An alternative to Hero Lab Online?


Third-Party Starfinder Products


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Is there any alternative out there, with comparable user-friendliness to at least Hero Lab Classic and ongoing support for the newly released content? I've been a longtime HL supporter and given them hundreds of dollars over the years. While I respect the new business model and have personally bought in, as a GM it frustrates me.

With Pathfinder HL, if a new or casual player wanted to join up, I could just loan them my laptop for a weekend and let them roll up a character. I remember fondly at GenCon the Hero Lab computers set up in the Paizo hall for new users to have the exact same experience that we as GMs could share with home games.

With Starfinder, every single person I invite to the table seems like they would need to at a minimum to pay $35 (more with add-on content) along with subscription fees in order to use the tool.

The devil's advocate in me would say that they could just pen and paper it like everyone else and build from scratch. But with the promise down the line of a connected online experience to manage the party during a campaign, it becomes peer pressure to sign up. Essentially, pay up or everyone suffers.

I'd personally be fine with having one account, signing up to have multiple concurrent usernames and logins for my party and pay the increased monthly subscription fee myself. It seems far more consumer-friendly and in keeping with how a lot of home groups used to run with Hero Lab Classic. From the outside looking in, that model seemed profitable for Lone Wolf, and would now include the added promise of recurring revenue from a monthly subscription.

The fact that a party of six (with a DM) needs to collectively shell out $245 for the core rulebook alone along with monthly fees seem downright greedy in comparison. What's more, it could actually become a blocking point for new gamers wanting to join once the online party features go live. It seems to go against the spirit of tabletop overall, and I'm looking to see if any system out there has been designed for Starfinder that operates like Hero Lab Classic would.

Sovereign Court

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My main issue with Hero Lab Online is that it requires network connectivity. At least some of the cons I attend are in cellular data dead zones and provide no wifi. That makes Hero Lab Online a non-starter.

Silver Crusade

Mike Bohlmann wrote:
My main issue with Hero Lab Online is that it requires network connectivity. At least some of the cons I attend are in cellular data dead zones and provide no wifi. That makes Hero Lab Online a non-starter.

It works reasonably well to create and print a character.


reddit thread discussing several.

The v6.1 google docs one has several specifically for Pathfinder and is doing a beta sheet for Starfinder. Check out the beast he linked for end-chapter WotR!


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
The Mad Comrade wrote:

reddit thread discussing several.

The v6.1 google docs one has several specifically for Pathfinder and is doing a beta sheet for Starfinder. Check out the beast he linked for end-chapter WotR!

These are amazing... should have sent a poet! You're a scholar and a gentleman. Thank you!

Liberty's Edge

Too bad Reddit is banned at work =(


Sadronmeldir wrote:
The Mad Comrade wrote:

reddit thread discussing several.

The v6.1 google docs one has several specifically for Pathfinder and is doing a beta sheet for Starfinder. Check out the beast he linked for end-chapter WotR!

These are amazing... should have sent a poet! You're a scholar and a gentleman. Thank you!

I'm still familiarizing myself with the v6.1 google docs set. There is the main sheet, an equipment sheet and a spell casting sheet that you can interconnect with each other via share permissions and url links from the latter two sheets to the main sheet. Rather, copying the main sheet's url to the pertinent spots atop each of these sheets.

Autocalculates encumbrance for you, factors in a lot of stuff (like masterwork backpacks and heavyload belts) and I *think* will translate the gear to the main sheet - I think.

The autospellcalculation sheet is genius. It has not yet been updated to include archetypes re: sorcerer bloodlines, and probably is missing a few other things, but it is not difficult to do some basic updates.

The shared XP/loot thingie I haven't experimented with yet, nor with the Starfinder sheet. If they are as good as the other three though ... tres awesome.

Those with more spreadsheet-fu than I can probably work wonders with these puppies.

Best part is that they are free. I'm hoping the developer of them will work up similar sheets for PF2e - the changelog indicates the intent is to do so. Yay!

Grand Lodge

I’m working on an html digital character sheet, it’s not far along but can do the basic stats and calculations. Great for making random 1st level characters http://www.musefish.net/SFTools/app/#!/SFCharGen


The Mad Comrade wrote:
Sadronmeldir wrote:
The Mad Comrade wrote:

reddit thread discussing several.

The v6.1 google docs one has several specifically for Pathfinder and is doing a beta sheet for Starfinder. Check out the beast he linked for end-chapter WotR!

These are amazing... should have sent a poet! You're a scholar and a gentleman. Thank you!

I'm still familiarizing myself with the v6.1 google docs set. There is the main sheet, an equipment sheet and a spell casting sheet that you can interconnect with each other via share permissions and url links from the latter two sheets to the main sheet. Rather, copying the main sheet's url to the pertinent spots atop each of these sheets.

Autocalculates encumbrance for you, factors in a lot of stuff (like masterwork backpacks and heavyload belts) and I *think* will translate the gear to the main sheet - I think.

The autospellcalculation sheet is genius. It has not yet been updated to include archetypes re: sorcerer bloodlines, and probably is missing a few other things, but it is not difficult to do some basic updates.

The shared XP/loot thingie I haven't experimented with yet, nor with the Starfinder sheet. If they are as good as the other three though ... tres awesome.

Those with more spreadsheet-fu than I can probably work wonders with these puppies.

Best part is that they are free. I'm hoping the developer of them will work up similar sheets for PF2e - the changelog indicates the intent is to do so. Yay!

The XP/Loot tracker with its 'GM Cheat Sheet' tab is a godsend. All we have to do is plug in the 'buffs' on our main sheets and toggle them when they're in effect. The GM in turn can see exactly what our hp, saves, AC/CMD, skill bonuses, attack/damage stuff and whatever active effects we have up and running are - including the barbarian's Rage for example - at a glance. The main sheet already includes all or almost all of the negative conditions in the game are, making it a simple matter of selecting a given condition and toggling it to active. If someone gets blinded, deafened and stunned with a bleed, it is easy enough to toggle each of those conditions to active. The player will immediately see what the effects on their stuff is, as does the GM. No fuss, no muss.

Good times.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Absalom Station Infosphere has a increasingly fancy HTML character sheet and a separate tool that will help fill out large chunks of it.

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