Bestiary?

[sp762]

Hi all,

I've been using the RW beta for a while now, but for various reasons have not been able to post here.

As I go along with creating a Traveller 5 adventure, I realise that there's nowhere to put creatures that I make up - is it worth including a 'bestiary' section?

Regards

Mike
(Dire Woluf)

[Silveras]

Generally, the "Mechanics" section is for game-system rules. We have not seen any examples of that content yet, but I would expect that's where bestiaries would belong.

I expect that once publishers start making their rule-sets available in RealmWorks, some questions about the location and format of system-based content will become standardized, but until then, we are on our own.

[pyremius]

Generally, you would gain the most benefit from using Hero Lab for that information (it does monsters every bit as well as it does PCs). If there is no Hero Lab data for your system, however, another structure within Realm Works would be very useful. Another category similar to Individuals could be developed, although I would recommend suggesting it to the dev team instead of making your own - that way it can be standardized for all users so you can share adventures, etc.

[Silveras]

That is the issue, Pyremius, or at least part of it... there is no HeroLab package for Traveler 5. I don't know if there will be. Traveler 5 is "just out" through a Kickstarter; I got my copy just a few months ago. I don't know if there are plans for official support through HeroLab or RealmWorks.

One of my suggestions to LoneWolf is that such category skeletons that are tied to the mechanics of the game system would be good to add in any rule-system packages, so there is the kind of standardization of structures you mentioned. Unfortunately, we don't know if Traveler 5 is going to have some kind of official rules package (through LoneWolf or independently), so that may not help even in the long-term.

[BoomerET]

Silveras,

I was given permission by Marc Miller to create a Hero Lab ruleset for Traveller 5.

I started on that project, but have switched gears for the time being to create a Castles & Crusades ruleset.

Traveller 5 in Hero Lab is a very daunting project, due to the sheer amount of tables and such used during character generation.


BoomerET

[Dr_Automaton]

I've been wanting to add some stock NPCs and critters to a realm but have been vacillating on whether to put them in the World Almanac or Mechanics sections. Lately, I've been leaning towards Almanac with the reasoning that any world-specific creatures should have an Almanac topic anyway, which would leave a disparity between them and the generic listings if they were in Mechanics articles. I'm still hesitant to add any though since AFAIK there's no way other than copy-paste to move data between the Almanac and Mechanics sections. I'm hoping that maybe I'll have a better idea once more videos or the tutorial realm is available.

[chiefweasel]

I believe that you just create encounters in Hero Lab and insert the portfolio into RW.

[Kendall-DM]

Oh boy, been gone a while, didn't even get to 129 before 130 is out, d'oh. Work work work. Anyhow, what I've done is create all the "game mechanics" for creatures (not to be confused with the Mechanics section of RW) in HL, but all the Creature Lore, Ecology, Organization, etc. in RW. Where it should go is really up to the GM that is putting it in, I can see how the Mechanics section could fill the bill, but I also can see how the Almanac section applies as well. I stared out putting them under both, Creature Lore in Mechanics, Ecology and stuff in World Almanac, but that got clumsy. So I settled on putting it into the Mechanics section (I'm trying to 'unclutter' my Almanacs except for game session specific stuff).

[gloranphile]

Here's a sample of the bestiary I've started in RW. My system (RuneQuest6) does not have HeroLab capabilities, so I just use a table to show stats. It's crude, but it works at the table:



Bestiary sample

[BoomerET]

That looks quite nice.

Thanks gloranphile