Paying to create a data file

[MSMurphy]

I am looking for someone who has experance with the Hero Labs data file creation. I have a self made fantasy role-playing game that I want to have a data file to make and advance characters with.

The game system is copy righted to me, I wrote it and all the rules. I am NOT looking to publish it, the data file would just be for me and my friends who play.

I have a generic price in my head that I think the data file would be worth, $500-$600. Does this seem like a reasonable price, too much/too little?

 

[thedarkelf007]

that depends on the person really.

As I'm working on a older system, I think putting together what your asking should not be too difficult, but without seeing the system it would be hard to guess.

I have spent upwards of 40 hrs just sorting out the core roles of the Star Wars d6 system. And I can see I have another 40+ hrs left just to get in working the way I want it to.

So depending on what your asking the person to do, then it might be fair.

 

[Mathias]

You may want to be more specific about how complex this system is - are we talking Pathfinder/Shadowrun, or something smaller - CoC/Cortex?

How polished would you want things - 1st draft, usable, decent, or good enough to sell? There's always things in a game system that can be implemented in a basic way quickly, but will take a long time to implement properly. Then add more time if you want the graphics polished.

What volume of material is there? The equivelant of the CoC core rulebook? More like Pathfinder's much denser rulebook? Are there things that amount to supplements, which would add more material to it?

How codified are your rules? An example of the sorts of things that would matter here would be AD&D 1st or 2nd edtion's dual classing/multiclassing rules, which were pretty vague, once you started looking at how the details would function, vs. 3ed edition's multiclassing rules, which are a lot more defined, and therefore easier to handle in a computer program.


Sorry to toss so much at you, but these are the sorts of things we'd consider in figuring how much time to allocate to adding a new game system ourselves, so they're the sort of thing you may want to consider.

 

[MSMurphy]

Actually I know very little about any other game system (other than Shadowrun), I played D&D many (many many many) years ago so I have no basis for comparison.

The basic concept is fairly straight forward, it uses a priority system A thru E, once you choose your priorities they set the limits for the rest of your characters life. As the example, one of the priorities is resources (money), at level A you start with 12,000 gold, 2 chosen magic items, a noble title, and every time the GM gives you money for any reason, you get an extra 50%. However if your resources are at E you get 750 gold and every time you get gold from the GM, you lose 50%. It is possible to raise a priority one level once only but very difficult that it does not happen often.

It uses a D20 system that has strike/parry with each 'class' having a unique flavor. Ninja's have a very high strike but low to no parry (they hit allot but get hit allot too).

Mostly what I am looking for right now is what others think is a good price range. I am willing to pay for the service but I need to know what others think the service is worth so I can know if I want to pay that much or not. I use the ShadowRun data file and really like it (it is what makes me think this project might be worth the cost). However this is for personal, not commercial so does not have to have every bell and whistle the commercial products have (though it would be nice to have that).