First we`ll need some tools. Well.. one tool. The GIMP – A very powerful and FREE image editor.  While there are other options out there, I’m familiar with GIMP and feel most comfortable teaching you how to use it for editing D&D maps. Head over to The GIMP Download Page to grab a copy and install it.

We’re going to take this map:

The plan is to remove the starting positions of the three monsters. W and the two G’s. I decided to leave the room number (7) as my PCs may want to reference it later when they draw their own map of the dungeon. Also, “To area 15″ isn’t any super secret so I`ll keep that in.

Okay, after getting the program open, you`ll have to copy and paste in the image – be it with Print Screen or right clicking the map in the PDF and hitting copy.  Let’s remove those two G’s. Select the Zoom tool:

Draw a box with this tool around the two G’s and some surrounding blocks:

When you release the mouse click, the screen will zoom in on the area of the image that you chose. Now grab the rectangle selection tool:

and select two blocks that are side by side.

Hit Control+C to copy that selection and then Control+V to paste that selection. It will appear right over the selection you made so it will seem like nothing happened until you try to move that selection. You`ll be moving the copy while leaving the original in place. When you place your mouse over the newly pasted selection to move it, you`ll see that the cursor changes to little arrows pointing up, down, left, and right. Click and drag the pasted selection over the two G’s and try to line them up so the grid lines blend it. You can use your arrow keys on your keyboard to make fine adjustments and get it just right.  Click off of the selection and on to any part of the map image to set the selection in place. If you’re unhappy with the placement, hit Control+Z to undo the last action which will re highlight the selection and allow you to move it around.  It can be difficult to see if the lines line up with the highlight dotted lines dancing around. Don’t be afraid to de-select it, check, and hit Ctrl+Z to move it around again. I do it often. When you’re done with the G’s, it should look like this:

Now let’s take care of that W. To get to it, either you the scroll bars on the bottom and side of the image or zoom out and back in. To zoom out quickly, use the drop down menu at the bottom of the image. In the picture above it says 317%. That’s how far zoomed in we are.  Select something smaller to see more of the image and then use the zoom tool to drag a box around the top row of the blocks that will include the W all the way over to the opposite corner:

Removing that W isn’t as easy as just selecting the block next to it and dragging it over. That spider web will look all chewed up and horrid. But, there’s another spider web in the opposite corner. Or, as I just noticed while typing, another web down two squares and three to the left. Heck there’s a few here. Let’s work with the harder one that is within our field of view. Use the rectangle selection button and draw a box around the empty square with a spider web in it. You may have to zoom in even further to get a nice selection. Try to have it look like this:

See how it’s right in the middle of the grid lines? We don’t want to copy too much over as it may encroach in to the doors when placed over the W. Experiment though. Do the Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V combo to have a new selection of that block that you can drag around. Before we move it over the W, we need to flip it around.  At the top of the image window, go to Layer > Transform > Flip Horizontally.

Your image will be flipped. Now you can place it over the W. Use the above mentioned techniques to get it to line up with the surrounding lines.  Zoom out and marvel at your work!

Wait?! What the hell is that stray spider web line doing there?!?! Grr! It must be eradicated! It’s now time to introduce you to the most powerful tool in the arsenal (in my opinion of course).

Behold! The Smudge Tool

Select that tool and under the options, choose a brush size of like 5. Click the icon next to the brush size and choose the circle. The pictures don’t list the size so just do some trial and error until you find the one you want.

Go to your image and put your cursor over the stray web line. Click and hold and drag over the area a little bit. Avoid contact with the grid line above though as we don’t want to smudge that at all. This smudge tool blends in surrounding parts of the image together. Let go of the button when you’re done and check the work out. If you don’t like it – Ctrl+Z and try again. The finished product should look like this when zoomed out to 100%:

If you wanted to remove the big 7 in the middle, I’d select a 2×2 square of blocks and drag it over. Simple. To remove the “To area 15″ I would select a large selection of background above the text and drag it down then use the smudge tool to blend the edges a little.

Remember, none of your PCs will know what this map is supposed to look like… unless they’ve played it before or are a DM playing this adventure else ware. If you didn’t smudge the area just right, no one is going to know.  Print this sucker out and enjoy!

