I've had Realm Works since its release. I've been a bit put off by the sheer amount extra work needed to enter everything. I finally started entering information for a Shadowrun game I'm preparing to run. I thought about buying the 5 pack player edition, if I don't subscribe to the cloud service will the player editions not function with my realm?
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- The Lone Wolf Development Team
Is the players editions worth it without cloud service?
- Thread starter H2Os
- Start date
Not really sure what you expected as far as work, but things do not magically appear in databases, it must be entered. Text does not appear on pages magically it must be typed or dictated by some one. I guess it is a lot of extra work, but if you only enter it in Realm Works....Well its actually less work then any other method I have used in the past.
Player edition currently is designed to only function as a sync tool with the cloud service as far as I am aware.
MNBlockHead
Well-known member
Short Answer. Wait until the Marketplace is ready and see if it offers content you would like to use, then buy the subscription. You can all the features of RW and save a lot of time.
Long answer:
Yes, it is a lot of work...now. But this is one reason why you may want to consider a subscription. Once the marketplace is live, you will be able to buy adventures that other people put the work into, with all the cool features of RW. Exmortis's reply reads a bit harsh to me. I think there are some people like myself and, from his response it seems Exmortis, who use RW to build and manage campaigns and enjoy the process even though it *is* a *lot* of work. But there are many others who would rather buy a module, but have all the features of RW to enhance that content.
Long answer:
Yes, it is a lot of work...now. But this is one reason why you may want to consider a subscription. Once the marketplace is live, you will be able to buy adventures that other people put the work into, with all the cool features of RW. Exmortis's reply reads a bit harsh to me. I think there are some people like myself and, from his response it seems Exmortis, who use RW to build and manage campaigns and enjoy the process even though it *is* a *lot* of work. But there are many others who would rather buy a module, but have all the features of RW to enhance that content.
His question was pertaining to if the Player edition will work without the cloud.
answer - it doesn't seem so.
Hey H2Os, it sounds like you're asking, "Will my players be able to see what I enter into Realm Works with Player Edition if I don't have cloud service?" Is that true?
If so, then the answer is no, unfortunately. For players to access revealed content independently of the GM, the realm needs to exist within the Realm Works cloud, which means that Cloud Services are necessary. We have additional information on our Frequently Asked Questions page, so I would suggest you check that out. I hope that helps!
If so, then the answer is no, unfortunately. For players to access revealed content independently of the GM, the realm needs to exist within the Realm Works cloud, which means that Cloud Services are necessary. We have additional information on our Frequently Asked Questions page, so I would suggest you check that out. I hope that helps!
Because two computers in the same room couldn't possibly share information without a paid for middle-man across the globe.
That's okay, Hero Lab can't share information with any other computers either - and the stated reasoning for this decision is that internet connectivity is not everywhere people play RPG's... figure that out.
That's okay, Hero Lab can't share information with any other computers either - and the stated reasoning for this decision is that internet connectivity is not everywhere people play RPG's... figure that out.
That's unnecessarily snarky, and makes a terribly simplistic case out of something more complex.
If you want to have the information on two PCs, you can backup on one and restore on the other. Of course, you get two duplicates of ALL your realms that way.. not a "revealed information only in one Realm only" copy for the players.
Part of what the server does is to manage who gets access to what (at the player level now, and at the individual character level in the future)... and allows THEM to decide when they want to get an update... as well as to look at it from home between game sessions, or when the game is distributed and you're never in the same room to play.
HeroLab is not a comparable case... it is designed to be a portable electronic character sheet usable on a tablet or laptop at the game table for live updating.. primarily by the player. The data is stored locally, and no network connection is needed so that if the venue for the game doesn't have WiFi for everyone, or other network connectivity, there's no issue. It is also the case the while WiFi has become relatively common in some cities, that's a) a recent thing, not true when HeroLab's core was created and b) not the same as being common everywhere.
RealmWorks is a content distribution platform. It is a new medium for publishing content. It is closer to something like Amazon's Kindle, where the point is to have the connection from Amazon to your device for delivery of your content. That you can create your own content in the same platform is difference.
