Plan/Order for Adding Other Genre/Systems?

[Azgulor]

Hi, RealmsWorks crew.

First, I wanted to say thank you for creating RealmWorks. This is the application that I've always wanted as a GM. I've only been using it for a little over a week or so, but it's already become an indispensable GM aid even without the to-come-later features. It's the best gaming purchase/investment I've made since, well, since HeroLab! My sincere thanks on making this product a reality.

RealmWorks has been fantastic for inputting and cataloging my Pathfinder campaigns, even in its current v1 form. However, RealmWorks is very Pathfinder-centric at the moment. I'm basing that comment off of the Race, Class, & Expertise fields in a "People" topic.

While I'm aware that 90+% of RealmWorks isn't system or genre dependent in terms of the info it accepts & stores, I'm curious if there are plans to incorporate genre & system choices into the RealmWorks topics?

As an example, if I'm running a sci-fi Savage Worlds game, I would like to be able to select or create tags for the various alien races in my campaign. Or in a RPG that doesn't use character classes like Savage World, I'd like to be able to select/create appropriate Sci-Fi archetypes, professions, etc.

Is this kind of functionality already in the product roadmap or would this all be feature-request fodder?

Thanks!

P.S. - If there's a RPG that I'd like to see get more RealmWorks & HeroLab love, it'd be Savage Worlds.

 

[EightBitz]

As far as creating archetypes and professions, that sounds like something that would be better done in Hero Lab.

 

[zarlor]

It's pretty easy to just put in whatever Race tag you want to go along with the Elves, Dwarves and Humans. So to my mind you're already good there. Sam can be said for professions, if you wanted to make tags for that. For archetypes I would agree with EightBitz. SW archetypes are just sample characters and making those in Hero Lab or just putting in statblocks works great. I'm all with you on seeing more Savage Worlds love anywhere we can get it, though!

 

[Parody]

I've been putting my Paranoia adventures into Realm Works. Paranoia is about as different from Pathfinder as you can get; sure they both start with the letter 'P' and they're both tabletop roleplaying, but that's about where the similarity ends. :)

I ended up hiding most of the default categories and tag domains, opting instead to create new ones even when there's a similar existing item. Why?

Simplicity - The subset of the Paranoia XP/Troubleshooters rules I use (which is what I've been putting into the Mechanics Reference) is extremely small compared to the core rulebook of a D20-based system. Characters are much simpler than you might need for a large ongoing campaign, even for those who appear in multiple adventures. The other items (locations, scenes, in-game items, etc.) are roughly similar to what you'd see in a published adventure, though often an item is a character just as much as any other NPC.

It seemed easier to create a few new, simple categories that match the system and how I want to work rather than spend a bunch of time adapting the existing, often complex ones.

Eventual Use - For my Paranoia adventures I'm using Realm Works as a tool for my own writing and reference, not for revealing information at the table. My Paranoia adventures are designed for four hour slots at a convention, so they're roughly 3.5 hours of content each. At the table I'm going to focus on what the players want to do and not keeping up a Player View. Thus I'm not worrying about breaking up character information into individually revealable bits and pieces (properly categorized snippets).

Use vs. Simplicity is where you need to find the proper balance for your campaign. The more you want to use the player features the more you're going to want to organize to help create new ideas and break things up to let you reveal only what you'd like to reveal.

Software Updates - As we've seen, LWD will change the existing categories and tag domains in software updates. By decoupling my data from the global set, I can make sure updates won't mess anything up. If there's something useful in an update then I have to clone it manually, but that seems like a fair trade.

This also sidesteps the issue of whether I'm doing something that violates what you can do safely once you remove Protection from a global item.


There's no absolutely right way to do things, which can be annoying when you're trying to figure out how to do things. :( Hopefully my experience gives you some insight as to why you might do things in the same way.

Good luck!