Hello Paizo,
I just attended Paizocon 2014 and had a great time. Thanks for a wonderful event.
I was able to attend 3 of Lone Wolf's seminars on their products and they used RotR as a sample realm in Realm Works. It was an outstanding achievement! A ton of work must have been required to create that "Realm". As a GM currently half-way through that AP, and as a Realm Works user, I was incredibly covetous of their achievement. We were advised that it wasn't available commercially because they didn't have Paizo's consent/agreement/contract/whatever to do so but, if we liked what we saw, it wouldn't do any harm to put the bug in your ear.
Consider that bug shoved in hard. LW seemed reasonably sure that Realm Works versions of APs could be done at a reasonable cost and be financially worthwhile--so, why not! I'll buy 'em, and save myself a ton of work.
Cheers and thanks again for a great Con.
Yes please!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'd buy two of each if that helps. Maybe even three!!!
Seems like a good possibility for an extra revenue stream. However, I wonder about Paizo's costs to ensure that the files are accurate? Is it just a "here's your license, be a good boy" or is there more to it?
We did a presentation to the Paizo staff at PaizoCon, and they seemed to like what we showed them. The discussions will be continued in earnest in the weeks to come, but we're hopeful at this point!
We'll definitely keep the community update to date once a decision is made.
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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I really want to run Rise of the Runelords, and I want to use Realm Works to do it. I can enter in all of the data myself, but I would rather pay to have it done for me. Please, make this happen.
Preferably sooner than later.
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I backed the Realm Works Kickstarter because I thought it was a really innovative and useful idea, but have barely used it because of the daunting amount of stuff to do. Since I almost exclusively run APs nowadays (mostly to save prep time) I would happily pay to have even more prep time saved by getting the Pathfinder APs, Modules, Campaign Setting, etc. in Realm Works.
If Paizo AP's were available for Realm Works, it would finally push me into the "I'm gonna buy Realm Works" category.
What might happen is that it will be community fan base adaptations.
I know that several APs have been adapted for Hero Labs (encounters for each room) and I have made use of them for my own game (Jade Regent).
It would require a lot of work, but when it's a hobby you're passionate of, it's hardly "work".
Last I checked, RW required a cloud subscription or something. Is that still true?
A cloud subscription has never been a requirement to use Realm Works.
When you purchase Realm Works right now, you'll receive 6 months of our standard cloud service for free. Once that 6 months is up, you can choose to extend your cloud service or stop using it altogether (you don't get automatically enrolled). If you don't use the cloud service, you can still enter information about your world, use Realm Works to run your game, and share your information with with your players using the Player View.
Let me know if you need any further clarification!
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Last I checked, RW required a cloud subscription or something. Is that still true?A cloud subscription has never been a requirement to use Realm Works.
When you purchase Realm Works right now, you'll receive 6 months of our standard cloud service for free. Once that 6 months is up, you can choose to extend your cloud service or stop using it altogether (you don't get automatically enrolled). If you don't use the cloud service, you can still enter information about your world, use Realm Works to run your game, and share your information with with your players using the Player View.
Let me know if you need any further clarification!
Ok, so what's the benefit of the cloud service and what's it actually used for?
-Skeld
If Paizo AP's were available for Realm Works, it would finally push me into the "I'm gonna buy Realm Works" category.What might happen is that it will be community fan base adaptations.
I know that several APs have been adapted for Hero Labs (encounters for each room) and I have made use of them for my own game (Jade Regent).
Actually, that is probably not the case.
The HeroLab content is based on the published game mechanics stats of the creatures in the APs. All of that is open content, and the public can prepare copies of the stat blocks of creatures in HeroLab freely.
HOWEVER, by comparison, the plot and story details of the APs, which is what RealmWorks facilitates managing, is protected Intellectual Property. Some art has been shared on the Blog, and can (probably) be used under the Community Use Policy.. but there is a great deal of other art that is not so available, and use would be in violation of Paizo's intellectual property rights.
I am not a lawyer, but that fundamental difference means that community sharing will be limited to your own creations.. copies of any publisher's content will only occur with a license from that publisher. At least, that's my current understanding.
Ok, so what's the benefit of the cloud service and what's it actually used for?
-Skeld
As Davout 1806 mentioned, we have a more thorough description of cloud service benefits on our webpage here. However, I'll go ahead and outline a few of the benefits in this post.
Sharing Content with Players
As I mentioned in my last post, you can share content with players without the cloud service using the Player View. And I apologize for being less than helpful in my last post - this time I’ll explain what the “Player View” actually is. Player View is a special window in Realm Works that can be shown to your players on your laptop or an external monitor. I like to use a gigantic flat screen TV next to my table – it’s epic. You can use the Player View window to show information that your players have learned throughout the game, pictures of NPCs that they’ve met, maps, and more. Important note – one of the powerful features in Realm Works is the ability to reveal pieces of information to your players bit by bit. You can learn more about that on our webpage.
