Realm Works vs. The Keep

[Cullyn]

I've been an avid user of Lone Wolf products for quite some time now and I have a great deal of interest in Realm Works as a RPG tool. However, before I knew about this software, I had picked up a package from NBOS called The Keep which does a pretty good job and has many similar capabilities.

One great advantage of course is the Hero Lab integration, but I'm curious to see if anyone else can provide a product comparison, realizing of course that Realm Works is still pre-beta, between the two products.

I imagine it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, I'm highly interested in participating in a beta of Realm Works if one is presented.

[chiefweasel]

I have been using NBOS products for years and have liked all of them. I cant really say anything more about Realm Works then is posted on the LW website. I would think they would do about the same thing, at least in basic functionality. a intergration with HL would certainly be a plus. if they could just intergrate Fractal mapper into Realm Works, now that would be sweet.

[Cullyn]

Indeed it would. Right now I'm between games but beginning to contemplate running a Pathfinder game. Hero Lab is going to make character creation and maintenance much easier and basically I'm trying to avoid a possible duplication of work if it turns out that I prefer Realm Works.

I have time thankfully, so it's not a pressing need, but why wait if someone comes by and happens to drop some useful information I'll not complain. :)

[Leonal]

I'm curious of how it will end up. I earlier got the Keep, but ended up not using it as I could basically do the same with EpicWords.com, EverNote or OneNote etc. and was put off by the rather aged interface. As such Realm Works needs to be rather convincing for me to try it out at release.

Making it possible to view CC3 maps would be a plus, but not something I'd expect them to work with ProFantasy on.

edit: Having the program in Unicode rather than based on system settings would be desirable. This is also something I wish the Keep and Herolab & ArmyBuilder had. (This may not be a problem for most, but having Windows set to an Asian language for non-Unicode programs prevents certain European letters from being used for example.)

[Cullyn]

True, The Keep gets the job done in a lot of ways, but there's a lot of other basic, non-RPG specific options out there. I, too, am a bit disappointed at times in the overall lack of configuration options that The Keep has. There also doesn't seem to be a lot of further development on the product. This isn't a shot against The Keep, just an observation.

The collaboration aspect is probably the one I'm most interested in. Especially if it doesn't force all my players to be connected at the hip to access the data. Don't get me wrong, I will most certainly encourage my player's to purchase the program if I think it deserving of that but I also think it fair that I run it through its paces before I ask them to spend that money.

[SAbel]

Has anyone here used the program Master Plan, I started using it but it seems to do what RW is aiming at and with the intergration of HL into RW its a no brainer for me to jump on board.
I 2nd the way to use maps from CC3 or Fractal Terrains (Pro-fantasy) but I am not sure how likely that is. Possibly a way to use PDF/JPEG maps would help.
Last will there be a way to send information to players VIA the internet ect possible to run play by post or a form of online game.
Just my thoughts.

[rob]

We've kept things intentionally very vague and minimal thus far regarding Realm Works. However, we're going to be talking a lot more about Realm Works in the relatively near future. I can definitely say that Realm Works has a wealth of features beyond what The Keep, EpicWords, Obsidian Portal, and Master Plan currently provide. Each of those tools is solid and useful for what each does. However, we're going well beyond that with Realm Works.

Disclaimer: I'm sure there will be a handful of features of each of those other tools that we won't have in V1.0 of Realm Works. But remember this will be a V1.0 that will grow and evolve, just like Hero Lab has done over the years. So we'll be listening closely to what features everyone asks for and adding them in subsequent releases.

[Street]

Rob,

You are such a tease. Please tease us more! And soon.

[Cullyn]

Thanks for the clarification Rob. As long as the promises eventually become fact then I certainly have no issue waiting to see what Realm Works has to offer before starting a new campaign. If Realm Works is going to offer that much more, I don't see any particular reason to duplicate the work of campaign management twice in two different programs.

That said, I don't want to hold off forever and while I understand the fact that any release date is a moving target, especially for a company with limited resources, I'd be curious to know if a beta has been planned and how one would apply to participate.

[Cullyn]

After seeing Realm Works at Gen Con this year, I can comfortably say that there really is no comparison between the two programs. Realm Works has some impressive potential and will easily replace what The Keep has been able to do for me up to this point.

[PetriWessman]

I've been a happy user of the Keep for a few years now, and use it to both plan my games and at the gaming table (via netbook) to take notes and check out my plot notes etc. It works fine, and I have no real problems with it... except, of course, that it is fairly limited and there hasn't been any development on it for ages.

I'm eagerly awaiting to see what Realm Works brings to the table, and will probably migrate to it unless there are some showstopper issues. There's a lot that could be done in a GM tool like this, to help make both planning and running games easier.

One important issue is the fact that a lot of people would probably like to use this (at least partially) on a laptop, so they can refer to it while gaming. This means that screen resolution will be a limiting factor -- while my own netbook is on the lower end of the scale at 1024x600 pixels, most netbooks / small laptops don't have all that much more screen estate. That makes for some challenges on the UI front.

[morkalg]

I am eagerly awaiting this software. I use the Keep too an love it but as you said there have been no updates on it for awhile. I'm particularly drawn to the story building features in Realmworks.

My only fear is that it will not be "generic" enough. I really don't want a product thats targeted mainly at the DnD crowd with shoe-horned work arounds for other game systems like I find in so many products.

[Kendall-DM]

I am eagerly awaiting this software. I use the Keep too an love it but as you said there have been no updates on it for awhile. I'm particularly drawn to the story building features in Realmworks.

My only fear is that it will not be "generic" enough. I really don't want a product thats targeted mainly at the DnD crowd with shoe-horned work arounds for other game systems like I find in so many products.

Hear, hear. They should just rename HeroLab to PathfinderLab. LOL.

[Duggan]

Hear, hear. They should just rename HeroLab to PathfinderLab. LOL.
:p Nah, it's MutantsAndMastermindsLab...

Actually, as I understand it, there are a lot of features that don't get implemented simply because they're doing their best to provide a generic system. C.f. copying powers / minions / etc in M&M.

[Spence]

Actually, as I understand it, there are a lot of features that don't get implemented simply because they're doing their best to provide a generic system. C.f. copying powers / minions / etc in M&M.

I'm really glad to hear that. My next campaign that I am working up is for All For One (Ubiquity system) and I really wish RW was out already. The other games I have been involved it recently were Savage Worlds and M&M3e so HL has been great. But since most of the games I play and have an interest in as decidedly not D&D/Pathfinder/Etc, another "track the castle" program would be of little interest.

Heck my only beef with HL (and it is more a casual disgruntled whine ;) ) is that I lack the skills/knowledge to create/add the structure needed for Ubiquity. Once the basic structure is there, adding custom content is fairly easy if a bit tedious. With the added bonus that some of the more skilled users out there tend to complete content before I get halfway done :D, so I can just download theirs.

But I am really veering off subject here. I am just hoping to hear a solid release date sooner than later for RW. I am so tired of tracking everything via a multitude of separate files....