This is the Hero SystemŽ utility I've always wanted on my Palm Organizer and have never been able to find.  It simply keeps track of the speed chart, managing who goes next.  It also keeps track of stunned characters (letting you know when the recover from being sunned and cannot yet take a recovery) and visually lets you know if any one is delayed and for how long they can still be delayed.  Given the rather crowded screen real estate of the Palm Pilot, I think it does a rather amazing job, and follows the Zenof Palm - 90% of the time it's all you'll ever need to run a combat smoothly.

The first screen you see when you start the application is the main speed chart you are familiar with if you've ever run a Hero System game.The top of the display has Name, DEX, and the phases in the turn.  As a bow to the limited space available on the Palm Organizer's display, phases 10, 11, and 12 are labeled A, B, and C.  Along the right side is a scroll bar which only apears when there are more characters in the combat that can easily be displayed.  The current segment is highlighted with a vertical bar, and the current character whose turn it is highlighted as well.  Where they intersect is the exact person/time that gets to go.  Pretty simple.  Tapping on the Next button at the bottom of the screen takes you to the next character who can go, or post-twelve receoveries if needed.

To add new characters to the combat, hit the new button.  This will bring up a dialog which you can fill in so that the character is set up properly.  Enter the characvters name, enter their DEX, then pick from the grid their speed (again, A is for 10, B is for 11, and C is for 12).  The four buttons below the speed selection are used to set the characters state.  If the S is highlighted, the character is stunned.   If the K is selected then the character is unconcious (I.e. KO'ed).  If the D is picked then the character is Delayed (not dead, shame on you), and the A means that they have acted this turn.  Use the A to bring a character into the battle, but mark tham as having already  moved (more of a convenience really).  If you like the character, hit the OK button and it will be saved to the combat database.  If you pick cancel, allof the changes are abandoned and cannot be recovered.  If you want help on the edit character dialog, and heaven forbid you don't have this document handy, you can select the I button on the title bar and get instructions that way.

After you get to the end of a turn, the program will remind you that it is time for post-twelve recoveries.  If you have not registered and paid for the program, a nag message appears here to remind you that the program is not free.  Let your concience be your guide.

To do almost all of the actions in the menus, you will need to select a character.  To select a character, just tap on the row (anywhere). After a character is picked, you can stun it, knock them out, examine them, make them act on their delays, and such.  Some things can only be done to the acting character, like making them delay, or have them take a recovery (either just the move to the next character or to bring them back to conciousness after they've been KOed.  They'll automatically recover from being stunned if that is the case.

In the first of the three images above, Dragonfly is stunned.  You can see that because the X's which mark when he can go are lower case x's.  Subtle, not too important, but it does let you see it at a glance if anyone asks.  In the next image Bluejay is unconcious.  The X's have been replaced by dashes.  A more obvious item, but still mostly usefull in case someone asks and to remind you (the GM) that that character can only do a recovery.  If the would regain conciousness afther that recovery, then you would seleect Recover from the Game menu.  The last of the three images has dragonfly stunned and unconcious (not an unusual condition in my games ;-).  This is shown by the periods rather than the dashes.  It's similar enough to the dashes to remiind you that they cannot take any action, and the stunniing will take care of itseld the next time their action comes around anyway.

In the image to the left, you can see question marks after Pulsar's regular X's.  This lets you know that Pulsar has delayed his action, and the turn sequence will stop on him as an additional reminder.  When you want him to act on his delay, select him and the pick act from the game menu.

After you've been running the combat a while, someone will get a bright idea to drain SPD or DEX, (or even aid same).  Someone may also be taken completely out of combat or flee the battle field.  You (as the GM) could even forget what all of the funny symbols mean exactly.  When that happens, nevr fear, just bring up the details dialog (Project menu, Details choice) after selecting the character.

Once you have the details dialog up, you can delte the character, or you can edit them (you can actually just leave them alone, but that hadly counts as a choice).  The status of the character is described as words so you can figure it out easier.  If you chose to edit them, the same dialog you saw when you entered them appears, only this time it's all nicely filled in.  If you choose to delete them then *poof* they're gone and you can't get them back unless you enter them into the program gainjust like you did the first time.

After you've entered you characters you have a small problem.  It's only a smal problem because the program itself does not care.  And maybe you don't either.  Myself, I'm a neat freak when it comes to the speed chart and I want it sorted a particular way.  This makes characters which drain or aid SPD or DEX a real nuisance to me.  This program makes dealing with this a breeze.  Pick Project-Sort and the sort dialog pops up.  It's really a simple dialog, but it looks hard to use.  Along the top of the box on the dialog are the '1st', '2nd', and '3rd' titles.  Down the left side are the labels 'Name', 'DEX', and 'SPD'.  This nice litel table tells the program how to sort the speed chart.  First, it checks the '1st' column and fins out which box is selected (DEX) in this example.  So everyone will be sorted by DEX, highest to lowest.  In the case of ties, it looks at the '2nd' column and finds that in this particular case the character SPD is going to be used to break ties (again, highest SPD to lowest).  Finally, if both DEX and PSD are tied, compare the Names and sort alphabetically starting with 'A'.  Ties after that are just ignored and the sort just moves them aaround seemingly randomly sometimes.  I don't think that is a problem, seeing how it doesn't make a lot of sense to have two or more identical characters in the program.  If they are that identical, just use the same entry...

The last image you can see is the bout box, which is uder the options menu.  This is where I can show off my graphics skill (actaully all I did was produce a legible, small version of the logo or all of the depths the wonder Palm OS supports).  This dialog gives credit where credit is due and (hopefully) assures all parties involved that I am in now way attempting to usurp any of their copyrights.  I'm rather rproud of the layout too.  Everybody take a step back and say ooh with me, ok?  Hit OK when you're done admiring it ;-)

Questions, suggestions, complaints, and praise should be emailed to me at: chris@pdaguy.com

Fell free to visit my web site at http://olson.home.dhs.org/~chris/ to see what else I'm up to.  If ou want to register the program after you've found it indespensible in runing you're Hero Campaign battles, just go to http://olson.home.dhs.org/~chris/Shareware.html to pick one of the many methods how.  My personal favorite is PayPal (as I get a larger cut of the sale) but I'm willing to give you a lot of choices.  Unfortunatly, I cannot accept cash or personal checks directly as I've been burned in the past by them, and I just can't afford that for what I'm charging here...