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.

[Colen]

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.

[Virtue]

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

[rob]

Originally Posted by Virtue

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).

[Virtue]

Originally Posted by rob

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

[rob]

Originally Posted by Virtue

=( 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.

[Thazar]

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.

[Maidhc O Casain]

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.