I was poking around Talon Comic's site, checking on pricing for a copy of FReD (5th Ed HERO) when I noticed that they've released some character design software. I remember using the old DOS based Champions creator software that came on a 3.5' floppy disk inside the back cover of the old (3rd or 4th Ed, I forget) hardcovered Champions rules. Needless to say I was a bit shocked to find that the new Hero Designer software was technicaly more expensive than the rules themselfs!
I'm mostly wondering if it's even remotely worth it? One of the reasons I've held-off getting back into Champions was a lack of software. Unfortunately the other reason was a lack of cash to get 'fully' into HERO Champions mode. And the thought of facing Champions (maybe) without software to speed character creation isn't a pleasant one.
Don't missunderstand, I wasn't expecting any new and improved version of that handy old program to be free or anything, but I just can't bring myself to pay $40 for a game (remember, no 'genre' stuff yet) and then plop down an additional $40 for the sofware to design characters. I'd have thought they'd have wanted to get anything they possibly could out there to make playing that game easier. One of the most commonly heard gripes about the HERO/Champions system was the amount of work you had to put into creating a character, we're talking the mechanics here and not concept/background.
I've no problem, for the most part, with thier nifty idea to sell downloadable zip files with 'plug-in' modules for thier expansions, I could even be said to acutaly like the whole idea. I'd happily pay $5 instead of wasting many hours manualy typing a new book's info in by hand. I won't mention the one 'pack' that's $30, as I don't know how much material the book it's based off has in it, it could have been a major stinker to convert to electronic format.
Hatchling Dragon