Are you baffled over how to create a character using a character sheet? Do you have plenty of half-filled out NPCs or a great concept rolling around in your head? What about stats like speed and strength – got those hammered out yet?

Character creation is an integral part of any role-playing game, but it’s not always easy to fill out a character sheet – until a nifty little character creation program full of WoD features came along.

A Shiny New Toy

Lone Wolf Development caters to WoD role-playing fans with a great program called Hero Lab. I love new toys as much as the next person, so when I saw Hero Lab generated World of Darkness characters, I had to try it out.

The core license for the full version of Hero Lab is $29, a reasonable price compared to some other software prices for similar programs that offer much less. There are free demos available for each Wolf Lair product, so you can try before you buy.

You can purchase add-ons to the core license for other gaming systems and expand your fun. Add-ons are available for $20 each and include D20 systems, Mutants & Masterminds, Savage World and 4th Edition D&D.

When you purchase a core license for Hero Lab, you get one free add-on for the game of your choice, so be careful and don’t make the mistake I did of buying the add-on before you install. Install first, and the free add-on option becomes available for you to choose the system you prefer.

I was disappointed that the only World of Darkness supernatural template for Hero Lab is that for vampires. All you Werewolf, Mage, Changeling and Changing Breed fans are going to have to wait for these character templates to be developed. Wolf Lair mentions they’re working on them, so… stay tuned, I guess.

What Good is Hero Lab, Then?

Don’t despair. Even if you can’t get that werewolf character template yet, you can still do a lot with Hero Labs. Beyond creating stats for vampires, you can also create them for humans and NPCs. I found this a great feature for our players at Escaping Reality, because we encourage characters to have that human edge first.

Hero Labs allows you to set up a brand new character or work with a character you’ve been playing already. The software also offers Quick Start character templates with pre-generated stats. Just pick a Quick Start character, click, and you’re ready to jump in the game.

How Hero Lab Works

The process of creating a character using Hero Labs takes a little getting used to. Don’t be surprised if you have to start over a couple of times.

The interface takes you through the process step by step. You begin by configuring your character, filling in fields for the character’s name, your name and the chronicle the character is involved in. Then you choose the template you’d like to apply from a choice including Vampire, Mortal, Ghoul, Animal, or Ghost.

The weapons stats within Hero Lab are taken from the World of Darkness Armory source book. There are settings like Weapon Degradation and -1 Pool per Lacking Strength, which is a complicated way of saying, “penalties for wielding a weapon too big for your character based on his or her Strength rating”.

Hero Lab also tracks experience points if your game uses them. Escaping Reality does not use an experience point system; however, we do allow players to have 15 free points when creating character sheets after playing for some time. You’d enter these points into the XP section of Hero Labs to spend on your character after creating him or her.

Once you come this far, you can access the main interface of Hero Labs. By following the tabs across the top, you’ll be taken through the rest of the full character creation process.

What’s nice is that you no longer have to remember how many points you get for your primary Attributes and Skills or have to run to the core system book to look that up. Hero Labs tells you exactly how many points you have to spend in your primary, secondary and tertiary Attributes and skills.

Advantages and Limitations

The main advantage of a character generation program like Hero Lab is that the computer does all the work for you. If you choose an ability that your character can’t have according to the skills you’ve selected, the on-screen validation tells you where you need to make adjustments.

This can be a limitation, though. Sometimes games have in-house rules that allow adaptations or special circumstances not usually permitted in core systems. Individual gaming styles and personal interpretation of rules mean that there may be some conflict.

For example, if your game includes a Bloodline you created for vampires, the stats particular to your Bloodline creation won’t exist in the program. Then your selections show as invalid, and you’ll have to adjust in other areas in order to meet the program’s prerequisites to get the abilities you need.

However, the program does help you learn to better create characters and generate proper stats. The WoD system can be confusing for new role-players, and it’s easy to miss something while flipping through pages of directions.

With the program, you can’t go wrong.

Another advantage of using Hero Labs for your character sheet creation is that it will generate the types of rolls you’d use in game based on your attributes and skills.

Need to know what your dice pool is for cutting a deal? Bam. – 3 dice. Will the grenade you just threw hit it’s target? BAMBAM! – 2 dice. This is fantastic for situations when your character is thrown into a sudden conflict and you need the stats pronto. Plus, you can take care of your own rolls instead of asking STs. Bonus.

In addition to listed dice pools, the program comes equipped with a handy dice roller.

Hero Labs also has a tab for combat scenes, and the program lists the rolls you’d need for combat basics like initiative, speed, defense, or for attacks in close corners, unarmed fights, grappling or with various weapons. It also takes into account any equipment your character may have.

The In-Play tab helps you keep track of damage your character suffers – and that’s great. Simply click on the Apply Damage button and it marks the sheet. As you play in game, you can click the little skull button to sustain the damage over a period or click the medical cross button to heal damage as time passes.

The whole character sheet can be printed out for personal reference, or you can save it to PDF. I tried the “PDF Canvas” add-on but found that it doesn’t work very well. You’re better off choosing “Print to PDF” in your print options to save a digital format of the character sheet.

The Final Verdict for Hero Lab

If you’re interested in creating character sheets, definitely give the free demo a try. It won’t let you generate more than a basic character, save your changes or print them out, but it gives you a quick look at what you might be able to work with in the full-feature version of Hero Lab.

If you like the demo, you’ll get all the bells and whistles once you purchase a full-version license.

Overall, Hero Lab is a good program that I’d recommend (and just did), and it’s a time-saver for role players, gamers and Storytellers alike. The ability to organize and keep track of stats is a bonus to any rpg game, whether played online or tabletop.

Now if you’ll excuse me… I have a character to create. How about you?