Big Pathfinder AP Project

[Nero Shade]

I am currently working my way through imputing the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition into Realm Works. This is a huge project that is going to take some serious time and work.

What are some tips to speed things up in this project? I don't have a start date for the game yet, but I would like to get it transferred over as quickly as possible.

Is there anyone out there doing the same thing? If so, is there any way we could split the work and help each other?

 

[lifer4700]

I am also running the RotRL anniversary addition, we just started (the night of the festival right now, if you know what I mean...)

Anyway, I'm certain Paizo won't pass up this opportunity to get some more cash out of me, and likely others, by providing a professionally crafted version dripping with custom artwork, etc.

However, in the meantime, I would certainly be interested in this, since I was already resigned to be doing it myself anyway!

Now I just need the software...

 

[Ladyofdragons]

Depends on how you are doing it currently. I have an old dungeon magazine adventure I'm putting in and converting to PF. I'm using my scanner to scan the pages and using OneNote to pull the text out of the image. Some scanners have scan-to-text features, they vary in how accurate they are. Not fast, but certainly faster than typing it all in from scratch.

 

[lifer4700]

Well, I'm running mine in Fantasy Craft (Crafty Games) instead of Pathfinder. So all my NPCs will be stat'ed up differently, but I'm keeping all the same details of the game world.

 

[woobyluv]

Since you guys are working on RotRL, I'll take a crack at Curse of the Crimson Throne. I really enjoyed running that AP and would like to run it again sometime from RW.

 

[rob]

It will NOT be valid to share commercially published content with other users through Realm Works unless the publisher specifically allows it. Sharing the material would likely result in us receiving a take-down notice, as it would be similar to posting a re-formatted PDF of the AP (or module, or setting, etc.) for others to use.

We are in negotiations with Paizo (and other publishers) to make their material available through Realm Works. Nothing has yet been signed, but I believe we've worked things out in principle and are now sorting through the details.

Please note that it IS perfectly valid for users to take content from published material that they have purchased (in print or PDF) and put it into Realm Works for their own use. This also includes incrementally sharing that material with their players through the course of running the campaign. The issue is with providing the material to another GM to run it, since that GM would first need to purchase the material from the publisher.

We're working with publishers to make Realm Works a next-generation publishing vehicle, which will allow GMs to purchase content that's vastly more usable and ready for immediate delivery to players. The best thing you can do to support us in this effort is to tell the publishers directly that you want them to support Realm Works and that you're happy to pay for the material through Realm Works. Posting polite requests on their forums would be an excellent avenue to pursue.

 

[Nero Shade]

Well, when you do work something out you are going to need data entry people. Any possibility of becoming one of those?

I would be interested. Especially if it gets me the AP in Realm Works sooner and without too many more purchases.

 

[Nero Shade]

By the way, I am copy-pasting from PDFs into Realm Works. I can't imagine typing it all out by hand.

 

[rob]

Well, when you do work something out you are going to need data entry people. Any possibility of becoming one of those?

Definitely possible. We've recently been recruiting members of our Beta team to help out with data entry work, largely because they are already very familiar with how to do things. The key thing for you to do would be to spend time becoming familiar with and then proficient with Realm Works. We'll definitely be needing more people to help with the work, and our biggest requirement will be proficiency with the product to accomplish that objective.

 

[rob]

By the way, I am copy-pasting from PDFs into Realm Works. I can't imagine typing it all out by hand.

That's the best way to do it. I hope you've been copying and pasting large chunks and then splitting them up into snippets using <ctrl+Enter>. Combined with pasting and using the snippet option to remove all the formatting, it makes bringing content in from PDFs fast and relatively painless.

 

[Nero Shade]

That is exactly how I have been doing it. Your little tools for formatting have been excellent in making this a quicker and easier process.

 

[Silveras]

I have been entering Second Darkness. Based on that:

Expect to do multiple passes.

"Rough in" the main topics. Either People or Places first, with just name and any identifier you want to use. I found Places slightly more effective than People first, but it does not matter much; either way, you will see the links appear when you start entering the details.

Be prepared to edit and move things around. The presentation in the AP is text, and makes sense for a GM reading the book solo. When it comes to RealmWorks, you will likely want to split up some paragraphs into separate snippets for easier revealing. Also, expect to re-word some of them so they make more sense to the players.

I found doing the home base city first, then specific adventure locations, worked pretty well.

Because I expected that there would be some kind of "official" version of published books available eventually, I have focused on the AP-specific materials, with only enough background to make it work. I expect something based on the Inner Sea World Guide to be available eventually, so I don't want to duplicate that effort.

Creating a custom topic for the contents of the Campaign Guide, and revealing all of the snippets, should make al of that advice immediately available to the players when you start. You can also add to this if you want to use 3rd party classes or expand on the advice for customizations.

Since I have the HeroLab files for details of the creatures, I don't bother putting in more than names and flavor information. Anything I need for running encounters and the like can stay in HeroLab until needed. That won't help those running a game system without HeroLab support as much, though.

 

[eponette]

It will NOT be valid to share commercially published content with other users through Realm Works unless the publisher specifically allows it. Sharing the material would likely result in us receiving a take-down notice, as it would be similar to posting a re-formatted PDF of the AP (or module, or setting, etc.) for others to use.

We are in negotiations with Paizo (and other publishers) to make their material available through Realm Works. Nothing has yet been signed, but I believe we've worked things out in principle and are now sorting through the details.

