Best Practices for Merchants/Locations

[GunbunnyFuFu]

I'm working on a game, and am in somewhat a quandary. I thought I'd reach out to the community here to see how you have organized things within RW.

I have a number of locations as well as merchants created, and am debating on putting them in the container for the district within Ptolus that they are in. This in effect moves them from the Merchant/Location category to under the District Category. Do you do this? If not, how do you do it?

I'm hesitant at this point to put any deep work in, for fear of messing up the default structure of RW, as well as not having any tutorial data to play with so that I don't mess up what I've already put in. Thanks!

GB

[Silveras]

I understand your hesitation. I am less concerned about "messing up" the default structure, however, than I am about how hard it will be to re-organize it all if necessary when the Repository functionality is available.

I would not expect any issues from using the "Containing Topic" to logically organize such entries. Remember, it does not actually "move" them (or re-define them). If you un-check the "Show Nested Hierarchy" option, they go right back to being listed under their Category section. I sometimes do this when I remember the name and type of something, but have forgotten where it was located (geographically).

[AEIOU]

We will all have different approaches.... I've found one that works really well for me.

Reorganizing from one container to another is actually pretty easy. I spent a few weeks moving things back and forth while I experimented and got a feel for how I wanted to organize my game. It was maddening at first, but then it clicked.

In the end, I containerized almost everything. And the containers have containers have containers.... Eventually, all non-quest related material gets filtered into the Golarian planet container . Wait a minute, everything is under Golarian? In one category? How can you find anything? Are you daft?

Golarian
    Avistan
        Varisia
            Varisia — Settlements
                Magnimar
                Sandpoint
                    Bottled Solutions
                    Carpenter's Guild
                    Sandpoint Townsfolk
                        Abastalar Zantus
                        Alma Avertin
                 Turtleback Ferry
            Varisia — Sites
                The Lady's Light
                Windsong Abbey
        Avistan — Forests
            Ashwood
            Churlwood
        Avistan — Mountains and Hills
            Hook Mountain
            Mindspin Mountains

This practice has had a good side effects. Anything not in a container under Golarian was probably created as a manual link while I was editing, so it needs to be fleshed out and moved.

What you can't see in the example above are all the icons that easily identify what each item is.

I have a similar container structure for quests and encounters. So each chapter and its encounters is laid out and easily added to the storyboard for tracking plotlines.

And for those occasions that I just want to find that one NPC and I can't remember what town they are in and I'm too lazy to just use the filter, I can quickly switch from container view to category view and see everything in each category in alphabetical order.

[AEIOU]

And here is a screenshot to give an idea of my methodology for nesting containers.

[Cornelius]

I use the container as well. But I tend to keep the nesting logical. So persons are grouped by family, locations by regions. The container principle is as Silveras says mainly a way of organising your data. If you remove the nested hierarchy view all topics are placed under their own category.

As for playing around a tip. You can create a realm that you can use as a testing ground. This was the first thing I did. This prevents that your real realms get messed up.

[GunbunnyFuFu]

Thanks for the tips and ideas! I hadn't thought about making a "test" realm....I'll be doing that immediately! Thanks again!

[glassboy]

Where is the show nested hierarchy option?

[GunbunnyFuFu]

It's located at the top of the navigation pane....you'll see "Story Almanac" (if you're in the Story Almanac) and next to that, you'll see a crossed hammer and wrench...I've highlighted in the attached image...once you click the hammer/wrench icon, you'll see "Show Containment with Nested Hierarchy". Check that and you'll be good to go.

GB