CITY OF BRASS Launches, Bringing You Web-Based Campaign Management

[Promoted thread] City of Brass from Embers Design Studio launched over the weekend. I've mentioned it before - it's a suubscription-based web-based campaign management platform which successfully Kickstarted a few months ago and has just finished a beta period. System-neutral (although with some included data for various systems) it features builders for worlds, characters, NPCs, monsters, stories, and campaign management. Current supported (i.e. pre-loaded, though you can add your own data freely, so the platform handles any system) rulesets include D&D 3.5, Pathfinder, Fate, d20 Modern/Future, and What's O.L.D. is N.E.W. What's below is Ember Design Studio's Lucas Currel's own post, as he describes it in far more detail than I ever could!

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City of Brass is a web-based application for managing your favorite tabletop RPGs - all of them. The app contains four major components:

• World Builder helps you create and organize beautiful settings.
• Entity Builder houses your characters, NPCs, and monsters.
• Story Builder helps get your adventures setup for the gaming table.
• Campaign Manager brings players and GMs together in a shared space.

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What's more it runs on any device - phone, table, computer - it doesn't matter.

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The service is subscription based, but everyone can evaluate it absolutely free for up to 30 days with no credit card needed. When your ready to subscribe, choose either a monthly or an annual subscription plan.

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And be among the first 100 people to subscribe, and use the code First100 during setup, for another 25% off your first subscription charge. That mean's you could get your first year for just $18.

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Here are some screenshots from each of our major components.

World Builder (browse this setting here)

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Entity Builder

5e Character
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W.O.I.N. character
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Red Dragon (Pathfinder)
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Selection of stock monsters
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Story Builder

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Campaign Manager

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[LucasC]

the_redbeard- a gaming group option is absolutely a feature we intend to implement but we simply didn't have time to get it in place for launch.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

As others have hinted at, regardless of how good a product is, it's a bad idea to not offer an option for the GM that would allow his players to access it "for free."

The thing is, unless you have a group of real hard-core gamers with disposable income, you just can't count on all of your players being willing to buy something. I never ask my players to buy anything. I just don't want to deal with the stress that could put on the environment. While, if you compare it to other hobbies, it's perfectly reasonable to ask all of your players to make some ongoing minor expenditure, it's just not part of the psychology of role-playing games. The tradition has always been that you can just jump in and borrow someone else's books until you are interested enough to buy your own. I don't see that changing anytime soon.

 

[dmfubar]

My question is, if I am running multiple campaigns, using different systems and settings (currently running Pathfinder, Shadowrun, a one-shot Covert Ops and beginning to write up a space opera setting), will I be required to have separate accounts for each setting, or do I have the ability to create multiple campaign worlds with one account, like Obsidian Portal? I'd really like to hear from Lucas on this.

Thank you.

 

[pickin_grinnin]

Baumi- our focus at present is on delivering content via the web. We intend to create a PDF export, likely beginning with character sheets, but don't have a timeline on this yet.

That's why I dropped Realm Works. Without an export feature of some kind, I won't subscribe to something like this. I have had far too many cases (in and out of the RPG world) of having data become unreachable after a company goes out of business or makes other changes. I'm not going to take the time to put a lot of effort into entering data into an online tool if I can't save a copy of it locally.

 

[LucasC]

dmfubar - there is no limit on the number or types of campaigns you can create.

You are free to create as many campaigns (or worlds, characters, monsters, etc.) as you want, for any system(s) you play with your account.

 

[thexar]

I can't believe people are pitching a fit over 3$ a month.

 

[Morrus]

I can't believe people are pitching a fit over 3$ a month.

Nobody is pitching a fit over $3 a month.

 

[dmfubar]

dmfubar - there is no limit on the number or types of campaigns you can create.

You are free to create as many campaigns (or worlds, characters, monsters, etc.) as you want, for any system(s) you play with your account.

Thank you LucasC, I will definitely take a closer look at it, and for $24 a year I am sure I will dive right in.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

That's why I dropped Realm Works. Without an export feature of some kind, I won't subscribe to something like this. I have had far too many cases (in and out of the RPG world) of having data become unreachable after a company goes out of business or makes other changes. I'm not going to take the time to put a lot of effort into entering data into an online tool if I can't save a copy of it locally.

Doesn't Realm Works save your content to the application on your own system? Ie, if you stop subscribing or the service goes down, all you lose is the online mirror and therefore the automatic syncing between installation on multiple devices. Or did I misunderstand how it works? (That's actually one of the reasons I have Realm Works on my wishlist.)

 

[the_redbeard]

Doesn't Realm Works save your content to the application on your own system? Ie, if you stop subscribing or the service goes down, all you lose is the online mirror and therefore the automatic syncing between installation on multiple devices. Or did I misunderstand how it works? (That's actually one of the reasons I have Realm Works on my wishlist.)

That's my understanding. I'm only answering because this is a City of Brass thread and not a Realmsworks one so we might not get an expert answer. But my own understanding is that your data does reside and sync with Wolf Lair's (Realmsworks) servers.