From Obsidian Portal

[ruhar]

Originally Posted by Seregil

I used OP before RW and, based on my experience, you will want to play with a test realm first, map out your real realm after THEN start importing your data. Copy/Paste will do wonders, but you need to structure the realm first.

Originally Posted by Mystic Lemur

Play around and get used to the program or you're going to be frustrated when you realize you've been doing things the "hard way."

So true. When I first started using RW I stumbled around. As I figured things out from trial and error as well as asking questions here and reading I ended up redoing my realm a couple of times. Each time was easier than the last.

I find it helpful to see how others are entering their info. A few people shared screen shots of their realms in a thread found here: http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=52565

If you are going to Gen Con go to the RW workshops. They are a great help. The staff are very helpful if you have questions during the workshops and at their booth. Last year I dragged in my laptop so they could help me with a problem. Not only did they help me with the problem but they explained and showed me how to do containers so I could better organize my information. I can't sing their praises enough.

Bottom line, play around with the program, read, watch videos and ask lots of questions here.

[RavenX]

Personally, I like Realm Works over Obsidian Portal because of the way it creates the content links. Obsidian Portal required a bit of html knowledge outside of just adding text which makes it a bit clunky if you don't know the first thing out html code. I don't like how I had to format everything myself either. Realm Works is a bit more intuitive in this regard because writing with it feels like writing in a text program, so I can just bold or italicize things easily just like any other word processor would let me do. Without a reference constantly handy for Obsidian Portal I'd get frustrated trying to do things on it. Plus it wouldn't let me boot players from the campaign which really bothered me.

[Globetrotter]

First of all, I want to thank everyone for their kind and thoughtful comments.

I will do what all of you suggested and then ask questions at that time.

You are all correct that this program seem robust, which of course makes it confusing.
I still have no idea what a snippet is for and how to set up a landing page like OP, or even if I need one.

It's a lot to take in, but I have months before this campaign starts.

Thanks again

[rob]

Originally Posted by Globetrotter

I still have no idea what a snippet is for and how to set up a landing page like OP, or even if I need one.

The "landing page" is the "realm starting point topic", which is auto-created for you and the first topic you are shown when you initially load your realm. You can access it at any time by clicking on the "home" button at the top. It's right next to the back/forward buttons.

A "snippet" is any piece of content you add to a topic, whether it be text, an image, or something else. You can individually reveal snippets to the players as the game progresses.

The videos ought to greatly help with getting a handle on the basics. The folks here are extremely helpful, so definitely ask questions when you run into them.