Please note that it IS perfectly valid for users to take content from published material that they have purchased (in print or PDF) and put it into Realm Works for their own use. This also includes incrementally sharing that material with their players through the course of running the campaign. The issue is with providing the material to another GM to run it, since that GM would first need to purchase the material from the publisher.

We're working with publishers to make Realm Works a next-generation publishing vehicle, which will allow GMs to purchase content that's vastly more usable and ready for immediate delivery to players. The best thing you can do to support us in this effort is to tell the publishers directly that you want them to support Realm Works and that you're happy to pay for the material through Realm Works. Posting polite requests on their forums would be an excellent avenue to pursue.

I know that you probably do, but please never forget all those not using best sellers RPG. We know that our games will NEVER be published through RW. And most of our games are home made. Please don't forget us and keep RW also game independent.

 

[rob]

I know that you probably do, but please never forget all those not using best sellers RPG. We know that our games will NEVER be published through RW. And most of our games are home made. Please don't forget us and keep RW also game independent.

The dev team mostly runs custom campaigns across a wide range of game systems. Many of those game systems are either niche, out-of-print, niche AND out-of-print, or homebrew. Some of us even remember buying the original box of D&D (the three books that were just re-printed) and anxiously waiting for the Greyhawk supplement to come out. <sigh> That was 37 years ago.

So don't worry. The design of Realm Works will always keep those concerns squarely in focus, since we're writing something that we can also use ourselves. And we can accomplish that while also creating a product that excels for the big name games. It just takes a bit more work to do both.

 

[Nero Shade]

I have been entering Second Darkness. Based on that:

Expect to do multiple passes.

"Rough in" the main topics. Either People or Places first, with just name and any identifier you want to use. I found Places slightly more effective than People first, but it does not matter much; either way, you will see the links appear when you start entering the details.

Be prepared to edit and move things around. The presentation in the AP is text, and makes sense for a GM reading the book solo. When it comes to RealmWorks, you will likely want to split up some paragraphs into separate snippets for easier revealing. Also, expect to re-word some of them so they make more sense to the players.

I found doing the home base city first, then specific adventure locations, worked pretty well.

Because I expected that there would be some kind of "official" version of published books available eventually, I have focused on the AP-specific materials, with only enough background to make it work. I expect something based on the Inner Sea World Guide to be available eventually, so I don't want to duplicate that effort.

Creating a custom topic for the contents of the Campaign Guide, and revealing all of the snippets, should make al of that advice immediately available to the players when you start. You can also add to this if you want to use 3rd party classes or expand on the advice for customizations.

Since I have the HeroLab files for details of the creatures, I don't bother putting in more than names and flavor information. Anything I need for running encounters and the like can stay in HeroLab until needed. That won't help those running a game system without HeroLab support as much, though.

That is pretty much how I have been handling it. I did a quick topic for Varisia, a more detailed one for Sandpoint, and now I am working through all of the important location in that town. At some point I will be going through and putting in all the important NPCs.

I didn't think about just doing names and identifiers and then coming back later and putting in the snippets. That would certainly speed things up with linking things, and would mean fewer passes through everything to make sure all the links are in there.

One of the things I have been doing is just pasting all the information into the Description section and then splitting it up into snippets. At some point I will be going back to reorganize, expand, and even rewrite the snippets. Some of the sentences have basic information that could be learned early on mixed in with information the PCs may never find out, and sometimes it isn't immediately clear if you need to split up a statement or not.

Once I have all that done I want to go in and fill in details like possible items for sale, a tavern's meals, background information on an NPC, or anything else the actual AP doesn't cover. Things that I wouldn't be inputting if I was one of the data entry people, for example.

 

[rob]

Important Tip!

Be sure to use "Quick Create" when entering content to ensure all the links are automatically created immediately for you. Let's say you're pasting in a topic for an NPC named Fred. The text talks about his buddy Barney and his wife Wilma, as well as the town he lives in and where he works.

Before you press the Save button, press <ctrl+Q> a few times. This will prompt you to select the type of topic to create and specify the name. That's all there is to it. This will create a new topic with the given name, returning you right back to where you were. Then when you press the Save button, all those topics are in place and the links to them are automatically detected and hooked up the very first time!

Using the above technique will eliminate many of those extra passes you refer to above. Hope this helps!

 

[Silveras]

I found Quick Create quite helpful for adding minor NPCs or places that are mentioned in one or two places only. I still find it more practical to comb through the book doing all of the People and Places without details, first. I also use that pass to create the HeroLab portfolios of all of the NPCs I will need (typically 1 - 4 large portfolios with all of the monsters and NPCs needed per book of the AP).

 

[pjrichert]

Some of us even remember buying the original box of D&D (the three books that were just re-printed) and anxiously waiting for the Greyhawk supplement to come out. <sigh> That was 37 years ago.

Rob, good to hear you're an old-timer like me. I remember when they came out, had em, got Grehawk, got the first ed books when they came out hardcover, etc, etc, ad nauseum.

Any thought to publishing your own games? Or having freelancers work with you to create games specifically for RW?

 

[rob]

Any thought to publishing your own games? Or having freelancers work with you to create games specifically for RW?

We're a software development house, and the leap across to RPG publisher entails an entirely different skill set. So we don't have plans to publish our own creations. HOWEVER, we DO intend for Realm Works to provide an excellent publishing vehicle for RPG creators, whether they be content for an existing game (e.g. modules, settings, etc.) or entire new game systems. We're partnering with a variety of publishers to that end already and working on licenses with more companies. We definitely view it as a partnership, though, since we'll leave the writing to those with expertise in that arena and we'll focus on providing great software to leverage with that content.