How to create Game Session entries?

[kungfuchris99]

Okay, I know that the only reason I can't figure this out is that I have rolled a critical failure on both my Read Manual and Search Forum checks, but after spending an hour I'm giving up and punting to you guys.

I'm using Realm Works as an organizational/creativity tool for baking my home-brewed Champions campaign, and as a reference resource for me and the players. I don't use it during gameplay, but I want to use it to keep a log of the group's adventures session by session.

I see that there is, obviously, a Game Sessions feature, but...I cannot for the life of me figure out how to add a game session! I expect that there should just be a standard Add Item button and then I can create a session instance and add all the details, but there doesn't seem to be one.

How do I do it?


--Chris M.

[daplunk]

I'll make a video on the sessions now.

In the mean-time you might find this one on setting up campaign journals interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzPlQrKIlcY&index=17&list=PLV5XWfKkFpk6_sDYWWKwvP8zs_qVSrzoM

[daplunk]

Video now available below.

Realm Works - Game Sessions and Using Reveal History (https://youtu.be/FRgRTRUiZ48)

[kbs666]

Starting a game session allows you to associate the real world date with a game world date and enter some notes about the session.

Ending the session obviously ends the session.

If you look at the reveal history timeline it will mark what things you revealed to your players during the session, and IIRC the sessions notes may be available if revealed to your players as well.

It does let you see what the players did in the last session as long as you actually reveal stuff as the players learn about it.

I'm hoping that once the CM goes live stuff like player journals and session tracking will get a facelift because there really isn't much there right now.

[MNBlockHead]

I use user notes to create "session-bridge notes" where I detail what occurred during the last session and to write some notes on how the next session will start. This is necessary because my campaign has one full-day session a month, so there is a lot that happens in a session and a lot of time between sessions. I like the session bridge notes because they link with other topics.

I use the game-session feature to simply track the real-world dates of our sessions and the in-game dates the sessions cover. I'll put some brief notes about what happened in the session and who attended, but that is it.

Lastly, for certain topics, I'll add a data snippets labeled "In-game date" or "In-game dates" for a date-range snippet and I enter the in game dates the party visited to location, met the person, etc. That gives me a nice timeline of major events in the party's campaign, which also becomes part of the world history for any future campaigns.

It took me a while to get to this point. My main hangup was the lack of custom calendars, but I basically made one realm use the modern Gregorian calendar. I was fed up and lazy so I just said the first in-game date with that calendar was the same as the real-world date. Real-world and in-game dates stopped matching up after the first session but it makes it easy to apply dates to things and actually use the timeline.

I maintain a Google Sheets document where I map the Gregorian calendar dates to the fantasy calendars I use for the various regions. I cut and paste these into the session notes and the User notes (though not. But for in-game snippets in topics, I just use the date based on the Gregorian calendar.

I've put some screen shots below.

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[MNBlockHead]

Sorry for the giant images. Not laptop with much higher screen resolution. Also using a the Snipping Tool that comes with Windows 10 rather than Skitch. I need to figure out how to take reasonable screen shots.

[daplunk]

Greenshot is great for screenshots

[MNBlockHead]

Greenshot looks interesting. But not sure it would address my high-DPI issue. I don't see anything in the FAQ or help material that indicates any automatic or easy manual way to resize an image. An old program, Gambit Bilderman will automatically resize an screen shot and save to a specific tool. It is not longer supported, however, and doesn't have much in the way of markup tools.

Skitch is also no longer supported, but I am pretty sure I have a copy of the installer file in my on-line backup of my old laptop. Skitch remains my favority method of quickly taking, marking up, and sharing screenshots. I love Evernote, but I remain sour about them ending support for Skitch as a stand-along application.

[Bidmaron]

blockhead, that is a fantastic format. Well done!

[kungfuchris99]

Thanks, guys.

Josh, thanks for the video -- that was incredibly helpful! I commented and upvoted it.

When will the Journal functionality be available to everyone? A combo of that and the game sessions is exactly what I need.


--Chris M.

[Bidmaron]

I was away from the forums for a long while, but it doesn't look like anything with sessions has improved since the discussion here (http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=53708&highlight=session). Is that correct?

[Parody]

Sorry for the giant images. Not laptop with much higher screen resolution. Also using a the Snipping Tool that comes with Windows 10 rather than Skitch. I need to figure out how to take reasonable screen shots.
Use something to edit and/or resize them before posting them. I use Paint.NET (http://www.getpaint.net/) for quick work, but any bitmap manipulation program should do. (Windows' Paint, for example.)

Maybe I'm just old, but my workflow has always been screenshot to bitmap application to file. Simple and all the tools you already know are there.

For professional work you should also turn off ClearType (subpixel text rendering), but nobody's going to do that for quick screenshots on a forum.


I was away from the forums for a long while, but it doesn't look like anything with sessions has improved since the discussion here (http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=53708&highlight=session). Is that correct?
I don't believe sessions have changed at all, but that's not a feature I use.

[MNBlockHead]

Use something to edit and/or resize them before posting them. I use Paint.NET (http://www.getpaint.net/) for quick work, but any bitmap manipulation program should do. (Windows' Paint, for example.)

Maybe I'm just old, but my workflow has always been screenshot to bitmap application to file. Simple and all the tools you already know are there.

For professional work you should also turn off ClearType (subpixel text rendering), but nobody's going to do that for quick screenshots on a forum.
I use.

Really don't want to have to save and open (or send to) a separate program to edit. For something like sharing on a forum...I'm just not going to bother.

I'm finding that my new computer with the high-DPI is going to cause issues with running some older software. Skitch looks awful on my new computer. Almost unusable. No longer supported, so that's not going to change.

Greenshot also renders awfully. Text and icons so small it is unusable.

Microsoft Snip looks great, works wonderfully with a touch screen, and is a big GUI improvement over Snipping Tool. But you can't edit and can only send to e-mail or Onenote. No way to resize or set the DPI.

So far ScreenPresso is the most promising. The GUI isn't as nice as Microsoft Snip, but you can set DPI and resize and do other minor edits in the tool itself and I can sent the image directly to Evernote, Google Drive, etc.

Some functionality watermarks the images though unless you buy the paid version, which is not much less expensive than TechSmith's SnapIt--which I would buy over ScreenPresso. I just can't justify spending 50 USD on a screen snapping tool.

For now, I'm keeping the free version ScreenPresso on my computer to see if it grows on me.

[Parody]

...and I see no need to try a zillion different applications when Alt-Print Screen, switch applications, Ctrl-Alt-V (Paste Into New Image), Crop/Resize (if necessary), Save works well for me. Switching applications is nothing and I need files to attach images anyway.

I hope you find something that works for you. :)

[salcor]

When will the Journal functionality be available to everyone? A combo of that and the game sessions is exactly what I need.

Unfortunately player journeys will not be completed until they have the online version complete. (It is a recurring item request)

[kbs666]

I was away from the forums for a long while, but it doesn't look like anything with sessions has improved since the discussion here (http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=53708&highlight=session). Is that correct?
Not that I've noticed.

[MNBlockHead]

...and I see no need to try a zillion different applications when Alt-Print Screen, switch applications, Ctrl-Alt-V (Paste Into New Image), Crop/Resize (if necessary), Save works well for me. Switching applications is nothing and I need files to attach images anyway.

I hope you find something that works for you. :)

Well, in my day job I often have to apply simply markus. An arrow, some text, call out text. Skitch made this so easy.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand...

[MNBlockHead]

Not that I've noticed.

I've not noticed any changes since I started using the program...almost two years ago. That is not to say nothing has been updated, I would have to review the change logs, but nothing that I've noticed.