Can Realm Works (or anything else) do this? Call for assistance from DMs out there

[Geofram]

I'm currently the DM for a game of Pathfinder that I'm running for some friends of mine. I've been putting it together through word docs and that kind of random stuff, but it's getting too hard to keep it all organized and in a way that makes sense, so I've been looking into software to do that for me.

I like most of what I see with Realm Works, but I have one need that I'm not sure how to handle.

The game is extremely plot heavy; as such, several of my players like to do "side missions" with their characters during the week between playing sessions. They go out and have conversations with people in town, or take care of personal business separate from the party. It means they find out things and know things that the rest of the party doesn't.

Those RP side sessions generally end up as long email chains between me and the player(s) involved, which is a really inefficient way for me to keep track of what happens (suggestions on any way to replace that?)

Does Realm Works (the player edition, or web, whenever that comes out) allow for the DM to share a note or summary with a single player, rather than all of them? I figure that there's nothing I can do to move the email chains into it (as much as I'd like to) but would it be easy for me to write up a summary and add it somewhere in where just that individual player and I can see it?

Also, does the Player version of RM allow for players to make their own notes in a campaign? If they had their laptop open at the game, could they type in notes about a specific NPC, place, or note about something another PC did during an encounter, for example?

 

[Zaphod Beebledoc]

The game is extremely plot heavy; as such, several of my players like to do "side missions" with their characters during the week between playing sessions. They go out and have conversations with people in town, or take care of personal business separate from the party. It means they find out things and know things that the rest of the party doesn't.

Those RP side sessions generally end up as long email chains between me and the player(s) involved, which is a really inefficient way for me to keep track of what happens (suggestions on any way to replace that?)

At the moment, you can only reveal each snippet to all the players. Basically it's in a binary mode, all or nothing.

At some point, you'll be able to reveal snippets to the characters.

So, if characters A and B go to the local guildhouse to look for work and find out information X, and character C has a drink in the tavern and sees the barkeep slipping something in the ale, then you could copy the text from the emails, put it into snippets, and reveal relevant info to the characters.

E.g. snippet 1 has information X, revealed to only characters A and B, and snippet 2 is revealed to char C only.

 

[Zaphod Beebledoc]

As far as other sharing notes and things, I've not run any games with RW yet, let alone got any players connected, so I don't know.

 

[kbs666]

The player journal is not really very useful. I know improvements to it is on the list but who knows when that will happen.

Individual player reveal is supposed to be coming relatively soon.

 

[the_redbeard]

The current "game session" topic doesn't have many features; it doesn't even check for links within its text. It was a disappointment to me.

HOWEVER, it is simple to create your own "game session" topic that checks for links within its snippets (snippets are individual reveal-able sections of information).

You could simply cut and paste the text of the emails into snippets into a self defined scene/game session topic. You could put a game date snippet within that topic. Realm Works would then scan through the text and create links whenever a named topic was mentioned in that text. Myself, I find this EXTREMELY USEFUL as a means of recording and finding notes. I would be able to easily find sessions in which an NPC was mentioned, which PCs were involved and what happened.

Yes, I am eagerly awaiting features like individual character reveal. Currently I am reasonably hopeful about the level of progress.

I recommend purchasing Realm Works sooner rather than later. The sooner you are putting those notes into your database, the better for your sake. Even if none of your players have access, I think the benefit to yourself will be worth the trouble (unless the purchase price is a hardship which for some it would be.)

 

[Sword_of_Spirit]

The current "game session" topic doesn't have many features; it doesn't even check for links within its text. It was a disappointment to me.

HOWEVER, it is simple to create your own "game session" topic that checks for links within its snippets (snippets are individual reveal-able sections of information).

I'm glad to hear someone else has been doing that, because I've been planning on doing something similar, but since I'm pretty new to the software it's experimental on my end.

My plan is to create a new article category in the Mechanics section (because I'm not using it for much, and it will avoid cluttering up the rest of my views with long lists of play sessions), and use that to create individual play session notes to keep a campaign journal. It seems like prefixes are an ideal way of sorting them chronologically.

I'm thinking of adding various tags and snippets to record things like what the real play date was as well as the in-world dates that the session covered. I haven't decided what else to include in the article structure yet.

How has it been working for you? Am I missing any ideas you would suggest implementing with this technique?

To the OP, I believe both of those things you requested are in the works.

 

[the_redbeard]

I'm glad to hear someone else has been doing that, because I've been planning on doing something similar, but since I'm pretty new to the software it's experimental on my end.

My plan is to create a new article category in the Mechanics section (because I'm not using it for much, and it will avoid cluttering up the rest of my views with long lists of play sessions), and use that to create individual play session notes to keep a campaign journal. It seems like prefixes are an ideal way of sorting them chronologically.

I'm thinking of adding various tags and snippets to record things like what the real play date was as well as the in-world dates that the session covered. I haven't decided what else to include in the article structure yet.

How has it been working for you? Am I missing any ideas you would suggest implementing with this technique?

To the OP, I believe both of those things you requested are in the works.

I use an "Event List" container to hold all the game sessions of a particular group, so they don't otherwise clutter my event section. I also number them, and add a descriptive title. It isn't ideal because there could be some utility naming things by date and reviewing the sequence of events. My 2nd group starts tomorrow and they'll have their own EventList container for their sessions. But I am unsure if that is the best way to do it.

Snippets I have in my custom "game session" topic:
Game Date start, Game Date end, Real Date, Experience Awarded, Significant treasure found, Characters present, Location(s)...
After that it's just one line snippets of notes of events as they occur and I record them or as I recall and write down later. I take unrevealed GM notes here as well.

 

[MaxSupernova]

Snippets I have in my custom "game session" topic:
Game Date start, Game Date end, Real Date, Experience Awarded, Significant treasure found, Characters present, Location(s)...
After that it's just one line snippets of notes of events as they occur and I record them or as I recall and write down later.

This is exactly how I do it too. I'm unsure if it's "best" but it works.

 

[Dervish]

OP are you and your group using herolab? and have access to a cloud storage account such as Google Drive or DropBox if you do have your players store their POR files there and you can use the built in character journal for notes