With the Ultimate Campaign dataset, Hero Lab now includes the Kingdom Building rules. I'm considering picking it up before I get to book two to help manage the PC's kingdom, but before I do I was wondering if anyone else is using the dataset. Is it worth the money to pick it up?
I guess it depends how precious the money is to you. I've bought it, and it's useful, but it's also disappointing.
Pros:
* It tracks all the stuff you need it to track, and has some rudimentary turn-tracking tools in the form of the journal. It tracks unrest and BP gained/lost each kingdom turn, and I also take quick notes about rolls and whatnot in the journal entry for the turn so I have a record of what went down.
* It also included the army creator, if you're using the mass combat rules.
Cons:
* There are some miscellaneous errors in the calculations. As I recall, the bonuses from alignment aren't included, and the bonuses from roads and rivers *are* included for hexes that haven't been claimed. It's easy to add in your own adjustments to correct the numbers, but annoying that one should have to. I have reported the bugs as I have found them, but they haven't been fixed and it's been a few months, so I'm guessing it's not a priority for them right now.
* There's no hex or settlement maps. The lack of the settlement map means that it can't correctly account for houses, for those buildings that require them.
* There are free spreadsheets floating around that already do the same stuff, and do better in some cases.
I'm not fond of the spreadsheets myself, so I've been working on my own solution, but it's still under development.
That looks pretty cool, @Spatula.
By the way, I actually stumbled on your session journal earlier this week and have been working my way through it. Good stuff - it's been helping me consider potential pitfalls before starting the campaign. I appreciate the effort of keeping it updated.
Thanks! I'm glad that someone is finding it useful. :D
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I just wanted to say to FilmGuy or to whomever is interested, the Kingmaker application that I've been working on is basically done (for now) and available for use.
Sweet!
Dot
Spatula, that looks absolutely amazing - I'm always looking for extra tools to help make running Kingmaker easier. Just sent a request for a download link.