• Please note: In an effort to ensure that all of our users feel welcome on our forums, we’ve updated our forum rules. You can review the updated rules here: http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=5528.

    If a fellow Community member is not following the forum rules, please report the post by clicking the Report button (the red yield sign on the left) located on every post. This will notify the moderators directly. If you have any questions about these new rules, please contact support@wolflair.com.

    - The Lone Wolf Development Team

NEW: Which games should Hero Lab support? (A-M)

Which game systems would you most like to see supported by Hero Lab?

  • Call of Cthulhu

    Votes: 83 18.9%

  • Cthulutech

    Votes: 43 9.8%

  • d6 System (West End Games)

    Votes: 68 15.5%

  • d20 Modern

    Votes: 92 20.9%

  • d20 System Epic Support

    Votes: 55 12.5%

  • d20 System mechanics (starting point for other d20 games)

    Votes: 95 21.6%

  • Dark Heresy

    Votes: 125 28.4%

  • Eclipse Phase

    Votes: 79 18.0%

  • Exalted

    Votes: 122 27.7%

  • Hollow Earth Expedition

    Votes: 29 6.6%
  • Total voters
    440
Status
Not open for further replies.
Good points. I'd give them time. :)

There is an authoring kit that also provides access to user-built games, and I'm wondering if any of them are replicas of some older systems done as a 3rd party release. I've been toying with the idea of purchasing the authoring kit just to have access to any other systems people are coming out with. Could be worth while. :)
 
Joshua said:
If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it's because they're a small company and still don't have support for all the current games they want to include. If we had it our way, they'd be programming gods who stay up countless hours on nothing but caffeinated beverages and slave away for our benefit. Oh, wait... ;)

Ultimately, if there's a market for it (and already I would guess that there's at least a market for AD&D 2e), and it's legally viable, they probably will. It's just going to take a bit of time. I will have to admit, though, that Hero Lab is helping me get into other gaming systems that I've wanted to play and never bothered with. I'm dabbling a bit in WoD and Savage Worlds now thanks to these guys. There are some benefits to having current systems ready to go at your fingertips. :)
Click to expand...

It depends on the publisher too. Yes there is a market for AD&D 2e. Don't expect to see it in Hero Lab anytime soon though. WotC stopped all PDF sales of their products, both older edition and current edition sales in a move to stop online piracy of their products. So older edition data is not as easy to come by for dungeons and dragons. Though Monte Cook is working on 5.0 with a think tank and input from players. I suggest you and anyone else that is interested head over to wotc's dnd website to put your input in for the new edition of the game if you haven't already done so.
 
Ah, I didn't even think of the publisher end. Though truth be told, I'm done with WotC. Wizards is not really on my "good companies to support" list.

Ultimately though it's just that Pathfinder suits my needs a lot better than D&D products these days, and I just don't have a reason to change to a new system when the one I have works well. Curiosity might make me look, but I doubt they'll come out with a product that'll make me spend hundreds of dollars on them again after investing so heavily in Pathfinder.

If I were to make a change of my "main" gaming system, I'd probably just switch to GURPS. I love it. It's just hard to get other folks to give it a shot if they haven't before. Failing that, I'd just go back to AD&D 2e. So there are three big ones ahead of any new D&D rules system, unfortunately. Kudos to Monte Cook, though. He has a pretty clever mind, which is why I'd be curious enough to peek at what he comes up with. :)
 
I know this is a clone... How about Castles & Crusades? I have been trying to do it on the authoring kit but I am a simple old soldier who loves to game but can't quite grasp the 'fun' parts of programming...
 
Joshua said:
Ah, I didn't even think of the publisher end. Though truth be told, I'm done with WotC. Wizards is not really on my "good companies to support" list.

Ultimately though it's just that Pathfinder suits my needs a lot better than D&D products these days, and I just don't have a reason to change to a new system when the one I have works well. Curiosity might make me look, but I doubt they'll come out with a product that'll make me spend hundreds of dollars on them again after investing so heavily in Pathfinder.

