Yet another area it's about time I updated. This area was meant to hold more than just some general info on HeroMaker. I've got a few files for download and other links here that I felt didn't belong in the Heroic Links section. Mostly software, but some text files too.
Creation Workshop for Windows is Hero Games' latest effort at character creation software for the Hero System. It's been out for a couple of years now, and solves a lot of the problems HeroMaker had, notably the problem with printer drivers. HeroMaker's printer drivers were program specific, often did not work correctly, and the programmer did not keep pace with the fast changing world of printers for this software. When Creation Workshop came out, it solved this problem by using resident Windows printer drivers, eliminating the need for secondary software such as Adobe Acrobat or Ghostscript to format and print character sheets properly.
Creation Workshop is a nice little program, but much more complicated to use than HeroMaker. It comes in two versions: the fully customizable Creation Workshop, and the genre specific Hero Creator. CW in the full version uses templates on the main program to create characters for specific systems. CW comes default with the Fuzion template. You must buy the Hero template seperately, and plug it in. You can also buy other templates and plug them in as well. This gives the user the advantage of being able to convert characters from one game system to the other with a click of the mouse. The full version of CW is also custom programmable by the use to account for unique house rules, though this is not a task to be attempted by the computer faint at heart.
Hero Creator is a "dumbed down" version of Creation Workshop. It is Hero specific, cannot be customized, and won't accept templates. It is less expensive than Creation workshop plus the Hero template, and easier to install (tho not by much--the full version is pretty easy to install).
Theala's recomendation is to buy the full verision with the Hero template. Even if you never plan to use it's full functions, the ability to convert between systems was enough for me. Currently, there are templates for Fuzion, Hero, Call of Cthulhu, Legend of the Five Rings, and an upcoming GURPS template (the template is done and awaiting final approval from Steve Jackson Games last I heard).
Creation Workshop for Windows works fine on Virtual PC for Macintosh. It's a bit sluggish and slow on my iMac 500mHz w/ 128 RAM, and tends to crash when working with Power Frameworks tho. I think more memory might solve that problem--I'll report back when I get around to adding more RAM to my machine.
HeroMaker was the first character generator available from Hero Games. It was the poor stepchild of the vaporware Champions computer game, had ugly EGA graphics, and lousy printer drivers. However, it was simple to use, powerful, and the best character creation program for the Hero system until the release of Creation Workshop. The program is no longer sold or supported by Hero Games. However, some of the HeroMaker character disks are still available, and Creation Workshop will read HeroMaker files easily.
There are public HeroMaker related files at
For those looking for a Mac version of HeroMaker--no news. However, I did receive a report from a Mac user who has managed to use HeroMaker on his Mac with a DOS emulator. Al Deschesne, sent me instructions for running HeroMaker for Mac. There are also other spreadsheets and the like available. I have never found a Mac program for Hero creation. I have, however, used HeroMaker successfully with Virtual PC.
Another program to consider is GMAID. Although the program is no longer sold, nor supported (to the best of my knowledge), files for GMAID also exist on ftp.cs.pdx.edu
MacChampions is a hypercard program useful for character generation. It is also available on ftp.cs.pdx.edu as heroexec.hqx.gz
To those who have been having problems with HeroMaker's internal
printer drivers, fear no more! Wonderful character sheet printouts
are available using the Ghostscript emulator for the Postscript
printing language. The GhostScript for
Heromaker file will tell you everything you need to know
to print out your sheets with whatever printer you're using!
There is also a version of GhostScript for the Mac--however,
I'm not certain how well the PC batch file would carry over.
Still, if you can get HeroMaker working on a Mac under DOS emulation,
then GhostScript may be of use to you.
Ron Cole is a friend who is most responsible for getting me involved in Champions (so blame him). He also is a programmer and did up a couple of nifty programs for running Hero combat. The two programs are separate, but intended to complement one another. We've been using them to run our games for years. Both programs can be run under Windows 3.x and Windows 95. There's also an Amiga version of Hero Dice available. No ComSeqencer though--unfortunately it requires a commercial library no longer available.
Hero Dice for Windows
Combat Sequencer for Windows
I've found a couple of Palm OS die rollers that figure damage for the Hero System. I use the low end Palm m100, which only has 2meg RAM, so these programs should work on just about anything.
DicePro: I like this program the better of the two. It allows you to customize rolls for many game systems, not just Hero system. You can customize many dice on each of the six pages for standard rolls, Hero Normal Damage rolls, Killing Attacks, half dice, and whatever else you need. Very nifty for those who don't want to carry lots of dice around.
Gamer's Die Roller: Very basic die roller, but comes with an option for Hero Body damage. Can keep a history of rolls, which DicePro can't do. Adequate.