Sooooo convince me

[daplunk]

Yeah i remember reading that and thinking about how that could be useful.

Hero Lab IMO would benefit hugely from network sync. Let the VTTs handle just the map and the icons. Let HL manage the combat and RW manage the story and everything else.

[Redjack]

Originally Posted by Strategon

there is no way to protect their IP from being altered, copied, etc.

They can't stop that today outside of Realm Works. Welcome to the era of personal computers, scanners, OCR software, and Photoshop.

[daplunk]

There is the ability to lock down the content though. I tried to export a picture from a locked module and got an access denied

Didn't stop a screen capture though so Redjack is right. If people want something these days they will get it.

Hopefully the publishers see this as an opportunity to provide different type of content. I will pay for maps that have linked locations on it. I will pay for monsters that have Hero Lab files in them. I will pay for stories. Hell I would pay for a pack of herbs that can be used to create poisons and potions.

/Dammit... This CM is going to be bad for my wallet...

[EightBitz]

Originally Posted by Strategon

I'll be surprised if any publisher really gets serious about licensing their products for Realm Works for the simple reason that there is no way to protect their IP from being altered, copied, etc. WOTC's implementation in Fantasy Grounds is not copyable and they have the content locked completely down.

Publishers release PDFs of their rule books and source books, and there is no way to protect that IP from being altered, copied, etc.

I recall J.K. Rowling being slow to release her HP books as ebooks, because she was concerned about piracy. I know for a fact that they were available as high-quality ebooks, including the cute little art doodles, long before she released them. I know people who had the files.

I bought the print books. I bought the audio books. And when they were finally officially available, I bought the ebooks. That doesn't change the fact that I could have had free versions of the ebooks long before they were official.

As others have said, there really is no way to guarantee anything. I'd be willing to bet money that there's some kind of crack or workaround for FG.

As Frank Hayes sings:
Three things hold no secrets;
Files that somehow hit the net,
Your boss's secretary,
And the third thing, I forget.

[Bebberino]

Thanks guys, seriously thanks.

Just the responses alone have helped.

Looks like everything will have a use, especially once I get my table with a monitor in it done for gaming.

Campaign manager works quite well and makes it easier I would think

[rob]

Originally Posted by Strategon

I'll be surprised if any publisher really gets serious about licensing their products for Realm Works for the simple reason that there is no way to protect their IP from being altered, copied, etc. WOTC's implementation in Fantasy Grounds is not copyable and they have the content locked completely down.

Personally, I really like the concept that RW is using, because what DM doesn't want to take a published adventure and alter it or pull it into another setting at times; however, this makes publishers cringe.

I have no idea what you are basing your assumptions on, but they are absolutely WRONG. The entire design of Realm Works is to achieve EXACTLY what you are describing as the objective for every GM.

Prior to the launch of the upcoming Content Market, there has been NO NEED for any security. However, we've got extensive security baked into the product, which will become apparent with all published material that we offer.

A key thing that Realm Works will allow beyond a product like Fantasy Grounds is for users to seamlessly weave separate pieces of published material together into a unified whole. They can integrate content from multiple different publishers (and game systems) together in whatever way they like. They can customize it to their heart's content. They can extend it, strip out portions, change things around, and ultimately weave it in with their own material to yield a campaign world that exactly fits their personal vision. That's the Holy Grail for every GM that I've ever known, and that's what Realm Works is finally turning into reality.

And it will all be TOTALLY SECURE for the publisher.

Please don't spread misinformation like this as assertions of fact. It's a disservice to the entire RPG community to do so. If you think something might be cause for concern, absolutely ask the question so that someone can provide you with the accurate answer. But please get the facts before making assertions. Thanks!

[rob]

Originally Posted by Redjack

They can't stop that today outside of Realm Works. Welcome to the era of personal computers, scanners, OCR software, and Photoshop.

That's piecemeal access, often without fidelity. If someone wants to screengrab a given image, or grab a page of text and run OCR on it, that's only useful when you want small pieces. If this approach is used for something substantive, they will end up with a whole bunch of pieces that somehow have to be connected back together again. And this applies to any product in existence, including tools like Fantasy Grounds.

For something larger like an adventure in Realm Works, putting it all back together again entails so much effort that it's just not worth it. So the objective of security is to make sure that nobody can extract a sufficiently substantive chunk in a cohesive manner that piracy becomes attractive. That's something we've got built into Realm Works so that publishers can be assured that all their material is safe. I don't know of any publisher that's going to cry foul if someone uses the Snipping Tool within Windows to copy an NPC portrait for use with their latest PC in Hero Lab, since someone can just as easily snap a picture of the portrait from the book with their cellphone, or scan the page, or pull it from the PDF, or whatever. Where publishers get worried is in the potential loss of the entire work to piracy, as a whole or in a substantial chunk. And the as-yet-unrevealed security within Realm Works will do that in a way that I'm confident is vastly more secure than Fantasy Grounds can offer (based on the underlying technologies both rely upon).

Hope this helps!

[Exmortis]

Funny how everyone is an expert in IT Security these days.....

[EightBitz]

Originally Posted by Exmortis

Funny how everyone is an expert in IT Security these days.....

I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

[Aaron]

Originally Posted by EightBitz

I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Haha!