Can anyone compare Realms Works and City of Brass for campaign management?

[the_redbeard]

Forgiving (for the moment) that Realms Works still doesn't have web access, can anyone compare these two different campaign management programs?

I'm interested in something that will be easier than a wiki to input my campaign and link NPCs, factions, places both for my own notes and to present a view to the players (and allow them to make their own logs and records).

thanks muchly

 

[innerdude]

Seriously, Microsoft OneNote Online is far and away the best GM tool I've used. It's free with any Hotmail account, so it costs nothing. While it doesn't support sharing between GM and players out of the box, it would be trivially easy to create a GM OneNote document that remains private and a player OneNote document they can all share, and then only copy/paste the relevant stuff from the GM one to the player one.

I seriously can't see paying money for Realmworks or City of Brass. There would have to be some serious, serious value-add that I can't get from a free OneNote Online account.

 

[el_stiko]

Don't forget Obsidian Portal, which is free unless you want calendar/forums and privacy.

Edit: Or more than two campaigns...

 

[pickin_grinnin]

I haven't used City of Brass. I can't really recommend Realm Works. Most of the features they have been promising for a LONG time still haven't surfaced, their development pace is incredibly slow, you can't pull you data back out in any way (even just dumping it to PDFs or CSV files of any sort), there is a steep learning curve to use it, you have to buy the product AND pay to use it online, etc. If the product offered all the features they mentioned early in the game it might be worth it, but it doesn't, and it takes them forever to implement them. It's the worst $60 I ever spent on a gaming product.

 

[Azgulor]

Conversely, RealmWorks is one of the best RPG purchases that I've ever made. My campaigns have a level of detail that I've always desired, it's easy to enter data, and most importantly, it's easy to find data, use the application, and enter new data while running sessions.

I'm a OneNote fan as well, but that is just a raw feed. I use it for brain-storming and putting preliminary ideas down on paper. However, everything gets fleshed out in RealmWorks now. Plus, having the ability to use "Fog of World" to control what is revealed to players and more importantly, remember what has been revealed to players, is a HUGE improvement over prior methods of campaign management that I've used over the years.

Does RealmWorks have every feature that I want yet? No. But it is certainly an excellent value for me. I can't speak to City of Brass, however.

Also, while Hero Lab supports multiple systems and I love it, I wish their Savage World support would move faster than a glacier (Science Fiction Companion, Super-Power Companion 2e - I'm looking at you). RealmWorks has completely revolutionized my ability to run Sci-Fi, however. Getting a homemade Sci-Fi campaign off the ground was a snap and while it's not Mass Effect Codex-worthy yet, the progression is much, much faster than I've ever experienced.