Quick and Dirty tutorial on how to use Plots

[Seregil]

Originally Posted by rob

But you DO read the forums. That's the same as reading the manual...

You read here about features that were described in the manual. It just takes longer to get the information you want this way, and you don't get it as completely as you would if you simply read the manual. You know, the thing we spent lots of time and effort on so that your lives would be easier? :P

Alright, I'm going to bed. I'm exhausted and this is quite frustrating right now... <sigh>

Lol!

Rob, there are no worse users than IT guys, just as teachers are the most undisciplined, unwilling-to-learn-new-things people you will ever meet. My father, who was a teacher, described managing teachers as herding cats and, after working for 10 years in a school board in IT, I agree.

So, don't take it to hard. Part of what makes a good IT guy is the ability to figure it out for yourself. It's also part of our psychological make up: we NEED to know how it works and reading about it isn't enough: we have to fiddle with it.

[Gord]

Just for the record, I should say that I always plan on reading the entire manual when I get new software like this. Of course, as a game store owner, I am a very optimistic guy and often try to do too much.

I actually have read a bunch of the manuals while on holiday after watching the videos on youtube. Like most, I am probably more of a "get in there and try it" kind of guy who looks at manuals when he wants to find out specific details.

[Seregil]

Folks, I have redone the videos to get rid of the annoying hum that made the videos almost impossible to listen to. I have also got it down to three videos. Hope you enjoy the new videos. See my first post for the new links.

[Farnaby]

Originally Posted by Seregil

Actually, I didn't read it either. I'm in IT, we only read manuals in dire, life threatening emergencies.

From a professional in IT to someone in IT, you're doing it wrong.
The professionals read the manuals in secret at night and just pretend
to have not read them. It makes us look way cooler.

[MNBlockHead]

Originally Posted by rob

But you DO read the forums. That's the same as reading the manual...

You read here about features that were described in the manual. It just takes longer to get the information you want this way, and you don't get it as completely as you would if you simply read the manual. You know, the thing we spent lots of time and effort on so that your lives would be easier? :P

Alright, I'm going to bed. I'm exhausted and this is quite frustrating right now... <sigh>

If it makes you feel better, I read all the manuals through "cover" to "cover" and reread portions multiple times, I viewed all videos, including the complete GenCon videos. There is great, useful material, and the more I get into building my world, the more I appreciate them...

BUT

For a brand-new user, it can all be rather overwhelming. I'm probably sounding like a broken record, as I've made this suggestion on other threads and in the survery, but I strongly feel that it would be a great help to new users to offer a small series of videos w/ accompanying PDFs of veteran GMs and expert users of the system walking through their worlds and campaigns, showing how they built up the their world from scratch, and sharing tips, best practices, and lessons learned. Also, I did vote in the survey for having a more fully fleshed out example world available.

I would volunteer for this but I'm just too much of a newbie with the software and have a long ways to go in creating the content for my world. Another forum member suggested a virtual user group using Skype, Google Hangouts, etc. for GMs to get together share what they are doing and swap tips. If anyone is interested, PM me. I would be happy to set up using Google Hangouts or my Join.me account.

[Parody]

I prefer to play with programs and use documentation for reference, so I haven't read the manuals cover-to-cover. I find videos to be excruciatingly slow ways to learn anything in most cases, so I haven't watched most of the ones about Realm Works.

Having worked with the program for almost a year, it's hard for me to judge what would be the best way to help new users. We all tend to learn differently.

[Chemlak]

For anyone interested (time-zone check, I'm in the UK), I started reading the manuals last night, and got through the Quick Start Guide and half-way through the Gamer Guide.

Lots of good stuff, much of which I already knew, but definitely some gems that I didn't.

Moar reading tonight!

[Viking2054]

Originally Posted by Farnaby

From a professional in IT to someone in IT, you're doing it wrong.
The professionals read the manuals in secret at night and just pretend
to have not read them. It makes us look way cooler.

No we don't... we read a third party book that tells us everything the manual wouldn't tell us, at home so only the family can see what we are doing. We also tend to play with the software until we break it.

[Exmortis]

Originally Posted by rob

But you DO read the forums. That's the same as reading the manual...

You read here about features that were described in the manual. It just takes longer to get the information you want this way, and you don't get it as completely as you would if you simply read the manual. You know, the thing we spent lots of time and effort on so that your lives would be easier? :P

Alright, I'm going to bed. I'm exhausted and this is quite frustrating right now... <sigh>

Read the manual? Are you nuts?

However on the flip side I absolutely love the video tutorials, and have watched every one at least three or four times, and every Gen con RW/HL video twice for sure, maybe more. For me, I find the video tutorials so much more engrossing, and watching the actual event being described for me, is a huge learning improvement. I find the visual cue so much better for training/learning then a bunch of text or a sceenie.

So yeah sorry about the manual, but if it is any consolation, your video tutorials are F'n fantastic and wish you had more. I think in the future, the manual is going to go the way of the jukebox and the 45 record. Video training is better, more interactive (in that you see what is being described) and much more enjoyable when trying to learn something like a software application.

Especially one as seemingly complexly flexible as RW is, RW is a daunting program when you first open it, but watching the video tutorials really helps bring out its true simplicity of flexibility.

[Exmortis]

Originally Posted by Seregil

I just made this this afternoon. A bit rough, but it should help new people who are less familiar with the tool.

• Part I: Introduction
• Part II: Creating the Plot
• Part III: Adding Content
  

UPDATE: I have updated the videos to get rid of the annoying hum. I also shortened the demon down to three videos.

I just tried to watch the videos, and it may be my system at work, but the volume even maxxed is too low to hear. I will try at home, really want to watch this as I cannot wrap my feeble brain around the use of the story board.