Looking for comments

OK I have started seeing people screen sof what they are doing in RW, and "thought, thats really cool!".

So thought id share some of mine and look for cooments, advice, and any constructive bits that may improve my work.

Screenie one represents a look at my Story Almanac with a keyed location within the Haunted Mansion that uses my custom category.

Screenie Two represents another look at my Story Almanac with more of a look at how I have organized the story events, people but I took away places for space. Also another look at my custom category for keyed locations

Screenie three represents the World Almanac, a look at some of the organization of topics, and a peek at the starring good NPC Rory. I am using liberal use of the link sections when I can, anything that some how connects to another topic, gets some kind of link.

Anyway fire away, would love to get some feed back.

Thanks for sharing. I find it helpful looking at how other are using the tool to inform my decisions on how to use it. I like your use of multiple state blocks so that NPC development can be taken into consideration depending upon when you encounter the NPC.

MNBlockHead said:

Thanks for sharing. I find it helpful looking at how other are using the tool to inform my decisions on how to use it. I like your use of multiple state blocks so that NPC development can be taken into consideration depending upon when you encounter the NPC.

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Thanks, yeah that came about when realizing I had to make more than one .por for some encounters. but remembered HL allows you to import to exsisting, so I then have every major NPC with its own .por and the base encoutners with a .por. Thsi set up allows a very flexible situation for encounters.

In the haunted mansion, the group actually "rescues a spy" so having the ability to import a .por into any encounter is huge, never know when he will "switch" sides.

I too have been putting combined encounter .POR's in the adventures and individual .POR's in each individual. It's a good approach.

I admittedly have been quite hesitant to drop PORs in mass into RW... until there is a means to update them globally...
It would be quite beneficial to do PORs or all your prominent NPCs and as you progress them. They, in turn, get updated in RW during a Sync maybe?.. till then its a lot of rework.... isn't it?

Not knowing how others manage the details of their own campaigns, my "realm" spins on whether the PCs interact with the NPC or not.

So the only work around I can see is either multiple PORs set to Game Dates (Calendar Plug here) that would be utilized as the warranted time had past.
OR constantly updating and re-importing PORs as the system is currently....
Right?

Dark Lord Galen said:

I admittedly have been quite hesitant to drop PORs in mass into RW... until there is a means to update them globally...
It would be quite beneficial to do PORs or all your prominent NPCs and as you progress them. They, in turn, get updated in RW during a Sync maybe?.. till then its a lot of rework.... isn't it?

Not knowing how others manage the details of their own campaigns, my "realm" spins on whether the PCs interact with the NPC or not.

So the only work around I can see is either multiple PORs set to Game Dates (Calendar Plug here) that would be utilized as the warranted time had past.
OR constantly updating and re-importing PORs as the system is currently....
Right?

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If an NPC has more then one state, they have more then one .por file. Like Rory, they actually meet him on the slaver ship in Scene 1 chapter 0. So he has a .por with no equipment, however I also have his fully kitted out .por file. Most of my NPCs are static, in effect as an example the High Priest of the Cult of the White Horseman will be around 7th level, he will not change, cuz either the party will be dead, or he will be after they meet face to face.

All of the adventures encounters are also set, so if the encounter is Two Slavers and two Gnolls its got a .por file in the room where they are met.

If for some reason that changes, then I can pull the file and update it, having a HL to RW sync feature would be awesome though for sure. Though I use my own game world, this adventure run is actually a classic rerun of my favorite 1st and 2nd edition adventures, well a homage of, each is being taken as inspiration, reworked, retooled and re-presented here as an adventure. Though inspired from, they are very different when I am done with them. DNDclassics.com is a great place.

My campaign storyline is set in 4 major chapters, each with three major adventures centred around a quest, with each chapter culimating in facing off with the High priest of each of the Cults of the Four Horseman, all to thwart Necrostophiles and the Union of the Apocalypse.

