D&D 5E Screenshot Hero Lab 5e (Non-Official, Homebrew)

Nebulous said:

What a silly thing to say. He worked his butt off to create this and wanted to share. I'm very impressed. And if one dude can do it then a team of dedicated pros with a budget should be able to make something even better.

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Thanks for pointing this out ;-) Countless hours went down there to implement this. My todo list is now down to 9 items (it used to be really large...).

I have to tell though I *am* a pro. Software engineer with 15 years of professional experience (5 years of which in computer games development ;-) ) here.
That I did *this* project in my freetime does not limit it's professionality ;-)

And I doubt there are MANY fields in which my datafiles still can be enhanced (there are some few things which might be done a bit better with someone having more internal knowledge about the Hero Lab scripting language, but definitely not many).

MagicSN

MagicSN said:

Thanks for pointing this out ;-) Countless hours went down there to implement this. My todo list is now down to 9 items (it used to be really large...).

I have to tell though I *am* a pro. Software engineer with 15 years of professional experience (5 years of which in computer games development ;-) ) here.
That I did *this* project in my freetime does not limit it's professionality ;-)

And I doubt there are MANY fields in which my datafiles still can be enhanced (there are some few things which might be done a bit better with someone having more internal knowledge about the Hero Lab scripting language, but definitely not many).

MagicSN

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Well, yes, i guess i should clarify by saying if just ONE dedicated professional could pull this off, then a small team of them working together should be able to really polish a top notch product.

Hey, could you potentially code something like the 4th edition Monster Builder? I know that would be monstrously difficult (pun intended) but i really want to see something like that for 5th edition.

I'm asking because i really like 5e but find some of the monsters bland (like ogre for example). I think a dedicated monster builder where you could swap out powers would be something i would gladly pay money for.

I had this list in another thread, just powers sampled from 13th Age

https://app.box.com/s/tceem0vkcjgq9rfa8h8h

Nebulous said:

Well, yes, i guess i should clarify by saying if just ONE dedicated professional could pull this off, then a small team of them working together should be able to really polish a top notch product.

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Even then I have to dsiagree. I agree more developers might have been able to do it FASTER and maybe make the UI look a bit nicer, but from the pure features, not much could be perfectionied any more ;-) (Yeah, maybe one thing - as of now only one class per character is allowed, multiclassing into more than two classes is not possible with my implementation).

Concerning Monster Builder, I am not sure which program this is - do you mean the thing from DDI where you could put together encounters (I am still a paying customer for DDI, but I have not logged since stopping to play 4e).

Well, check out this, this is what my Hero Lab implementation offers: (yes, currently only the example monster in there ^^):

MagicSN said:

Concerning Monster Builder, I am not sure which program this is - do you mean the thing from DDI where you could put together encounters (I am still a paying customer for DDI, but I have not logged since stopping to play 4e).

Well, check out this, this is what my Hero Lab implementation offers: (yes, currently only the example monster in there ^^):

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It wasn't encounter i'm thinking of, you could search the database for any monster released for 4th edition and then modify its statblock, and it would do the math, or you could bend the math, and copy and paste powers from other monsters from a huge list or sortable powers.

It looks like that last picture might be similar, it lets you modify the the block. What i'm hoping to see is a resource that lets a DM insert powers quickly, with the option to edit the details if desired.

It looks very cool dude! Thank you for all the hard work!!! I hope WOTC will take advantage of the great opportunity you have presented to them. I don't see any downside for them. Looks like a win-win for everyone. Thank you again for all your hard work and time.

Thing is, DungeonScape isn't a character generator. That's just one of its functions. Herolab can't replace it.

I would imagine that the issues with Herolab are that (a) it doesn't incorporate the other functionality WotC wanted for its electronic tools suite (campaign management, integrated newsfeeds, etc.) and that (b) it advertises other systems to the customer, which is great for the customer but maybe not so ideal for WotC. Maybe if Lone Wolf were to create a standalone D&D specific version of the software it might appear more attractive to them, though it still wouldn't have the campaign management stuff WotC wants. WotC also wants to be able to sell adventures and the like via its electronic tools, and I got the impression from my conversation with Trapdoor at GenCon that much smaller chunks - sharing and selling individual monsters and the like - are also in the plan, plus being able to send things to other players or to and from the DM, privately if necessary.

So Herolab is a great character generator and manager, and has some great player-side in-game functionality, but it isn't a replacement for any more than one part of the DungeonScape plan. It supports players well, but it's not the tool for DMs, or the tool for WotC's commercial plans.

Now, if WotC just wanted a character generator with some awesome in-game player features, Herolab can't be beat.

(Bizarrely I've also seen people on FB and places saying "Just give it to Roll20!" - which bemuses me, since Roll20 is an entirely different type of software!)

Some features which were part of DS; Herolab does the first two, and a couple of others in a slightly more clunky way (you can share data packs, but not in the quick way WotC wants you to).

- Character generation
- In-game calculations and die rolls
- DM tools
- Sharing items or info between players and the DM
- Campaign management
- DM private access to character sheets in real time
- Maps and pictures
- Purchase and download of adventures
- Sharing custom content with other players and DMs online, both individual items and complete adventures

Morrus said:

T

Some features which were part of DS; Herolab does the first two, and a couple of others in a slightly more clunky way (you can share data packs, but not in the quick way WotC wants you to).

- Character generation
- In-game calculations and die rolls
- DM tools
- Sharing items or info between players and the DM
- Campaign management
- DM private access to character sheets in real time
- Maps and pictures
- Purchase and download of adventures
- Sharing custom content with other players and DMs online, both individual items and complete adventures

Click to expand...

If they could put out a package like this, nice and shiny and functional, say, like the kind of effort that goes into Icewind Dale for example, i would gladly pay $60 videogame price. And that's for an extremely robust core system, but knowing there are built in expenses for extras, but that's optional.

Lone Wolf either did or is about to release their campaign manager program.

SkidAce said:

Lone Wolf either did or is about to release their campaign manager program.

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If that's the case, that's a bit more of that list. But it's still a long way off the full DungeonScape goals.

Realmworks has been released already and they have mentioned having a market-like function down the line for purchasing licensed campaigns/adventures.

Herolab would not replace the total idea behind Dungeonscape but WOTC has to start all over again and to me that slows down the momentum that 5E has started. Licensing over to Lonewolf for 5E, would keep it going, Herolab for character generation and encounters, Realmworks for the campaign settings.

WOTC can then proceed with their backup plan for Dungeonscape while we have a tool that does most of what we need.