What can it do for me ?

[Vampyre]

Hi guys,

I'm highly interested in Realm Works, as said in other threads I have posted. But since it is HL discussion, let's focus on it for a moment.

What can it do for me, GM ? I downloaded the demo, which can let me try different rule sets. Unfortunately for me, there is no game I play on it. I've read i can take the authoring script, and start scripting the rules for the game I'm playing as a GM. But I also understood it could be very long (I've read a post about Star Wars D6 (eehay ! Still have those books !) which started in 2011 and is yet to be finished).

So basically, it would take a long time before I could really use it.

I had also read somewhere that it could create npc on the fly. Since I'm a GM, THAT is something really interesting. Having 4 creatures X created, and be able to track their health points one by one would be very smart for a game. But... I didn't found anything like that in the demo. Is the demo limited for that ? Or did I simply didn't took the right rule set ?

All in all, HL seems very interesting to me, but... I'm not sure at all about what I've seen. I've seen a software that can keep track of the sheets of my players. Track the tools they have, or anything like that. It changes the stats, it's awesome. But it doesn't do very much more than that (I've even read about dice rolls done inside HL, but once again, I failed in seeing those on my demo version).

Did I missed something ? What am I doing wrong ? Or is it just that ? And once more, could HL be a companion to RW ? Or do I simply need to wait for RW to come out and have all I need to manage and keep track of my campaign ? (this is truly what I need... and RW can do it quite nicely as far as I've seen on youtube videos).

Thanks for your answers,

Vampyre

 

[Kiteran]

I can only speak for Hero Labs since I do not own Realm Works.

Creating a character used to take me about an hour minimum. With Hero Labs I can accurately create a character in minutes.

When I initially purchased Hero Labs I had never played Pathfinder and had extremely limited knowledge of D&D 3.5. The program is very intuitive and gives you warning if an error is made. It really is a brilliant program.

It can do much much more but that’s all I really need it to do and it does it well.

-Kit

 

[ChrisRevocateur]

Hero Lab is first and foremost a Character Creation/Management tool, which makes it strongly a player tool, but with some GM benefits as well. I don't use anything except Pathfinder and d20 on Hero Lab, so I couldn't say about other systems, but Hero Lab doesn't do a complete 3.x character on its own, but it does take the time to build an NPC and reduce it to almost nothing.

Hero Lab also allows you to import any monster or NPC you have in your datasets almost instantly, though as you're playing a game that you'll have to program in yourself, unless you create stock portfolios and make your monsters yourself, you won't really have any to import. You could create each encounter as a separate portfolio as well though, and just import the PCs' portfolio into each encounter portfolio (or vice versa, importing the encounter into the PC portfolio)

While it might seem kinda useless to have a single portfolio open with both characters and monsters in it, the real shining gem of the GM tool in Hero Lab is the tactical console, which will keep track of initiative, HP, status, and other effects for you while in use.

The tactical console and the dice roller are under the tools menu. The dice roller is actually just a very basic dice rolling application. It is not linked to stats or abilities of character at all, it just allows you to roll 1d20+5 or whatever. I believe it accommodates special dice rules like drop lowest and exploding dice as well, but since I'm at school, I can't look right now.

Yes, Hero Lab and Realm Works are companion tools. Realm Works allows you to attach a Hero Lab portfolio to your PC's, NPC's, monsters, etc. You can even have a Hero Lab portfolio attached to an encounter (which could be used just like the encounter portfolios I was talking about earlier). Realm Works even displays the statblock of a Hero Lab portfolio within Realm Works, so that you don't have to open Hero Lab to see an NPC or creature's stats.

Basically, Hero Lab is for rules and combat, while Realm Works is for setting and campaign. If your system is rules lite, you might not even need or want Hero Lab, but Realm Works can be a boon to pretty much any GM anywhere.

 

[Vampyre]

Thank you

Thank you for this answer ! So basically, what I saw in the demo was more or less what I saw (beside I didn't triggered on the tools menu).

I'm not here to say that HL doesn't do much (it does, it is truly deep and interesting), but as a GM, I think it will cost me time if I have to manage all the sheets for my players (usually 4 to 6 of them), especially, if they are all battling together.

Thanks for the explanation, I wasn't quite sure, but now I'm more and more into waiting for RW. Maybe at a later stage, to complete with HL.

Many thanks !

 

[DarkSnake]

Thank you for this answer ! So basically, what I saw in the demo was more or less what I saw (beside I didn't triggered on the tools menu).

I'm not here to say that HL doesn't do much (it does, it is truly deep and interesting), but as a GM, I think it will cost me time if I have to manage all the sheets for my players (usually 4 to 6 of them), especially, if they are all battling together.

Thanks for the explanation, I wasn't quite sure, but now I'm more and more into waiting for RW. Maybe at a later stage, to complete with HL.

Many thanks !

I'd say Hero Lab's biggest strength for DMs is its ability to verify your players and NPCs, to make sure they're valid and not missing things (Before I purchased it I had a DM point out I was missing a feat ).

It is also super nice for creating and tweaking enemies if you get the Monster Manuals.

 

[chiefweasel]

I use the Tactical Console quite a bit. Use it every game I play. Great for tracking inititive and what is killed or not.