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Any interest in Hero Lab + D&D Next?

To each their own, My group and I give 4E a year of are time to give it a chance. The feel of the game was as if we were playing a computer game moving our toon on the screen, Powers or if you like abilities felt like their counter parts in computer games. with cool downs and the like. After a year we gave up on 4E. All the classes felt the same to us. Same powers different names, the only difference was when you got the power. Like I said to each their own, but I guess I'm a hater also because I refuse to ever go back and play 4E. I chose to keep my computer games on my computer and my table top RPG's on the table. Not mix them up. My believe Wizards made 4E the way they did to try and bring computer games to the table or at least the ones that never played a table top game rpg, which there were a lot of them. I just believe 4E ran its course for what it was made for.

If you enjoy it, then you enjoy it. if you don't you don't, you don't - It takes all kinds to make the world go around. But to call people haters just because they don't like some games is just plain off the wall - LOL. If you think it's a great game and its for you great. I felt it fell short in a lot of area's and wasn't for me and my group felt the same.

They were attempting to reach a new Demographic, the MMO crowd, largely the WoW populace with 4e, the problem is that WoW players are typically addicted to their MMO and aren't willing to give it up. Hasbro learned that it was a bad business choice. Call me a hater all you want, sales figures speak, it's all about the cash. The money talks and right now Paizo has the conversation. Pathfinder sales consistently beating 4e shows that 3rd/3.5 isn't going away anytime soon. Hasbro re releasing 3.5 reprints is proof enough they got burned by their own OGL.
 
This is turning into an Edition Wars thread, and it's on the border of becoming too heated. The purpose of this forum is to discuss Hero Lab's implementation of the 4e system, so we'd appreciate it if the comparisons of game systems could be moved to another forum.
 
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They were attempting to reach a new Demographic, the MMO crowd, largely the WoW populace with 4e, the problem is that WoW players are typically addicted to their MMO and aren't willing to give it up.

Not true. I know several people who stopped playing WoW and still playing D&D Pen&Paper ^^ And myselves, well, I still play WoW, but two times a week for 2 hours (have been in the "Heroic Raiding" sort of people LONG) and it's getting less and less. D&D playing is getting more and more. Admitted, I stopped on 4e, switching for Next ;-)

RavenX, Cryptoknight: you are probably the two extremes of the spectrum regarding comments on 4e ^^ One doesn't like it, one likes it ;-)

@RavenX: Believe me, 4e is fun. At least till you reach Paragon Level. Then the problems start. But it is not as bad as you make it sound.

@Cryptoknight: Once per game-day is fine and well. But that limits you HARD. What about "travel adventures"? We had so many campaigns where we had to do weird stuff to avoid the people being able to rest. Or forcing the whole story to happen on one day, while when I would still be playing Midgard, we would have it in 2 weeks gametime. In Next it is again much more like Midgard (funny even, that some of the new rules are really similar to houserules we had in Midgard ^^ Well, nobody here knows Midgard probably, as it is a german-only Pen&Paper game ^^).

BTW, currently working on a new RPG tool. Working on a little tool written in C# (actually I hate this language, especially for it's Windows-centered-ness, my preferred computer is the Amiga X1000 PowerPC system), still due to doing PC Coding at work, and being used to code on it, it was fastest done in C# ^^ Anyways, my new tool (which will this time actually be RELEASED) will be a tool to convert 4E monsters into Next monsters (and also generate Next monsters from Scratch), especially outputting a Font printout looking like in the official game modules. A "sort of" database for monsters will also be supported.
 
Not true. I know several people who stopped playing WoW and still playing D&D Pen&Paper ^^ And myselves, well, I still play WoW, but two times a week for 2 hours (have been in the "Heroic Raiding" sort of people LONG) and it's getting less and less. D&D playing is getting more and more. Admitted, I stopped on 4e, switching for Next ;-)

RavenX, Cryptoknight: you are probably the two extremes of the spectrum regarding comments on 4e ^^ One doesn't like it, one likes it ;-)

@RavenX: Believe me, 4e is fun. At least till you reach Paragon Level. Then the problems start. But it is not as bad as you make it sound.

@Cryptoknight: Once per game-day is fine and well. But that limits you HARD. What about "travel adventures"? We had so many campaigns where we had to do weird stuff to avoid the people being able to rest. Or forcing the whole story to happen on one day, while when I would still be playing Midgard, we would have it in 2 weeks gametime. In Next it is again much more like Midgard (funny even, that some of the new rules are really similar to houserules we had in Midgard ^^ Well, nobody here knows Midgard probably, as it is a german-only Pen&Paper game ^^).

BTW, currently working on a new RPG tool. Working on a little tool written in C# (actually I hate this language, especially for it's Windows-centered-ness, my preferred computer is the Amiga X1000 PowerPC system), still due to doing PC Coding at work, and being used to code on it, it was fastest done in C# ^^ Anyways, my new tool (which will this time actually be RELEASED) will be a tool to convert 4E monsters into Next monsters (and also generate Next monsters from Scratch), especially outputting a Font printout looking like in the official game modules. A "sort of" database for monsters will also be supported.

I know this my friend, I had a 4e Dark Sun game go from 1st to 15th level in 4e. I saw the problems first hand. The tool you're working on sounds interesting.

I would like to see hero lab implement next, but I'd prefer it with a license. I'd rather have access to the data rather than have to download it from Hasbro directly. The 4e downloader is a hassle at times.
 
