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4 years ago ::
Jul 26, 2009 - 10:29AM
#1
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Hey everyone, Just ran the Nexus fight on Friday, and I thought I'd share pictures of the 3D battle map I built. Ran out of posterboard a little bit, so the bottom circle doesn't go all the way around (by why would anyone need to walk around anyway?). Also, for ease of placing miniatures, I didn't put in the staircases, there's just an abrupt elevation change, with the stairs occupying the square directly BEFORE the increase in elevation. Height scale is 1/2 (so the stairs are 1 square high each, instead of 2 as written in the module), and I resolved the issue with the two paths that lead to the upper circle by putting in a double long, double tall staircase in. Definitely enjoyed the battle, but my PCs have been getting too strong lately. I'll have to find better ways to challenge them (although actually, the fight where they had to rescue Kalad was quite difficult for them). Also, I might have been more effective if I'd consolidated my forces before assaulting, rather than throwing each wave at them piecemeal. Anyway, pics are here: http://bieneman.org/dnd/Nexus1.jpghttp://bieneman.org/dnd/Nexus2.jpgWe ordinarily run everything on Maptools on the TV, but for the big boss battles I'll sometimes break out the miniatures for more immediacy.
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4 years ago ::
Jul 26, 2009 - 5:49PM
#2
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That's really cool looking! You're obviously a better architect than me; I wouldn't trust a Medium sized miniature on anything I could build from posterboard, let alone a Large figure.
I'll have to look into MapTools...anything to speed up map-drawing, I'm a huge fan of.
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4 years ago ::
Jul 26, 2009 - 7:18PM
#3
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That's pretty awesome.
Misroi - MapTool won't speed up map-drawing. You still have to draw the maps, either in real time or beforehand. With about fifteen minutes practice it'll go about as fast on MapTool as it does at a tabletop, providing you don't want to use the line of sight effects MapTool can do. (If you do want line of sight, it'll take about twice as long as the normal version.)
MapTool has a whole bunch of good points but saving time on map preparation isn't one of them.
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4 years ago ::
Jul 26, 2009 - 8:17PM
#4
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My main concern with map drawing is that I have to do it at the game, which eats up time we could be doing something else - namely, playing the game. If MapTools can solve that problem by letting me create the maps ahead of time, then I think I need to pick it up.
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4 years ago ::
Jul 26, 2009 - 10:46PM
#5
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Date Joined:
Aug 17, 2007
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KoalaBro, that is amazingly cool! I was just thinking the other day about how cool it would have been to have that kind of model for that fight. I was also thinking it would have been cool to have kept track of the actions in the fight and render some sort of 3D animation of it. The only thing stopping me is that I know nothing about 3D animation  Misroi, if all you are looking to do is copy and paste some maps from the adventures, you can prep an entire adventure in glorious detail in 5 minutes. (Well, starting from when they graciously started producing tagless maps, anyway) It's been very liberating. And of course with a little more time you can do a lot more.
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4 years ago ::
Jul 27, 2009 - 6:27AM
#6
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Should have specified - technically it's foam board, not poster board. 1/4" thick, it held up pretty well. The fact that I used tiny nails in addition to glue helped a lot too I think. The woman at Walgreens was giving me a funny look when I picked up the Elmer's glue and foam board though. I told her it was for an art project; I just needed to pick up some popsicle sticks and macaroni, and I'd be set :D
Maptool is also nice because you can make use of others' work. If you check around the RPTools forums, all the SoW quests have been uploaded through at least DotD. And as noted, if you've got a clean image of the battle map, you can load that in super quick. After that, play is incredibly efficient. No one has to reach over the table, status ailments are easy to track, line of sight is handled for you, and so forth.
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4 years ago ::
Jul 27, 2009 - 3:29PM
#7
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My main concern with map drawing is that I have to do it at the game, which eats up time we could be doing something else - namely, playing the game. If MapTools can solve that problem by letting me create the maps ahead of time, then I think I need to pick it up.
I'll tell ya what I do:
1. Go through the modules and get rid of what I call "superfluous" resource draining encounters. I prefer only to run particularly interesting encounters or set-piece fights that are important to the story. That'll save you some time right out of the gate. (I usually boxed text the encounter as if it happened, then take a surge off everyone.)
2. Go to the Map Galleries on Wizard, find the maps for the encounters you're using, and save them to your PC.
3. Using your favorite jpg-viewer, resize the pics on an inch scale. Print and cut off any margins and glue them to some kind of backing. (Cheap wrapping paper you can get at the dollar store works well.)
4. Bust out the maps when it's time to get down with the get down and watch your players oooh-and-awww at "your creation!"
The time you save not running lame encounters can be spent on improving the maps of the encounters you DO want to run.
To the OP: Cool idea on that 3D map. I would have padded my purchase with some anti-hemorrhoidal ointment, a bottle of cheap liquor, and a big bag of clothespins just to really have the checkout person wonder what I was up to.
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4 years ago ::
Jul 28, 2009 - 7:50AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Feb 21, 2009
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For most maps, though, once it's blown up, the issue is having access to a large-format printer.
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4 years ago ::
Jul 28, 2009 - 10:48AM
#9
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For most maps, though, once it's blown up, the issue is having access to a large-format printer.
I have a normal printer.... when I print it up, a map might be as little as 1 page (for a single, small room) to as many as 5 x 6 sheets for a massive outdoor map or chamber. There will be a little white margin on each page, so all you need do is cut them off and glue them all together on a backing. Comes out perfectly!
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4 years ago ::
Jul 29, 2009 - 12:21PM
#10
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Date Joined:
Aug 10, 2005
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Lately the DMs in my group (including me as the one running SoW) have been using the 1 inch grid flip charts available from Office Max or other office supply stores. They have 50+ sheets of really sizeable paper (30 x 25 or larger... can't remember) that I have used to draw the map on prior to even bringing it to the table. So there is that option. However... that fully 3D map/model is very cool!!! Yeah... I can see myself considering that
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