Lone Wolf Development Forums  

Go Back   Lone Wolf Development Forums > Realm Works Forums > Realm Works Discussion

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Aeternyx
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 3

Old July 1st, 2018, 01:01 PM
Hi all,

I am new to Realm Works and am on my trial here so I thought I'd ask a couple questions. I did do some forum searches before this, but didn't have a ton of luck with what I wanted to do.

Up till now I have used OneNote for my DM notes and while they are extremely versatile, the very limited viewing options (aka one screen at a time only) has been really restrictive for me of late. RW, so far, is the only campaign management I've seen that supports multiple tabs.

1) Is there a quick list of keybinds somewhere? It seems like a lot of the speed and functionality of RW is in keybinds, but that a non-zero number of them are either non-intuitive or non-documented. Specifically I'm looking for quick ways to "open in new tab" (I was surprised CTRL-Click didn't do this.) And also "Create new item as child of current" - basically what CTRL-Q does, but it always defaults to No Container, which slows down my workflow. Speed of data entry is critical for me if I'm going to switch to this.

2) Is there a global search anywhere? One of OneNote's really great features is its ability to search multiple books quickly. I was surprised to note that when I searched in RW, it seems like it's restricted to the current "volume". For example, I added Magic Missiles as a spell in the Mechanics Reference section. But if I do a CTRL-SHIFT-F search for Magic Missile while I'm in an article in the World Almanac section, it finds nothing. Is there a global search I'm missing?

And lastly
3) Any suggestion on running encounters in RW? I don't use HeroLab as I find it's encounter interface to be too slow and clunky. So often times in One Note, I'll say "Room W2 has an encounter with 5 twig blights and a druid", so I simply copy their stat blocks onto the page together, and off I go. Here, Stat blocks seem to be handled in child windows one at a time with a semi-clunky editor. So anyone else have any suggestions for how to quickly have all of the relevant stats for a given encounter on-screen at once?

Thanks for your help!
Aeternyx is offline   #1 Reply With Quote
Lexin
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Gwynedd, Wales, UK
Posts: 238
Send a message via Skype™ to Lexin

Old July 2nd, 2018, 11:30 AM
Here, Stat blocks seem to be handled in child windows one at a time with a semi-clunky editor.

I can't help with (1) and (2), but as regards (3), I always copy the stat block into the ordinary page dealing with the creature (which I list in the Mechanics Reference section) or, if it's an NPC, into the page dealing with that NPC. I don't put stat blocks into the child windows as that makes finding the information difficult - it's a click too many, if you see what I mean.

--
Lexin

GM from Gwynedd, Wales - seriously old school - playing RPGs since 1980!

Tools: Realm Works, HeroLab, Campaign Cartographer 3+
Lexin is offline   #2 Reply With Quote
Aeternyx
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 3

Old July 2nd, 2018, 11:48 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lexin View Post
Here, Stat blocks seem to be handled in child windows one at a time with a semi-clunky editor.

I can't help with (1) and (2), but as regards (3), I always copy the stat block into the ordinary page dealing with the creature (which I list in the Mechanics Reference section) or, if it's an NPC, into the page dealing with that NPC. I don't put stat blocks into the child windows as that makes finding the information difficult - it's a click too many, if you see what I mean.
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I think I understand what you're saying, but my struggle is always that a given encounter frequently has multiple types of creatures involved. So I usually make an Encounter page in one note (probably a "Scene" here in Realm Works) and I put all of the relevant stat blocks on that one page so I can see them all at once.

It sounds like you're including the stat block on the monster itself, which makes total sense but how do you deal when you have more than one? Are you just constantly clicking between them?
Aeternyx is offline   #3 Reply With Quote
kbs666
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 1,690

Old July 3rd, 2018, 02:17 AM
You can do the same thing with each scene. its clunky but if its how you want to do things it will work.

my Realm Works videos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZU...4DwXXkvmBXQ9Yw
kbs666 is offline   #4 Reply With Quote
daplunk
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Adelaide, Australia
Posts: 2,294

