Pre-Order Rise of the Runelords for Hero Lab

[lordrodd]

Just adding my 2 cents here.

I think I may be up there with number of packages owned. I happen to be running RotRL for 2 different groups right now, so when I saw this I jumped on it right away.

I've used Hero Lab for several different system for many years and it just keeps getting better and better. I believe it's a quality product with a great and supportive community and I proselytize for it as often as I can.

The addition of the APs as official products is a big plus IMO and as others have pointed out you only need to get them if you're going to run that AP.

To add to the cost of running an AP I also have Syrinscape for music and sound and I blow up all the maps, print them paste them to foam board and cut them up, to keep the sense of discovery going as the players explore. I know there are many easier digital ways to do this but I'm still a little old school. (I need help...)

 

[Villadelfia]

It is not - as specified in the news post, the 2015 bundle includes:

* All hardcover core rulebooks – for example, Pathfinder Unchained and Occult Adventures.
* All Player Companion and Campaign Setting rulebooks – for example, Heroes of the Wild and Andoran, Birthplace of Freedom.

It doesn't cover adventure paths. We're not sure how many adventure paths we're going to release this year, so it didn't make sense to include them in the bundle.

- Do bestiaries count as core rulebooks? Paizo seems to think so as those are included in the core subscription.
- Does that mean basically everything BUT this?

If we did do a special offer like this, some of additional questions rear their ugly heads: Is this a one-time thing, or if someone purchases the required packages 6 months from now, do they get to take advantage of it as well? If someone purchased the full price version, then over the next year happened to buy all the packages that it uses, do they get a discount? If someone who qualifies now doesn't want to purchase the package, but then in 2 months time their group suddenly decides to play rise of the runelords, do we let them buy then?

I would say make it a permanent offer, but only to those who qualified when the offer was made so the workload has an upper limit on you guys. Unless of course you project the growth of people qualifying to be small enough to result in a negligible workload for you guys, then you might as well keep the offer open for new people.

Mind, you I'm still going under the assumption that hero lab is a pretty niche product. From what I gather the pathfinder module is by far most popular one if the forum is anything to go by. And that means you're selling this to a group that has the ability to do everything hero lab does for free, if they do it manually. It's based on that assumption that I say that there won't be, and never will be that many people that would qualify for the offer, and that therefore the workload on your side is low enough to make this feasible. Please correct me if this assumption is incorrect.

By the way, is the management page written in ASP.net or classic ASP? If it's the former, I'd be willing to offer my help to implement the functionality. It's what I do for a living.

 

[Colen]

- Do bestiaries count as core rulebooks? Paizo seems to think so as those are included in the core subscription.
- Does that mean basically everything BUT this?

Yep, Bestiaries are included (as would the Monster Codex be if it was going to come out this year, for example). So are "unusual" books like Inner Sea Races (scheduled for September). The things the "2015 bundle" excludes that I can think of are:

* Paizo books that released in 2015, but which are included in a package we released in 2014 (e.g. all this year's Player Companion and Campaign Setting books up until now)
* Adventure paths (which weren't even announced at the time we announced the 2015 bundle)
* Non-Paizo products (like the Tome of Horrors or Advanced Bestiary)
* Any other things we might decide to do but haven't been announced yet. For example (pulling this out of thin air, we have no plans for this) if we decided to sell a download with a bunch of Pathfinder images in it, that wouldn't be included.

The intent behind it was to include all of the "normal" Paizo things we release each month - "core" hardcovers, player companion books and campaign setting books.

If we do a 2016 package next year, adventure paths may or may not be included in it. Assuming two APs at $25 each, that'd almost double the price, so I'm not sure if it's something that people would want.

I would say make it a permanent offer, but only to those who qualified when the offer was made so the workload has an upper limit on you guys. Unless of course you project the growth of people qualifying to be small enough to result in a negligible workload for you guys, then you might as well keep the offer open for new people.

Mind, you I'm still going under the assumption that hero lab is a pretty niche product. From what I gather the pathfinder module is by far most popular one if the forum is anything to go by. And that means you're selling this to a group that has the ability to do everything hero lab does for free, if they do it manually. It's based on that assumption that I say that there won't be, and never will be that many people that would qualify for the offer, and that therefore the workload on your side is low enough to make this feasible. Please correct me if this assumption is incorrect.

By the way, is the management page written in ASP.net or classic ASP? If it's the former, I'd be willing to offer my help to implement the functionality. It's what I do for a living.

Thank you for the offer - unfortunately it's all in classic ASP. And anything we do to add additional sales functionality has to be automated, which means working in old, antiquated ASP code that's a trial to change - that means it doesn't matter how low the volume would be, it'd still be a big chunk of work on our end to implement.

 

[Villadelfia]

unfortunately it's all in classic ASP.

My condolences.