So how does the cloud service facilitate sharing content with players? In the next few weeks (prior to Gen Con), we’ll be releasing Realm Works Player Edition. This Windows-based, player-focused version of Realm Works will allow players to access and view content revealed by the GM on their own computers. Players will also be able to leverage all the same powerful features as the GM version, such as full-text searching and user notes. The cloud service is what allows GMs to easily share revealed information with their players. So you would sync your game world with our cloud service server, and then your players would access your world. Players will need to purchase the Player Edition, but do not need to pay for cloud service. The Player Edition cost has not yet been officially announced (keep an eye out for news in the next week or two), but we’re trying to keep the cost low so that your players won’t need much convincing and for the GM that just wants to purchase copies for all of his or her players. If you don’t get our newsletter, I would suggest signing up. We’ll have more info about the Player Edition release in our July newsletter. We also share news on our Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ page.
In the future, we’re also going to have a web-based player access. What’s nice about the web access is that it can be used on any device with internet access, regardless of operating system! We don’t have an ETA on web-based access right now, but it’s going to be one of our main focuses once Player Edition releases.
Content Market
The Content Market is where publishers will come into play when it comes online in the future, and it’s all facilitated using the cloud service. But first, I want to highlight something that a lot of Realm Works users have been very excited about when I chatted with them at PaizoCon and during blog/podcast interviews. You will be able to share your creations with other Realm Works users with the Content Market. Maybe you’re a kick-butt NPC developer. You can share your NPCs with other Realm Works users. Or perhaps you develop amazing campaign settings – share it with other users. You will even be able to sell your content.
If you want to utilize user-created content in your games, you will be able to integrate it into your world and even customize it. However, Urath DM is spot on. User created content must be original or open content. While many adventures from our favorite publishers use the Open Gaming License, OGL only covers the actual game mechanics. The story, artwork, etc. is Intellectual Property. While you’re welcome to enter all of the content into Realm Works yourself and use it to run a game, you will not be able to share/sell it with other users via the Content Market.
That’s one of the reasons we’re working so hard to get publishers on board with Realm Works! We already have some fantastic publishers on board, like Frog God Games, Green Ronin, Pinnacle Entertainment, and more. You can see our list of definite publishers and their content here.
When can you expect to see the Content Market? Right now we're hoping to get it online later in 2014. The Player Edition and web-based player access are actually two important steps on the path to bringing the Content Market online, so we should have a better idea of when it will be available in the next few months.
Whew! Well, hopefully that answers your question. I encourage you to check out our “Power of the Cloud” webpage for more info. Of course, let me know if you have additional questions that I can answer here.
Liz, the links are broken in your post. Here are the fixed ones:
fixed links
Thanks for the follow-up!
Thanks for taking the time to post all that out.
No problem!
This is the first I am hearing of Realmworks. Seems awesome, but wish there was a demo before dropping $50 on it.
If you can, drop the $50. It's worth every penny.
Been using it for about a month and it is far and away the best campaign organising tool I have used. It is quite clearly built by gamers for gamers. Highly recommended.
EDIT: Plus I would buy AP content in a heartbeat if it were available.
I am interested in Realms works, but I don;t see this happening as if it has all the info then would you really need the APs. Which cuts that revenue from paizo,
Not necessarily. In a licensing deal, the licensee (LoneWolf) typically pays part of the money to the licensor (Paizo). Similarly, Paizo sells the physical copies to a distributor for a portion of the list price. The Distributor sells them to stores for a larger portion of the list price, and the store sells the physical copies for whatever portion of the list price they feel is appropriate.
In other words, Paizo would be getting a share of the money from the sale of the licensed products. They could also choose to sell the content directly through the RealmWorks Marketplace (when that is available; it is not implemented at the moment), but given how their staff is already stretched somewhat producing what they do now, it is likely to be more worthwhile for them to license it rather than dedicating staff to what amounts to an entirely new format of publishing.
If RealmWorks takes off, publishers might then find it more workable to have in-house conversions done, but while it is new and unproven, licensing probably makes more sense.
I have not used Realmswork as I have a Mac and am waiting for it to come out in browser form which they said is what they are working on.
It is likely to be a while before there is a full-featured web-based version. A player version of the thick application is the current goal. There are several important features to be implemented still to the "core" program, though. Adding features to the web client will happen, but I would not expect to see a fully-featured web client for the GM for some time.