Old July 3rd, 2018, 03:33 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aeternyx View Post
1) Is there a quick list of keybinds somewhere? It seems like a lot of the speed and functionality of RW is in keybinds, but that a non-zero number of them are either non-intuitive or non-documented. Specifically I'm looking for quick ways to "open in new tab" (I was surprised CTRL-Click didn't do this.) And also "Create new item as child of current" - basically what CTRL-Q does, but it always defaults to No Container, which slows down my workflow. Speed of data entry is critical for me if I'm going to switch to this.
There's a list of shortcut combinations within the help documentation. You can also find it in the Files section of the FB Group.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aeternyx View Post
2) Is there a global search anywhere? One of OneNote's really great features is its ability to search multiple books quickly. I was surprised to note that when I searched in RW, it seems like it's restricted to the current "volume". For example, I added Magic Missiles as a spell in the Mechanics Reference section. But if I do a CTRL-SHIFT-F search for Magic Missile while I'm in an article in the World Almanac section, it finds nothing. Is there a global search I'm missing?
The search feature is broken across the two divides of Realm Works. World Content and Mechanical Content. There is a search bar at the top which searches on all topics that are visible in the current view. There is no way to view all topics at once though due to this divide. Alas One Notes search is fantastic and Realm Works is clunkier than the One Note search feature for sure. The benefit of Realm Works though is you don't need to search. Very rarely anyway. Once you have topics for these things you will find they are usually already linked from where they are referenced anyway.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aeternyx View Post
3) Any suggestion on running encounters in RW? I don't use HeroLab as I find it's encounter interface to be too slow and clunky. So often times in One Note, I'll say "Room W2 has an encounter with 5 twig blights and a druid", so I simply copy their stat blocks onto the page together, and off I go. Here, Stat blocks seem to be handled in child windows one at a time with a semi-clunky editor. So anyone else have any suggestions for how to quickly have all of the relevant stats for a given encounter on-screen at once?
Not sure on your experience. I find Hero Lab to be very efficient. You can set Realm Works up the same way as you did in One Note though. You could paste in a picture of the stat blocks you need into the place you are documenting the encounter. Personally if I am planning a large encounter I will create a Hero Lab portfolio that contains all the monsters. It's the most efficient approach I've found. You could also create a topic for a specific encounter and put all the stat blocks within it.

Realm Works - Community Links
Realm Work and Hero Lab Videos
Ream Works Facebook User Group
CC3+ Facebook User Group

D&D 5e Community Pack - Contributor
General Hero Lab Support & Community Resources
D&D 5e Community Pack - Install Instructions / D&D 5e Community Pack - Log Fault / D&D 5e Community Pack - Editor Knowledge Base

Obsidian
Obsidian TTRPG Tutorials
daplunk is offline   #5 Reply With Quote
Aeternyx
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 3

Old July 3rd, 2018, 04:32 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by daplunk View Post
Not sure on your experience. I find Hero Lab to be very efficient. You can set Realm Works up the same way as you did in One Note though. You could paste in a picture of the stat blocks you need into the place you are documenting the encounter. Personally if I am planning a large encounter I will create a Hero Lab portfolio that contains all the monsters. It's the most efficient approach I've found. You could also create a topic for a specific encounter and put all the stat blocks within it.
Thanks for the all the info! It seems helpful and I'll take a look.

When I tried HeroLab, I found it to be great for quickly loading an encounter and doing things like initiative. But modifying health and status effects just had a few too many button clicks per action. I am used to either doing it by hand, or using http://improved-initiative.com, which, while having it's own problems, has the benefit of being free and allowing for extremely quick changes to health and stuff. You simply click the current health for the creature from the overview, type a number, and hit enter. Hero Lab requires you to bring up an extra screen in between.

TBH, I'm not sure if that's a Hero Lab thing or just the implementation of 5e in it though. Could be either. I didn't try playing with it for other systems.
Aeternyx is offline   #6 Reply With Quote
kbs666
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 1,690

Old July 3rd, 2018, 07:52 AM
Hero lab is not the best at running encounters. I doubt anyone would claim it is. What it has going for it is the ability to have the entire party stored and then each encounter loaded in and the whole battle run in one panel. It does take some getting used to but it is worth the effort.

Applying damage is one click away from the top level of the tactical console which I agree is less than ideal but that is the way it is. I guess they made the decision to not add it to the top level to cut down on clutter. The upside is you have full access to the best character manager there is as part of the tactical console. None of the other combat trackers have that.

my Realm Works videos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZU...4DwXXkvmBXQ9Yw
kbs666 is offline   #7 Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 01:25 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® - Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
wolflair.com copyright ©1998-2016 Lone Wolf Development, Inc. View our Privacy Policy here.