Realm Works 1.0.30, 1.0.31, and 1.0.32 Now Available – With Custom Views

[MToscan]

Actually it was exactly the kind of mechanics I was looking for. I am entering all of my Greyhawk books on realm Works and I really wanted to keep Canon, Living Greyhawk (which is semi-canon), fan content (like Oerth Journal) and home brew separated.
In the future I hope I will be able to share just the first 3 views with the other guys at Canonfire so we can all work together on canon and semi-canon GH material while keeping home brew separated and private.

[HippyCraig]

Just so I understand after I create a filter I have to go to each topic and from the right click menu assign it to that filter? Are there other ways to do this? I can't seem to select multiple topics to add to a filter, only one by one, this can be very tedious, any suggestions?

[Exmortis]

Originally Posted by HippyCraig

Just so I understand after I create a filter I have to go to each topic and from the right click menu assign it to that filter? Are there other ways to do this? I can't seem to select multiple topics to add to a filter, only one by one, this can be very tedious, any suggestions?

As of now no there isn't. A "affect all in this container" would be a nice feature moving forward, and I am sure something like that is on the radar list, but it's also a big list.

[Parody]

Originally Posted by HippyCraig

Just so I understand after I create a filter I have to go to each topic and from the right click menu assign it to that filter? Are there other ways to do this? I can't seem to select multiple topics to add to a filter, only one by one, this can be very tedious, any suggestions?

Terminology Note: what was just added and what you create are Topic Views or Article Views. Filters are how you search, using the magnifying glass icon on the Navigation Pane tab.

You can assign everything being currently shown in the Navigation Pane to a View, using the "Add (Topics/Articles) Shown In Navigation To View..." item in the (Topic/Article) Views popup menus on the Ribbon. Use Content Scoping and/or Search Filtering to pare down what's being shown in the Navigation Pane to a group of things you want to add (even if you have to add or remove a couple of items manually afterwards) and you can save a bunch of time.

You can also assign everything in a Containment hierarchy in one step; RW will ask you about this when you use the context menu to assign something with contained items.

Hope this helps.

[HippyCraig]

Thanks that help

[storeyl]

Originally Posted by Exmortis

it felt more like the way you buy products and play your RPGs.
...

Everyone of course buys their "modules or adventures",

Whilst I respect everyone is different, I would point out that you are assuming we are all like you. No I don't buy product and modules and see them as separate things, I don't run RPGs like that.

Someone who appears in a module or adventure is as much a part of the world as anyone else. Why would you think otherwise? In fact if I am running some module then I go out of my way to have a few of those NPCs turn up before or after where feasible to make things feel more like a 'living' world.

I was very much hoping for different story almanacs, again mirroring real world where we own several modules.

Do not get me wrong, the idea of custom view is very cool, and I will use it, why did you have to cram everything I spent from release working on nicely organized and separate into one great big pile?

Isn't that the point of the custom views? The world is every thing, custom views are how you group things into modules if that is your desire?

What was the thought process around this? Am I the only one here that did not want my Story almanac in my world almanac?

Well I saw a lot of people really did want this. I want the world almanac it is to me, like you know what it says on the tin, my world and not pretend to be a food dish. Custom views can represent modules, or immediate useful topics that may not be clearly module based but become relevant to what the players currently do. Are you alone? I doubt it, but I expect that you a minority?

It's a shame they couldn't get it all in, but this feature is great IMO. At long last I am not flicking between almanacs, and can organize as I want better.

Just need those other features to make it really great (collaborative journal and web access, individual reveal).

[Exmortis]

Originally Posted by storeyl

Someone who appears in a module or adventure is as much a part of the world as anyone else. Why would you think otherwise? In fact if I am running some module then I go out of my way to have a few of those NPCs turn up before or after where feasible to make things feel more like a 'living' world.

This is simple, World NPCs that are above the module or adventure were in my world almanac, such as every merchant and regualer townsfoilk, powerful NPCs as Lords, Barons, etc. Some are in adventures yes, those were found in my world almanac, even if they "first appeared" in an adventure.

However I did not want to popluate my world almanac with NPCs that were going to be dead after the first module, or better yet the first fight. In the first Chapter, I have three subchapters, and in subchapter one I have about 3 dozen NPCs....None of which will be alive after play, or so few I can have easily gone in as they survived and move them to the world almanac. Why flood your world almanac with corpses? This is the awesomeness of somenthing like RW, which relates to what your saying; Once an adventure is done, the left over NPCs can be then migrated to the world almanac, which is exactly the way I was planning to handle it. Even better, for Pathfinder/D&D buying a module probably fleshes out a part of the world with little info in the campaign setting, when you buy and import it it could have asked if you want to import all the new world info to the world almanac, but keep the "story adventure" in its own almanac.

A better way to exolain why I did what I did is this:

You do not pay an extra $40 on top of the $10 a module cost, because you were "rebuying" the world every time, or when you bought the world at $500 because it included 50 modules of which 10 you wanted.

From day 1 in RPGs; rule sets (articles), Campaign settings (world almanac) are seperated from the adventures (story almanac(s)) as far as I am aware, even back when I bought basic edition D&D it came with one little adventure, the rest I had to buy seperately. I also am pretty sure a lot of NPCs in the adventures were dead after the adventure. Take my beloved Pathfinder, I first bought the CRB, then the Inner Sea Guide, Then and adventure, all different books, different purchases.

