Realm Works Player Edition Update

[enrious]

I do it because when I put in statblocks, then bits of the statblock have links to the powers, abilities, feats, skills, equipment, whatever right at the click of a mouse.

[ruhar]

Originally Posted by EightBitz

Pff, don't listen to people who tell you what not to do with it. Do what you want with it. For new systems I'm trying out, I'll put the core rules into it so I have a quick reference, organized the way I want.

I agree with EightBitz. I'm not a rules scholar or have a photographic memory and I don't want to take game time to look something up. As I'm entering information if I encounter a scenario that I'm not sure what the rules would be or know the players would ask I'll put the rule in Mechanics. I then add a GM note to the entry that references the rule and links to it.

RW is a tool to use however you want to use it to accomplish whatever you want. If that means you want to reference a rule or even lots of rules go for it.

[rob]

It's our expectation that rules will be an integral part of purchased material through the Content Market, so our licensing efforts focus on securing the rights for both story AND mechanics material from publishers. Look at how important sites like d20pfsrd.com have become in recent years. Now imagine having all the capabilities of Realm Works to draw upon with that material, and to have it all linked together. There are lots of users who are drooling at the prospects. Obviously, not everyone will need or even want the rules available that way, but many will. Everyone can use Realm Works the way that works best for them!

[kate]

Player Version is important to me, and while I was hoping for my players to be able to use the free web-based client, the package deal is a good enough value that I am motivated to buy it for my players in order to let them have a few extra months with it and to support the developers.

I am disappointed that it has taken so long, and particularly that Lone Wolf was not more conservative with the timeline estimates going into the project. But that's part of what I signed up for when I bought an under-development software. To use a previous poster's metaphor, I knew that the house was missing curtains, cabinets, and even plumbing, but I bought it anyway because it was a darn fine house. My disappointment in the construction process doesn't change the fact that gifting my players the player version still buys me more enjoyment than anything else I can do with $30 at the moment.

If you're on the kind of budget where $5-10 per player is a significant expense then you are already used to making do without things like pizza on game night, extra sourcebooks, or minis, and doing without player access for a few months is not a serious hardship.

Originally Posted by rob

Obviously, not everyone will need or even want the rules available that way, but many will. Everyone can use Realm Works the way that works best for them!

I am a huge fan of this philosophy, and I think you've done a pretty good job of implementing it. I personally play PF with access to internet, so I'll probably continue to use the d20pfsrd as a reference, but if rules are cheap enough on the Content Market I might buy the core PF material and add in extended stuff myself as-needed. I use a lot of homebrew so the mechanics reference is definitely useful for that.

[ruhar]

I was told at Gen Con that you're shooting for the end of the month for the Player Edition. Since that is just days away is the target close or does it need to be adjusted a little? I promise not to grouse if it needs adjusted, I'm just curious.

[Exmortis]

Originally Posted by rob

It's our expectation that rules will be an integral part of purchased material through the Content Market, so our licensing efforts focus on securing the rights for both story AND mechanics material from publishers. Look at how important sites like d20pfsrd.com have become in recent years. Now imagine having all the capabilities of Realm Works to draw upon with that material, and to have it all linked together. There are lots of users who are drooling at the prospects. Obviously, not everyone will need or even want the rules available that way, but many will. Everyone can use Realm Works the way that works best for them!

This is great news.

Anyway you could have some sort of cost reduction if you own HeroLab with all the rules books and RW? I am not trying to be cheap, HL with every paizo possible release is getting up there in cost, and then to turn around buy RW and all those rules again adds up as well. I know you have royalties to pay, but if you could negotiate a little reduction for those who buy both? That would go along way to assisting my payment of bills and funding my piza share n game night!

[Ladyofdragons]

Originally Posted by Exmortis

Anyway you could have some sort of cost reduction if you own HeroLab with all the rules books and RW? I am not trying to be cheap, HL with every paizo possible release is getting up there in cost, and then to turn around buy RW and all those rules again adds up as well. I know you have royalties to pay, but if you could negotiate a little reduction for those who buy both? That would go along way to assisting my payment of bills and funding my piza share n game night!

Oh that would be a wonderful thing, to purchase a HL+RW combo package for new books at a discount. I won't hold my breath for getting a break on past books I already own for HL, but that would be nice too.

[ruhar]

Originally Posted by Ladyofdragons

Oh that would be a wonderful thing, to purchase a HL+RW combo package for new books at a discount. I won't hold my breath for getting a break on past books I already own for HL, but that would be nice too.

This would be a nice option not only for Pathfinder but other games. But I've been going to the Pathfinder Reference Document site and the d20PFSRD site to copy and paste the specific rules I need for an encounter. I couldn't release/sell my realm without deleting them, but for myself it works for me.

[rob]

Originally Posted by ruhar

I was told at Gen Con that you're shooting for the end of the month for the Player Edition. Since that is just days away is the target close or does it need to be adjusted a little? I promise not to grouse if it needs adjusted, I'm just curious.

Sorry I missed this question when you posted it. Actually, it's a good thing I did, since the answer would have changed.

Based on the results of Beta testing, our plan as of Monday morning was to put out a final Beta release today. Late Monday, we discovered a nasty gotcha with the way Player Edition was handling certain things. It's a subtle but critical thing that a single Beta team member uncovered by having just the right combination of data. We've since figured out how we're going to solve the issue, but it's not something we'll be able to get fixed for a Beta release this week. So....

The active plan is to put out another Beta release this week, but it won't resolve this new issue. After that, we'll need to fix the nasty issue, and I'm guessing we'll end up putting out another Beta release next week to ensure that we've fixed it properly before releasing it to everyone. The actual fix itself involves fixing up the data in everyone's realms, so it's a complicated fix.

Bottom line: We're very close, and we're shaking out (and fixing) the final issues.

[rob]

Originally Posted by Exmortis

Anyway you could have some sort of cost reduction if you own HeroLab with all the rules books and RW? I am not trying to be cheap, HL with every paizo possible release is getting up there in cost, and then to turn around buy RW and all those rules again adds up as well. I know you have royalties to pay, but if you could negotiate a little reduction for those who buy both? That would go along way to assisting my payment of bills and funding my piza share n game night!

We've put into place a completely new sales portal for Realm Works. So all sales of Realm Works are currently handled through a completely different server. The plan is to migrate everything from the Hero Lab side over to the new sales portal, but that's not going to happen right away, especially since it will entail a significant chunk of additional work. Something like this won't even be possible until everything for the two products has been merged onto the same server and goes through the same mechanisms. Once we get there, this might be doable, and it's something we can definitely investigate as a possibility at that point in time. But it's not something we can even think about until some other major pieces are into place.

Bottom line: It's something we can definitely explore in the future, but it's not going to even be possible on a technical level when we first launch the Content Market for Realm Works.