Changing worlds

Bobifle · June 18th, 2015, 08:43 AM

I apologies if this topic has already been addressed but..

Here's the main problem I face:

- There's the world you setup (easy, just write the topics in RW)
- and then there's the world after your players have wreaked havoc

people die, places are burned down, politics change, new powers arise.

How should I record this in RW ? If I ever change the world itself, my campaign won't be replayable. On the other hand if I don't record any interaction from my players, the whole point of keep track of (almost) everything is lost.

Any pointer ?

Note: I'm playing Vampire Dark age

Vargr · June 18th, 2015, 09:44 AM

Well, that is somewhat of a challenge.

At the moment it is not easy to copy a realm.

That will - however - change with the coming marketplace.

When that is in place you will design your realm and when satisfied with it, you can make several copies of the realm and use these for your different groups, keeping the first realm as a master realm that the players haven't messed up.

At the moment I am careful noting down the dates when NPCs are born, take over as lord of the House, die, etc.

Should I need to re-use my realm (and I sure plan to!), then I can see, if a given inn or NPC was indeed around when the new party roams the realm.

MNBlockHead · June 18th, 2015, 10:29 AM

Yep, as Vargr states, this is an issue that needs the content market to solve. The same tech that will allow you to purchase material to integrate into your realm is what you'll use to make copies of your realms.

rob · June 18th, 2015, 12:37 PM

Until we get the realm inheritance mechanism fully into place, I recommend using separate snippets for things that change the original state of the world. Within those new snippets, one option would be to prefix the contents with a few characters (e.g. "~~~") so that they clearly stand out as changes to the original content. Another option would be to color-code them by changing the foreground and/or background color. And yet another option would be to put all those snippets into a separate section so that they are all grouped together - adding a new section to the built-in categories is both easy and safe. I'm sure there are more approaches, but those are the ones that immediately leap to mind.

Hope this helps!

Bobifle · June 18th, 2015, 02:08 PM

Thanks all for the tips.

I've put Rob's ideas to the test on my test realm.
I've added a custom section and changed the backgound color of snippets inside.

It works pretty well. I could assign a color per player group.

Anyway, it's good to hear that a long term solution with realm inheritence is in the pipe !

RavenX · June 18th, 2015, 06:30 PM

This is a problem with running Exalted too, the players and their enemies can reshape the world, even expanding its borders if they gain the right tools (First Age reality stabilization engines as an example). Snippets are easily managed and work well for showing changes.

I use custom groupings for different player groups too.

Dark Lord Galen · June 19th, 2015, 04:16 AM

Just a thought. How do we do it in the real world? Hummm, history changes things all the time, and those events are recorded where? In something, what was it? chronological? no, it's a CALENDAR! (snark)

Seriously.
While alternate text, colors, etc are all "workarounds" this is just a further reason why custom calendars are NEEDED. Tying events to dates would provide record of when / how those changes occur. Tying them to a story board or journal of "history" of a region, place, etc would be even more helpful.

Well there's my calendar rant for the day.

DLG

Bobifle · June 19th, 2015, 04:38 AM

I don't think a calendar would solve my problem.

In an Ideal world where Rob as an infinite time per day to work on RW, there would be the world, and there would be alterable instances of that world where things evolve.

Could be the inheritance feature of the market content... let's see how it evolves.

And calendars could still be a nice to have

Zaphod Beebledoc · June 19th, 2015, 06:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bobifle

Could be the inheritance feature of the market content... let's see how it evolves.

I see what you did there!

adzling · June 19th, 2015, 10:52 AM

We are also having issues around sharing/working with realms (as in it's not possible).

Our specific issues are:

1). allowing more than one GM to work on / use a realm.
2). separating player actions that change the realm from the "clean" copy of the realm as the OP states.

This is what I would term an "advanced" feature request.
Lots of more important things that need to get put in place/ resolved/ polished first.

MNBlockHead Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Twin Cities Area, MN, USA Posts: 1,325 June 18th, 2015, 10:29 AM	Yep, as Vargr states, this is an issue that needs the content market to solve. The same tech that will allow you to purchase material to integrate into your realm is what you'll use to make copies of your realms. RW Project: Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition homebrew world Other Tools: CampaignCartographer, Cityographer, Dungeonographer, Evernote
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Bobifle Member Join Date: Jun 2015 Posts: 78 June 18th, 2015, 02:08 PM	Thanks all for the tips. I've put Rob's ideas to the test on my test realm. I've added a custom section and changed the backgound color of snippets inside. It works pretty well. I could assign a color per player group. Anyway, it's good to hear that a long term solution with realm inheritence is in the pipe !
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