Community

I can't help but notice most topics have ran dry on conversation, most of the stuff around is the same topics that have been rehashed a hundred times.

I guess were all eagerly anticipating packet three (which I was under the impression was going to be about the 15th of october but cant recall where I got that info, maybe wishful thinking).

This topic is more or less a useless post but I was wondering how many people like me have adventures ready to go as soon as the next packet hits, after some obvious tweaking that will be needed.

Personally, I'm using the playtest as an excuse to worldbuild design a new campaign to be ready when D&D Next is officially released. I try to make the content independent of the rules so it can accommodate the ever-changing mechanics. With every new playtest packet I get ideas for the world. I run a few homebrew playtest adventures and the content of the world increases. I'm really enjoying the interactive nature of the design process.

I just want to say,
NEW PACKET MEOW!! 

Seriously, we've kind of run out of topics and are rapidly devolving into argueing over and over again. 

heh I'd like a new packet 'cause my players have hit lvl 5 with their second round of characters and there's now talk of going back to a 3e game until there's more to do, which will put off any immediate testing for the forseeable future even if there are four or five packets released in that time

It's why I've posted less and less lately. One can only speculate and analyze about the same things so much. :/

My group has started a collaborative project where we are building/populating a town as the center of our D&D Next adventures. We are only using info in the playtest packets so far, and it's been a lot of fun working within those confines. But I am really hoping we will start building a world around this town, so by the time D&D Next is released, we'll have a massive, immersive, firmly-d&d setting. I hope the next playtest packet is released soon, these boards are starting to drive me a bit batty.

Oct 3, 2012 -- 9:24AM, YouKnowTheOneGuy wrote:

It's why I've posted less and less lately. One can only speculate and analyze about the same things so much. :/

same here.  I can only argue the same exact points so many times.  Patiently waiting for the next packet hoping to get in like 1 or 2 more games before it comes out but know that isn't happening
 

I look a couple times a week.  don't post much.  Throw up a little in my mouth sometimes...

Never even made it though reading the second packet.

Did I mention that this whole process (as it has played out so far) leaves the taste of vomit in my mouth?

TjD

Oct 3, 2012 -- 9:19AM, kadim wrote:

heh I'd like a new packet 'cause my players have hit lvl 5 with their second round of characters

We hit 5th level our third time this weekend, they won't run it again.

Oct 3, 2012 -- 9:55AM, Mr.Durriken wrote:

I look a couple times a week.  don't post much.  Throw up a little in my mouth sometimes...

Never even made it though reading the second packet.

Did I mention that this whole process (as it has played out so far) leaves the taste of vomit in my mouth?

TjD

Then dont playtest :p

Were enjoying it. 

Oct 3, 2012 -- 9:55AM, Mr.Durriken wrote:

I look a couple times a week.  don't post much.  Throw up a little in my mouth sometimes...

Never even made it though reading the second packet.

Did I mention that this whole process (as it has played out so far) leaves the taste of vomit in my mouth?

TjD

thank you for that.

Oct 3, 2012 -- 7:31AM, Ramzour wrote:

Personally, I'm using the playtest as an excuse to worldbuild design a new campaign to be ready when D&D Next is officially released. I try to make the content independent of the rules so it can accommodate the ever-changing mechanics. With every new playtest packet I get ideas for the world. I run a few homebrew playtest adventures and the content of the world increases. I'm really enjoying the interactive nature of the design process.

Same here.
I'm right in the midst of world-creation for a pure steampunk setting. I've already got 12 new backgrounds, new weapons, new armor, new mundane equipment, 2 new classes, new monsters...the list goes on. Of course, with each new release the material might have to be altered a bit to accommodate it, but I'm fine with that. It's all saved as independent documents that are easy to change. I recently got some interesting plug-ins /add-ons for Photoshop that I'm playing with in regards to the world map (good texture-based stuff). I've also been playing with Acrobat X Pro and its features that allow you to implement animations and vocals to PDFs (similar to how White Wolf does in their PDF material for World of Darkness). I'm hopeful that I will get it finished around the same time the playtest process ends and I can implement it immediately.

