View Single Post
AEIOU
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 1,147

Old March 10th, 2014, 06:56 AM
One more that looks at detail for adventure entry. This one bears a little more comment as it's really where RW shines for tabletop play in my opinion. Modules have traditionally been written as books that read well and provide the background info for GM's to absorb and deliver. However, my brain thinks in rows and columns.... I prefer a more programmerly IF...THEN...END approach to data organization. I can read paragraphs, but I process data chunks much faster and more effectively.

I've always used modules as they were written, making adjustments in my head or adding some notes to the margins, and just living with the standard paragraph structures. And when I started entering data in RW, I defaulted to that format because it was what I had always seen. After running a few encounters though, I started picking the module paragraphs apart and putting things into a "more logical" (for my brain) order. Adding play notes. Adding flavor that was missing. Adding links to campaign specifics. Adding detail.

What's great about RW is that it's a database with database logic and database structure. For folks that think like me, it's a natural fit and we'll find it very easy to adapt to. However, many folks do indeed prefer to think in paragraphs rather than cells/columns/fields. For them it may be a bit more of a hurdle to wrap their heads around. Yes, they can keep the data in paragraphs/sentences just as the module is laid out if they prefer -- but that misses out on the advantages of the database structure. Quite honestly, my greatest fear is that the folks that create official data modules for RW are paragraphers and that the data will continue to need to be converted....

Here's what one of my restructurings looks like -- GM info, encounter info with general tactics and references, player info:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Z...no/RW+Room.JPG

I'll never go back to paragraphs for adventures.
AEIOU is offline   #6