Pre-Order Rise of the Runelords for Hero Lab

[liz]

As ShadowChemosh mentioned in the thread he posted, we reached out to him prior to moving forward with this new package, and he’s aware of our plans. Unfortunately, he’s currently ill, and so it may take some time for him to post his thoughts. (Get well soon, SC!)

Given that ShadowChemosh plays a key part in distributing community content, we ask that you hold your questions on the subject until he has a chance to share his thoughts. Thanks for working with us on this!

[Villadelfia]

Originally Posted by Exmortis

Liz means you do not need those sources for the "encounters" in this product only, but you will still need them for "characters" you or your players created in Herolab.

Ask anyone who hgelped make those community downloads and they will tell you the amount of hours required. $25 is a decent fair price I should think. I am now doing every encounter in my campaign in HL and I can atest the sheer volume of work required.

I know what she meant. Still, not getting a discount when you already own all the sources that you do not need to own for these encounters is a slap in the face.

And I don't need to ask anyone, I've created the entirety of the rise of the runelords encounters myself because the community ones were seriously oudated. I spent about 3 hours for all of the easy encounters. And then another 5 hours on the monsters with character classes and custom monsters.

My opinion on this is completely dependent on what will be removed from the community pack. If it's only the pre-made encounters, I honestly do not care, it's not that hard to open the encounter builder and create it yourself.

I'm more worried that the custom monsters will be removed from the community pack. Let's use rise of the runelords as an example: It contains 8 monsters that are not in any other bestiary and are not just monsters with class levels or some small adjustments. These 8 are the only 8 monsters for which I would need to open up the hero lab editor, which I will admit is a hassle to work with. These 8 monsters can be found starting page 406 in the AP.

So, in my particular case I already own the 4 bestiaries and all of the sources needed to add class levels and the like to the monsters. I do not think that any reasonable person could argue that 24.99 is a good price for what comes down (i repeat, for me) to access to 8 monsters. Especially since Bestiary 1, with 300-ish monsters costs the same. (And yes, I know that the price is in fact ok if you do not already own all of the packs needed to build the encounters.)

If these 8 monsters are going to be removed from the community pack, I will fork it and keep that content maintained myself.

EDIT:

Originally Posted by liz

As ShadowChemosh mentioned in the thread he posted, we reached out to him prior to moving forward with this new package, and he’s aware of our plans. Unfortunately, he’s currently ill, and so it may take some time for him to post his thoughts. (Get well soon, SC!)

Given that ShadowChemosh plays a key part in distributing community content, we ask that you hold your questions on the subject until he has a chance to share his thoughts. Thanks for working with us on this!

Sorry, I was writing this post while you posted that.

[Pollution]

The funny thing about all this, to me, is that I was going into the store to buy the last 2 data packs I needed to finish Paizo PF content. I was scrolling down to make sure I hadn't missed anything and saw this. I said, "WTH is that???" I figured it was OLD and just never noticed it before. Then I got the email. Then I saw this post. I've been confused.

My feelings on this: Okay, cool, whatever. I don't need these, I grabbed the Community packs a while back, so I'm cool. I even put clips from my personal files for images. I'm good.

BUT, going forward, and as someone thinking about running the new Giants one.... This could be cool. Especially if LW can get these out AS books come out, instead of months behind. It's a lot of work, I know, but timing is key in my opinion. Like a month or so behind at most would be gravy.

Then the question comes, are you going to do this for EVERY AP and EVERY Module? For instance Emerald Spire? Or Bitter Manner? Or any other stories we can get for any supported game?

Then my mind brings up RW, and says, "OHHHHH Maybe this is so they can put out RotRL in RW!!!!" If that's the case....I'm in like Flynn!

All in all, I'm ambivalent about this so far. It's the same as someone putting out the data files for Gun H(3)aven for SR before the official dataset comes out. Once the LW set comes out, I stop using my own custom stuff and go to that wherever possible.

Seriously though, I could see a future where an AP comes out from Paizo, LW releases the HL and RW tools for it, and updates as needed. That could mean some serious money for both Paizo and for LW (which I'm all for).

[Tharmiones]

This HL Encounter Content was one of the topics in this survey that was send out earlier this year and back at that time I was like:
Why would I buy this? Just for the pictures that aren't included in the Community Files? Nah not doing that.

So I really wonder and wait for the information about what happens the the community files.
If this however is any indication that the AP content would be available in Realm Works it would be fine, as I would buy the APs in RW without any hesitation.

[Mike Dowd]

What other APs are in the queue for this project?

[AndrewD2]

I've got a feeling, all of them are.

[liz]

Originally Posted by Mike Dowd

What other APs are in the queue for this project?

We're planning to release at least one other AP in May, and we'll be announcing which one in the next few weeks.

[ThatOneMike]

Originally Posted by Pollution

Then my mind brings up RW, and says, "OHHHHH Maybe this is so they can put out RotRL in RW!!!!" If that's the case....I'm in like Flynn!

I know it's looking a gift horse in the mouth a bit, but I would pay a great sum of money for a RW version of this too.

[psych777]

ive never used these files so sorry if this seems a silly question....
are these ap files only used by the gm's? what would a player need them for?

[Silveras]

Originally Posted by ThatOneMike

I know it's looking a gift horse in the mouth a bit, but I would pay a great sum of money for a RW version of this too.

Rise of the Runelords is the AP that LW used as part of demonstrating what an AP would look like in RealmWorks. The outcome of the negotiations for publishing the APs in RealmWorks (or any products from other publishers) have not been made that I know of, but such negotiations were "in progress" at the last word I do know of.

The question becomes, would this HeroLab pack be included with an eventual RW treatment? Or would they be sold separately? If they would be combined, there would be little reason for RW users to purchase this one now, and probably some "buyer's remorse" if that proved to the case after the fact.