HeroLab is more like a word processing application on your device.. write what you like and copy the files where you need to in order to share. And the content is mostly of interest one player and one GM (maybe a few more).. who can easily share files if they like... as opposed to RealmWorks being a shared central repository for distribution, small scale (updates in your campaign to your players) or large scale (self-publishing your own world for others to use).
If you want to have the information on two PCs, you can backup on one and restore on the other. Of course, you get two duplicates of ALL your realms that way.. not a "revealed information only in one Realm only" copy for the players.
Part of what the server does is to manage who gets access to what (at the player level now, and at the individual character level in the future)... and allows THEM to decide when they want to get an update... as well as to look at it from home between game sessions, or when the game is distributed and you're never in the same room to play.
HeroLab is not a comparable case... it is designed to be a portable electronic character sheet usable on a tablet or laptop at the game table for live updating.. primarily by the player. The data is stored locally, and no network connection is needed so that if the venue for the game doesn't have WiFi for everyone, or other network connectivity, there's no issue. It is also the case the while WiFi has become relatively common in some cities, that's a) a recent thing, not true when HeroLab's core was created and b) not the same as being common everywhere.
RealmWorks is a content distribution platform. It is a new medium for publishing content. It is closer to something like Amazon's Kindle, where the point is to have the connection from Amazon to your device for delivery of your content. That you can create your own content in the same platform is difference.
HeroLab is more like a word processing application on your device.. write what you like and copy the files where you need to in order to share. And the content is mostly of interest one player and one GM (maybe a few more).. who can easily share files if they like... as opposed to RealmWorks being a shared central repository for distribution, small scale (updates in your campaign to your players) or large scale (self-publishing your own world for others to use).
Fuzzy, I think there’s a little bit of confusion here. Regardless of whether the computers are in the same room, the GM’s content needs to get into the Player Edition. It sounds like you’re asking why you cannot transfer the data to Player Edition via a flashbdrive or cloud storage like Dropbox, Skydrive, or GoogleDrive. I would recommend taking a look at Rob’s explanation here in this thread, but I’ll pull out part of his explanation to highlight how our cloud service works with Player Edition, and how it differs from Dropbox (the same reasoning would apply to transferring stuff via a flashdrive).
As you can see, it’s different from just sharing files like you would with Word Documents or even Hero Lab portfolios.
As you can see, it’s different from just sharing files like you would with Word Documents or even Hero Lab portfolios.
Hi Liz, thanks for replying. I have another question for you. Can I customize what each player sees? For example, I'm going to be inputting a handout into realm works. This handout will have 5 parts. I'll create each with its own snippet. Call them Snippet A, B, C, D, E. Can I reveal Snippet A to player 1 only, and snippet B to player 2 so on etc..?
No, going to a different cloud storage has the same issue. I would much prefer the GM edition act as the 'server' itself, and a player 'client' can connect to that. The frustrating part is that when asked about network features for Hero Lab, Rob's response was that he wasn't interested in that because many people don't have internet access where they play - then Realm Works comes out, and a major key feature of it depends on internet access.
Not yet.
Currently, reveal is for all players equally. It *is* snippet-by-snippet, but what is revealed is revealed to all players.
Per-character (as in even more specific than per-Player) control is in the works, but is not available at this time.
That's kind of apples and oranges isn't it?
The 'requirement' of RW is due to one of the core purposes of RW being for dessemination of information between GM and players.
How does that 'requirement' translate to a 'requirement' that it be internet connected and transferred to a 3rd party server?
MaxSupernova
Well-known member
Simply because the design decision was made that processing would take place at the "master server" when sync happens.
In order for some of the other design decisions to happen (web viewing, marketplace) a central repository was decided on, and that influences everything else about the storage and networking of your data.
That being said, to simply use RW as a repository for your own use, without sharing or importing, you don't need internet for anything except the initial realm creation.
