Sneak Peak of Realm Works on the Web!

Lone Wolf Development makes the popular Hero Lab character generation software, and is also the creator of Realm Works, a campaign management suite. They've sent along an update and preview of the latter in video format, which you can see below. "Brought to you by the creators of Hero Lab®, Realm Works is the tool every Game Master has dreamed about for managing campaigns. Spend less time preparing, more time creating, and focus on sharing the story with your players! Built by a team of experienced GMs, Realm Works can be used with any game system and allows you to create and manipulate your world like never before."

Here's the post from Lone Wolf's Liz:

As more roleplaying gamers discover and explore Realm Works, the positive reviews continue to pour in! But what does the future hold for Realm Works? Today, GMs and players can explore worlds and stories from their laptop or desktop PCs. Soon, worlds created and run within Realm Works will be available through the web!

Check out a behind-the-scenes look at the web version of Realm Works with Joe, one of the developers. He provides a peek at a few of the features we already have in place, including content reveal, basic navigation, user notes, and more! He’ll also show off how Realm Works will look on your tablet. Yes, your campaign will literally be at your fingertips!

[video=youtube;Vmfq8UR4WCI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmfq8UR4WCI[/video]

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[Sword of Spirit]

Hiya.

WARNING! : Negativity burst below! Curmudgeonia-Grognarditis flare up!

Mr.Naysayer here... I don't see the point. Honestly, I (and my players) want to get together every Sunday to roll some dice, have a few laughs, and do some imaginative roleplaying. We enjoy all the "RPG" stuff, but we are also sitting around the table for that face-to-face connection. We can see each others faces. If I draw out a quick sketch of an area on a sheet of paper, we can all see it and everyone can make marks on it, point to stuff for questions, etc. It's a group engagement; a collective activity, with no digital wall between anyone. Now, I'm probably just an old fart, but when I DM and describe some awesome view the PC's are encountering...after I'm done and ask "So what do you want to do?"... when I look up from my notes, I want to see their faces looking back at me. I don't want to see their noses buried into a tablet. And, honestly, repeating You see, this. 50 times over an evening would get ridiculously boring from a DM'ing point of view. I'd much rather explain what they encounter where I can use inflection, tone, volume, dramatic pause, etc. It is MUCH more entertaining if you ask me.

When we are playing, we all want to engage each other...y'know, using facial expressions, eye contact, and all that other stuff that humans have developed over tens upon tens of thousands of years. This tool seems to think that taking away that and replacing it with pretty pictures on a digital screen is somehow "better" for the social dynamic that is at the core of every roleplaying game group.

Don't get me wrong. A tool for managing a campaign is useful. But one that is intended to be used during the session... again, I just don't see the point, desire, or need. Maybe I'm alone in this, I don't know. But we definitely won't be using this.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

I actually prefer that style, although right now I'm running my game online out of necessity. But what I'm looking for isn't about online play. I just need a good gaming compatible wiki-like database so I can easily store and access campaign data, and keep it organized rather than scribbled across multiple scraps of paper and Word files.

It was clear. I don't think the distinction is important--without the Player Edition, Realms Works offers no particular value to me, as I would be using this product for online games.

I am sorry for the negativity--I do hope your product succeeds wonderfully. (And that you soon face a direct competitor whose business model is more to my tatstes!)

Kind of funny that I'm basically looking for exactly the opposite. I actually don't like the huge emphasis in Realm Works on the ability to click on the individual snippets to reveal them. Yeah, they're there, 'nuff said, let's move on. I'm much more interested in a user-friendly, comprehensive, and aesthetically appealing campaign database where I can track info I make up (whether before the game or during the game). For example, I find myself creating NPCs on the fly all the regularly. I want to be able, with one or two mouse clicks, to start typing in a name and any brief notes to remind me about them and save it. Then when I get a chance I can come back, type in any other details I've thought of, and connect them with location or events or whatever. Now, I'm sure I'll use those snippets, but it will be as much for my own benefit so I'll know what I've told the players.

Hopefully it will work for both of us (or create competition that does!)

 

[Dire Bare]

Don't get me wrong. A tool for managing a campaign is useful. But one that is intended to be used during the session... again, I just don't see the point, desire, or need. Maybe I'm alone in this, I don't know. But we definitely won't be using this.

Then, ah, don't buy it? Why threadcrap? There are plenty of products out there that some folks are excited for and others don't see the point . . . . but why go out of your way to be negative about and crap on somebody else's fun?

This is why the word "grognard" has a negative connotation. Sheesh.

 

[Minicol]

That looks actually good, if somewhat expensive.
The link says 49.99 $ ... for six months ?
And then do I have to pay for the Freeport / Razor Coast modules as well ?

Can someone clarify for me ?

 

[Jester David]

That looks actually good, if somewhat expensive.
The link says 49.99 $ ... for six months ?
And then do I have to pay for the Freeport / Razor Coast modules as well ?

Can someone clarify for me ?

$50 for the program with the bonus of six months of cloud service.

 

[pming]

Hiya.

Then, ah, don't buy it? Why threadcrap? There are plenty of products out there that some folks are excited for and others don't see the point . . . . but why go out of your way to be negative about and crap on somebody else's fun?

This is why the word "grognard" has a negative connotation. Sheesh.

Mainly because it is a "commercial thread", not one made by a "gamer for opinions, suggestions,help, etc". I read the first posts and all of them were basically positive or neutral'ish. I wanted it to be known to the company that not everyone is keen on what they are doing with it now. I felt a negative post would help them realize it.

As I said at the end of my post..

Don't get me wrong. A tool for managing a campaign is useful.

...and [MENTION=6677017]Sword of Spirit[/MENTION] seems to agree with me. A tool for a DM to organize his campaign in one place is a useful tool for some. Some, like me, prefer the old dead-tree-and-ink method, but I can definitely see an advantage of having it all in digital form, on multiple backup areas.

PS: Sword of Sprit: You may want to check out The Keep, by NBOS software. I bought that back at v1 (and yes, I did upgrade to v2) and have used it, very minorly, on occasion when I was at work and had some idea or thing I wanted to make sure I didn't forget...or if I wanted to read up on an old campaign we put on the back-burner for a few months so as to refresh my memory of who/what/where and all that. The biggest "annoyance" factor with The Keep is that you have to manually rename "Keep.dba" to "CampaignName_Keep.dba" (or something other than just "Keep") because it will auto open "Keep.dba" when you open the program. To work on multiple campaigns, you have to 'unname' "CampaignName_Keep.dba" back to "Keep.dba" so it will open it. Still, not much of a problem unless you work on a half-dozen campaigns multiple times a day. If you're more of a one-campaign kinda guy...won't be a problem.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Uder]

Then, ah, don't buy it? Why threadcrap?

I know it's bad form to talk back to the mods here, but was this necessary? It's a little rude and heavyhanded modding for someone just giving their opinion.

 

[Morrus]

I know it's bad form to talk back to the mods here, but was this necessary? It's a little rude and heavyhanded modding for someone just giving their opinion.

He's not a mod.

 

[NewJeffCT]

This looks promising. The way I see it, it's a mostly campaign manager that can help you with tracking locations, NPCs, villains, monsters, etc, within a gaming world, right?

 

[LWDLiz]

This looks promising. The way I see it, it's a mostly campaign manager that can help you with tracking locations, NPCs, villains, monsters, etc, within a gaming world, right?

Yes, it does what you've listed, but it also provides a way for players to view that info during and in-between sessions.

 

[Warunsun]

I would definitely buy into this program if there was a way to print out the information so I can actually use it at my game. We don't have computers at our game table and discourage use of distracting technology.