It's a good screenshot. It's incredibly pretty. But why as a DM is pretty more important than functionality?
The amount of screen space lost of the prettiness is quite excessive. I can see that they are going for a book look and feel. But the reason I use digital tools in the first place is to run sessions with functionality that makes the experience more efficient.
Here's a screenshot of the same information put into Realm Works. Granted I've put this in myself so there was alot of data entry requirements.
This is not as pretty. Not even close. But every named thing in the book links, from chapters to npcs to items. It does this automatically which means I can also create content and simply write the names of the same things into the content I create and links will automatically be generated. I can add and modify the content to my heart's desire. In this case I added some pictures of Castle Ravenloft that I will show to my players with the 'Player View' feature. I can see a list on the right of all the topics that are linked from this topic or that link to this topic making it incredibly easy to navigate to related or linked content. The content of the book is laid out in a format that makes it incredibly quick and efficient for me to navigate. Which I rarely need to due to Realm Works automatic link feature. I can also add to the information provided. I could write a summary right here on the page on what the players did in this room and then mark that as visible to the players so they can come along at a later time and look up what they did in this specific location.
Here's the same screenshot but with the navigation method changed to the map of the castle. I just have to click a room to load that information. From the screenshot provided this looks to be a much more efficient way of navigating my players through the castle.
The point being if they want me to buy content here they will need to show that the tool is capable of doing more than just replicating the book. I don't want or need pretty. Sure it's nice to have but pretty should go out the window if functionality is lost as a result. I want to be impressed, show me something that will change Dming in a very positive way.
I am certain that full information on how the modules work will be released properly and answer all of your questions. :)
In the meantime though, I can confirm that they do contain ALL of the text from the module, including printable handouts.
There is a focus on making the adventure functional as well as being well-presented and this means there are plenty of tooltips and hyperlinks between relevant sections.
And yet the result is something so functional that I never need to open a book at the table or stop the flow of the game to search for information.
Look, I'm happy for you man but these are two totally different methods. It's like PC versus Mac. To me, DDB is like the Mac and Realm Works is like the PC. I hate PC's. AFAIC, I spend more time working on trying to get it to work, than on using it for it's intended purpose. On a Mac, aka DDB, I'll just press buttons and it'll work and that leaves me with all the energy and creativity to spare for the game itself.
I want my tools to work for me, not for me to have to work for my tools. DDB gives me simplicity, functionality, and it helps that it's pretty too. I mean, I'll hold off on gushing over the campaign component of it, but given all that I've seen of the development so far, and how things have changed and improved based on feedback, I'm confident that the campaign management component will eventually be excellent and give me what I want and need to run a game, without any fuss and muss. I'm willing to spend bucks on that. I'm not willing to spend money on something that means I'll have to spend dozens of hours getting it to that point.
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"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
And yet the result is something so functional that I never need to open a book at the table or stop the flow of the game to search for information.
I want my tools to work for me, not for me to have to work for my tools. DDB gives me simplicity, functionality, and it helps that it's pretty too. I mean, I'll hold off on gushing over the campaign component of it, but given all that I've seen of the development so far, and how things have changed and improved based on feedback, I'm confident that the campaign management component will eventually be excellent and give me what I want and need to run a game, without any fuss and muss. I'm willing to spend bucks on that. I'm not willing to spend money on something that means I'll have to spend dozens of hours getting it to that point.
Yeah I understand that completely. I'm in a different camp where I know what come's next for Realm Works and the data entry requirement is significantly reduced for alot of product. Not WOTC product yet but hopefully one day. So I'm comparing these as two tools that will attempt to do the same thing.
And yet the result is something so functional that I never need to open a book at the table or stop the flow of the game to search for information.
I want my tools to work for me, not for me to have to work for my tools. DDB gives me simplicity, functionality, and it helps that it's pretty too. I mean, I'll hold off on gushing over the campaign component of it, but given all that I've seen of the development so far, and how things have changed and improved based on feedback, I'm confident that the campaign management component will eventually be excellent and give me what I want and need to run a game, without any fuss and muss. I'm willing to spend bucks on that. I'm not willing to spend money on something that means I'll have to spend dozens of hours getting it to that point.
Yeah I understand that completely. I'm in a different camp where I know what come's next for Realm Works and the data entry requirement is significantly reduced for alot of product. Not WOTC product yet but hopefully one day. So I'm comparing these as two tools that will attempt to do the same thing.
Biggest problem I have with that other product is that they don't have very good updates from the developers, the last update on their site is at least 6 months old with no update.