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RW isn't even designed behind having intenet at the play table, in fact it is not designed at all with internet at the play table in mind. If it was, then "live" insta sync would be feature 1, not maybe in future feature.
RW's core design seems to be player view at the table and sync inbetween sessions. Which seems to be right in line with Rob's assesment of no intenet at the table. I know from my experience, my gaming group is one of the most future wielding groups around, we all use computers at the table with live internet and we have a GM player facing monitor.
My camaign however will take us to the next level, removing miniatures, paper, by going VTT and RW, thus taking us completely within the electronic frontier, no more paper at all, with RW handling all the information, HL characters and D20 the VTT.
I also have a teamspeak server, I am going to also provide a "poly" device so sick players, or travelling players that have internet can still join and play. We will never ever give up the social meeting of the game, ever, but we will hopefuly leverage tech to help us all play weekly, even when the flu tries to say otherwise.
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The only internet requirement for RW is for creating new realms. Period. Full stop.
RW's greatest strength and primary focus is in organizing a huge amount of data for the GM. The GM can access any and all information without internet access at any time in any place. The GM can plan, update, run games wherever they want. The only thing a GM cannot do without the internet is create a new realm. RW does exactly what it is advertised to do.
RW's desire is to accommodate a lot of different factions with notions of what RW needs to be. Player Edition fueled speculation and inflated hopes as LWD did not manage expectations effectively. What it was in reality and what it was in everyone's mind didn't match and some folks felt let down. Many folks want RW to be the holy grail that integrates everything despite LWD stating very clearly that VTT support and at-the-table synching are planned (and should have been commented on if they are important during the survey) but may not even be on the radar this year for all we know. RW strives to do everything it hasn't been advertised to do.
RW's greatest strength and primary focus is in organizing a huge amount of data for the GM. The GM can access any and all information without internet access at any time in any place. The GM can plan, update, run games wherever they want. The only thing a GM cannot do without the internet is create a new realm. RW does exactly what it is advertised to do.
RW's desire is to accommodate a lot of different factions with notions of what RW needs to be. Player Edition fueled speculation and inflated hopes as LWD did not manage expectations effectively. What it was in reality and what it was in everyone's mind didn't match and some folks felt let down. Many folks want RW to be the holy grail that integrates everything despite LWD stating very clearly that VTT support and at-the-table synching are planned (and should have been commented on if they are important during the survey) but may not even be on the radar this year for all we know. RW strives to do everything it hasn't been advertised to do.
Technically incorrect: first run for a Windows user, account creation, and deleting a realm also require Internet access. None of this requires you to have paid for cloud service.
ObTopic: Expectations are very hard to manage, but for those with good Internet access at their location an eventual Web client might provide the instant updates they'd like to see. It's more of a when will we see what; the developers have a ton on their plate already.
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Thanks @Parody for keeping me honest.Dark Lord Galen
Well-known member
To meander back toward the Thread Topic....
IF there is NO a chance your players might review, peruse, or utilize your realm away from your table... currently ,,, NO.
The uses for the RWPE is not particularly helpful... nearly all of what is currently available can be seen at the table via player view.
Unless there is a chance your players might review, peruse, or utilize your realm away from your table... and / or IF you have players that cannot make a session or are out of town, on assignment (or in my case) in the military, then it is a means that will grow into a useful access-point for them to keep abreast of and connected with their gaming group.
IMO
Your mileage may vary depending on expectations and application.
DLG
IF there is NO a chance your players might review, peruse, or utilize your realm away from your table... currently ,,, NO.
The uses for the RWPE is not particularly helpful... nearly all of what is currently available can be seen at the table via player view.
Unless there is a chance your players might review, peruse, or utilize your realm away from your table... and / or IF you have players that cannot make a session or are out of town, on assignment (or in my case) in the military, then it is a means that will grow into a useful access-point for them to keep abreast of and connected with their gaming group.
IMO
Your mileage may vary depending on expectations and application.
DLG
It is very useful for your players to peruse when they are not at the gaming table, i.e. between gaming sessions.
I suspect it is much more likely than just "Unless there is a chance".