• Please note: In an effort to ensure that all of our users feel welcome on our forums, we’ve updated our forum rules. You can review the updated rules here: http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=5528.

    If a fellow Community member is not following the forum rules, please report the post by clicking the Report button (the red yield sign on the left) located on every post. This will notify the moderators directly. If you have any questions about these new rules, please contact support@wolflair.com.

    - The Lone Wolf Development Team

Print/Export created content.

Sharing a canned module someone typed into Realm Works falls mostly under fair use with your regular gaming group. However, if it goes wider then that and is made public to the masses then I think you are crossing into infringement of Intellectual Property. I have a feeling once the holders of said IP are made aware of such broad disbursement of their creation is made public, they would either ask for recompense or seek to have the material removed.

Again, this has nothing to do with something you created on your own and is your unique material.

Although watermarking of your own creation may be a feature you could turn on/off at your whim... I think the actual imbedding of the watermark code into the material should be handled by LWD's store servers. That way they have a permanent record of digital codes that can be looked up when ever an IP holder comes knocking and asking for the name of the individual that infringed on their IP.

Theft of IP hurts smaller industries like gaming more then it hurts larger industries, but it does hurt everyone. Unfortunately, in the digital age it can't really be stopped. However, that doesn't mean the person(s) that did the initial infringement shouldn't be confronted and forced to make recompense.

If I had a campaign world I created with possible plans for selling sometime down the road, I'd be very upset if it was thrown up on the net for everyone to look at. I of course have no problem sharing with my local gaming group, unless they start sharing beyond the members of the group and a few other friends. The same would go for a writing project (book, screenplay, or whatever)... I wouldn't want any of it distributed to the general public and would be rather upset if it happened.

I suppose this brings up another question/point. How many people should you be able to share purchased content with? I know a few people that run games at the local gaming store, and they will run the same module over and over again for different groups that want to play through the module. Admittedly most of this is for D&D and Pathfinder events (which isn't a problem), but some of it isn't. How many groups should a single account be able to share purchased modules/campaign setting with? Should I be able to have 7 groups of 4 to 6 players and run that uber module for a different group every single night until its finished? What if two GM's, unbeknownst to LWD decide to share an account and one logs in in the afternoon and runs the game 7 afternoons a week for different groups of 4 to 6 players while another GM logs in at night and does the same thing? How many times should you be able to recreate a purchased module/campaign in a given period of time?

I completely agre with you on how it hurts smaller companies than larger ones, which is why I want content providers to have as much control as possible. I know it annoys some gamers, but I feel the more content providers are protected, the stronger the hobby grows. The lesser they are protected, the hobby as a whole weakens.

Of course, in my experience, it's the smaller companies, the one man shops, that not only tend to be less protected, they also tend to want more people to share their products. A gaming store I used to play in NYC, you would see the smaller providers asking the gaming store to run games there, and not force the players to buy their content. It's advertising. So in some ways, it depends on what the content providers want out of realm works.

I think you and I agree,we're just saying the same things in different ways.

As for how many, it becomes a very tough thing when you consider conventions. Even small cons, like the ones held at universities, have tons of people. I remember when I used to run games at cons for free badges. I would run the same module, my own, maybe 5 times, so like 20-25 people. Other people would run a module they purchased. Completely legal. So 6 groups would run for a single model that costs probably 20.00. Is that what they envisioned? Probably not. By nothing wrong with it.

Not sure how it works with realms works though.
 
Last edited:
+ 1 for printing and exporting.

This is a must have for me. I want a hard copy of all my efforts as well as the ability to bring it to other formats.

Are there plans for data importation?
 
I used Realm Works for the first time in developing my Strategicon games that I ran this last weekend. I have it installed on my primary home PC, my laptop, and my convention Surface Pro 2. I specifically developed everything, including custom game systems, on Realm Works, and synched everything. I loved the ability to just pull out my Surface, jot some systems, character, or plot notes down into the Realm, and refine anywhere, at any time. Beautiful.

However, when it came to distributing my custom system information to my convention players, I had to go back into Realm Works, and copy/paste back into a Word document to print out and share with them, because I'm not going to be able to bring an external monitor to a convention to display information. Paper still has its place, people! Especially with respect to custom Systems rules. I print out character sheets from Hero Lab for everyone to read, why can't I print out information from Realm Works? This is a bigger shortcoming than people realize, in many circumstances.

We need a way to flag a certain snippet or collection of snippets for printing. Otherwise, why am I developing in Realm Works to begin with, when I have players and/or circumstances where the Reveal tools aren't going to be utilized? It's a wonderful tool, and I loved using it, but the lack of a print function drastically limits its usefulness.
 
@GreyMouser: If you have your Surface Pro at the table, you can readily use that to show revealed content to the players. When you use Player View and only have a single display (e.g. your tablet or a laptop), showing the Player View window takes over the entire screen on the same display. So you can setup the material you want to show off within Player View, toggle the Player View window to be visible, and then turn the tablet (or the laptop) to face the players. Heck, you could even pass the tablet around. This gives you the benefits of having a second monitor without the need for one!

