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SR 5th ed. Best practices for using Hero Lab at the table?

M

MikeElkins

New member
I just ran my first session after getting Hero Lab. The character sheets printed out were awesome! So useful.
Using Hero Lab to manage game play was a significant improvement from scratch paper, but still a bit clunkier than I wanted.
I had paper character sheets for each player, and a single laptop running HL that I (the GM) could look at, and then I sketched some maps now and then on paper in the center.
I'll post what I thought were the biggest drawbacks as a reply, but mainly I'm curious about how people use HL at the table to best effect? Do you have 2 screens and show the players the same view you see? Do you bother with ammo etc? Do you print out the NPCs on paper as well? Have each player have a separate copy of the program to use?
 
When I get to play (since I GM most of the time), I have my own copy of hero-labs running and I track everything through it. I use the notes section of the Journal to take notes (Mr. Johnson, you want us to steal a Leprechaun, how much are you paying?). All my contacts have notes applied to them and I continuously update the notes as I learn more about the contacts and such.

I track karma, ammo, money, and in-game affects (edge pool), Increased Reflexes, etc. When I really get started, I even track when and why I spent karma on this or that. The ability to track notes is invaluable. The ability to track the stupid things (like ammo) is invaluable and I use to never do it on paper. Hero-labs makes it so much easier.

I have gotten to the point where I really dislike paper to track things (I can lose my house if it was not Permanently attached to a foundation--and even then I think I would lose it if my wife did not live here too).
 
I may have an above average number of computers in my house, but I don't have one to give each player :) I absolutely would if I could though.

Even then, though, the program would need some way of synchronizing the portfolio of the character on the player's screen and the portfolio with all PCs and NPCs that the GM is using to keep track of things. Not impossible, but a lot to ask of a program that started life as a single-user character generator.
 
First off, I'm very happy with the character generation and character sheet functionality, so happy that I'm not going to talk about it any more. The tactical console is good, but could be better. I had said I'd post drawbacks separately, so here's number 1:

Having just one character displayed at a time caused a lot of headaches. Example: PC shoots NPC. I click open on the PC from the tactical console, have him roll the right number of dice. Then I need to scroll down the list to find the NPC, open him up, get his defense details. Ok, now what was the damage code on that attack? Scroll back up, open that character, look at it. Now I need to go back down, switch back to the NPC. Make the roll, apply damage. Oh wait, let's expend the ammo on the PC... You get the idea.

Are there shortcuts that I'm missing? (There might be, I've already found several of my biggest annoyances solved once I learned what one tiny button or another did)
 
On the right-hand side of the tactical console, or on the bottom of each dashboard entry (the dashboard is what shows along the right hand side while there are multiple characters loaded), move your mouse over the row of five circles - each of them will bring up a different information summary for that character.

Also, the ammo usage and applying damage should both be available from the button that looks like an eye, so you shouldn't ever need to close the tactical console - open the shooter's activity form to find the ammo tracker - read the weapon's stats from the ? on that weapon, then apply the ammo usage. Then close that form, open the target's, and apply the damage.
 
Great tips, keep them coming. I'm new to hero lab, haven't RTFM yet, but listening to tips from users is great.

SR4, but I suspect most advise for 5 will apply to 4 in respect to using hero lab.
 
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