Birmy's page

I've made it a mission of mine to try as many different character generators as possible, from XML spreadsheets to open source freeware to fan-made programs, and so far this is easily the one I've used the most. Most of the freeware stuff is made by programmers, not designers, and it shows in the jumbled final product. Hero Lab's actually very easy to use and it becomes very natural very quickly to navigate. There's an editor function and a custom option within the program that makes adding custom/"homebrew" material fairly easy. The validation system keeps you within the rules (while still allowing you to break them) and the updates are regular and thorough. While, as of this writing, small pieces of the SRD are forthcoming and some documentation is incomplete, these are negligible flaws in my opinion. I use this program a lot and will only use it more once data files for other games (World of Darkness, RuneQuest, and Mutants & Masterminds are forthcoming), so it's especially handy for those of us not strictly beholden to D&D.