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thekwp
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2016
Posts: 8

Old October 1st, 2019, 08:47 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BJ View Post
"Lone Wolf is undergoing several major changes and I wanted to personally take the time to update everyone on what those changes are and how they will impact our users.
Thank you for taking the time to write this both to your clients, and to us on the forums here. I know this cannot have been easy.

Quote:
Originally Posted by BJ View Post
To start with, effective immediately, we are officially suspending work on Realm Works while we focus on improving our other products. Realm Works is “my baby”, and there’s a great sadness in making this decision, but the reality is that, despite our efforts, Realm Works is failing as a commercial venture with what limited resources we can put into it. There are quite a few things we could do to improve it, but that would require a significant investment of time and resources, neither of which we currently have.
I cannot say I am surprised by this. Saddened, disappointed, and frustrated, but not surprised.

Realm Works fills a need I definitely have as a Game Master. My campaigns tend to run 3-5 years; having a source that lets me track my world and what is know, etc as well as relationship, connections, plots, etc. This is something I have worked on for myself with wikis and other tools. I had very high hopes for Realm Works.

I bought and found it... close enough to what I need to find real value in it, and had hopes it could evolve into what I really wanted. In the years since, with the minimal development that has happened, I began to suspect the evolution would not happen. I have worked a few decades in IT now; I recognized the patterns.

I will continue to use Realm Works for my current campaign for the next couple of years. I am not sure I will use it for my next one, even though I am ready to start to doing development work on that now. I want to use a tool that will get to where I need, and will support the interactions with players that I think will really add depth to the game at the table.

Having said that, I would be very interested in hear what options the community comes up with to share. I would support an open source effort. I will even watch carefully to see what features creep into HeroLabs -- I don't use that product (primarily because I do not like the output formats) but many of my friends do.

I will continue to (mostly) lurk here. I will continue to use it for several years to come. I have hopes to see something rise phoenix like from the ashes here, but I don't any high expectations. I will also be very, very interested to hear what replacement options the people here discover and pursue as well.

What I think I will miss most (next to the support from the forums for making things work) is not seeing an adventure that was written to make real use of Realm Works -- not just an import of an existing adventure, but one written with the tool in mind and its features.

Thank you Rob for a serious effort to give the Game Master the tool sets to run an in depth and vibrant campaign. I am very glad your heath has improved. I hope Lone Wolf survives the changes you have to go through now and prospers in the future. I'll be around here, with my irregular lurking habits, and hope to read about improved progress in the future.
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