I bought a 20x32 piece of acrylic (plastic) to go over my 20 x 30 poster grid and drew out the entire lab on the third floor of the Trouble in Freesboro adventure. I printed out all of the paper minis for the encounter, including laser turrets. I had updated the character sheets to surprise the players -- they had leveled up at the end of the last session. Snacks and drinks were laid out, the dry erase board for tracking initiative was ready, and everybody's place setting was prepped -- pencil, dice, character sheet, character mini, and drinking glass.
And only two of the five showed up.
I am bummed. I'll get over it, but the sting is still there right now.
My current DM is winding down his Dark Sun Campaign to lead into my Gamma World campaign and we keep having interruptions that keep the transition from happening.
How much was the acrylic, dare I ask?
I'm planning an encounter in which the party is fighting in a factory-like setting on a grid or grate floor, and there is a series of pipes under them that ignite and shoot up jets of flame.
I'd like to be able to broadcast where this is going to happen without meticulously laying down tiles on the board and moving everybody as necessary, so having an acrylic sheet for them to stand on seems like a sound idea.
Tonight's sessions was going to be great.
I bought a 20x32 piece of acrylic (plastic) to go over my 20 x 30 poster grid and drew out the entire lab on the third floor of the Trouble in Freesboro adventure. I printed out all of the paper minis for the encounter, including laser turrets. I had updated the character sheets to surprise the players -- they had leveled up at the end of the last session. Snacks and drinks were laid out, the dry erase board for tracking initiative was ready, and everybody's place setting was prepped -- pencil, dice, character sheet, character mini, and drinking glass.
And only two of the five showed up.
I am bummed. I'll get over it, but the sting is still there right now.
I'm planning on drawing up the same map for that encounter in Freesboro. I was hoping to use a free software though. Any recommendations for a software to use? Any recommendations for the map design?
I was hoping to use a free software though. Any recommendations for a software to use? Any recommendations for the map design?
I use Gimp to to work with graphic files.
Kerry
I was hoping to use a free software though. Any recommendations for a software to use? Any recommendations for the map design?
I use Gimp to to work with graphic files.
Kerry
oh yeah I have an equivalent package on cygwin which I use all the time, but I was hoping for a software designed for making maps for rpgs. I know that there are a handful of higher level softwares which are specifically for this purpose.
As for my campaign, I had to stop due to the birth of my son and supporting my wife while she recovered. By time I was ready to start the campaign again, only 2 people wanted to play. The others were admittedly flaky, but out of 8 people only 2 left (it was usually a group of 4-5 at any given time).
It sucks, I want to run some more or even play, but nobody is motivated.
Maybe I'll talk to my D&D group and run Gamma World while the DM is out of town...
That chamber encounter area for this adventure is huge (21x31 squares)! I guarantee I spent less on drawing out the 20x30 map (shaved off 1 square of the published map in each direction) on the acrylic than I would have on the printer ink to make it on paper. And I get to use this exact same acrylic for encounters in the future too.
I'm all for computer software when an encounter area can be projected, but printer ink is a deal breaker. I save it for re-usables like minis.
Dm's never get any love.
Did you still run the adventure or did you just come up with a new one on the fly.
We bagged the evening. I ended up watching American Idol, cuddled up on the couch with my wife, so all was not lost.
I ended up watching American Idol, cuddled up on the couch with my wife, so all was not lost.
Yeah... I like doing that when I'm bummed too. Not the American Idol part, but the cuddling with your wife part.
I ended up watching American Idol, cuddled up on the couch with my wife, so all was not lost.
Yeah... I like doing that when I'm bummed too. Not the American Idol part, but the cuddling with your wife part.
I third that. Plan on snuggling up with her and watching kitchen nightmares in just a moment.
I third that. Plan on snuggling up with her and watching kitchen nightmares in just a moment.
You know Seeker95's wife too?!
I totally thought you were agreeing and you had said your own wife.I meant my own wife.
Sorry Seeker
Tonight's sessions was going to be great.
And only two of the five showed up.
I am bummed. I'll get over it, but the sting is still there right now.
I hope they at least did you the courtesy of calling ahead and telling you they couldn't make it, and had at least a plausible reason. That's just inexcusable otherwise. You put a lot of time into making a fun session for everyone and to just get blown off like that ...
Even if they don't appreciate your effort, I don't even know you but I'll tell you I APPRECIATE YOUR EFFORT AND WORK!
I only had this happen once and the people involved at least gave me a legitimate reason. We ended up just playing Munchkin with the two who did show up. So it wasn't a total loss. Still, I was annoyed. But apologies were profuse and the next session I got a custom made greeting card for GM's Day saying how awesome I was. I almost wept ;)
I hope they at least did you the courtesy of calling ahead and telling you they couldn't make it, and had at least a plausible reason.
Two called ahead with three hours notice and their reasons were, well, reasons for them. Wouldn't have stopped me, but that's me. The third fell asleep for a late afternoon nap and did not wake up until I called to see if she was on her way. She's regularly medicated, so I understand. None of my understanding stopped me from being pissed, but I can only stay pissed for so long before I move past it.
Not the American Idol part, but the cuddling with your wife part.
Fortunately, you have such a good attitude that you are NEVER bummed.
I may have something figured out...
And only two of the five showed up.
I am bummed. I'll get over it, but the sting is still there right now.
TPK
TPK
We make everyone RSVP and if they don't show, their character gets to "scout ahead" (i.e. "find hazards the hard way"). Everyone in the group is aware of this. Plus, we play with mostly adults over 30 who aren't as prone to the flakiness I've seen with certain age groups.