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Hello MagicSN, I am very interested in your D&D Next implementation. Is there any chance you would share it? Or, if you won't/can't, perhaps you could give me advice on how to implement it myself? The authoring kit wiki is unfortunately not complete and missing many details.
 
I play d&d since the mid 80s and Next is absolutely the best edition I played so far. It is easy, logical and has the flair of the very first edition. Me and mygroup just love it and it would be great to be able to i clude it in HL.
KahnB
 
I'm interested in the 5th ed ruleset now that it's published... Will MagicSN make it available to us?

If so, I can make a separate section on the hl4e site to host it... and updates and bug fixes as required.
 
Interested in supported 5E for HeroLab

My group has played every version of AD&D from 1e to 4e and has also played some retro-games like Castles & Crusades. I am definitely interested in a supported 5E module from HeroLab. I am sure we will try D&D fifth edition at some point after the Dungeon Master's Guide premieres. We are currently using Castles & Crusades rules and enjoying them but some of our group will dig a change I think.
 
I'm interested in the 5th ed ruleset now that it's published... Will MagicSN make it available to us?

If so, I can make a separate section on the hl4e site to host it... and updates and bug fixes as required.

Currently it depends on the legal issues. I don't want to get sued by Wizards of the Coast!
 
There are about 25 weekly players of NEXT, 4e, and Pathfinder at the game store where I play who would be very interested in a NEXT character builder for Hero Lab.

Having all of the information in one place would be a very handy thing indeed. Your work even if it isn't ever allowed to be published is much appreciated.
 
I just got back from the GAMA trade show in Vegas where I had sat in on the WOTC D&D seminar. When they commented on the fact that their previous electronic collaborations had been discontinued, I brought up the point that products like Realm Works and Herolab did nothing but help sales and make games more fun to run for DMs and players. They seemed interested and one of the guys was making notes (after the other VP asked me to repeat the names).

We'll see if it helps or anything comes of it. They may know me and like the store but with large companies, you never know what will happen. If I had been clever, I should have pushed Eric Pierce from Paizo about it too while we were swapping stories about the old days when he was at TSR.
 
I just got back from the GAMA trade show in Vegas where I had sat in on the WOTC D&D seminar. When they commented on the fact that their previous electronic collaborations had been discontinued, I brought up the point that products like Realm Works and Herolab did nothing but help sales and make games more fun to run for DMs and players. They seemed interested and one of the guys was making notes (after the other VP asked me to repeat the names).

We'll see if it helps or anything comes of it. They may know me and like the store but with large companies, you never know what will happen. If I had been clever, I should have pushed Eric Pierce from Paizo about it too while we were swapping stories about the old days when he was at TSR.

Is there anything official about this yet? Whom would I need to contact for what I would need to do to be able to release my datafiles?

Saying this it would probably be a HUGE amount of work stripping down my
datafiles to basic (as if I remove things which are referenced otherwhere,
Hero Lab answers with errors, to remove all references would be a lot of work, and keeping in sync with my "private" full version would be even more work).

Best regards,
Steffen
 
Is there anything official about this yet? Whom would I need to contact for what I would need to do to be able to release my datafiles?

Saying this it would probably be a HUGE amount of work stripping down my
datafiles to basic (as if I remove things which are referenced otherwhere,
Hero Lab answers with errors, to remove all references would be a lot of work, and keeping in sync with my "private" full version would be even more work).

Best regards,
Steffen

If limited to basic rules only, I really don't see the point anyway. The amount of options available in the basic rules make hero lab kind of pointless anyway.
 
I know Wizard of the Coast and Smite Works for Fantasy Grounds have worked out a deal. While the price for the official modules on FG is high, it's a start.

That being said, I would still like to see D&D 5E for Hero Lab. It's just a great product to help DM and players make and keep track of their players regardless if you're old school sitting around a table gaming or using VTT do do it.
 
If limited to basic rules only, I really don't see the point anyway. The amount of options available in the basic rules make hero lab kind of pointless anyway.

Yeah, exactly my kind of worries :( And that combined with how much work it would be to strip it down... sure, someone else could "under cover" add stuff back in, but that would be really a LOT of work, a lot of features needs "extra implementation" which I would have to strip out to make it "legal". And I would have to strip out all sorts of implementations, else Hero Lab complains about missing symbols...

Funny thing is all sorts of (not limited to Basic) editable PDF-sheets exist, with auto-calculation and that sort of thing... probably due to "under cover"?

MagicSN
 
I just had a look at the Fantasy Grounds 5E products on Steam. I was impressed with the way character building worked, and how you could actually reference everything electronically. It is a bit pricey but I will probably pay. I was very disappointed they didn't work something out with HeroLab as well. I'm going to wait a bit to see if something works out with HeroLab, but it looks like my best chance at getting what I want at the moment.
 
I just had a look at the Fantasy Grounds 5E products on Steam. I was impressed with the way character building worked, and how you could actually reference everything electronically. It is a bit pricey but I will probably pay. I was very disappointed they didn't work something out with HeroLab as well. I'm going to wait a bit to see if something works out with HeroLab, but it looks like my best chance at getting what I want at the moment.

Does Fantasy Grounds have any charsheet printout
at all? How do charsheets look? Anyways, myselves
I will stay with my selfmade hl support,
But still interesting what others offer (not
Interested in Virtual Table besides a simple
Combat Simulator - which I would actually
Prefer as tablet app, something able to load
Hl files would be cool)

MagicSN
 
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