6 months? The updates are alot more regular than that. Combine this with the patch notes and we generally know what's going on. Granted they are not as noisy as people would like since they are working around the clock to launch the content market.
It's a good screenshot. It's incredibly pretty. But why as a DM is pretty more important than functionality?
The amount of screen space lost of the prettiness is quite excessive. I can see that they are going for a book look and feel. But the reason I use digital tools in the first place is to run sessions with functionality that makes the experience more efficient.
Here's a screenshot of the same information put into Realm Works. Granted I've put this in myself so there was alot of data entry requirements.
This is not as pretty. Not even close. But every named thing in the book links, from chapters to npcs to items. It does this automatically which means I can also create content and simply write the names of the same things into the content I create and links will automatically be generated. I can add and modify the content to my heart's desire. In this case I added some pictures of Castle Ravenloft that I will show to my players with the 'Player View' feature. I can see a list on the right of all the topics that are linked from this topic or that link to this topic making it incredibly easy to navigate to related or linked content. The content of the book is laid out in a format that makes it incredibly quick and efficient for me to navigate. Which I rarely need to due to Realm Works automatic link feature. I can also add to the information provided. I could write a summary right here on the page on what the players did in this room and then mark that as visible to the players so they can come along at a later time and look up what they did in this specific location.
Here's the same screenshot but with the navigation method changed to the map of the castle. I just have to click a room to load that information. From the screenshot provided this looks to be a much more efficient way of navigating my players through the castle.
The point being if they want me to buy content here they will need to show that the tool is capable of doing more than just replicating the book. I don't want or need pretty. Sure it's nice to have but pretty should go out the window if functionality is lost as a result. I want to be impressed, show me something that will change Dming in a very positive way.
The point of the screenshot was that launch was rapidly approaching. Little did I know that within a matter of hours, Curse was going to announce launch date and pricing info.
6 months? The updates are alot more regular than that. Combine this with the patch notes and we generally know what's going on. Granted they are not as noisy as people would like since they are working around the clock to launch the content market.
And how long have they gone without an update to the status of the content market, it was supposed to be out in a few months when I first purchased both Hero Lab and Realmworks, what you have there is congrats we just added the latest pathfinder release to hero lab.
Edit: I suppose the biggest question is how long have you been using those tools and how long did it take you to become proficient in those tools? There is a lot of information overload, and adding content to HL is less than intuitive.
6 months? The updates are alot more regular than that. Combine this with the patch notes and we generally know what's going on. Granted they are not as noisy as people would like since they are working around the clock to launch the content market.
And how long have they gone without an update to the status of the content market, it was supposed to be out in a few months when I first purchased both Hero Lab and Realmworks, what you have there is congrats we just added the latest pathfinder release to hero lab.
Edit: I suppose the biggest question is how long have you been using those tools and how long did it take you to become proficient in those tools? There is a lot of information overload, and adding content to HL is less than intuitive.
I'm not saying I don't like the tools, I'm just saying I don't think they are the end all be all that some people think. Most of those folks I would say have been using the tools for quite some time. I like the campaign builder and am sure I am not using it to its full potential. I do like the way you can integrate the HL portfolios with it as well. The other points though are valid, it takes some time to make things work correctly or the way an individual user would like, or you rely on people like yourself or shadowchemosh to do it all for you. I don't like that method but sometimes that's what you are stuck with.
Reading between the lines it sounds like the delays are to do with the securing of content to the satisfaction of the content owners. I suspect both in-tool and out of tool given RW gives you the ability to freely share content with the players connected to your realm.
I've been using the tools for about two years. Granted I'm a power user and have more data in the tool than most others. I suspect alot of people are going to be very happy when they see the 5e SRD. It's got all the Hero Lab snippets already built in. Combine that with some 3rd party content, let's say the Tome of Beasts since we know they are working with Kobold Press and I think it will be very attractive with a huge reduction in data input requirements for most people.
Send me a PM if you don't have the SRD stuff that's currently available. The community have already started to release quite a bit of it themselves.
The benefit and problem with Hero Lab is how powerful it is. You can do some incredible things but in turn need someone to understand how to make it work. That's always going to be a positive / negative I think unless they step back from the full automation and attempt something that does less maths. More of an issue in the Pathfinder space than the 5e space though. Personally I do most of my customization with the custom monster race since you don't need to code anything.
Getting well off track her though. Not here to discuss the status of Realm Works / Hero Lab but to provide feedback on what DnDBeyond are offering. At this point I think I will be purchasing DnDBeyond content as someone kindly pointed out to me...
