How are you guys using the Mechanics section?

[DeckOfManyThings]

This is the one part of Realm Works that still baffles me.

Should I be putting game rules in here? Generic stat blocks?

Is this section treated as a third Almanac by RW or does it have special rules associated with it?

Any help would be appreciated, I'd rather not do a ton of work and realize that I "did it wrong"

[Precisi]

I'm not sure on that one. That feature was added when I was swamped RL for a couple of weeks and I haven't looked at it yet.

[zarlor]

I've been using it, and I believe it's intended for, things like Rules. So you might put all of your Spells, Races, Feats, Edges, any general rules mechanics specific to this setting and so on in there. Some of it you may even just have for large chunks of text that you would never need to break out into the kinds of snippets you would in other places. Then everything pertinent to the campaign itself, monsters the players may encounter, NPCs, locations and such, all go into the Story section. Either one of them can still auto autolink categories in the other so in that sense it doesn't matter where you put things, but it is very helpful as a way to separate out certain things.

So Story is stuff you are likely to need for the campaign your players are in, to help keep things semi-localized an a bit easier to find at a glance. Almanac is for more general World stuff, so maybe cities and NPCs and gods and rumors and stories that are not necessarily relevant to your players for now but are still a part of your world that you want to keep track of. Mechanics is for all the crunchy rules stuff that supports that world.

I don't know about putting something like generic stat blocks there, though. For base templates I've been keeping those right in my Story section because I want to be able to quickly just grab, say, a generic "Citizen" template, copy it to a new name for an individual NPC I needed to make for my players on the fly. So that's something I'm more likely to need more readily in game than the general rules and mechanics, I think.

That's how I've been looking at it, anyway. Arguably you could break those things out into any way you like or that makes sense to you, but I think the default behavior for published stuff is going to be more like what I think I'm doing.

[Silveras]

A lot depends on what other tools you plan to use.

RealmWorks is not a VTT, and is not (primarily) a character creator/editor; but it does work nicely *with* either or both of those.

If you're using HeroLab, for example, there is little reason to put the stat blocks into RealmWorks. They're in HeroLab. They're accessible when needed. Depending on the VTT tool you're using, the HeroLab data may be exportable to that VTT. For that case, little if any rules-heavy information is needed in RealmWorks, and you can focus on the story elements.. how each NPC/creature fits into the plot, and building up the flavor for them (mannerisms, etc.).

If you're NOT using a separate character creator tool, though, you may want to have that material in RealmWorks.

Also, there's the question of your budget. I assume that there will be some data packages of rules mechanics available eventually. Some may be prepared for launch, some may come later. If you can use your existing PDFs and/or physical books, and you expect that you will eventually purchase the data packages if/when they're available, then you may not want to spend effort on entering a lot of the basics yourself.

On the other hand, if you don't want to wait and/or don't think you can budget for the data packages in a time you consider reasonable, then maybe you would want to put in the data yourself.

House Rules, and customizations, you would still want to enter in either case.

Depending on the game system, too, you might make different choices. Right now, Pathfinder is big, and being licensed, LoneWolf has a lot of support in HeroLab for Pathfinder. D&D 4E is quiet now, mostly, while waiting for D&D Next to come out. Traveller 5 just came out, but there's no HeroLab support at all yet. So, if you're working on Traveller 5 .. you might want to put all the rules mechanics in yourself, as there's less likelihood of a purchasable data pack. Conversely, Pathfinder seems like one you can assume will be done, so it might make sense to wait and see what the likely "official" one looks like before entering your own.

[MooseDetective]

I'm feeling really really dumb, but I'm not even sure how to use the mechanics section?

If I choose "Mechanics Reference" it seems to just bring up an empty pane and if I then "Create New Article" it brings up an "Article Categories" window with no options.

What am I missing? (besides everything?)

[DeckOfManyThings]

OK, I'll follow up on the thread I started.

I am using Realm Works to manage my Edge of the Empire (Star Wars RPG) campaign, so my examples will be using that.

I ended up using the Mechanics section to put in the "crunchy, universal rules used by stuff all throughout the system". In other words, I now have sections for:

* Skills (with sub categories for Combat, General, and Knowledge)
* Talents
* Talent Trees

And everything cross references everything else. The Talent Tree entries are 100% just links to the Skills and Talents that tree contains.

I will be adding the classes and races next. Then onto the equipment and weapon lists.

This way when I create an entry for an NPC, there will be links to the mechanics section where I can read the rule for his talents, his skills and his equipment, if needed.

[Agyess]

Originally Posted by MooseDetective

I'm feeling really really dumb, but I'm not even sure how to use the mechanics section?

If I choose "Mechanics Reference" it seems to just bring up an empty pane and if I then "Create New Article" it brings up an "Article Categories" window with no options.

What am I missing? (besides everything?)

you have to add your categories first. very bottom of the list in manage--> categories. Once you have it defined you can add new articles just like you add new topics.

[Grey Mage]

I used the Mechanics section for inputting SRD material: Skills, Classes, Races, Feats, Spells, etc. Then someone from LWD posted that there would be an announcement regard data purchases in a few weeks so I stopped and went back to putting in World data (locations etc)

[Silveras]

I am waiting to see what the data package version looks like. For entering any of my own custom data, I would want to match the formatting of the "official" set. In the meantime, I am also focusing on story content. I anticipate that world data will also be available in some kind of data package format, eventually.

[rob]

The Mechanics section is specifically intended for rules, whether they be official rules, house rules, rules culled from 3PP products, or something else entirely. The reason for including the Mechanics section is two-fold. First, we'll be publishing the rules material for various games under license from the publishers and we want to keep all those rules separate from all the story content (yet readily accessible for reference). Second, and most important, having the rules in Realm Works means that all the story content that utilizes those rules can be fully linked to the rules. If there's an encounter or some social conflict with an NPC that uses a game mechanic you aren't familiar with, just click the link and everything you need is right there for immediate reference. No more figuring out which book the rule is in and then looking it up - just click and go.