What are some styles of inserting information

[bishop618]

So thanks to the people on this forum, the Facebook page, and YouTube videos I'm actually making some progress on Realm Works. The only thing now is that there is so much to be done. Especially seeing as the content market is primarily Pathfinder, and I'm doing 5e. Right now I am working on filling in the mechanics reference section. I have at least inserted the names of the srd files and 3/4 of the homebrew content I have as well. I have Hero Labs as well and have linked the portfolios to the monster articles.
What do you guys fill in first, and how? Classes, races, spells, feats, backgrounds, monsters, etc? I have all the information in different documents/files, and I now have to just fill it into RW. I'm just looking for some sort of structure or method to the madness.
Thanks in advance

[kbs666]

Don't.

Really its pretty rare that I'll tell someone that they're doing something truly wrong in RW but IMHO you are.

Leave the mechanics reference alone. All that stuff you're doing is nice but it won't get you to the point where you can run a session. Enter your world. Enter your adventures. You'll be able to start running games sooner. Once you're running sessions you'll figure out what mechanics stuff you need and what you don't and likely some of it will be available on the CM for free done by the community.

[daplunk]

See I'm of a sightly different school.

Absolutely use the Mechanics, but be selective.

Since you have Hero Lab you don't need spells, feats, races, classes.

I would put the monster in. That will be beneficial as adventures will link to the monster names. The monster articles contain a picture of the monster and the HL Portfolio.

I like having equipment in there to. Mainly magical items as I can reveal them to the players via Fog of World. They use player versions now and can look the items up.

It's quite clear the MM will not make it to RW in the near future so I would go ahead and do this one.

[bishop618]

@kbs666
Right now I'm in a bit of a Writer's Block, and the group I'm wanting to play with is busy with school for the semester at least so Mechanics Reference is what I can do.

@daplunk
What about homebrew content? How would I place those in. I have a majority of HB files for feats, races, classes, and equipment.

[daplunk]

Feats, races, classes and equipment belong in Hero Lab IMO.

If you put it all in there you don't need it in RW.

Now putting stuff into HL is not as easy. But it is possible to learn and we have a great supportive community to help you start that journey. Always happy to add more homebrew content to the 5eCP as well if you wanted to donate your effort to the greater cause.

[gaffneyks]

Best of advice I ever got was from a video from one of the 2 guys who already posted on this thread.

Just enter stub in the mechanics reference for anything you are going to have in the Story Almanac. Then go work on the Story, this allows the auto linking to work and you can fill in the mechanics reference later. I did this for Equipment and Monsters. I ended up just filling in the detail in the Mechanics reference prior to the session if i had time, otherwise i did it after.

[kbs666]

@kbs666
Right now I'm in a bit of a Writer's Block, and the group I'm wanting to play with is busy with school for the semester at least so Mechanics Reference is what I can do.

Writers block I understand but if you obsess over the mechanics ref you're likely to get bogged down and never get to the part that needs doing.

The sooner you're creating adventures and setting stuff the better, IMO. You can fill in the bits and pieces on the mechanics side as you need them.

[Silveras]

Remember that Realm Works is mostly for managing the information shared with your players.

Presumably, your players already have the rulebooks.. so entering the mechanics for classes, races, and such is somewhat redundant. Putting in every monster... even the ones you will never use (your adventure is for levels 1-3; the monster is for level 20)... is not the best use of your time.

Focusing in the information you need to run the game.. plot points, important NPCs, settlements, adventure sites, maps; which rumors have been shared, and which ones the PCs have discovered are false; notes to yourself about how to handle a particular encounter .. those are the areas where you will find the most return for your time. In that case, the monsters you actually expect to use might have some benefit as an easy reference for you.

I have personally entered much of the Pathfinder Core rules for my own use. It is not as rewarding as it might seem. It is nice to have Classes, Feats, and such available for easy reference, but if you have the book or the PDF available at the table anyway, there is less value.

By all means, if you want to use the mechanics reference in place of the books, feel free to enter the information.. but I would say it should be a low-priority "as time allows" type of project.

That being said, I would start with the "home base" town for your campaign. Fill in the town.. the NPCs... the shops... and any notes you need. Move on from there to the surroundings, and then the adventure site(s), adding encounters in more-or-less the order you expect to need them.

[daplunk]

I would start with the Community Dungeon (http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=57487) :) come design something fun and learn how to use the tool in the process.

[bishop618]

How would I add all these things to HL?
Overall I'm trying to put all the individual pdfs/other files I have into somewhat of an organized structured format and RW seemed like the best bet with the Mechanics section. Am I wrong?

Also, I know building adventures and the world is a better option if I want to play sooner, but that's not what my focus is right now. I know, I'm weird that way.

[Parody]

Part of what I use Realm Works for is a unified rulebook, notably for games that aren't in Hero Lab.

If putting your Mechanics in RW helps you, do it! :)

[daplunk]

Hero Lab doesnt really work as a reference point for just looking stuff up. If it's on the character or monster / npc then you can easily access it. Adding stuff to Hero Lab is all about making it available to your characters so that you can see it.

You want to open Hero Lab and go into Tools > Show Editor. From there I would suggest you start with something simple like a race. I would open this file (COM_5ePack_PHB - Races.user) and just have a look. It's simple to tell how things work and from there just start looking at other files. Before long you will start to get how things are done.

There are some hard aspects. Scripting can be challenging. The Community Pack Team have a Github though where we have a Wiki with commonly used code and you can search the github for the name of a 'thing' and see all the other code where that thing has been referenced. This answers 90% of my questions on how to script things.

But yeah, start small, don't get overwhelmed. Perhaps look at equipment?

https://github.com/Sklore/HL_DD_5e_Colab

Oh and don't forget the community is here to help should you need it.

[bishop618]

@daplunk
I was wanting to use Realm Works as a reference point. My understanding is that RW would only have the text of the thing in an organized, but HL codes the item into a usable thing.

[daplunk]

Realm Works is better for that then.

[bishop618]

Ok, I was wanting to use HL as a way to keep track of player characters, as well as npc's, so I'm planning on doing that as well. I was wondering about how others inserted information into RW, as in the order of things. After all the names are inserted, do you go down section by section, or do you fill every spells casting time first for example

[daplunk]

I just start at the top and work my way down.

[Vargr]

I just fill in what I feel like, what I need soon and then bits and pieces I might need some day.

Not terrible consistent but it works for me.

There is no right way - but RW is very flexible so just start somewhere and find you own way of doing things.