Couple questions before buying

[Doomknife]

One question, actually.

I currently use City of Brass for the purposes which I'll use RW for. I already know which powers RW has that CoB does not, but my mais issue with CoB is that the "generic ruleset" demands that I enter all stats, trackables, spells, abilites, feats and so on for every single player or NPC I create.

And after I create one, that template isn't saved, so I have to do it all over again. I'm fully aware that RW demands a large entry work, but remaking the character sheet template everytime is taking way too long.

What I wanted to know is: once I determine what the stats are, can I set a template for future characters? For instance, I'm playing Symbaroum and I want to have a template like the character sheet (not design-wise but "data"-wise).

Also, habilities, spells, etc. are those saved to be used in other characters/NPCs? Same with items?

Thanks a bunch!

 

[Kairos]

One question, actually.

I currently use City of Brass for the purposes which I'll use RW for. I already know which powers RW has that CoB does not, but my mais issue with CoB is that the "generic ruleset" demands that I enter all stats, trackables, spells, abilites, feats and so on for every single player or NPC I create.

And after I create one, that template isn't saved, so I have to do it all over again. I'm fully aware that RW demands a large entry work, but remaking the character sheet template everytime is taking way too long.

What I wanted to know is: once I determine what the stats are, can I set a template for future characters? For instance, I'm playing Symbaroum and I want to have a template like the character sheet (not design-wise but "data"-wise).

Also, habilities, spells, etc. are those saved to be used in other characters/NPCs? Same with items?

Thanks a bunch!

From my experience, there are a couple ways into this.

First, you can create a Category with all the relevant snippets in this. Call it PC. Then, when you add PC Topics based on that Category, that Topic has all those snippets (or fields).

Second, you can use a statblock snippet type.

Third (which is what I do), I maintain in RW (or outside it as you like) the text of the PC character sheet. When I create a new PC/NPC, I paste in this statblock into the snippet and take advantage of the autolinking, so that skills, stats, weapons etc get linked to the Mechanics Reference (if you have that material entered).

 

[Doomknife]

Thanks a lot for answering so fast!

Although I'm not absolutely positive I get what you're saying (since I've never even fiddled with RW).

How does Character Sheets work, exacly?

 

[Kairos]

Thanks a lot for answering so fast!

Although I'm not absolutely positive I get what you're saying (since I've never even fiddled with RW).

How does Character Sheets work, exacly?

There isn't a character sheet per se, but a couple options for maintaining that data in RW. Attached are some screenshots of how I do it (#3 in my list above).

 

[AEIOU]

the "generic ruleset" demands that I enter all stats, trackables, spells, abilites, feats and so on for every single player or NPC I create.

RW doesn't require anything to be entered. Enter the material that is relevant. I remove the fields that aren't being used. I can add fields back if they are needed later. You can customize RW to meet your needs and you can add or remove snippets (fields) at any time.

The default snippets (fields) for PC/NPCs focus on race, class, mannerisms, contacts, history primarily. Stats, levels, spells, etc do not have predefined snippets. So minimal crunch or mechanics are predefined. The focus is on what you need to roleplay the PC/NPC.

Many people copy/paste a stat block in as a text field. If the game is supported by HeroLab, then you can link HeroLab portfolios.

Some people may add their own snippets for levels, spells, etc.

Monsters are different. They have snippets for all the stats. But again, you can ignore what you don't want to use. And you can remove the unused fields.

 

[daplunk]

What system do you play? It could greatly change the answer.

 

[Farling]

You can even enter a character in its own topic, and the duplicate that topic and modify a few details for the next similar character.

 

[Doomknife]

You can even enter a character in its own topic, and the duplicate that topic and modify a few details for the next similar character.

I'm playing Symbaroum and I wanted to use RW (among other things) to input PCs, NPC and such, for fast consultation during the session.

Another question (I´ve seen lots of people trashing RW for this): what's the cloud service needed for? Is it absolutely crucial? What features won't work if I don't want to use the cloud service?

 

[daplunk]

Ok here's some screen shots of 'some' of the ways you could do stat blocks.

This is a Realm Works category (D&D 5e). You can see it has categories for all sorts of stuff.

This is a single snippet with all the information pasted in.

