Suggestions needed for groups for adding new content

[Madmaxneo]

I was thinking of adding a few new groups to my Realm Works Database and I'd like to see how others have added similar material.

A few other categories I was looking at adding as there are no specific categories already defined for them are:
1. Flora or plants and herbs and what not.
2. Fauna meaning both the mundane and fantastical creatures of the world.
That is it for now. Thanks in advance!

[Silveras]

The "Inhabitants" category seems to be intended specifically for flora and fauna entries.

[Madmaxneo]

Yeah I found that by chance shortly after posting this thread.

The title "Inhabitants" threw me off.

The reason I looked at it was because there was already an entry entitled "Individual" and was wondering why there would be a second category with what would seem to have similar entries.

Why not just call the category "Flora & Fauna"?

[Silveras]

I suppose because it is not limited to flora and fauna

I mean, non-significant NPCs, or generic entries for common creatures other than animals and plants (such as "typical resident" or "typical soldier") could go there as well.

[Madmaxneo]

"Inhabitant" is a good section for those exact things.
But it is a little misleading to include flora and fauna in such a section.

I will probably just create another section or sections to denote such things. The world I use is filled with various herbs and other useful plants that I plan on adding to with real world examples. I may also add things such as minerals and gemstones along with similar items to such a category. Now to figure how to name these categories...

I also added a glossary of sorts that has a summary definition of some of the things in this world. I created this glossary under Other, General Topic. Was this the best place for a glossary and definitions or is there a better category?

[Silveras]

There is also the "Monster/Enemy" article type in the Mechanics section.

Between "Individual", "Inhabitant", "Monster/Enemy", and "Race", there could be a good deal of overlap. At that point, it becomes more a matter of preference on what makes sense to the individual GM, I suppose.

[Madmaxneo]

Originally Posted by Silveras

There is also the "Monster/Enemy" article type in the Mechanics section.

Between "Individual", "Inhabitant", "Monster/Enemy", and "Race", there could be a good deal of overlap. At that point, it becomes more a matter of preference on what makes sense to the individual GM, I suppose.

Therein lies another problem I am having. I put all the race info under the World Almanac; Group: Ethnic. I had created a "Races of Mithra" section under People but had forgotten about that when I was entering the race data.

There are a few instances of me entering data in one area only to find a better section elsewhere. As of right now I do not know of any way to move (or copy) entire entries between sections. That is one editing function that needs to be implemented, everything is staying put until that possibility gets implemented.

[Silveras]

Originally Posted by Madmaxneo

Therein lies another problem I am having. I put all the race info under the World Almanac; Group: Ethnic. I had created a "Races of Mithra" section under People but had forgotten about that when I was entering the race data.

There are a few instances of me entering data in one area only to find a better section elsewhere. As of right now I do not know of any way to move (or copy) entire entries between sections. That is one editing function that needs to be implemented, everything is staying put until that possibility gets implemented.

That's one reason why I consider all my use of RealmWorks to be an ongoing learning experience. If I wait until I have the "perfect" plan.. I will never start, because I will keep thinking of ways to organize "better".

In the end, I have also accepted that it is ok to have entries for the same thing in two or more categories... hopefully serving different purposes.

For example, in my Rise of the Runelords Realm... I have "Location" entries for some of the adventure locations. These are initially revealed to the players as "known landmarks" and the like nested in a geography-based container hierarchy. I also have "Adventure Area" topics for the areas that are relevant to the adventure (some of which are the same places as Location entries) nested in a containment hierarchy separate from the geographic one, based on the adventures. This gives me more flexibility to organize, and more ability to re-use a place for more than one encounter.

I am resisting the temptation to make too many specific sub-categories of things to represent Temples, Arcane Schools, Military Schools, Dojos, and other organizations separately from "Merchant" (because the players can buy gear at either) in order to wait and see what they look like when licensed "official" versions start coming out.

[MNBlockHead]

Early on I had trouble deciding where to put non-dangerous animals for example. But I ended up taking the lazy DM way and sticking with the defaults.

The Dangers—>Monsters is what I use as my Monster Manual. Any creature with a statblock goes here. I'm assuming this is the intention...if it has a statblock you could fight it. So, cat, dogs, etc. all go here.

Inhabitants are mainly for in-game plants and creatures that give flavor to an area but are not used in encounters. I just don't use this topic category. Generally, if I want to describe the flora and fauna of an area, they go into a snippet for the place's topic. If I need more information, it is almost always because it is something they need to interact with that requires statblocks, so they end up in my creature manual.

Where I might use the inhabitant topic is if there was, for example, a sacred type of tree and I wanted to add a lot of history about its socio-economic importance to the area and plot points surrounding it.

There are other threads about this on the forums and there isn't one "right" way. Different approaches may make more or less sense based upon the game system and campaign. Personally, I don't want to think much about where to find something, so I would probably put "timid toothless squirrel" under "dangers/monsters" rather than inhabitants, because I might still need a statblock if they want to hunt this creature and all my other creatures are in monster topics.

Others will probably want to put mundane fauna and flora in inhabitants topics as flavor for places, and keep the monster topics for, well, monsters.

[Madmaxneo]

Originally Posted by MNBlockHead

Early on I had trouble deciding where to put non-dangerous animals for example. But I ended up taking the lazy DM way and sticking with the defaults.

The Dangers—>Monsters is what I use as my Monster Manual. Any creature with a statblock goes here. I'm assuming this is the intention...if it has a statblock you could fight it. So, cat, dogs, etc. all go here.

Inhabitants are mainly for in-game plants and creatures that give flavor to an area but are not used in encounters. I just don't use this topic category. Generally, if I want to describe the flora and fauna of an area, they go into a snippet for the place's topic. If I need more information, it is almost always because it is something they need to interact with that requires statblocks, so they end up in my creature manual.

Where I might use the inhabitant topic is if there was, for example, a sacred type of tree and I wanted to add a lot of history about its socio-economic importance to the area and plot points surrounding it.

There are other threads about this on the forums and there isn't one "right" way. Different approaches may make more or less sense based upon the game system and campaign. Personally, I don't want to think much about where to find something, so I would probably put "timid toothless squirrel" under "dangers/monsters" rather than inhabitants, because I might still need a statblock if they want to hunt this creature and all my other creatures are in monster topics.

Others will probably want to put mundane fauna and flora in inhabitants topics as flavor for places, and keep the monster topics for, well, monsters.

All great ideas from both you and Silveras. I might make a category entitled Flora/Fauna then make a few sub sections for the flora and fauna with names like mundane and fantasy in the titles. But then that may be to much. I vaguely remember something about tags or nicknames, is that part of RW or am I imagining things?