marcinkarnate's page

All good thoughts. We definitely appreciate the discussion as the more we can learn about how people are likely to want to use InKarnate, the better for our development.

As to the newbies question, we really feel if we make it accessible and make sure it is a good value for the money, we are likely to be able to bring more new players into the fold. The main scenario we are envisioning there is when one or two newbies joins an established group. If that group were already running on InKanrate, then they are likely to get those new players to use it.

I agree, Hero Labs definitely does a good job in the 'broadness' of what it covers. Our concern with that particular app is that it's a bit overwhelming. One of our goals with InKarnate is to make things as easy as possible--particularly for someone new to tabletop RPGs. One of the interesting challenges with this approach is then balancing that against the needs of veteran gamers so that it is useful for both groups (and the various shades between of course).

A fun challenge...

@Umbral Reaver--Regarding customization in the app: this is a question we are constantly evaluating among the team--it is a critical one as you rightly point out. Our current thinking is that we will allow all numerical data to be edited. So, for example, on the digital character sheet, if you want to change your HP to something outside the bounds of the rules, you could do so and a pop-up would warn you it was outside the programmed rule set (which you could, of course, then ignore). Then, we want to add in a series of editors that would allow you to create custom classes, feats, etc. Our hope is that those two approaches will cover many of the customization issues.

The above will not, however, allow you to change the fundamental mechanics of a rule set (i.e. I have decided to add 'edges' from Savage Worlds instead of feats into my 3.5e campaign). Testing will tell us how well our approach is working and what, if any, adjustments need to be made.

And please don't take offense, but I hope your crystal ball is more cloudy than clear :-).

This is Marc from the InKarnate team. The business model is still under evaluation. We're doing our best to find a way to make InKarnate a good value for everyone while still generating enough of a revenue stream to justify ongoing development. If we can sustain development over the long-term, there're some pretty exciting places we can take this. However, it takes money to professionally develop something this large in scope and do it right. An underfunded project is more than likely only going to yield a result that looks a little better than the current apps out there but that doesn't really make GM and players experience more fun.

Now having said that--the point that GMs rotate in a group is a good one. We were setting out to create a model where the players only had to pay a single fee (like the player's handbook for example) while GMs paid a higher cost for the overall group if the full feature set was wanted (just how it is typically divided with the pen and paper). We're open to all suggestions, but ultimately we will need to find a way to monetize the service (and it is important to realize it will be a SERVICE) in order for it to succeed. We really believe that once everyone gets a chance to use the app and see its full potential it will be a strong value for the money.

This is Marc from the InKarnate team. We greatly appreciate the comments on this thread. Couple of updates we'd like to mention are:

- We intend to add PF as our next supported rule set.
- We also are revisiting the business model by adding purchase of most components for a single upfront fee.

All of this info is now covered in one of our updates:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1720821324/inkarnate-rpg-toolset/posts

Also, we just posted a video showing our map builder prototype:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9GmeP5Lkco&feature=youtu.be

Would love to hear feedback from the community on what you'd like to see from InKarnate.

Thanks all...