TPK
Plus, we play with mostly adults over 30 who aren't as prone to the flakiness I've seen with certain age groups.
Oh how I wish that were true for my group of "adults."
Oh how I wish that were true for my group of "adults."
Yeah we have a pretty good group. We have the occasional "Hey my wife is ready to throttle me so even though she was cool with me coming tonight an hour ago, it won't be so now..." and the "Emergency popped up at work and I'm going to be late / here another four hours and won't make it," but for the most part our guys are pretty good.
Oh how I wish that were true for my group of "adults."
One of mine has the wife problem a lot.The rest are just kind of craptastic at making plans.
I'm planning on drawing up the same map for that encounter in Freesboro. I was hoping to use a free software though. Any recommendations for a software to use? Any recommendations for the map design?
I use an interesting method, and its free-ish. At least, all it costs you is ink and possible money for D&D Dungeon Tiles.
I use maptool to build my dungeons in a tile format just like you would with real dungeon tiles. Then I take screenshots at a decent zoom % and print em out. You can set the grid size to match the tiles you have too, or just turn off the grid entirely if your tiles are well-sized.
For the tiles themselves, theres tons of free resources out on the net, or you can do what I did, which was actually buy official D&D Dungeon Tiles, and scan them into your computer. It takes a bit of technical savvy, because you have to crop them to the right sizes so they dont de-form in maptool, but it's well worth the work. It lets you print out large complex maps at any scale you want - so you can have individual room maps and zoomed-out full dungeon complex maps. And if you dont mind spending the extra $1 or two for your game, you can go somewhere like FedEx Kinkos and get them printed high-quality.
Tonight's sessions was going to be great.
I bought a 20x32 piece of acrylic (plastic) to go over my 20 x 30 poster grid and drew out the entire lab on the third floor of the Trouble in Freesboro adventure. I printed out all of the paper minis for the encounter, including laser turrets. I had updated the character sheets to surprise the players -- they had leveled up at the end of the last session. Snacks and drinks were laid out, the dry erase board for tracking initiative was ready, and everybody's place setting was prepped -- pencil, dice, character sheet, character mini, and drinking glass.
And only two of the five showed up.
I am bummed. I'll get over it, but the sting is still there right now.
Bummer! I hope your friends let the others know what they missed out on!
Gamma World is such surprisingly simple, wacky fun!
I'm planning on drawing up the same map for that encounter in Freesboro. I was hoping to use a free software though. Any recommendations for a software to use? Any recommendations for the map design?
I use an interesting method, and its free-ish. At least, all it costs you is ink and possible money for D&D Dungeon Tiles.
I use maptool to build my dungeons in a tile format just like you would with real dungeon tiles. Then I take screenshots at a decent zoom % and print em out. You can set the grid size to match the tiles you have too, or just turn off the grid entirely if your tiles are well-sized.
For the tiles themselves, theres tons of free resources out on the net, or you can do what I did, which was actually buy official D&D Dungeon Tiles, and scan them into your computer. It takes a bit of technical savvy, because you have to crop them to the right sizes so they dont de-form in maptool, but it's well worth the work. It lets you print out large complex maps at any scale you want - so you can have individual room maps and zoomed-out full dungeon complex maps. And if you dont mind spending the extra $1 or two for your game, you can go somewhere like FedEx Kinkos and get them printed high-quality.
Could you be more specific about sizing the Dungeon Tiles for Map Tool? And how do you make sure you have screenshots that connect up properly? What do you print them on at Fed Ex? Paper? A4 size?
I'd like to do this but I haven't been able to figure out the sizing and such.
Could you be more specific about sizing the Dungeon Tiles for Map Tool? And how do you make sure you have screenshots that connect up properly? What do you print them on at Fed Ex? Paper? A4 size?
I'd like to do this but I haven't been able to figure out the sizing and such.
Sure. I use scans of actual dungeon tiles I personally bought, so they're all actually 1inchx1inch grids at nomral 100% zoom for the scanner. So you don't need to actually resize the images when cropping or anything like that, just make sure theyre saved at 100% zoom after working on them. The grid size I use 110x110 (pixels I believe) - you can use a menu option called 'Adjust Grid' to specifically set it to a certain size. Thatll match it up to any 1inch grid pieces if its cropped right.
Edit: For the scanning itself, its easier, MUCH easier, to scan them in BEFORE punching out the tiles. I then use a program called Snipping Tool to cut screenshots of the scanned image, placing the tool along the grid. Its also nice to take snips of parts of tiles for odd-shaped stuff or cool features. You can scan them after punching em out, but its a LOT of work to position carefully. (did that once and it took me all day to do the first set wotc made)
You use the background layer in maptool when placing the tiles - that way they dont smoosh up with the engine trying to think theyre medium size tokens, it just drops the images in as-is. Theres a few things you can do from there. One, you can resize tokens inside maptool itself - on the background layer they have a little green + in the lower corner and dragging that lets you deform individual tokens if you have one thats not quite right. Secondly, right clicking on a piece has a 'snap to grid' option you can flag/unflag. I set that in options to be flagged by default, but i have a few tiles that i messed up slightly on the cropping and dont line up quite right, so I unflag that and position manually.
As for printing at FedEx, I just print in high quality paper. The size doesnt matter as long as its all the same thing and your image software can save large-scale images divided onto different sheets. Theres some programs around there that do that. I just divide dungeons/battlemaps manually into small pieces in Paint though, and cut em into shape after printing, so paper size doesnt matter to me. I think I just use standard 8x11.