This is a Hero Lab portfolio being viewed within Realm Works. This is the best option but your game system is not supported to my knowledge.

The take away being that Realm Works is incredibly flexible. You could put the stat block in a table, or not, completely up to you. You can format it anyway you like. You can create your own templates so you only have to create it once. Completely up to you. This is a very flexible program. Those little buttons next to each snippet can be ticket and if selected your players will be able to view that snippet using player copies if they have it.

 

[daplunk]

Now lets discuss the cloud support.

It's not necessary although I could not operate without it.

The cloud is basically a backup to a server. It's not live sync. You work in Realm Works and as you exit you get the option to sync your changes backup to the cloud.

If you are using just one machine and are ok with making your own backups (trust me, loosing a years worth of work in Realm Works is heart breaking) then you could go without it.

Personally, i need the cloud because I prep on my PC and run games on my laptop. The cloud backup lets me sync changes from one machine to the other and back again. It's very easy and saves a heap of messing around.

Also I don't trust my HDD's not to fail (anyone who watches my videos can vouch for that). I have about 2 years(?) of data entered. One of the largest realms around these parts to my knowledge (prove me wrong people I want to see the beastliest realms!) and if my HDD failed I sleep safe in the knowledge that my realm is backed up to the cloud.

Now all these nay-sayers are... well I wont say anything nasty... but no on, and i mean NO ONE is currently paying for cloud storage. The timer is stopped and has been as long as I have used the product. It's scheduled to start up again with the launch of the Content Market which is just around the corner so you are going to have to consider that in your purchase.

But seriously, for the amount of support that LWD give us (I pester them a couple of times a week and they always personally respond, sorry team!) I personally don't think the cost is a concern. Servers and bandwidth cost money to run. I use a ****load of bandwidth and i will certainly get my money out of support from the full-time team.

This isn't some coders project. This is professional software with many years of development and honestly... they deserve more than we have paid IMO.

 

[Doomknife]

Thanks a lot, you're very kind to respond with such detail (also, you're being passionate about it counts a lot of points!)!

I'm a avid user of cloud services such as google drive and onedrive. I'll prolly use just one machine for RW, but could I simply upload my files there from time to time and achieve the same result.

And for my final question (I promise): being able to somehow promptly check an spell's or abilitiy's information (like effects, duration, etc.) is something I wished for and I see that RW has a hiperlinks feature. Is there away to create these spells and abilities linkable so that, when looking at a player, NPC or monster, I can click it and see it's descriptive text?

 

[daplunk]

You can't configure Realm Works to point anywhere else to read the file. This means you can't run Realm Works from Google Drive or Dropbox. Technically there's nothing stopping you from taking manual backups though and putting them onto something like that.

Never say sorry for asking questions

Mate... linking is what Realm Works does.

You make a spell in the mechanics called 'Fireball'.

Now you go and create a monster or npc and in that snippet you type 'Fireball' under the bit where it lists the spells he knows.

That will automatically create a link to the 'Fireball'. Now you just click it. This works for everything.

Here let me show you. This is our last session summary. My players write it and post it in our private Facebook group and I copy it into Realm Works. All of the links created automatically as soon as I hit save.

 

[Doomknife]

That's awesome and I guess I'm pretty much sold for it!

(EDIT: Also I put your videos on my playlist, both RW and CC3+!)

Thanks a lot!

 

[daplunk]

My work here is done...

Actually that's a lie. Check my signature for a heap of videos on different ways to use the tool.

And welcome to the community

We are making a community dungeon if you would like to jump in on some fun!

 

[BJ]

That's awesome and I guess I'm pretty much sold for it!

(EDIT: Also I put your videos on my playlist, both RW and CC3+!)

Thanks a lot!

Welcome to Realm Works!

 

[EightBitz]

That's awesome and I guess I'm pretty much sold for it!

(EDIT: Also I put your videos on my playlist, both RW and CC3+!)

Thanks a lot!

Indeed, welcome to the fold. If you ever have need to print or to publish things to your own website, check out my RWExport script! Daplunk has videos on importing/exporting and on using my script to convert to HTML or Word. I've also written documentation (included with the script) based on his videos.

Check the link in my signature below.

And make sure you grab the latest version, which is currently 1.5.
Click on the "Branch: Master" drop-down to select the proper version.