Oct 3, 2012 -- 7:27AM, OrwellianHaggis wrote:

I can't help but notice most topics have ran dry on conversation, most of the stuff around is the same topics that have been rehashed a hundred times.

I guess were all eagerly anticipating packet three (which I was under the impression was going to be about the 15th of october but cant recall where I got that info, maybe wishful thinking).

This topic is more or less a useless post but I was wondering how many people like me have adventures ready to go as soon as the next packet hits, after some obvious tweaking that will be needed.

Well, it's only natural... we have debated about every points of what we know and speculated about every possible subject of what we can just imagine... now we really need other material...

I'm actually ok with waiting abit longer. Now I definatly would not complain at all if it was released tomorrow or anything but my group hasn't had the time to play much and it took awhile into the second packet to get enough people interested so the party is only midway through second level with their first set of characters. I just hope all of my players are willing to update their builds for any new changes that come out with packet three. I'm not convinced all of them will want to.

Oct 3, 2012 -- 10:10AM, Hocus-Smokus wrote:

Oct 3, 2012 -- 7:31AM, Ramzour wrote:

Personally, I'm using the playtest as an excuse to worldbuild design a new campaign to be ready when D&D Next is officially released. I try to make the content independent of the rules so it can accommodate the ever-changing mechanics. With every new playtest packet I get ideas for the world. I run a few homebrew playtest adventures and the content of the world increases. I'm really enjoying the interactive nature of the design process.

Same here.
I'm right in the midst of world-creation for a pure steampunk setting. I've already got 12 new backgrounds, new weapons, new armor, new mundane equipment, 2 new classes, new monsters...the list goes on. Of course, with each new release the material might have to be altered a bit to accommodate it, but I'm fine with that. It's all saved as independent documents that are easy to change. I recently got some interesting plug-ins /add-ons for Photoshop that I'm playing with in regards to the world map (good texture-based stuff). I've also been playing with Acrobat X Pro and its features that allow you to implement animations and vocals to PDFs (similar to how White Wolf does in their PDF material for World of Darkness). I'm hopeful that I will get it finished around the same time the playtest process ends and I can implement it immediately.

Doing that on my blog at the moment as well. Although we're still lacking a lot of flavour or knowledge of when/ if certain races will be added.

What plugins BTW? I'm always looking for ways of making my maps cooler.  

Oct 3, 2012 -- 5:26PM, The_Jester wrote:

What plugins BTW? I'm always looking for ways of making my maps cooler.  

Eye Candy from Alien Skin is a great texture tool. It wasn't made specifically for map-making, but it works great on them. Layer Effects (script-fu - GIMP) adds detail-depth and more shadowing potential all around. In truth, I'm still learning the finer points of Photoshop, so I have a ways to go before I'd ever consider myself "skilled" with it.

Here's what I have so far on my "from scratch" world map:
Map Show

Oct 3, 2012 -- 6:14PM, Hocus-Smokus wrote:

Oct 3, 2012 -- 5:26PM, The_Jester wrote:

What plugins BTW? I'm always looking for ways of making my maps cooler.  

Eye Candy from Alien Skin is a great texture tool. It wasn't made specifically for map-making, but it works great on them. Layer Effects (script-fu - GIMP) adds detail-depth and more shadowing potential all around. In truth, I'm still learning the finer points of Photoshop, so I have a ways to go before I'd ever consider myself "skilled" with it.

Here's what I have so far on my "from scratch" world map:
Map Show

  

That still looks disgustingly good. All you or satellite composite?

Oct 3, 2012 -- 7:01PM, The_Jester wrote:

That still looks disgustingly good. All you or satellite composite?

Actually both.
I've taken bits and pieces of satellite pics across the world, mashed them together, trimmed off the parts I didn't like, blended the ones together that I did like, and ended up with what looks like a deformed Australia...but I'm working on it. I think it's still too green, and the desert/badlands area needs a ton of work, but hopefully it'll come together. Thanks for the kind words, though.

Oct 3, 2012 -- 7:27AM, OrwellianHaggis wrote:

I can't help but notice most topics have ran dry on conversation, most of the stuff around is the same topics that have been rehashed a hundred times.

