Player/GM view on separate screens?

[Toblakai]

Originally Posted by ich.pdf

Well, sorry, that about being worth it was kind of redundant as you already made clear that you think it is worth it. I only wanted to point out that it is not you personally but the unawareness of the "blurry grey line" that is between critique and accusation that people sometimes have what causes a slightly passionate comment of mine in this thread

That's it. Over and out.

PS: I hope you will have fun :-D That's why we're here.

Now I am thinking about buying a projector and use a convenient wall for display.

[Farling]

Originally Posted by Toblakai

Monitor's is not an issue, I have a half a dozen monitors in my closet. It's a place to put them that would be the issue. My place, using my TV and a wireless HDMI adapater works great. The 2 friends houses I play at do not have anywhere to put a monitor (small room, small table) laptops take up all the space, would be nice to use the laptops for this.

The plug-in panel is really just a panel - it can be propped up against the back of your laptop screen (mine has a fitting where it can literally be fitted onto the back of a laptop if you really wanted that as an option). There are makes available that don't come with a a big awkward stand.

[rob]

<rant on>

There are as many different ways to run a game session as there are GMs out there. When we set out to create Realm Works, we focused on addressing needs that other products didn't touch. So we very intentionally designed Realm Works to NOT be a Virtual Tabletop. Of course, that doesn't stop anyone from thinking we SHOULD be a VTT.

But the simple reality is that, if we did add more VTT capabilities, then we'd start being directly compared to other VTTs. And then people would be complaining that we don't support light sources, or whatever else they think we SHOULD have in the product. So it doesn't matter what we do, someone out there will consider us stupid for not creating exactly the product they happen to want. Our objective is to create a product that a significant number of GMs DO want, with a tiny team, and I believe we've largely achieved that thus far - plus the list of what we DO offer continues to grow over time.

For those who want a VTT, Realm Works is not the best choice. There are multiple other products out there that do that stuff reasonably well. However, Realm Works overs a vast array of capabilities that NOBODY ELSE offers. If you want THOSE features, then Realm Works is an excellent option and well worth the investment.

Adding "live sync" was included in the feature survey we did early last year. It was not high on the collective list that everyone voted on, which means it's a capability that some felt is a "must have", while others couldn't care less. It will again be on the next survey, which will follow at some point after the Content Market goes live. Perhaps it will fare better this time around. You'll all have an opportunity to lobby the community for your personal favorites at that time.

<rant off>

[Toblakai]

Originally Posted by rob

<A Rant>

I don't really want a VTT, I use a mat to play on with mini's, don't plan on changing that. I would like the ability to reveal things like room descriptions, pictures of monsters/characters, treasure found in rooms, the name of businesses (and the associated NPC's) as the players wander through towns, etc. Do VTT's do this (never really looked), I thought they were mostly for combat management and dynamic mapping?

I also really would not want to enter the same information into 2 different places, one is already enough...

[Toblakai]

Originally Posted by Farling

The plug-in panel is really just a panel - it can be propped up against the back of your laptop screen (mine has a fitting where it can literally be fitted onto the back of a laptop if you really wanted that as an option). There are makes available that don't come with a a big awkward stand.

Would you mind giving me a link to one? I may be searching for the wrong thing, can't find one.

[rob]

Originally Posted by Toblakai

I don't really want a VTT, I use a mat to play on with mini's, don't plan on changing that. I would like the ability to reveal things like room descriptions, pictures of monsters/characters, treasure found in rooms, the name of businesses (and the associated NPC's) as the players wander through towns, etc. Do VTT's do this (never really looked), I thought they were mostly for combat management and dynamic mapping?

I also really would not want to enter the same information into 2 different places, one is already enough...

I guess I'm confused then. How does the current Player View mechanism come up short? It allows exactly what you outline as important to you. Unless your players all sit around the table staring at their own laptops, which does NOT sound like the case, Player View should give you what you're asking for. You can show everything directly to the players. If you use a laptop, you can turn it around to show them. If you have a tablet to show them, you can use something like Splashtop or sharing a window via Skype. But it certainly does not sound like you should be needing real-time updates on separate player laptops via syncing. What am I missing?

[adzling]

you can't live display text from snippets in player view rob.
at least that's the problem i have, no live text reveal for players at the table....

[AEIOU]

I use a VTT to interact with players, provide handouts, track combat and display maps. Sometimes there is chat but I prefer talking using TeamSpeak and we talk about rooms, encounters, etc rather than reveal text for everyone to read. Sometimes the players roll online using the VTT, sometimes they tell me their rolls -- we're all mature adults.

I use RW to plan before I hit the table, run the adventure and provide a record for everyone after the game. I don't reveal in real-time as it's just a distraction to me -- I'm old, whatevah. I reformat material in RW to flow more naturally (to me), have a consistent feel between products that I mash together and to modify stuff to better fit my players and games.

I think this general model is what Rob might be envisioning.

I would like better integration between my VTT (d20Pro) and RW. And I'd like to be able to print material out or export it so I can present it in the best format for the situation. These will come to RW someday and are what I will lobby for.

[Toblakai]

Originally Posted by rob

I guess I'm confused then. How does the current Player View mechanism come up short? It allows exactly what you outline as important to you. Unless your players all sit around the table staring at their own laptops, which does NOT sound like the case, Player View should give you what you're asking for. You can show everything directly to the players. If you use a laptop, you can turn it around to show them. If you have a tablet to show them, you can use something like Splashtop or sharing a window via Skype. But it certainly does not sound like you should be needing real-time updates on separate player laptops via syncing. What am I missing?

Well 5 of the 8 I play with, use laptops and hero lab. I was just very surprised that the product didn't have live update to player version. i will survive without it, either using a projector or something else. I find the laptop turning to be a bit cumbersome, and as soon as I turn it back its not something they can see anymore. Having a product that they can interact with on their laptops would be nice.

You also have the revealing of images a little bit at a time, that screams for live updates IMO too.

I am a new customer (6 months-ish) and have not seen a survey. Live updates will be at the top of my list if you send another out.

[Toblakai]

Originally Posted by AEIOU

I use a VTT to interact with players, provide handouts, track combat and display maps. Sometimes there is chat but I prefer talking using TeamSpeak and we talk about rooms, encounters, etc rather than reveal text for everyone to read. Sometimes the players roll online using the VTT, sometimes they tell me their rolls -- we're all mature adults.

I use RW to plan before I hit the table, run the adventure and provide a record for everyone after the game. I don't reveal in real-time as it's just a distraction to me -- I'm old, whatevah. I reformat material in RW to flow more naturally (to me), have a consistent feel between products that I mash together and to modify stuff to better fit my players and games.

I think this general model is what Rob might be envisioning.

I would like better integration between my VTT (d20Pro) and RW. And I'd like to be able to print material out or export it so I can present it in the best format for the situation. These will come to RW someday and are what I will lobby for.

i don't ever play online. Just at my table, so using a mat and mini's is what I do. I haven't actually used RW in a session yet, just picked it up a week and a half ago. From reading about RW, I did not get the impression that it was a VTT, but I did get the impression it had live updates.

One of the things I was planning on doing was entering the treasure in the room, and revealing snippets as they found and identified items. Another was when they identified a monster via a knowledge check I would reveal snippets based on their knowledge roll.

These 2 items don't work well with monitor turning. Do VTT's have this?