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Madeiner
2016-01-11, 02:27 PM
Hi there.
I have a long standing campaign ongoing, and the more complex the campaign becomes, the more notes i have to keep track of.
Currently i have something over a hundred pages of materials somewhere in my google drive and hard drive, and it's become a hassle to keep track of.
I tend to organize notes and story progression in text documents. One document for one "adventure".
The campaign however, has become increasingly complex and interconnected.
Things tend to come back, other things are left behind for later, and i often have to sort through tens of pages in order to find out what that special item actually did, or why that npc did that thing, or what the prophecy of the forgotten god actually told the PCs 6 months ago.

I'm looking for some software able to help me doing this.
At the very least, i'd like to be able to "compress" sections of a text document in real time, as you would do with a nested list.
Even better would be something that allows me to search for categories, order things around, and generally made for gaming or writers.
I also need to be able to access the documents from a laptop that is not mine, preferaribly with portable software.

I tried Masterplan, Evernote, and another D&D-specific software (tower-something?) that i wasn't really sure of.
I don't like things like Obsidian portal.
I looked at Realmworks, but it looks way more complicated than i need. It's something used to run a game, i think, not organize notes.
Is there anything else around?

LWDLiz
2016-01-12, 01:19 PM
Hi there! Based on what you're looking for, I think Realm Works would definitely fit your needs. It's more than just for use during the game, and many Realm Works users use it solely to organize game notes.


The campaign however, has become increasingly complex and interconnected.
Things tend to come back, other things are left behind for later, and i often have to sort through tens of pages in order to find out what that special item actually did, or why that npc did that thing, or what the prophecy of the forgotten god actually told the PCs 6 months ago.

I'm looking for some software able to help me doing this.
At the very least, i'd like to be able to "compress" sections of a text document in real time, as you would do with a nested list.
Even better would be something that allows me to search for categories, order things around, and generally made for gaming or writers.
I also need to be able to access the documents from a laptop that is not mine, preferaribly with portable software.


Realm Works does all of this. In fact, supporting connections and links across the story is one of the places where Realm Works shines. One thing that you may not have noticed is a 60 day money-back guarauntee. So if you pick it up and don't like it, you can get your money back.

Full disclosure, I work with Lone Wolf (creators of Realm Works). So if you have any follow-up questions, feel free to ask them here or PM me.

Madeiner
2016-01-14, 09:08 AM
After trying out "Scrivener" (a software for writers) in these few days, i concluded that i might also like Realmworks.

I reevaluated it, and the program is interesting, but not being able to try it is a killer. To add insult to injury, the site FAQ's say it's "technically challenging" to provide a demo. As a tech expert, i respectfully disagree, especially since there's a 60 day refund policy.

There's also an host of things that are...baffling.
I don't want to sound rude, but your FAQs seem like they are trying to screw with people.

For example:


However, if content is flagged as violating someone else’s Intellectual Property rights, we will need to review your content to assess whether the claims are accurate


Does it mean the staff can access my contents and do something with it, if i violated some IP? In my home game? Is that for real? I can't have gandalf in my games?



Data maintained on our servers is managed with a high level of security control. We’ve taken significant steps to safeguard everyone’s data from improper access, although it would be inappropriate to publicly detail those steps in the interest of maintaining security.


No. Hire a data security analyst. You want your security and cryptography system to be public and completely known to everybody. That's how modern security works.



For players to access revealed content independently of the GM, the realm will need to exist within the Realm Works cloud


That point is ONLY there so that Wolflair can sell its incredibly overpriced cloud service (hint: most others are free for the volume of traffic we are speaking of). I know it, you know it, everyone who reads the FAQ will know it.



What are the technical reasons behind requiring users to contact the Realm Works server when creating a new realm?
Unfortunately, that same id gets chosen by UserB's computer when he creates a realm on his computer. So there's a conflict.


Make an hash table for the first N bits of the realmID based on the user's account.
The second part of the ID should be an hash of the date the content was created on.
Problem solved.


At the moment, i might be interested in Realmworks, but there's too many things that are not turning up right.
Fix up the Internet connection required, allow users to do what they want with their campaigns, provide a working demo (30-days free trial?), and possibly allow players to connect without a cloud server and connect directly to the host instead, and you'll probably increase your userbase by a good margin.

LWDLiz
2016-02-21, 02:21 PM
I apologize for the delay in responding. Apparently my "subscribe to thread" didn't work properly. Let me address your comment/s concerns one by one.




I reevaluated it, and the program is interesting, but not being able to try it is a killer. To add insult to injury, the site FAQ's say it's "technically challenging" to provide a demo. As a tech expert, i respectfully disagree, especially since there's a 60 day refund policy.
The FAQ entry you're referring to says, "The different technologies used to develop Realm Works makes providing a demo version much more complicated than for our other products." Essentially, it would require a significant time investment from our very small team to make a demo available. As we're a small team, we have to evaluate all of the features we could be working on and prioritize them. In fact, we did an extensive survey last year for our users (and potential users) to inform our prioritization. Right now, our number one priority is releasing the Content Market, followed by the web version. We may create a demo down the road, but it makes more sense to focus on the features that are of the highest priority to the majority of our users (and potential users). We will likely be doing another survey in the next few months, and I encourage you to participate.

As it is now, users can purchase Realm Works and always request a refund within 60 days. Our ability to refund a purchase is completely separate from building a demo version, so I'm not sure why you're connecting the two.


Does it mean the staff can access my contents and do something with it, if i violated some IP? In my home game? Is that for real? I can't have gandalf in my games?
That FAQ entry and response is for users that eventually upload content to the Community Repository to either make available for free or sell to other Realm Works users. I will not be able to create a Lord of the Rings adventure and share/sell it through the Community Repository, because I don't have the rights to the Lord of the Rings IP. However, I can run the Lord of the Rings adventure with my players, and even share content with my players through the Player Edition.


That point is ONLY there so that Wolflair can sell its incredibly overpriced cloud service (hint: most others are free for the volume of traffic we are speaking of). I know it, you know it, everyone who reads the FAQ will know it.
This is more for the benefit of other people reading this thread, as you seem to have already passed judgement on this point. The Realm Works cloud service is very different from those free services. Unlike like Dropbox and similar tools, the Realm Works cloud is a database back-end running on our servers. It probably makes more sense to think of it like a MMORPG, where your client does the heavy lifting of the interface that you see, but the servers host your data so there is a consistent version that your players can see with only the updates you’ve made (and made available). So it’s really nothing like a file sharing system, which means it’s nothing like Dropbox or the like.

Importantly, there's no requirement for GMs to utilize the cloud. The Player View mechanism can be fully leveraged without the cloud. Independent player access to revealed content is an option that some GMs will choose to make available to their players and others won't. Our hope is that most GMs will find the benefits of player access to content to be well worth the nominal extra investment in the cloud service.



Make an hash table for the first N bits of the realmID based on the user's account.
The second part of the ID should be an hash of the date the content was created on.
Problem solved.
It's not as simple as you make it out to be at all, as there are some extremely complicated issues involved. Yes, we could have spent an extensive amount of time to solve those issues. We opted not to, allowing us to instead focus our efforts on additional features and capabilities. Since users can easily pre-create however many realms they want, users can easily avoid ever having to be inconvenienced by the need to connect to the server when they don't have a connection handy.