Thank you for understanding this. :)

How will the system work in a setting without regular (or spotty) internet access?

At home or in a local game store - I have no problem. But in larger convention situations, where the wireless signal is problematic or costs two-arms and a leg to purchase, I have relied on the fact that HL can be used offline without any issues.

Better question, how many would trust LWD for another kickstarter? Or even meeting expectation?

Realm Works has not even met its basic goal yet. Nice.

Now you hope we all forget that, and jump aboard yet another project?

Nope.

I trust they are doing the right thing for their business.

Hero Lab is the more popular and profitable software. It's the reason they can even make Realm Works.

Hopefully this month does good things for Realm Works once the Content Market starts selling stuff but at this stage I would be more concerned if LWD didn't prioritize Hero Lab. That would indicate poor management.

I could've sworn the reason they could make Realm Works was the Kickstarter that was done specifically so they could make it. Yet here it is, 5 years later, and Realm Works is still incomplete.

I certainly will never trust Lone Wolf to make good on their promises for features in software. Realm Works has proven that not only are they dishonest about the state of their software ("Realm Works is nearly complete" in their Kickstarter pitch), but also that they cannot project when software features will be available with any degree of accuracy whatsoever.

It's why when I look in the FAQ for HLO and see vague promises about features that are planned (offline mode, other game systems, custom content, etc), I have no faith in them providing these features at all. Realm Works has been a disaster for Lone Wolf's reputation in my view.

I suspect the Kickstarter helped for a while and certainly helped mature it into the product it is today (which is a very solid program) but I doubt there is anything left from the $170,748 Kickstarter fund thus the need to focus some energy on the program that does pay the bills.

I also don't doubt that LWD would agree that the Kickstarter caused damage. No one hates the delays more than them. But instead of pushing an inferior product or simply cancelling the project like so many other software Kickstarters do they have stayed the course, created a solid program and are on the verge of completing a significant milestone.

The journey has been far from perfect, but they are still working to met their promises despite the many challenges and have created easily one of the most power RPG tools on the market today.

It's why I have complete faith in them delivering on HLO.

Hey, if you want to trust a company that has proven itself incapable of completing promised software features in a timely matter, go ahead. For myself, while Realm Works is useful, it's not the what Lone Wolf promised would be ready in 2013.

Aside from the actual Kickstarter promises, the entire Pathfinder RPG package was promised to be released for Realm Works in early 2016, yet here we are moving close to the end of 2017 and still nothing. Hell, their attitude has changed from a backer reward that promised a monthly developer's blog to actively avoiding communication because they know they'll just end up lying to us again.

I can easily see something like Lone Wolf promising that custom content will come to HLO a few months after release, then it slipping to mid-2018 with promises it's coming soon. Before you know it, 2019 is here, still no custom content. 2020...nope. 2021? Who knows? It's not like Lone Wolf has a history of keeping their promises or schedules.

Will HLO still support custom user data sets? Will we still be able to author our own, campaign specific data files, and do we lose access to them if our subscription lapses?

I suspect if they had a do-over they would just have not developed Realm works at all (or skipped the kickstarter) $170k is pretty much the cost of 1 years salary for a senior dev. That means that HL has been funding the development for the last 5 years.

Yeah I doubt they will ever touch Kickstarter again. Software development is on my hard rule of things to never back. They always run over schedule and over budget.
A high percentage of software that is funded by Kickstartered gets abandoned and quite a few have made national news as a result permanently damaging their brand.