It's very easy and clean to cut and paste content from DnDBeyond into Realm Works so the tool instantly become useful and attractive to me haha ;)
Reading between the lines it sounds like the delays are to do with the securing of content to the satisfaction of the content owners. I suspect both in-tool and out of tool given RW gives you the ability to freely share content with the players connected to your realm.
I've been using the tools for about two years. Granted I'm a power user and have more data in the tool than most others. I suspect alot of people are going to be very happy when they see the 5e SRD. It's got all the Hero Lab snippets already built in. Combine that with some 3rd party content, let's say the Tome of Beasts since we know they are working with Kobold Press and I think it will be very attractive with a huge reduction in data input requirements for most people.
Send me a PM if you don't have the SRD stuff that's currently available. The community have already started to release quite a bit of it themselves.
The benefit and problem with Hero Lab is how powerful it is. You can do some incredible things but in turn need someone to understand how to make it work. That's always going to be a positive / negative I think unless they step back from the full automation and attempt something that does less maths. More of an issue in the Pathfinder space than the 5e space though. Personally I do most of my customization with the custom monster race since you don't need to code anything.
Getting well off track her though. Not here to discuss the status of Realm Works / Hero Lab but to provide feedback on what DnDBeyond are offering. At this point I think I will be purchasing DnDBeyond content as someone kindly pointed out to me...
It's very easy and clean to cut and paste content from DnDBeyond into Realm Works so the tool instantly become useful and attractive to me haha ;)
Agreed I think I'm in for Beyond, if they would take my money now on a pre-order I'd give it to them now. I'm kind of silly that way, I might even be able to get my group to play a game of 5e, and if not I'll try to rope my sister in-laws family in to playing.
Even using published adventures, a lot of folks tweak things for one reason or another -- change from FR deities to Greyhawk or home brew, integrate a campaign villain, etc. There are also times when things change during play -- PotA had many, many places where it said something to the effect of "if all these critters are killed, the mooks from room 17 and 19 will relocate here." When using a physical book, I tend to just use sticky notes. Obviously, sticky notes don't scroll with digital content.
Is there going to be a way to make notes on/around the adventure? My ideal would actually be to have a "working copy" that's actually editable, allowing me to change the text as I need. When I'm done, I'd still like to be able to "reset to factory specs". While running the adventure, though, static text is more bug than feature.
Even using published adventures, a lot of folks tweak things for one reason or another -- change from FR deities to Greyhawk or home brew, integrate a campaign villain, etc. There are also times when things change during play -- PotA had many, many places where it said something to the effect of "if all these critters are killed, the mooks from room 17 and 19 will relocate here." When using a physical book, I tend to just use sticky notes. Obviously, sticky notes don't scroll with digital content.
Is there going to be a way to make notes on/around the adventure? My ideal would actually be to have a "working copy" that's actually editable, allowing me to change the text as I need. When I'm done, I'd still like to be able to "reset to factory specs". While running the adventure, though, static text is more bug than feature.
Being able to make DM notes against a module is one of my top things I want.
Real life can get in the way of game sessions, making it several weeks between them, and I want a way of being able to note which rooms have been cleared, or things I have decided to change for some reason.
How exciting is this? Curse of Strahd on D&D Beyond Sneak Peek
Very! I hope this means we're close to moving to having the whole service available.
Huh, so they're doing the entire text of the books. I had thought it might just be the rules like spells, monsters, etc.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
― Oscar Wilde.
Honestly... not at all.
It's a good screenshot. It's incredibly pretty. But why as a DM is pretty more important than functionality?
The amount of screen space lost of the prettiness is quite excessive. I can see that they are going for a book look and feel. But the reason I use digital tools in the first place is to run sessions with functionality that makes the experience more efficient.
Here's a screenshot of the same information put into Realm Works. Granted I've put this in myself so there was alot of data entry requirements.
This is not as pretty. Not even close. But every named thing in the book links, from chapters to npcs to items. It does this automatically which means I can also create content and simply write the names of the same things into the content I create and links will automatically be generated. I can add and modify the content to my heart's desire. In this case I added some pictures of Castle Ravenloft that I will show to my players with the 'Player View' feature. I can see a list on the right of all the topics that are linked from this topic or that link to this topic making it incredibly easy to navigate to related or linked content. The content of the book is laid out in a format that makes it incredibly quick and efficient for me to navigate. Which I rarely need to due to Realm Works automatic link feature. I can also add to the information provided. I could write a summary right here on the page on what the players did in this room and then mark that as visible to the players so they can come along at a later time and look up what they did in this specific location.
