[Shadowjack]

For a character builder, I'm finding it to be really helpful.  As a GM, I manage hundreds of characters.  This tool gives me the ability to create them fast and efficiently, and to get as much detail or as little detail as I could ever need.  If I was a player, I'd consider the tool simply for creation and tracking purposes.  In-combat ammunition tracking alone is worthwhile.  However, if I was only tracking one character (even with the ammunition tracking, journal, karma and nuyen tracking, etc.) it might be a little out of my price-to-benefit range.  I'm encouraging my players to pick it up though, because lord knows I don't need more characters to track. 

Also, as the future books come out, and character creation becomes more complex, it becomes a life-saver for Chargen,
as it lets you keep track effectively of all the options you are using, and make adjustments as you need to as you go without
having to completely recalculate from the beginning.(It also auto-optimizes karma spent in chargen for you. So, while you
might pay the karma to raise a skill from 4 to 5, it goes 'OK..spend a skill point to raise that skill, and pay Karma to cover
this thing you have at skill 1 or 2')

Good to know. So, when new books come out are the updates free or do I need to pay for each book?

[Mara]

Good to know. So, when new books come out are the updates free or do I need to pay for each book?

They generally bundle them, but, you do need to pay for each bundle. So, yeah, having the complete set
can be a little bit pricey if you get it all at once. But, overall, I have found it with SR4 to have been reasonable.
Especially when the book puts in large amounts of program changes(like will happen whenever the Companion
equivalent book comes out), and you are paying for something that will be maintained to errata as they come
out.

The only complaint I have ever had about Hero Lab(and this is still true) is that: Riggers stress the program.

[Shadowjack]

Good to know. So, when new books come out are the updates free or do I need to pay for each book?

They generally bundle them, but, you do need to pay for each bundle. So, yeah, having the complete set
can be a little bit pricey if you get it all at once. But, overall, I have found it with SR4 to have been reasonable.
Especially when the book puts in large amounts of program changes(like will happen whenever the Companion
equivalent book comes out), and you are paying for something that will be maintained to errata as they come
out.

The only complaint I have ever had about Hero Lab(and this is still true) is that: Riggers stress the program.

Useful information, thanks! I have another question though: Does the program track total karma values of npc's? Or must they be built under the priority system as well?

[Dangersaurus]

How fun and useful is it really? It looks neat but does it actually speed up the GM's work? It seems like it could be a lot of flipping back and forth from different windows, but, I haven't actually tried it.

It's pretty fun to use, all on one screen with tabs instead of multiple windows. I'm suddenly missing my laptop, because the tac screen looks really useful in-game.

I've also been plugging in stuff from Run & Gun, Street Magic, Arsenal, and Running Wild. The editor is really sweet.

[Shinobi Killfist]

Good to know. So, when new books come out are the updates free or do I need to pay for each book?

They generally bundle them, but, you do need to pay for each bundle. So, yeah, having the complete set
can be a little bit pricey if you get it all at once. But, overall, I have found it with SR4 to have been reasonable.
Especially when the book puts in large amounts of program changes(like will happen whenever the Companion
equivalent book comes out), and you are paying for something that will be maintained to errata as they come
out.

The only complaint I have ever had about Hero Lab(and this is still true) is that: Riggers stress the program.

Useful information, thanks! I have another question though: Does the program track total karma values of npc's? Or must they be built under the priority system as well?

i don't think it tracks total karma of NPCs, it might will once karmagen is out i guess.  But you dont have to build via priority, though you can if you want to.  Once you tag the character as NPC, you just put as many points into things as you want to. 

[Shadowjack]

Thanks for your replies everyone. I'll probably give it a shot

[Timothy M. Patrick]

Good to know. So, when new books come out are the updates free or do I need to pay for each book?

In earlier editions you had to buy the updated books,  just like you do with other game systems they support.  I would bet it will be the same this time around. For example in SR4 you could buy a bundle of all the core splat books for 34.99 then they had some bundles based on e-pubs at various prices.

[Shadowjack]

Good to know. So, when new books come out are the updates free or do I need to pay for each book?

In earlier editions you had to buy the updated books,  just like you do with other game systems they support.  I would bet it will be the same this time around. For example in SR4 you could buy a bundle of all the core splat books for 34.99 then they had some bundles based on e-pubs at various prices.

Good to know. Thanks.