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Hiaasen
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 2

Old April 5th, 2014, 09:51 AM
I would also like to see better integration with Hero Lab. Most of the "snippet" fields are duplicates of fields already populated in HL automatically during the character creation process. Entering this information manually a second time is cumbersome and feels unnecessary. As a new user and a new GM already in the middle of a campaign, I was looking forward to using Realm Works to lighten my load with respect to data entry and ongoing management. I still look forward to this, but I am finding it's going to take a long while to get there.

Here is my ideal scenario for starting a new campaign: Use Hero Lab to generate PCs and NPCs quickly. Use Realm Works to import character data from HL files quickly. To me, this would mean individuals in the People Group in left-hand navigation would already be created with as many snippets as possible already filled in and Tags already generated. I would then use Realm Works to create the world and drop the characters into it. As I am a Pathfinder user, I would also be excited to see content supplements for Adventure Paths to fill in the rest of the content (Places, Events, etc.) in Realm Works in the same way that I can purchase supplements in Hero Lab for character details from core books.

Lone Wolf rightly determined that character generation and management is a powerful tool that most gamers need first and foremost, which they did with Hero Lab. Their execution on Hero Lab was and is exquisite. They have developed a very powerful campaign management engine with Realm Works. The downside of campaign management is the sheer amount of data entry involved. Speaking for myself, I'm not sure I have the time to do Realm Works justice from a data entry standpoint. There are far too many fields to flesh out in any given Group (People, Groups, Places, Things, Events, and Other) for me to "get it all in" in the 2-3 hours per month I can dedicate to game prep (our game is monthly). I am sure there are plans to offer licensed content supplements that have been made available for Pathfinder through Hero Lab. Until this content is available, I worry that I have wasted my $50.

The feature I see myself using the least is the cloud server feature, unless my players can get user licenses for free. I don't see them paying even half price to read what I can tell them out loud at the table for free. This is largely something I will be using to keep myself organized. So far it has proved itself a bit too cumbersome.
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