If I were to make a change of my "main" gaming system, I'd probably just switch to GURPS. I love it. It's just hard to get other folks to give it a shot if they haven't before. Failing that, I'd just go back to AD&D 2e. So there are three big ones ahead of any new D&D rules system, unfortunately. Kudos to Monte Cook, though. He has a pretty clever mind, which is why I'd be curious enough to peek at what he comes up with. :)
Click to expand...

The publisher end becomes part of the deal as you have to license some of the data sometimes. Working out a deal with a company for the data can be difficult, especially out of print things. I have been thinking of doing the 2e data but it will not be an easy project. As there are no electronic copies of the books out there that are legal, it would mean hours of typing from hard copies along with setting up the infrastructure to handle the system from the skeleton files. Right now I don't have the free time to touch that project.

I noticed some people have posted that they'd like Traveller, I am just hoping they're referring to the non-mongoose versions of it floating around. The last time Mongoose took a crack at it they put in a nice chapter of feats and no way for players to select them for their characters. That would be a major screw up on publishing and made me not want to play with their product.
 
My group would like to have the Warhammer 40k RPG's (Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, Deathwatch, Black Crusade) represented.
 
Last edited:
I'm coming in late to this party, but I'd like to throw my chips into the pot, if I could, with the following suggestions:

Cyberpunk 2020
Mekton Z
Fuzion

I say this not only as a writer for these three products (Hi!), but as someone who has heard many times at conventions the phrase "Man, I wish I had a decent character builder for this game."

Authoring kit is an answer, sure, but speaking as someone who would love to do more small-press work with these games (I also run Atomic Rocket Games, but that doesn't mean much since my day job bit me on the ass), I'd be more than happy to pitch the idea of Hero Lab at R. Talsorian's honcho. :)
 
Jemstone said:
I'm coming in late to this party, but I'd like to throw my chips into the pot, if I could, with the following suggestions:

Cyberpunk 2020
Mekton Z
Fuzion

I say this not only as a writer for these three products (Hi!), but as someone who has heard many times at conventions the phrase "Man, I wish I had a decent character builder for this game."

Authoring kit is an answer, sure, but speaking as someone who would love to do more small-press work with these games (I also run Atomic Rocket Games, but that doesn't mean much since my day job bit me on the ass), I'd be more than happy to pitch the idea of Hero Lab at R. Talsorian's honcho. :)
Click to expand...

I've occasionally thought of taking the Authoring Kit to Fuzion, but I'd never get the output to look like anything but crap.

But yes, it'd be nice to have a HL template for those. Unfortunately, I'm not sure there's still enough players to support it.
 
rob said:
That would be called the Authoring Kit. It's already available and provides the framework for creating data files for any game you want, including all those retro games. The Kit includes Savage Worlds as a complete example, which definitely isn't a retro game, but it's an excellent game that serves as a great example of how to do stuff. :-)
Click to expand...

Its just that the Authorizing Kit requires you have a PHD in Physics and Mathematics and Computing to understand how to put the damn stuff together.....
 
flyingcircus said:
Its just that the Authorizing Kit requires you have a PHD in Physics and Mathematics and Computing to understand how to put the damn stuff together.....
Click to expand...

Oh, then I guess it couldn't have been me who built the Cortex, CoC and Shadowrun files using the authoring kit. I only have a bachelors degree in Biology.

You just have to be willing to study what's already there. There are two entire, functional game systems where you can look at everything that makes up that game system. We're also happy to answer questions (just be aware that it may take a little while to get back to you if you ask a complex question).
 
I admit I haven't looked through all ten pages here, but I've been curious about whether or not a GURPS version would be viable. It's pretty much all my friends play nowadays, and I would grab Hero Lab in a heartbeat if I could manage my character(s) with a program like this.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top