New user hello & a few questions
 

Hey all! Just started diving in over the weekend to enter my Adventures in Middle Earth campaign. Using the 5e framework I'm starting by inputting the one module we've already played through (Eaves of Mirkwood) based on Josh Plunketts videos (thanks! btw.)

Few pieces for discussion that are rattling around my brain:

1. At first it seems like having HeroLab is almost a no brainer - but then I saw some snippets that HL might not be great for "unsupported" systems like AiME. I'll probably stick with doing screen captures of PDFs for Statblocks as there is probably enough customization to be done in RW without having to deal with customizing HL too. Anyone want to convince me otherwise?
   
   
2. Entering Individuals. Love that the default Individual category is filled with brainstorm inspiring snippet types - but also hate that I get bogged down with that minutia for the small characters.
   • Thought about unchecking the "auto add" for the snippets I don't want.
   • Also thought about starting a Individual2 or Individual-ME category and unchecking "show" on the original one.
   • Also thought about adding a NPC category under People grouping - and then maybe nesting that under the original Individual entry. Ugh..lots of thoughts.
   • Anyone want to throw out some pros and cons to the above thoughts? Also, anyone want to share a screen shot of what they use for tracking individuals & NPCs?
   
   
3. I have downloaded some of the D&D 5E Basic Rules (+SRD) in anticipation of pulling in rules links for when I'm writing encounters. I see that they are all stored under the Sources grouping and that makes good sense to me. I can't seem to figure out any good use case for any entries under "Source" in the World Almanac. Anyone use it?

Looking forward to diving in more and hearing some thoughts.

Welcome to Realm Works :)

1a. Unless you are an experienced coder with an ability to work stuff out yourself I would never recommend picking up Hero Lab for an unsupported system. There are but a handful of people who have successfully created their own systems and the ones that have appear to be unable to share what they have done due to licensing concerns which further limits the material you can learn from.

1b. If you are playing 5e I highly recommend Hero Lab. I love Hero Lab.

2a. Ctrl Shift ~ - this shortcut is your best friend. As soon as you have entered what you want to enter, press this key combination and all the empty snippets will be removed. You can add it back in using one of the options on the topics toolbox menu should you need to add more info.

2b. I also don't really like the individual snippet (5e) as it does not contain the same format as the monster stat block. Most npcs created in official 5e products follow a similar format to the monster. Therefore I created my own custom topic which combines everything from the monster topic with an individual topic. This works perfectly for me. I don't hide the original though, not until the content market comes out and I know how the program will react to external data that uses the original topics.

3. Sources are something you will see a lot of once the Content Market comes out. They are effectively the landing pad for new users to that content (and are linked from the Lets Begin button once you complete an import). These topics will be used by content designers to tell you what the content and how to use it from a Realm Works perspective. Load some of the free content from the CM and you can see them in use. I would not recommend using these for anything else as you will quickly lose control of this category once you start importing data. Unless of course you don't plan on importing data.

4. Since you are playing 5e I highly recommend jumping into our Facebook Group. If you check the Units (learning content) on the left we have links to all sorts of stuff. Primarily though we have a shared google sheet which contains links to the 5e SRD. It's not the official LWD one but it will give you a boost on your data entry needs.

Thanks daplunk, and thanks again for the videos, yours are the best.

I am playing 5E - however I'll likely only ever play with the Cubicle 7 overlay rules for Adventures in Middle Earth. I suppose I'll dodge HL for now.

Definitely found the Ctrl Shift ~ quickly in the process. Also found the "Synchronize the Structure to Match the Category Definition" almost as quickly when I decided I might want to change my mind. I've actually ~/Synchronize/~ alot of my entries several times due to my indecisiveness.

And actually..I did join the facebook group last night. Thats where I imported the 5e SRD from. Good thoughts on the Sources section - I'll dodge it as well.

It really depends on what those overlay rules are. Adding things to an existing game-system and a lot easier a task and most certainly possible to do.

The Hero Lab Editor still have a steep learning curve though for those that plan on mastering it. I manage but am far from a coder.

All new classes, races, and abilities along with the elimination of the alignment system and the addition of a corruption point stat.

It could be done. Classes are challenging. And the corruption point stat I wouldn't know how to do but knowing the power of Hero Lab it's probably possible.

Thanks daplunk....will pontificate on it. Certainly staying busy with RW for now.

Adding classes, races etc. is certainly doable. The problem is getting someone who knows how to explain it in a way that makes any sense. I'm not dumb and I've tried far more basic stuff and run into a wall several times.


On messing with the topic definitions in RW, if you are unhappy with one feel free to make a copy of the one you want to change and modify it any way you want, leave the original as is.

My Hero Lab skill rely solely on someone having done something similar previously and making a copy and then modifying it to meet my new requirements.

It's not efficient but it works.

I was able to add languages, that's a fairly simple dialog. I added a deity as well not much worse. Then I tried to control what races, classes, archetypes etc. would be available in my campaign from all the ones made available by the books I own. I did exactly what I was told, I couldn't find an example to follow, and it blew up badly, as in HL wouldn't launch. I had to uninstall delete all the data directories and install clean.

I simply don't have time to spend hours and hours on something like that for it to go horribly wrong and erase everything I did for no apparent reason. I won't be messing with it again until they fix the mess that is the authoring kit or they release a real set of docs for it.