Here's the same screenshot but with the navigation method changed to the map of the castle. I just have to click a room to load that information. From the screenshot provided this looks to be a much more efficient way of navigating my players through the castle.
The point being if they want me to buy content here they will need to show that the tool is capable of doing more than just replicating the book. I don't want or need pretty. Sure it's nice to have but pretty should go out the window if functionality is lost as a result. I want to be impressed, show me something that will change Dming in a very positive way.
Daplunk's YouTube Channel: Realm Works and Hero Lab Videos / Campaign Cartographer 3+ Videos
Realm Works Facebook User Group
That looks positively horrid and not even slightly "functional".
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
― Oscar Wilde.
Daplunk's YouTube Channel: Realm Works and Hero Lab Videos / Campaign Cartographer 3+ Videos
Realm Works Facebook User Group
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D&D Beyond FoundersI am certain that full information on how the modules work will be released properly and answer all of your questions. :)
In the meantime though, I can confirm that they do contain ALL of the text from the module, including printable handouts.
There is a focus on making the adventure functional as well as being well-presented and this means there are plenty of tooltips and hyperlinks between relevant sections.
Pun-loving nerd | Faith Elisabeth Lilley | She/Her/Hers | Profile art by Becca Golins
If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊
I want my tools to work for me, not for me to have to work for my tools. DDB gives me simplicity, functionality, and it helps that it's pretty too. I mean, I'll hold off on gushing over the campaign component of it, but given all that I've seen of the development so far, and how things have changed and improved based on feedback, I'm confident that the campaign management component will eventually be excellent and give me what I want and need to run a game, without any fuss and muss. I'm willing to spend bucks on that. I'm not willing to spend money on something that means I'll have to spend dozens of hours getting it to that point.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
― Oscar Wilde.
Daplunk's YouTube Channel: Realm Works and Hero Lab Videos / Campaign Cartographer 3+ Videos
Realm Works Facebook User Group
Daplunk's YouTube Channel: Realm Works and Hero Lab Videos / Campaign Cartographer 3+ Videos
Realm Works Facebook User Group
The latest info for the content market we saw was on the 30/06: http://forums.wolflair.com/showpost.php?p=252091&postcount=57
Reading between the lines it sounds like the delays are to do with the securing of content to the satisfaction of the content owners. I suspect both in-tool and out of tool given RW gives you the ability to freely share content with the players connected to your realm.
I've been using the tools for about two years. Granted I'm a power user and have more data in the tool than most others. I suspect alot of people are going to be very happy when they see the 5e SRD. It's got all the Hero Lab snippets already built in. Combine that with some 3rd party content, let's say the Tome of Beasts since we know they are working with Kobold Press and I think it will be very attractive with a huge reduction in data input requirements for most people.
Send me a PM if you don't have the SRD stuff that's currently available. The community have already started to release quite a bit of it themselves.
The benefit and problem with Hero Lab is how powerful it is. You can do some incredible things but in turn need someone to understand how to make it work. That's always going to be a positive / negative I think unless they step back from the full automation and attempt something that does less maths. More of an issue in the Pathfinder space than the 5e space though. Personally I do most of my customization with the custom monster race since you don't need to code anything.
Getting well off track her though. Not here to discuss the status of Realm Works / Hero Lab but to provide feedback on what DnDBeyond are offering. At this point I think I will be purchasing DnDBeyond content as someone kindly pointed out to me...
It's very easy and clean to cut and paste content from DnDBeyond into Realm Works so the tool instantly become useful and attractive to me haha ;)
Daplunk's YouTube Channel: Realm Works and Hero Lab Videos / Campaign Cartographer 3+ Videos
Realm Works Facebook User Group
So... actual question about DDB and adventures:
Even using published adventures, a lot of folks tweak things for one reason or another -- change from FR deities to Greyhawk or home brew, integrate a campaign villain, etc. There are also times when things change during play -- PotA had many, many places where it said something to the effect of "if all these critters are killed, the mooks from room 17 and 19 will relocate here." When using a physical book, I tend to just use sticky notes. Obviously, sticky notes don't scroll with digital content.
Is there going to be a way to make notes on/around the adventure? My ideal would actually be to have a "working copy" that's actually editable, allowing me to change the text as I need. When I'm done, I'd still like to be able to "reset to factory specs". While running the adventure, though, static text is more bug than feature.
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D&D Beyond FoundersPun-loving nerd | Faith Elisabeth Lilley | She/Her/Hers | Profile art by Becca Golins
If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