Same goes for the RW market place, I am 100% sure that buying Pathfinder, The Campaign settings AND any adventures will all be seperate purchases. same as every other RPG medium.

All I was doing was using the default view that was provided from release. What annoyed me, wasn't that I thought my way was the best, or better, or even the way anyone else did it, it was simply that the DEFAULT WAY from day 1 was changed with out warning, with out choice, it was forced. Same way as if you woke up and suddenyl found your car had to be driven on the oppsoite side like a british car, with out warning, with out choice, you were just forced. It is not like you cannot adjust or deal, its just the idea that Toyota would come and change the car you bought and paid for, with out any prior knowledge or warning.

The custom view is totally cool, and now that I am playing with it, its value is huge, no question. But as my last post stated, it isn't the change so much as I was taken by complete surprise by some fundamentally massive change in how I must now use RW. Why I asked in future, a warning post with some screenies and explanations and hints and tips on how it will bring greatnes would not only have helped me, but others too, possibly allowing people to reorg in anticipation of this change.

[Parody]

Originally Posted by Exmortis

Why I asked in future, a warning post with some screenies and explanations and hints and tips on how it will bring greatnes would not only have helped me, but others too, possibly allowing people to reorg in anticipation of this change.

It would also allow us a chance to catch things like the "What if you're actually using the World/Story distinction?" conversion issue that was a big part of your earlier post.

[Exmortis]

Originally Posted by Parody

It would also allow us a chance to catch things like the "What if you're actually using the World/Story distinction?" conversion issue that was a big part of your earlier post.

Yes very true indeed.

[storeyl]

I think a lot of us saw it as a fundamental bug stopping us using RW as we wanted, and probably expected. There was no way of having 1 place with everything, and then just a way of showing the bits you wanted. It has driven me mad at times having to flip between 2 views to get a fuller view of what I have put in so far. Putting everything in world is overload at times, splitting it out means I start to lose track of what is in due to lack of a single view.

Neither can I see how it could have been used as you wanted. You only had 2 views, at best you could have had 1 world and 1 'module', but not multiple modules. However, all the LWD hints on how to use the 1 almanacs seemed fairly clearly (to me anyway) to be indicating the story almanac was intended to be where the 'current' stuff was placed, and when it wasn't current it was in the 'world', certainly a different intent to what you wanted. 'Story' wasn't a specific module, but just what was relevant at that moment in time.

From day 1 in RPGs; rule sets (articles), Campaign settings (world almanac) are seperated from the adventures (story almanac(s)) as far as I am aware, even back when I bought basic edition D&D it came with one little adventure, the rest I had to buy seperately. I also am pretty sure a lot of NPCs in the adventures were dead after the adventure. Take my beloved Pathfinder, I first bought the CRB, then the Inner Sea Guide, Then and adventure, all different books, different purchases.

You are conflating the medium by which I buy and the actual playing of the game. Sure I might buy all those things separately, but when running a campaign they are all just 1 world. There is no separation game wise from what is in each module. As a GM I want them to all be seamless and appear as 1 world, as a player I want them to feel seamless and that I'm playing in a coherent world. Adventures and modules are extensions to the world, not some isolated thing.

Same with RW, if I get round to using fully (when other features arrive) then I want players and myself to see a seamless view of the whole world in one place. I don't want a visible and artificial split between 'campaign setting'/'world npcs' (as you put it) and adventures and the 'lesser npcs'. That cheapens the whole experience IMHO. We can set views for our purposes (and I'm hoping players can create their own views as well), but in what ever way suits each player or GM.

Same goes for the RW market place, I am 100% sure that buying Pathfinder, The Campaign settings AND any adventures will all be separate purchases. same as every other RPG medium.

They may or may not. But that is not relevant as far as I can see. If I bought all 3 under the old RW scheme then where would the stuff go in my realm? If I buy 5 adventures/Modules for a pathfinder campaign then they can't all be the story almanac without some unholy mess! Equally I would only be able to put the 'world NPC' or location etc in one of the stories! The only logical method I can see would be exactly what has just been introduced. Everything goes in world, and each also supplies a custom view (or multiple, say 1 view per chapter) by default.


In the campaign I'm running at the moment (not in RW) I have a published setting, and several published adventures/modules plus stuff I am adding myself. But the whole lot is intertwined. Even though the modules are bought standalone they are all from the same world and region, and the players are flipping between them, probably with no idea that is happening. Pulling them altogether forms a richer 'world'.


That to me one of the selling points of RW, every one who appears (even as a bit part) is now logged in the world not to be forgotten.

All I was doing was using the default view that was provided from release. What annoyed me, wasn't that I thought my way was the best, or better, or even the way anyone else did it, it was simply that the DEFAULT WAY from day 1 was changed with out warning, with out choice, it was forced. Same way as if you woke up and suddenyl found your car had to be driven on the oppsoite side like a british car, with out warning, with out choice, you were just forced. It is not like you cannot adjust or deal, its just the idea that Toyota would come and change the car you bought and paid for, with out any prior knowledge or warning.

You are right that a bit of a hint as to what is coming would be useful. Though I thought we knew this was coming - it wasn't a surprise to me as such, at least the functionality has been noted before as coming I'm sure, if not the timing.

PS. I'm British. I fully agree with you waking up and having to drive properly like us.