Gnome Stew and Engine Publishing are partnering with Lone Wolf Development to integrate the content from all three of our books into their forthcoming Realm Works campaign management software.
Backers of the Kickstarter campaign for Realm Works will be able to access Never Unprepared: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Session Prep, Masks: 1,000 Memorable NPCs for Any Roleplaying Game, and Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters within Realm Works for free.
What’s Realm Works?
Realm Works is a system-neutral tool that enables GMs and players to manage campaigns in a streamlined yet comprehensive way, and by “comprehensive” I mean it does so much that it’s hard to describe it succinctly. Two of the authors of Gnome Stew, Phil Vecchione and Matthew Neagley, got a sneak peek at Realm Works from the developers, and they were so impressed that we closed this licensing deal not long after their demo. (Phil, Matt, and I are also backers of the Realm Works Kickstarter — when it comes to GMing, we put our money where our mouths are.)
The heart of Realm Works is a relational database specific to your campaign, which gives you wiki features like categories (predetermined or custom-made) and automatic hyperlinking between entries, but it’s more than a wiki. Realm Works also offers link webs (maps of how entries relate to each other), timelines of your campaign’s history, relationship webs showing connections between NPCs, the ability to reveal select bits of information to your players, and flows that allow you to create plots, locations, and events and connect them to one another. It also accepts files from other applications, making it a true one-stop shop for campaign management.
Like our books for GMs, we think this is a unique tool that will help you have more fun at the gaming table. Lone Wolf Development has a great track record as a company, offering well-known software tools for gamers like Hero Lab and Army Builder, and we’re confident that Realm Works is going to rock. Combining our system-neutral books for GMs with their campaign management tools makes a lot of sense, and we think the combination will help GMs have more fun at the gaming table.
Get our books for free
If you back the Realm Works Kickstarter, which ends February 24, or if you’re already a backer, you can get our content for free by backing at the $35 level (Never Unprepared), the $50 level (Masks + Never Unprepared), or the $65 level (Masks + Never Unprepared + Eureka). Our content will also be available for purchase in Realm Works after it’s released; we expect the final prices will match those of our PDFs: $9.95 for Never Unprepared, $16.95 each for Masks and Eureka.
If you like the sound of Realm Works combined with Masks, Never Unprepared, and Eureka, backing the Kickstarter is a great way to get all of these tools together in one place for an excellent price.
On a personal note, this is also a big milestone for Engine Publishing. The company is less than four years old, we’ve taken all sorts of gambles by producing material for GMs that some in the industry told us would never sell, and back when we published our first book we never imagined we’d be licensing our content to another company for inclusion in their software. It’s humbling and fantastic and a bit surreal all at the same time. Many thanks to everyone who has supported us and our work, and I hope you’ll check out Realm Works.
What if I’ve already purchased all three products in PDF format?
At present, you’ll need to pledge or (when the Realm Works versions are released) buy them separately. This isn’t just a new digital version (like text, ePub, and MOBI, which we’ve provided as free updates to all customers, unlike most publishers), it’s a entirely new implementation. The work is being done by LWD under a licensing agreement.
As such, this is a new format alongside print and our digital bundle, and is being sold separately.
What are/will be the differences between what I bought and the Realm Works version?
With a small asterisk because the development work hasn’t been done yet and it’s not me doing it (though I will be signing off on it, and will consult as needed throughout the process), the differences will depend on the book.
Never Unprepared is probably the most fuzzy at this point, since it’s more of a straight-up book-book than Eureka or Masks. I don’t know quite how they’ll bring it over.
Eureka and Masks are easier to predict. The major difference will be that every entry (plot/NPC) will be integrated into Realm Works’ database structure, making them searchable and filterable. All of the tags and other organizational elements we built into the books should convert nicely into database elements (note: I know very little about databases and appropriate terminology!).
LWD is fielding questions from backers on Kickstarter update #11, and even if you’re not a backer you can still read the Q&A. Here’s how they answered more or less this same question:
“Among the chief advantages of the content’s integration into Realm Works will be its readily accessible nature and easy ability to search for exactly what you need. For example, if you wanted a plot suitable for an “intrigue” adventure, you could search in Realm Works for those with that characteristic, choose one, and then start incorporating it into your campaign. You could do something similar for NPCs that you might need. Of course, you could also build the material into Realm Works yourself, and realize these advantages. The advantage of the rewards in this case is that the integration work will have been for you. Hope this helps!”
Thanks, it does.