“Try Before You Buy” is an occasional segment of Astral Projections. It spotlights free (or nearly free) supplements, quick-start rules, and modules for various RPGs.
Lone Wolf Development’s Hero Lab is a character creation software for a number of Roleplaying Games, including Pathfinder, Call of Cthulu, and Mutants & Masterminds. My husband has used it for quite some time for Pathfinder and says it works well. Most games have the last couple editions available separately. The full version of the software costs US$34.99 and comes with free licenses for Fate Core, Spirit of the Century (FATE variant), and Pathfinder Beginner Box games, plus one more game license of your choice. You can also have it installed on 2 devices for free, or pay for additional device licenses. Licenses for additional game systems are $24.99 each and add-on supplements are also available for purchase. (Full list here.) There is also a free Starter Edition usable only for Fate Core, Spirit of the Century, and Pathfinder Beginner Box. Lone Wolf says Starter Edition saves and prints but has less features than the full version.
Lone Wolf also offers a free demo version, the one I decided to try out, which has print and save options disabled. The demo allows you to pick and even change the system, so you can try games packages you are interested in before purchase. I testdrove Mutants & Masterminds 3e, since that is the game my group is currently playing. Thus, this review will focus on that demo–but considering my husband’s satisfaction with the Pathfinder license, I would say that any system will give you good results.
I was pleasantly surprised at how user-friendly the software is. I don’t often find software intuitive but this one is. Each type of stat (Abilities, Advantages, etc.) has its own tab, to select or type in the information and the right side of the screen gives all the information for the eventual character sheet. There are several additional tabs for in-game use–keeping track of temporary conditions, for example–or to provide a journal of your PC or the campaign.
These aren’t much use in the demo version since you cannot save. That said, they aren’t completely useless. The Special tab, for example, includes a list of Maneuvers, Hero Point Uses, and Extra Effort Uses. Next to each is a ? that you can mouse-hover over to get a description. The Equipment tab can also double as a quick reference, listing Equipment Points for many common items and weapons, as well as which book/PDF to consult for vehicle stats.
The big utility of the demo version is number-crunching, which a point-buy system has a lot of. Not to mention the Power Level limits for M&M, which still trips me up sometimes when I build PCs. The software alerts you to these, so you can fix them, as well as gives a few tips. So far, I haven’t noticed any bugs in the data files. However, it does flag certain powers, like Create, as being above PL, even though (according to a friend who is very M&M savvy) the developers have never clarified whether it is subject to PL. One minor annoyance, to me, is that Affliction has a drop-down selection for Alternate Resistance Dodge, but not one for Resisted by Dodge/Overcome by Fortitude, even though this is possibly the most common Alternate Resistance Extra. But there is a Custom Extra/Flaw selection so you can just type it in.
How do you stat your new M&M PC with Hero Lab? When you open the program, you get a popup Configure Your Hero window to select the character type (PC/NPC/construct) and check off various data options (what books to use, optional rules etc.) Then just click on each tab for adding Abilities, Advantages, Skills, Powers, and Equipment. For Ability Scores, Skills, and many Advantages it is very simple–just type in the ranks or use the arrow buttons. Some Skills and Advantages–Benefit, Close Combat, Expertise, etc.–require you to type in or select from a drop-down menu. There are also Custom options in these drop-down menus, so you can add new Skills/Advantages (or multiples of some, like Expertises).
The Powers tab is more complicated. You click Add New Powers, and select from a menu. Each selection opens a new window so you can name the power and add extras and flaws. Some Powers have additional options or even windows. For example, the resistances and degree conditions associated with an Affliction; a checkbox for Strength Based on Damage; or Sense types and options. The Array power first gives you a window to add each Alternate Effect so it’s a little more complex but still very intuitive. The few things, I wasn’t sure about, I could figure out just by playing around for a minute or so. There are also Custom selections in the Extras/Flaws menus, such as the one for Afflictions I mentioned above.
The only real downside I can see to Hero Labs is that you still have to be familiar with the game system’s character creation. It doesn’t walk you through the way the Deluxe Heroes Handbook or Basic Heroes Handbook archetypes do. (Or a more-experienced fellow player would.) In other words, you have to have some idea of what combination of Powers, Extras, and Flaws to combine to get the effect you want. For example, that an Energy Blast is Damage plus Ranged Extra or that “make a large area cold and snowy” is built with the Environment Power, not as an Affliction with multiple ranks of the Area Extra. You can then use various alternate power builds to see which is more cost-effective (some power effects can be done several ways) or whether Extras added to an Array’s Alternate Effect will bump its cost above the base power cost.
Also, character creation won’t take much less time than filling in a paper or fillable PDF sheet. Typing and decision-making still take time. However, you will end up with a very nice sheet. Even though printing is disabled, the Print Preview is still viewable, so I can tell you the result is a clean 2-page character sheet. Page 1 has general info (name, PL, etc.), Powers, and Movement. Page 2 has Background, Skills, and Advantages.
Lone Wolf provides very good online help, accessible from the program’s Help menu. Yes, even the demo version. In addition to the Hero Lab Manual and Hero Lab Tutorial, there are an M&M 3e Manual and M&M 3e FAQ. Both manuals and the tutorial have many, many screenshots to help you. The M&M 3e FAQ is mostly a history of version changes and bug fixes, but there is some useful information for builds as well. For example, how to add multiple powers in the same slot, without having the program “Charge” you Power Points. This is a fairly common way to build certain power effects, such as a Force Field (or Battlesuit)/Damage Aura combo. (Answer: click the “Add an Alternate Effect” button and then choose “Multiple Powers” from the list.)
Hero Lab has features especially for GMs/DMs, although I only checked out one briefly–Encounters. This is accessed by a button in the initial Configure Your Hero popup, or from the Gamemaster dropdown menu option Show Encounter Builder. It’s quite simple. Select from a list of character stats from the M&M books–named NPCs, animals, zombies, etc.– and add as many as you like. Designate as ally, enemy, neutral. Click import when done. You are then taken to a character creation screen with each NPC listed on the right, like you might see a party list in a video game. Each NPC can be selected and then edited. (You can import your custom NPCs into the Encounter builder, with the full version.)
Overall, I like Hero Lab a lot, and am adding the paid version to my wish list. (By the time you read this it’s less than 5 months until Christmas!)
Credit: Featured Image ® Lone Wolf Development
Linda Whitson
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