functionality question
 

Hi,

I'm trying to figure out if Realmworks will work for a particular use case that I have. I'm running a VTT campaign with several friends. It's a very in-depth adventure path (zeitgeist). Because we're all pretty busy, we strive to play once a week, but sometimes miss sessions, and so can have multiple weeks between games.

The complexity of the adventure path (it's a detailed world, with hundreds of NPCs, factions, and locations that reappear and interact over the course of 13 adventures), combined with the breaks between our sessions means that we often spend a decent chunk of time recapping earlier sessions, and sometimes we have trouble keeping the plot straight.

What I would love is a system that the players could use to collaboratively take notes. I would load in the basics of the world (maps, key locations, major NPCs, etc.), and they would then supplement this information throughout their adventures with notes, adding in new NPCs as locations as they appeared, and keeping track of information they discover and connections that materialize.

I would be able to create much of the content, but I'd like the players to be able to create it as well, so they can keep up and organize as they like while we play. I'd also like them to be able to share notes amongst themselves, so that each can see notes the others take. If we had this, it would let all of us collaboratively maintain a searchable encyclopedia of the world, which would be awesome both for revealing info as they discover it, and for them to keep track of who everyone is and how they're connected.

Realmworks seems like it could potentially work like a charm for this use, but as I've delved into it further, it seems like some of the collaboration functionality we would need simply isn't possible as the product currently exists.


Is this currently possible, or is functionality like this planned, for Realmworks?

Thank you!

At the moment only the GM can modify information in a realm. There are various requests in the feature requests forum which cover requesting multiple writers in a realm.

More short term (I think), there is a plan for players to be able to store their own notes within a realm, but they would not be able to create full topics/articles.

drogar, don't give up. The ability to reveal information and have that reflect in the player version obviates a lot of the need for players to create stuff. Once the note feature improves, you would have a lot of stuff you are looking for.

Right now, in a more laborious way, you could export information to the players if they have their own full RW, and they could import into their own realm and add anything they want. You would have to periodically re-export newly discovered content though.

One option for now would be to have the players keep notes in something like Onenote or Google docs using a format similar to topics and snippets. If they sent you a link when they wrote new content, you could just cut and paste it into RW and then reveal it as appropriate so the other players could see it. That way the linking benefits would still be there.

That's the way I handle contributions of my players. They send me the source documents and I put them in RW. Works fine.

Got it - thanks! Can all of the players on a realm see notes that they take? My players want to use this to collaborate as they're expanding their knowledge of the world and trying to solve mysteries, so having collaborative notes would make a *massive* difference in the value we get out of it.

Also, is there any way for me to see the notes they've taken?

Unfortunately not. Notes made by the players are locked to that player.

I get around this by having them post in our private FB group what they want me to transition into RW.