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. 

Oct 3, 2012 -- 10:10AM, Hocus-Smokus wrote:

Oct 3, 2012 -- 7:31AM, Ramzour wrote:

Personally, I'm using the playtest as an excuse to worldbuild design a new campaign to be ready when D&D Next is officially released. I try to make the content independent of the rules so it can accommodate the ever-changing mechanics. With every new playtest packet I get ideas for the world. I run a few homebrew playtest adventures and the content of the world increases. I'm really enjoying the interactive nature of the design process.

Same here.
I'm right in the midst of world-creation for a pure steampunk setting. I've already got 12 new backgrounds, new weapons, new armor, new mundane equipment, 2 new classes, new monsters...the list goes on. Of course, with each new release the material might have to be altered a bit to accommodate it, but I'm fine with that. It's all saved as independent documents that are easy to change. I recently got some interesting plug-ins /add-ons for Photoshop that I'm playing with in regards to the world map (good texture-based stuff). I've also been playing with Acrobat X Pro and its features that allow you to implement animations and vocals to PDFs (similar to how White Wolf does in their PDF material for World of Darkness). I'm hopeful that I will get it finished around the same time the playtest process ends and I can implement it immediately.

That sounds really awesome! Glad there are other ambitious DMs out there doing some building.

Any suggestions for maintaining a living document online? I have a PC at home and a MacBook at work. My campaign notes are in a PC-Word doc, but I dont have that on my mac. I've used GoogleDocs before, but the editor is not very robust. I suppose I could always use a jump drive. Thoughts?

Also, out of curiousity, what backgrounds/classes have you created?

Oct 4, 2012 -- 7:06AM, Ramzour wrote:

Oct 3, 2012 -- 10:10AM, Hocus-Smokus wrote:

Oct 3, 2012 -- 7:31AM, Ramzour wrote:

Personally, I'm using the playtest as an excuse to worldbuild design a new campaign to be ready when D&D Next is officially released. I try to make the content independent of the rules so it can accommodate the ever-changing mechanics. With every new playtest packet I get ideas for the world. I run a few homebrew playtest adventures and the content of the world increases. I'm really enjoying the interactive nature of the design process.

Same here.
I'm right in the midst of world-creation for a pure steampunk setting. I've already got 12 new backgrounds, new weapons, new armor, new mundane equipment, 2 new classes, new monsters...the list goes on. Of course, with each new release the material might have to be altered a bit to accommodate it, but I'm fine with that. It's all saved as independent documents that are easy to change. I recently got some interesting plug-ins /add-ons for Photoshop that I'm playing with in regards to the world map (good texture-based stuff). I've also been playing with Acrobat X Pro and its features that allow you to implement animations and vocals to PDFs (similar to how White Wolf does in their PDF material for World of Darkness). I'm hopeful that I will get it finished around the same time the playtest process ends and I can implement it immediately.

That sounds really awesome! Glad there are other ambitious DMs out there doing some building.

Any suggestions for maintaining a living document online? I have a PC at home and a MacBook at work. My campaign notes are in a PC-Word doc, but I dont have that on my mac. I've used GoogleDocs before, but the editor is not very robust. I suppose I could always use a jump drive. Thoughts?

What about dropbox?

Oct 4, 2012 -- 7:06AM, Ramzour wrote:

Any suggestions for maintaining a living document online? I have a PC at home and a MacBook at work. My campaign notes are in a PC-Word doc, but I dont have that on my mac. I've used GoogleDocs before, but the editor is not very robust. I suppose I could always use a jump drive. Thoughts?

I'm not too up-to-speed on living docs, but I have used Google Docs and Drop Box (as Seerow) suggested. All of the computers I use are PCs, so there's really not any issues porting from one to another. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful about this. I guess when you're not forced to contend with various machines, you tend to not pick up as much knowledge about them. 

Oct 4, 2012 -- 7:06AM, Ramzour wrote:

Also, out of curiousity, what backgrounds/classes have you created?

