Ahzad said:
I'm looking for some opinions on the various RPG Tools that are out there.
All of us have standardized on using Hero Lab in one group, where I'm using it as a player. I'm also using it as a DM in another game.
As player, Hero Lab does everything it advertises quite nicely. However, I'm not a big fan of the Hero Lab character sheets. Fortunately, I bring my laptop to the game and only have a character sheet on-hand in case my laptop decides to go wonky, so I manage to side-step that facet of the tool. The in-play support within Hero Lab does everything I've needed, although I've sent some suggestions for refinements and enhancements to the dev team that would make it really nice. I also really like having all the integrated source material instantly accessible via mouse-over, so I don't have to go looking for anything.
As a DM, I keep every character up on the screen to keep abreast of things. I can also track the effects of secret adjustments locally with ease (e.g. cursed items, unknown enemy spells, etc.), allowing me to properly modify damage dealt or the like. One thing that Hero Lab lacks is an "overview" where I can view a summary of all the characters side-by-side. So I end up doing a little more flipping than I'd like, but all the information is otherwise readily available and neatly laid out for me. The integrated SRD material is again a real convenience, especially since it's hooked up in an intuitive way to each separate thing for the character. Supposedly, when I asked the dev team about the overview capability, they said that was slated for being added this summer, at which point I'll be quite happy.
Hero Lab doesn't have initiative tracking and other "DM tools" right now. That's no problem for me, but it could be a negative for others. We manage initiative with a visual board on the table, allowing all players to view it concurrently - and easily adjust things if an adjustment is necessary. So we don't need an initiative tracker that some people like. Same sort of thing applies for a few other in-game tasks that some people want to automate and our group handles openly.
So, for DMing, Hero Lab is very good, but not great. What it does, it does quite well. But it doesn't do everything some people will want it to do. For playing, Hero Lab is excellent. They don't have psionics yet, which hasn't been a problem in our group yet, but they supposedly will have psionics support this month. And I already mentioned the character sheets being sub-optimal. Beyond that, from a player's standpoint, I can think of things to add that would be nice to have, but there's nothing "missing".
One important thing to consider in a tool is how much non-SRD material you'll be using, since the complexity of adding custom material varies greatly between the various tools. We've added a number of classes, feats, skills, and items for the group where we all use Hero Lab, along with one race and a bunch of spells. The other group is purely SRD. There were some problems getting some of the custom material working in early releases, but recent versions of Hero Lab have not had any difficulties letting us add what we've wanted. In fact, the process keeps getting simpler with every update, and it's already pretty easy. In all but a couple instances, adding custom material was as simple as copying something similar, then modifying the few bits that are different. The exceptions required a bit more work, but they certainly weren't difficult. And both the developers and other users seem quite helpful on their support forums.
Definitely give Hero Lab a look. It's working well for our group, and you can do quite a lot with the demo version, so it's absolutely worth taking for a test drive.
