WW ICC Digital Tools Announcement

[resplendenthawk]

White-Wolf has a front page announcement on their site, which says, in part:

"A new suite of digital tools to help manage your chronicles. Along with Lone Wolf Development, the creators of Hero Labs, we have been developing some amazing, utilitarian, approachable tools to help you create, run and maintain your chronicles. Think of it as part automatic wiki and part storyteller dream. It’s still in the formative stages right now, but even at the earliest stages they are amazing."

How does this figure in to the character builder already available? Is this a replacement for the current character builder with a completely new interface? A mutually exclusive product offering? Something that expands upon the current tool?

I realize the folks at Lone Wolf probably can only talk about this in very general terms, but I wasn't sure if this announcement was indicating big new things for the way the character builder currently works, or if it was more of WW pointing out something that already existed (the tool as it is now) to a large audience that might not know about it.

Thanks!

[rob]

How does this figure in to the character builder already available? Is this a replacement for the current character builder with a completely new interface? A mutually exclusive product offering? Something that expands upon the current tool?

I realize the folks at Lone Wolf probably can only talk about this in very general terms, but I wasn't sure if this announcement was indicating big new things for the way the character builder currently works, or if it was more of WW pointing out something that already existed (the tool as it is now) to a large audience that might not know about it.

To answer your last question first, it's a little of both. :-) To answer your initial questions, it's an entirely separate product that will ultimately integrate smoothly with Hero Lab.

I can't go into any details at this point, but I'll provide some background. We've been developing some really cool stuff behind the scenes that we haven't told anybody about yet, with the exception of a select few industry folks. White Wolf was among those and they immediately wanted to adopt the technology for tools they are developing for the ICC. They have taken the core technology and are leveraging it within their own development with specific tailoring for the ICC, while we're working on a more generalized solution as a new product.

We showed a prototype to a few industry icons at a tradeshow back in April. Every one of them wanted this technology *yesterday*. And that was just a crude prototype that was very clunky to use. So we're pretty sure that this new product will be a hit. Our only problem is the lack of manpower to do everything we want to do, which is why White Wolf is developing their own specialized solution in parallel with us.

Our goal is to have something ready for release by the end of 1Q2010, but it's more likely that we won't have it ready until Q2. We should be able to start talking about it in more concrete terms shortly after the first of the year.

To summarize the clues: (1) it's software for the RPG sector, (2) it's a new product, (3) no one has done this before, and (4) in the words of Ryan Dancey of White Wolf/CCP, we've "figured out how to solve the problem".

Let the wild theories begin! :-)

[jonbartels]

here's hoping that this new tool can do online gaming like play by post etc

[Khayin]

I had been very excited about the possibilities after the ICC announcement and, Rob -- your response, however vague it may be, was just what I was hoping to hear!

I will wait patiently for next year's announcements. :)

... okay, I lied. I'm not going to be patient. I really do want it yesterday. ;)

[Pali]

I'm very curious too. Wonder whether this tool will be something like Grapevine (http://www.grapevinelarp.com/) was for the oWoD Larps.

[rob]

I have not used Grapevine. I have only seen the very brief overview provided on the website. Based that tiny bit of info, I'm *GUESSING* that the goal of the White Wolf's tool suite is to replace Grapevine *and* provide some major additional capabilities. It's those major additional capabilities that we conceived and are developing in conjunction with White Wolf. Based on what little I know about Grapevine, I don't think we're trying to replace Grapevine at the current time.

[jonbartels]

I'm curious will this new tool be a stand alone program or will it be an add on to Hero Labs? will it be compatible with hero labs? will it cost extra and how much?

[rob]

It's a separate, standalone tool - *not* an add-on.

The new product will complement Hero Lab nicely, and the two can definitely be used together. In fact, we plan to ensure that they work well in concert with one another. However, there will be no requirement to have one before using the other.

That being said, we sure hope that everyone will *want* to use them both together. :-)

[Pali]

Again, thanks for the infos.

Will we get futher teasers right over here or do we have to wait for the day when the tool is up for sale?

[rob]

We'll post more info in the first quarter of next year, definitely in advance of the release. I'm sure we'll be looking for a few folks to help us Beta test the tool, as well. That should be at least a month or two prior to release.

[karpomatic]

well count me in for the beta testing! I love all this stuff.

[resplendenthawk]

Thanks for responding, Rob. Some followup questions, if you wouldn't mind indulging me.

So, is the announced addition strictly for the LARP crowd, or will it be equally useful for Tabletop gamers?

Is there an ETA on when we might get more official detail regarding the product, or on the actual release of the product itself?

How does this announcement impact the delivery of the other Core lines in the Hero Lab tool? Does WW announcement signal a renewed interest in expediting the vetting process? Can we expect, for example, to see some other Core supplements like Mage, Hunter, or Giest potentially coming at a quicker pace? Or will any gains on that front be negated by development time being allocated towards the plug-in that would otherwise be spent on the character tool?

