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-   -   Alternative to RW (http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=63508)

Griffonbait December 2nd, 2019 04:08 PM

Alternative to RW
 
This is a response to the many forum questions regarding alternatives to RW.

I have been a long time user of articy:draft (now v.3 on Steam) and I used RW, but the latter much less so. I enjoy using RW, I like its complexity. What I don't like is its presentation, which articy:draft has in spades.

articy:draft 3 is expensive as a one off (wait for a discount you are happy with - 50% for me), but it is designed for game developers: from Steam page: "articy:draft is a visual environment for the creation and organization of game and story content - such as branching dialogues or item databases. It unites specialized editors for many areas of content design in one coherent tool. Export into various formats and integrate content easily into Unity."

Want to save to and access from the cloud? I use OneDrive to store the data files, so there is easy access across ALL of my devices. You can use any cloud storage such as Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, ...

There is a 14 day free trial, and you can purchase it outright or subscribe.

I have been using it since version 1, and because it is for game developers, it supports an awesome amount of asset creation for, but not limited to: entities (such as PCs, monsters, items, etc), zones and locations, events, stories, images, maps with links to whatever you want, flow/progression of campaigns, but it is NOT a VTT.

In my experience, articy:draft is useful for a GM/DM to organise/plan, and ultimately run, a RPG game. Currently I am using it for 2 Starfinder games, a D&D4e game, and I am in the process of getting ready for L5R by FFG, PF2, and possibly D&D5e and Star Wars by FFG, maybe ETU, if I ever start these games. Can I create a whole universe/world for campaigns? Sure! Just like RW, expect a heavy data entry process.

There is a learning curve, which is not too bad IMO, but for those of you who, like me, are type A personality, the program has great depth, as you could imagine in the development of the Witcher series of games, or many other CRPGs. I am not saying here that the Witcher series used articy:draft for its development, but that such a complex world system as in the Witcher series can be easily handled by it (CD Project Red is listed in their latest trailer though).

There are lots of videos out there if you want more information/tutorials:

Website: https://www.articy.com/en/

Trailer: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=plZZQCXePjk

Tutorial series:
First Steps (14 videos) - https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=...iC023p-PvMBSo4


I hope this helps some of you.
Cheers.

Toblakai December 2nd, 2019 04:59 PM

The problem with all these alternatives to realm works is that they are competing for the same 10,000* people that will use them, making it so that no one company will make enough money to survive on it.



* Totally made up number to make a point.

Valyar December 3rd, 2019 07:55 AM

Another problem is the absurd of their costing models and the price itself. This piece of software is totally ridiculous, along with the other web based shits out there.

daplunk December 3rd, 2019 11:35 AM

This one isn't Web based....

Merion December 3rd, 2019 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valyar (Post 284192)
Another problem is the absurd of their costing models and the price itself. This piece of software is totally ridiculous, along with the other web based shits out there.

Well...

A) this is more aimed at game developers than us dungeon masters who run private games once a week. When you use it for hours a day to create your video game, the ROI looks quite different.

B) Sadly, we all just experienced what happens if you miscalculate your revenue for a product... :-(

Griffonbait December 4th, 2019 07:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toblakai (Post 284160)
The problem with all these alternatives to realm works is that they are competing for the same 10,000* people that will use them, making it so that no one company will make enough money to survive on it.



* Totally made up number to make a point.

True, but not all programs are created equally, nor is one program suited to all users. The concept you indicate is what makes capitalism work, viz. competition.

As mentioned in a later post, this program is not web based, but that you can use your own cloud server to store all the data you need (this is how I choose to do it) - or store it locally on your own HDD or networked drive. I use the program across multiple devices, the cloud is the most convenient.

Ultimately all these programs for DMing are not required. Pen and paper are the most basic tools we have to design our worlds. I still fall back to this method for my original world designs created a quarter of a century ago. Organising you design to include efficiency in location desired information is key though.

Toblakai December 4th, 2019 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Griffonbait (Post 284218)
True, but not all programs are created equally, nor is one program suited to all users. The concept you indicate is what makes capitalism work, viz. competition.

Totally get this, but I think this market is too small for competition to actually be helpful. Maybe this means that there just really isn't a profitable market for this kind of tool even if there was only 1 option.

Griffonbait December 9th, 2019 09:52 PM

Agreed, not everyone is a GM, but a lot of people use a word processor, spreadsheet app, etc.

Farling December 9th, 2019 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toblakai (Post 284226)
Totally get this, but I think this market is too small for competition to actually be helpful. Maybe this means that there just really isn't a profitable market for this kind of tool even if there was only 1 option.

Possibly, in a similar way to the market for LWD's tournament manager?

Toblakai December 10th, 2019 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Farling (Post 284382)
Possibly, in a similar way to the market for LWD's tournament manager?

I can see Copyright references to Tournament Ace, but I had not ever heard of it.


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