What the poor bastards do not know (and none post here so im safe), is they will arrive too late and the first three horseman will actually be brought fourth by the cults, Pestilence, Famine, and War will ravage the landscape as they race in the fourth chapter to stop the coming Pale horse and his rider Death. As each horseman enters Daede, they bring with them their portfolio of control, having a profound effect on the game world and the PCs/NPCs, as an example when Pestilence enters, they will suffer a progressive effect of negative to poison and disease saves, their duratiosn will be longer and eventually effects intensified. Man do I need Calendar!

I seem to recall an early conversation to the effect that structural issues in Hero Lab limit how much they can integrate it with Realm Works - it was written well before Realm Works, and so didn't know to take into account the capabilities needed now.

At some point I'm sure they'll start looking at a rebuild of Hero Lab, specifically to address some of those issues. We should probably start spending some of our time in the Hero Lab boards, proposing the changes we want to see now that we're starting to develop ideas about how we want to use the two programs together.

I'm sure another Wolf Lair team would just love to get as much attention and idea suggestions as we've been providing over here

pyremius said:

I seem to recall an early conversation to the effect that structural issues in Hero Lab limit how much they can integrate it with Realm Works - it was written well before Realm Works, and so didn't know to take into account the capabilities needed now.

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As you point out one came long before the other, and I think the thread you are referring to also noted they are actually written in two different programing languages...

pyremius said:

At some point I'm sure they'll start looking at a rebuild of Hero Lab, specifically to address some of those issues. We should probably start spending some of our time in the Hero Lab boards, proposing the changes we want to see now that we're starting to develop ideas about how we want to use the two programs together.

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Nice thought, but don't even see this on the distant horizon (J my 2cp)

pyremius said:

I'm sure another Wolf Lair team would just love to get as much attention and idea suggestions as we've been providing over here

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Did you HEAR THAT???? That screaming noise is the sounds of Lawful G & Shadow.... hehehe

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhh..... * sound fades into the distance *

@Aaron: Be careful what you wish. We're a surly crew you may not want boarding your ship....

I update major characters and keep a running tab on character leveling primarily. The red shirts and bit actors aren't worth focus unless they change roles or importance to the stories.

In Stoneheart Valley, the main villain Vortigern reappears repeatedly if the PCs don't defeat him in each encounter. As written, he is static even though the PCs progress so he doesn't keep pace and the challenge becomes less satisfying. I'm having fun working on how and why he should also be progressing so he continues to be a challenge (and a surprise) at a slower pace than the PCs but still keeping him fresh.

AEIOU said:

@Aaron: Be careful what you wish. We're a surly crew you may not want boarding your ship....

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I think the forum needs an "alias" alert like RW..... There goes Lawful G slipping in from the shadows under his alter ego Aaron....

AEIOU said:

I update major characters and keep a running tab on character leveling primarily. The red shirts and bit actors aren't worth focus unless they change roles or importance to the stories.

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Same here EXACTLY... but have not found a "convenient" / "easy" way to do this within RW...
I had hopes with the integrate button, but seems to only remember the initial POR file attached, any changes made in herolab it "seems" oblivious to, unless I am totally overlooking something.

It would be nice to have a modification to this that uploads the latest POR files for attached "people".

I do one extra step for my cast lists.... The cast lists are containers for all my main NPCs, but I do really care about the red shirts and bit actors too. I want to know where Carrie Anne Crueller is (the bakery shop), who she is (the baker) and a what she is (NG female halfling Com3). So I keep a master table in each cast list that includes EVERYONE, including all of the other people that would also be contained in that cast list if only the players needed to interact with them more often. The biggest downside to this is manual maintenance. And since it's a table I can't reveal individuals to players.

Rob had an interesting idea of making bit NPCs an alias for the area they are in. But I can't move the alias to the cast list container while also keeping the Bakery in the town container. I also considered making stubs for every single NPC but while the linkages would be epic and I'd be ready to go should I need to flesh someone out, that felt way too clunky and I'd never remember who was a main NPC and who was essentially just a piece of furniture.