Some Backgrounds: Air Pirate, Tinkerer, Prize Fighter, Law Enforcement, Spy, Traveling Doctor, Astronomer, Stage Performer, and several others. Typical steam-punk archetypes. As for classes, I only have 1 finished so far and I'm having trouble coming up with a decent name for it. It's basically a Technomancer, but that's too Shadowrun for my liking. Think of an Artificer with no ties to magic in any way. He can create, alter, or disable automatons, create or fix body modifications (from the steam-punk mods)...anything mechanical is his forte. The other one I'm toying with is basically a pure scientist. No magic involved in his abilities. Chemistry, biology, and so on. Unless I can get motivated with this one, I'll probably end up dropping it.

Oh, no !
Another topics ran dry thread ! 

Oct 4, 2012 -- 7:06AM, Ramzour wrote:

Oct 3, 2012 -- 10:10AM, Hocus-Smokus wrote:

Oct 3, 2012 -- 7:31AM, Ramzour wrote:

Personally, I'm using the playtest as an excuse to worldbuild design a new campaign to be ready when D&D Next is officially released. I try to make the content independent of the rules so it can accommodate the ever-changing mechanics. With every new playtest packet I get ideas for the world. I run a few homebrew playtest adventures and the content of the world increases. I'm really enjoying the interactive nature of the design process.

Same here.
I'm right in the midst of world-creation for a pure steampunk setting. I've already got 12 new backgrounds, new weapons, new armor, new mundane equipment, 2 new classes, new monsters...the list goes on. Of course, with each new release the material might have to be altered a bit to accommodate it, but I'm fine with that. It's all saved as independent documents that are easy to change. I recently got some interesting plug-ins /add-ons for Photoshop that I'm playing with in regards to the world map (good texture-based stuff). I've also been playing with Acrobat X Pro and its features that allow you to implement animations and vocals to PDFs (similar to how White Wolf does in their PDF material for World of Darkness). I'm hopeful that I will get it finished around the same time the playtest process ends and I can implement it immediately.

That sounds really awesome! Glad there are other ambitious DMs out there doing some building.

Any suggestions for maintaining a living document online? I have a PC at home and a MacBook at work. My campaign notes are in a PC-Word doc, but I dont have that on my mac. I've used GoogleDocs before, but the editor is not very robust. I suppose I could always use a jump drive. Thoughts?

Also, out of curiousity, what backgrounds/classes have you created?

You could try Obsidian Portal. Just set up a campaign and write everything out wiki style. Don't worry about the system you can change that as needed later.

Oct 4, 2012 -- 10:10AM, Hocus-Smokus wrote:

Oct 4, 2012 -- 7:06AM, Ramzour wrote:

Any suggestions for maintaining a living document online? I have a PC at home and a MacBook at work. My campaign notes are in a PC-Word doc, but I dont have that on my mac. I've used GoogleDocs before, but the editor is not very robust. I suppose I could always use a jump drive. Thoughts?

I'm not too up-to-speed on living docs, but I have used Google Docs and Drop Box (as Seerow) suggested. All of the computers I use are PCs, so there's really not any issues porting from one to another. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful about this. I guess when you're not forced to contend with various machines, you tend to not pick up as much knowledge about them. 

Oct 4, 2012 -- 7:06AM, Ramzour wrote:

Also, out of curiousity, what backgrounds/classes have you created?

Some Backgrounds: Air Pirate, Tinkerer, Prize Fighter, Law Enforcement, Spy, Traveling Doctor, Astronomer, Stage Performer, and several others. Typical steam-punk archetypes. As for classes, I only have 1 finished so far and I'm having trouble coming up with a decent name for it. It's basically a Technomancer, but that's too Shadowrun for my liking. Think of an Artificer with no ties to magic in any way. He can create, alter, or disable automatons, create or fix body modifications (from the steam-punk mods)...anything mechanical is his forte. The other one I'm toying with is basically a pure scientist. No magic involved in his abilities. Chemistry, biology, and so on. Unless I can get motivated with this one, I'll probably end up dropping it.

While it may just be the geek in me, I like the term Archimedean for such classes.  It evokes the image of Ancient Greek style clockwork automata in my mind.