Thanks. Very much looking forward to understanding more about how this tool might impact my games.

[The_Dark_Mike]

Gonna throw my guess into the magical hat:

Hero Labs already specializes in character sheet development. So take that off the table.

The most difficult part of any game system, imo, is COMBAT.

I bet that Lone Wolf is creating a GUI combat resolution system. You choose the game system, choose the combat styles and stats, then click every turn for resolution. If someone wants to say, dodge, instead of grapple, click on the 'grapple' button to make it go away, and drag and drop a 'Dodge' block, then hit 'resolve'.

It'd tie in nicely to the Hero Lab character sheets and could be cross-platformed.

[Lawful_g]

I would like to see Mage sooner rather than later, as far as WoD stuff goes.

[The_Dark_Mike]

Mage seems to be real popular, and from what I understand is a high priority. Personally, never cared for it myself. Maybe I just wasn't exposed to it right. I'm sure that if I was under a master ST my impression would change.
But really, and this is just my opinion, the demographic for Werewolf seems larger than Mage. I could be wrong.
Would love to see 'Hunter', of course.
With LW and ICC now getting to be more friendly, I imagine that progress will move on a much faster track than before, especially if the 'Project X' allows LW to hire more staff due to profit. I know I'll be buying a copy if it is as quality as the HL software.

[rob]

So, is the announced addition strictly for the LARP crowd, or will it be equally useful for Tabletop gamers?

It should be equally useful for both types of games. We have a prototype that we have used in our tabletop games here. We showed the prototype to White Wolf earlier this year and they loved it, so they wanted to incorporate it into their suite of tools for their LARPs. However, the tool will have just as much value for the tabletop versions of their games.

Is there an ETA on when we might get more official detail regarding the product, or on the actual release of the product itself?

We should be announcing more details in the first quarter of next year. Our current plan is to have it released by the end of the second quarter.

How does this announcement impact the delivery of the other Core lines in the Hero Lab tool? Does WW announcement signal a renewed interest in expediting the vetting process? Can we expect, for example, to see some other Core supplements like Mage, Hunter, or Giest potentially coming at a quicker pace? Or will any gains on that front be negated by development time being allocated towards the plug-in that would otherwise be spent on the character tool?

Excellent questions. The vetting process currently involves a completely different set of people at White Wolf than those involved in the tools suite. The hope is that this situation will morph somewhat after the first of the year and become more conducive to us getting additional WoD data files out there faster.

There is definitely a competition of sorts between all the tasks on our plate right now. We just don't have enough staff to do everything we want, but we also lack the finances to hire lots more staff right now. We added one person earlier this year to help us develop data files for various game systems, so we're hoping we can leverage his time to offset the extra time we spend on developing the new tool. It's a constant juggle, and we're figuring it out as best we can along the way.

[The_Dark_Mike]

It's a constant juggle, and we're figuring it out as best we can along the way.

Why can't EVERY software developer be this honest???? People are very forgiving, or so I believe, if treated like adults and told the truth up front. Thanks for setting the bar, Rob! Maybe someone will notice.

[Duggan]

Count me in amongst the people who would be interested in helping out with Beta-testing. ^_^ Heck, if you're looking for a developer, I'd be up for moonlighting work in that area, but I'll settle for beta-testing.

[Nockerkin]

What's the update on this software. I currently have a Live Action game of Vampire with over 30 players. I use HeroLabs to track all the Characters and several of my Assistant ST's want to go with an Excel form of Character Tracking... I've suggested to them to be patient as HeroLabs is currently working (at least from this threads suggestion) an online version of the software. It's nearly the end of the first quarter and it would be great to have something to show them to cool their heels a bit.

Great job on the updates so far :)
Thanks for all the hard work!

Jim

[rob]

We're going to be unveiling an early preview of the new product at a tradeshow next week. After that, we can start divulging some of the details here on the website and forums.

Please note that we're not going in the exact same direction as White Wolf on this project. They're borrowing a lot of our solutions and adapting them in their own way. We'll hopefully be talking with White Wolf about this in more detail next week (at the tradeshow). I haven't been able to verify yet whether the key people from WW will be at the show, though.

[EberronKnight]

We're going to be unveiling an early preview of the new product at a tradeshow next week. After that, we can start divulging some of the details here on the website and forums.

Please note that we're not going in the exact same direction as White Wolf on this project. They're borrowing a lot of our solutions and adapting them in their own way. We'll hopefully be talking with White Wolf about this in more detail next week (at the tradeshow). I haven't been able to verify yet whether the key people from WW will be at the show, though.

Another great thing you are working on Lonewolf! My DM is running Pathfinder but when he's out, I am running Dark Ages Vampire. As a Storyteller, this sounds like an awesome tool! Look forward to more details!

[Pali]

(http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=10039)