What does YARPS mean?

Dear friends and backers of YARPS!

There is a common – and somewhat unfortunate – misconception when it comes to the meaning of our name. Some people (including the authors of a popular online dictionary) assume YARPS stands for Yet Another Role Playing Software or System. That may be close, but it’s also kind of the opposite of what we want to offer with YARPS.

So let’s clear up some things! While it’s true that YARPS is an acronym and the last part stands for Role Playing Software, it’s the first two letters that matter most to us. If we would’ve been under the impression that we are developing yet another roleplaying software, we would not have felt the need to share it and we probably would never have started a kickstarter campaign. The world is full of projects and products with a Yet Another type attitude. So it’s important to us, to focus on what we want to do differently and how you, as a user, will profit from these variances. If we wanted to create something that already is out there, we wouldn’t have been able to make it through the tough last years and we also would have not been able to convince so many friends and partners to join us on this journey.

YARPS was always more to us than an attempt to do more of the same. Yes, there are alternatives that support worldbuilding, storytelling and some of them offer official roleplaying products as well. The number is actually growing. We are roleplayers ourselves, so we know about those well. But we also know the defining advantages of YARPS – that’s why these advantages made it into our name:

Your Advanced Role Playing Software

Why are we calling it Your Advanced Role Playing Software? Our application will be fully customizable to fit your individual needs exactly – this means YARPS can easily adapt to your roleplaying preferences and game world requirements. You want to play your favorite roleplay system but set in another world? Go for it. Your group does not play with character traits? Disabling attributes will be just as easy as adding new ones.

Customizable also means that you will have control over the layout, style and overall appearance of Your Advanced Role Playing Software. That way it can feel tailor-made just for you.

What makes YARPS advanced compared to the already mentioned existing alternatives though? Unlike other wiki-based types of world building tools, we offer an outstanding dynamic based on smart entry relations, automatic documentation and content changes depending on your custom (ingame) calendar. YARPS has a system that will allow you to reuse your content in different game groups, creating variants and modifications – just as easy as you could include and alter officially licensed content. We are creating a software where official content will not just be a PDF upload, but something that really focuses on the transformation of these contents – from traditional print into digital products, that automatically will be connected with your world, characters and story.

We are incorporating state of the art technology and artificial intelligence into our development to achieve this and create Your Advanced Role Playing Software.

This is why we feel like these two first letters in our name make a huge difference – we are creating something that’s unique, something that we deem fitting today’s digital possibilities. Therefore, it has to be something unlike what is already out there and can not just be yet another roleplaying software.

All the best,

on behalf of the YARPS team,

Chris