hero lab to mt

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karrel
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Joined: Sat May 07, 2016 10:02 pm

hero lab to mt

Post by karrel »

im am new and i am looking for a good way to bring my hero lab info over into maptools i dont know anything about coding so im just looking for a ready made way and my head is spinning from the forums

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Full Bleed
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Re: hero lab to mt

Post by Full Bleed »

karrel wrote:im am new and i am looking for a good way to bring my hero lab info over into maptools i dont know anything about coding so im just looking for a ready made way and my head is spinning from the forums
Someone built a Hero Labs Pathfinder to Maptool converter a while back, but I don't know how good it is, whether it's compatible with newer versions of Hero Labs, or how useful it would be to someone who isn't all that familiar with Maptools. Further, the macros it uses/supports may or may not offer the functionality you're looking for... and figuring out how to use them could be more challenging than it's worth.

To begin with, when you say "bring my hero lab info into maptools" the degree and functionality of such a thing would span a massive spectrum of possibilities. You would really have to define what that means. If you want MT to do everything Hero Labs does, I suspect you would be sorely disappointed. Hero Labs is a commercial, specialized character sheet/tool for system specific mechanics. Maptool is a fairly agnostic Virtual Table Top with a powerful scripting system. Two very different things. Like holding a physical character sheet in one hand and looking at a table with miniatures on it and trying to figure out how you're going to make them work with one another.

Truth is, if you're not a coder and not familiar with MT, you should start by using it just like you would use miniatures on a table. Deploy tokens on maps, give then some vision, and move them around to illustrate what's happening. Let your players manage their characters in Hero Labs. In time, as you get more comfortable with what MT can do and how to set things up, you'll be able to expand that functionality. For example, one of the first things you might want to learn how to do after learning how to use the virtual table is track hit points on character tokens. And learning how to do that simple task will open all sorts of doors. But, first, learn how to use it as a Virtual Table before you try to do all the other things it can do.
Maptool is the Millennium Falcon of VTT's -- "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts."

karrel
Kobold
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat May 07, 2016 10:02 pm

Re: hero lab to mt

Post by karrel »

thank you for the reply, and i guess i am what they say jumping in over my head. I think i will just use it for the mapping aspects. Time to slow down and see what i can do with MT


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JamzTheMan
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Re: hero lab to mt

Post by JamzTheMan »

Which game system? For Pathfinder, using LM's framework there is a "Statblock" importer. So in HL via File menu, you get the "statblock" and paste it into a macro, it parses it and builds the properties for the token.

It gets you mostly there.

In reality, HL -> MapTool is more of a HL -> Framework, as each framework can use different properties (and prop names) and may use more or less than other frameworks. ie one may just use HP, Attributes and AC. Another may also add in weapons, DR, spells, etc. Depends on how involved you want to get.

A more direct HL importer is on the roadmap though, although no committed dates yet. I use HL for Pathfinder quite a lot so it's something I'm personally invested in...
-Jamz
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