I'm NOT saying that printing is unnecessary. However, you have the Surface right there and lamented not having a second monitor. You actually don't need one to leverage Player View during your games! Hopefully, this trick proves useful. :)
 
For me, the ability to print and export my creations is the most important feature that can be added. In fact, I probably wouldn't have bought the product originally if I had realized that it couldn't do that (my fault for not doing enough research). As it is, I have just been sitting on it and not building anything, because I don't want to do a lot of work only to find out that I'm never going to be able to extract it.

RealmWorks initially seemed to be a good central organizing place to store all the information about a world. There are a number of elements that I would like to be able to extract for use in other programs, though, and I ALWAYS want a hardcopy backup of anything I create electronically. I have been burned too many times to rely on keeping all my information in digital format.

Note that my interest is in printing and extracting my own created content. I'm less interested in doing it with other people's creations. To be honest, it's unlikely that I would ever buy someone else's RealmWorks creation, since I prefer to use my own material.
 
Last edited:
I hope that we'll see an export feature listed in the upcoming survey. As good as it is, RW is still pretty much a Roach Motel when it comes to my data.
 
Just in case, and for the survey:

I use Paper - Notes as GM.
My usecase for Realm Works is a fast overview on NPCs and possible plot Ideas.

I currently do work double, to get the Infos I usually give out as Handout to my players. 1 In Word, 2nd in realm works.
It would ease my prepration a lot if I had an Handout Generator, that layouts and prints Handouts I define in the campaign.

I think I need to be able to print GM "Handouts" as player driven Handouts.
I would like to be able to print relationship tables. And Maps which are placed in the compact.

I think this is a big feature. But I think it would be worth it.
 
Hey AEIOU.... have any of those leftover poptarts? I may need one after the D20pro Kickstarter.....
Doh!

I've been banned from Kickstarter by she-who-must-be-obeyed. A few times.... I blame it on Frog God Games.... One can get very creative with Top Ramen and a strong will to survive.
 
Still lacking this? Guess I'll check back in a couple months... RW continues to gather dust in my PC.
 
Still lacking this? Guess I'll check back in a couple months... RW continues to gather dust in my PC.

Yep. Doesn't look good for this functionality for a few more months. My money is still on February 2015 for print/export. That is, of course, wild speculation, but it's fun to get on record in case I've guessed correctly.

I think the all RW focus is on getting the delayed player edition out, which I support.
 
Yep. Doesn't look good for this functionality for a few more months. My money is still on February 2015 for print/export. That is, of course, wild speculation, but it's fun to get on record in case I've guessed correctly.
.

Any basis for that?? :rolleyes:
Seriously, as you have noted their focus (and they haven't been shy on saying such) has been directed toward the PE of RW.

As to an expected deliverable on print capabilities... I would expect that (and other features) will be defined based on the poll results.... Which based on Liz's update, the poll is to follow next. Sooooooo, be sure to register your email to get the poll and get your vote cast..... I myself and hoping for calendars next. :D
 
Again, and I can' stress this enough, this is a much needed option.
Without it, it feels like doubling my work, not making it easier...
 
I agree with Daemonfey. I can't even phantom to purchase Ralm Works without Print support. I prefer print when gaming.
 
It's not specifically about printing, but about output.
Though I also like to have papersheets around while gaming, I also rely on my tablet, smartphone and (sometimes) laptop.
I would glady use Realm Works to enter my information, as I like the thorough and detailed input possibilities, but I also want to have access to this outside of the program. It is important to me to have access to my stuff as pdf or printed, so I can carry it around with me.
 
It's not specifically about printing, but about output.
Though I also like to have papersheets around while gaming, I also rely on my tablet, smartphone and (sometimes) laptop.
I would glady use Realm Works to enter my information, as I like the thorough and detailed input possibilities, but I also want to have access to this outside of the program. It is important to me to have access to my stuff as pdf or printed, so I can carry it around with me.

I am not being a jerk, but why would you want all that in PDFs for use outside RW?

I am just asking as that seems like a tremendous duplication for no reason. You need a program to read PDFs, just as you need RW to read RW info, sync'd to cloud or not. Why have two when you can have it one single source?

I assume your not printing reams of PDFs to carry, your meaning is to carry the PDFs around in a computer device. But isn't that the same thing?

I am just asking as I can't seem to put my head around some of the ideas here, and if I am, then maybe I will find tips I am unaware of to enhance my own GMing.
 
Archiving.
Tracking changes over time.
Permanent record of a particular point in time providing a means to restore a single entry to that point.
No internet connection.
Android tablet.
Mac user without a native version.
Using a work computer.
Using a friend's computer.
Access anytime, anywhere on anything.
Can print PDF if desired.
Can print section of PDF if desired.
Can copy/paste from PDF to Word or Excel to edit.
Can mark up while not connected to RW.
Can send to group that may not have RW player edition.

Once the web version is available, printing to PDFs of unformatted pages will be doable. And export to xml may become more viable. I guessing printing may be contingent upon the web interface as a precursor.
 
I'm posting as a separate item the most important reason for requiring printing and export -- digital obsolescence. We all know RW is never going away and will be supported for generations. Just like WordPerect, Lotus 123 and Altavista.com. It is forever.

We need the ability to create/export ASCII, TIFF and RTF versions of our data. PDF is nice for current portability but in the end, those three formats need to be supported. And print documents are good as long as the paper doesn't deteriorate....
 
Back
Top