Interview - Liz Theis of Lone Wolf Development

A year after my interview with Joe Theis of Lone Wolf Development, I caught up with Liz Theis to find out more about the recent release of the Hero Lab Class Packs for Pathfinder.

Welcome back to Farsight Blogger - it's been over a year since we last spoke, so what's Lone Wolf Development been up to in that time?

It’s great to be back! Since you spoke to Joe over a year ago, we’ve had a lot of new updates for both Realm Works and Hero Lab – Realm Works Player Edition, Pathfinder character creation on Hero Lab for iPad, Pathfinder Adventure Paths for Hero Lab, and now our new Pathfinder Class Packs. In fact, Hero Lab recently won its third ENnie Award due to these fantastic releases!

Realm Works and Hero Lab are two great accessories but you've now got Hero Lab Class Packs for Pathfinder out. Can you go into more detail about this and how it benefits a gaming group? 

The goal of Class Packs is simple – make it simpler and less expensive for players to get started with Hero Lab.

When talking to Pathfinder players, we found that many play the same few classes but want all the character creation options from seven essential rulebooks: the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Advanced Player's Guide, Ultimate Combat, Ultimate Magic, Advanced Class Guide, Occult Adventures, and Ultimate Intrigue (when it releases in spring 2016).

With our traditional entry path into Hero Lab, you unlocked the classes and character creation content from the Pathfinder Core Rulebook for $29.99, and purchased additional add-ons for $9.99 each to unlock options from the other six rulebooks. This was a great option for players that wanted many different class options, especially Game Masters. But it was prohibitive for the players that wanted to play characters from only a handful of classes, and wanted feats, gear, and spells from all those books.

With the new Class Pack entry path, you unlock 3-4 classes and everything from those seven essential rulebooks for just $29.99. For example, if you select the Druid Class Pack, you’ll unlock the Druid, Oracle, Shaman, and Spiritualist classes, allowing you to build characters from those four classes in Hero Lab. Down the road, you can add more classes by picking up additional Class Packs for only $6.99 each.

Class Packs are a great way for Pathfinder players to start building characters Hero Lab, at an affordable price!

Sneaky question - the Class Packs enables players to unlock 3-4 classes and all the character creation content from Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook, Advanced Player’s Guide, Ultimate Combat, Ultimate Magic, Advanced Class Guide and Occult Adventures, but you also have details from Ultimate Intrigue which isn't out until next year. You've got the inside skinny so can you give us an hints or snippets about what we'll see in that book? Go on, I'll make it worth your while (slips twenty bucks under the table)

[laughs] I’d love to give the inside scoop, but I don’t have much more information than is already publicly available. Personally, I love playing the group “talker” – a character with high charisma and a ton of ranks in Diplomacy. I’m looking forward to trying out the social combat rules, where you’re dueling with words rather than weapons. Knowing the creativity of the Paizo staff, I’m sure there will be some fantastic new feats and gear to accompany this new combat style.

What else can we expect to see from Lone Wolf Development in the near future?

Recently we started selling Pathfinder Adventure Path packages in Hero Lab. Each AP package includes pre-made encounters from all six-chapters, for easy use in your game. Our first three Adventure Path packages were Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition, Iron Gods, and Giantslayer. Pathfinder GMs have had great things to say about the packages, so we decided to support the newest AP – Hell’s Rebels. Earlier this month, we released the encounters for the first Chapter – In Hell’s Bright Shadow. We’re really excited, as this is the first AP that we’re updating as Paizo releases the new chapters.

On the Realm Works side, the Realm Works team is making steady progress towards the Content Market and web-access now that Realm Works Player Edition is available. When the Content Market releases, Realm Works users will be able to purchase incredible published material, like Frog God Games’ “Razor Coast” and “Pirate’s Guide to Freeport” from Green Ronin Publishing. Realm Works web-access will be a nice complement to the Content Market, allowing GMs and players to explore their worlds and stories through the web. If you missed our sneak peak of Realm Works on the web, you can view it on our website.

I’ll definitely be back here once these two big releases are available to our users! In the meantime, if you’re not familiar with Realm Works, our campaign management tool, you can learn more on our website: www.GetRealmWorks.com.

In addition to the Adventure Paths in Hero Lab and the Realm Works Content Market and web-access, we have a lot more planned! The best way to get the latest news from Lone Wolf is to sign up for our monthly newsletter. If you’re not a newsletter person, I recommend checking out Realm Works or Hero Lab on Facebook, or following us on Twitter and/or Google+.

Thanks for your time, Liz!