Community

Hello everyone!

I'm Videshi, new to the forums but old to D&D. I've decided to run a 4th edition campaign with a few of my friends, so I'm working up a world and figuring out how I want this to be done in terms of dungeon maps etc. 

Now, I have a few ways of creating maps that I use, so that's not really the issue at hand. My issue is that if I want to print them, I'd have to print out four sheets at a time to make them large enough, and I have an old printer. It's also just not good enough to print them at quite the quality I'd like, and considering how I pre-generate a lot of my content this would be tough to organize and space-consuming. I was also thinking of printing out my own tiles and simply placing them, using tacks on a corkboard for NPCs and players, but that's also time consuming in-game and breaks immersion a bit. 

However, we all have various monitors and large televisions, and I tend to have my laptop beside me, so I'd like to have some kind of digital solution. I've looked a bit online for various solutions, but my internet has been down at home for the last week and I figured it would be best to start asking my questions in the forums and looking for advice from experienced DMs such as yourselves! 

Do you know of any good software solutions for game boards for players? Allowing me to show/move monsters and players on a large screen? 

I have some ideas for how to work this out myself, such as using Photoshop layers, but a more structured program would be helpful in this case. 

Edit: I'm aware of Dungeon Tile Mapper and the like, which is how Photoshop and using layers figures into this solution, but something more streamlined would always help. 

Maptool (www.rptools.net) or one of many other virtual tables that are out there.

Thank you, DevoDog, I'll be sure to check it out when my internet gets set up at home tonight. 

Does anyone else have another program that they prefer? I'm still a good month away from having my game ready, so I intend to check out a few programs here and there. 

For that matter, can anyone recommend a good 4th edition treasure generator? I have one I think will work just fine, but as long as I'm asking about things on the forum I might as well see if you have any suggestions. 

I'd second Maptools; it's an awesome system, especially if you play via skype with people if you don't have a home-game crew.

Dec 10, 2012 -- 10:49AM, Videshi wrote:

Does anyone else have another program that they prefer?

  There isn't any freebie that is equal to maptools right now.  But if one where everybody has to pay for it, Fantasy Grounds isn't too bad.

Dec 10, 2012 -- 10:49AM, Videshi wrote:

For that matter, can anyone recommend a good 4th edition treasure generator?

You shouldn't be randomly generating treasure anymore.  The dmg lays out what level magic items, how many, and gold values for the rest. 

Hi again,

I've been looking at Map Tool and it's great! Thanks a lot for the information.

As for the treasure generator, it's actually an Excel sheet made from the DMGs. I like the idea that I can create maps, set out treasure however I like whether hidden or in chests, decide what level of treasure is in there, yet not know exactly what they'll get. It adds a nice random quality for my players' loot. 

random is ok with armour and weapons if u have a ritual caster with transfer enchantment, and then is it still only ok. but it can really suck on the other stuff. like of u randomised a horned helment and no one charges for example

Random for magic items is fine when you're discussing what you have access to while you're still in the dungeon, but as an overarching loot distribution system, it's not functional given the exchange rates in the books. You're either going to need to up the rate at which items are found to compensate or allow the PCs to sell what they find at more generous prices when they get back to civilization.

Roll20 is also good. It's an online interface for online tabletop games, I think it will have everything you'll need.

CorelDraw.
I don't care what the Adobe Illustrator fans say, for managable vector art, Corel Draw is excellent. You can then even save on a turn-by-turn or round-by-round basis.
Yes, it is worth the $. Absolutely.
You can import your maps (whatever they were made with) or generate them from scratch. It all works great.

Need examples? take a look at the maps in my PbP games.
Simple, but they work.

Maptools!

Dec 10, 2012 -- 5:31AM, DevoDog wrote:

Maptool (www.rptools.net) or one of many other virtual tables that are out there.

I use Maptool as well, both for online games and in the basement where I turned my LCD TV into a gaming table (I'm cool with digital maps but I still like to break out the minis).

Two things man:

-Maptool
-Masterplan

Maptool is cool for making out your own digital maps, and you can even import all of your custom material. If you have macros knowledge, you can even speed things up. It has a few issues but it's not bad. You can also import the map as a PNG file.

Now, Masterplan. I use this in cohorts with Maptool. Once I import the map as a PNG file, I place it on asterplan, which has a lot of BEAUTIFUL utilities for DMs. It has a monster creator, an encounter runner, homebrew rules/items/classes/races/powers manager, your own game encyclopedia, and you can even zoom into the map during the encounter WITH player view so your friends can't see what's ahead. 

I was wondering the exact same thing, and it seems like I'll be using Maptool hereon out :>

With that said, does anyone know of any good solutions on Android Tablets? I'd love to be able to move pieces around on the tablet ontop of an imported image there. 

Dec 21, 2012 -- 12:12PM, Prancey wrote:

I was wondering the exact same thing, and it seems like I'll be using Maptool hereon out :>

With that said, does anyone know of any good solutions on Android Tablets? I'd love to be able to move pieces around on the tablet ontop of an imported image there. 

I don't have a tablet, but can it run java? Maptool is java based so if so, you should be good to go.