Last week at a LAN party (yes, they still exist) I hosted a session of the 2008 WW Game Day adventure Into The Shadowhaunt for 5 players. Some were new, others seasoned, still a couple were familiar with 3.5 but not 4e. It went well, we all had fun. One player tried to use a Streetwise check to perform a sexual act… was interesting.

Anyways.. I found one major thing that I need to work on. My Poker Face. When playing online, I didn’t need one. We were all behind our computer monitors. No one knew that I always DMed in my Transformers boxers! But at the table at the LAN Party, I had a player ask to do something. I don’t even remember what it was exactly.  But it was something that I didn’t have an immediate plan of action for. Sure, the request was do-able, wasn’t anything too far fetched but I just had to think for a moment on how formulate a plan. I didn’t want the player to think that their request was unimportant since it wasn’t planned in the adventure as I feared my “deer in the headlights” look would give that away.

I tried to put on my poker face. No luck. More deer in headlights. I took a moment, thought of a response, gave it, player happy, DM happy.

While this isn’t the best example of when to use your poker face, I see that it’s certainly a skill that needs honed. Do I flip through some random pages while I think? Take a 5 minute break to gather thoughts? Fake it til I make it?

I feel like I’m out of the D&D loop, man. Nursing school has consumed much of my life – so much to the extent that I can’t even find time for a little D&D! My Insider account has lapsed, my group hasn’t played in a few months, we just moved to a new house and my D&D stuff is slowing being re-discovered as we unpack… <sigh>.

But, I have a computer LAN gaming event coming up in late July and I’ve lined up 6 chaps who want to play a little D&D. Most are brand new..which is good for me as I haven’t DM`ed in months. I’ve also seen that Gametable has some new versions out and is changing its name so expect reviews on those soon.

With the new house purchase, I’ve been thinking of running face to face games instead of online only ones but I have mixed feelings on that which are starting to become a full post instead of just this paragraph.

So…I’ve been gone from D&D since December. What did I miss?

]]> http://www.czaralex.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=738 3 http://www.czaralex.com/blog/?p=719 http://www.czaralex.com/blog/?p=719#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:07:11 +0000 Czar http://www.czaralex.com/blog/?p=719

The bad guy has the talisman? Stab him! Nasty thugs blocking your path? Lob some arrows! While these solutions to common D&D problems seem just fine for me, I struggle with the idea of teaching my toddler these actions at this stage in his life.

Are there alternatives? Sure there are but I fear that my gaming sessions with my son will turn in to constant skill challenges. However, as I write this, I think…. would that really be all that bad? It would encourage imagination, creative thinking, and creative problem solving. But not every situation can be solved with diplomacy.

What I would like to do is propose a list of non-lethal attacks…er…solutions to situations that you can’t talk your way out of.  When it comes down to it, a non-lethal solution should be one that either immobilizes/stops the target or causes it to flee. Let’s do it:

• Rope
• Big net
• Shallow`ish pit
• Bolo
• Stink bomb
• Scary sound
• Slippery agent on floor

I know that’s not a complete list but just some ideas to get people/me started. Basically, at this point, I want to avoid any action that strikes the target and causes physical harm.

Am I going overboard here? I know later in life, and not even all that far in the future, my boy`ll be able to make decisions regarding conduct and appropriate actions but for now I don’t want him to believe situations can be solved by knocking an arrow.

Do you have any suggestions for non-lethal solutions that would fit on this list?

While it’s too early to tell what his interests are other than Mickey Mouse, Matchbox cars, and playing with his Thomas the Train play table, I would still like to encourage a vivid imagination and critical thinking skills.  A few weeks ago we were up in our attic putting something away. Actually, it was some of my old Generation 1 Transformers toys that I’ve been showing him. While up there, he saw an old globe I have tucked away. He announced to me, “Daddy? This is the Earth.” I stopped, still holding the box, and looking at him. I tried to think when he would have been up here last as the door is locked. “Yes. It sure is. …Where did you learn that?”.  He answered by spinning it slowly and asking me, “Where do we live on here?” Absolutely floored, I dropped my box and went over to give him his first geography lesson.

But that got me thinking..if he can understand a giant map like a globe, could he comprehend something much more important in the grand scheme of life? … a D&D map?!

A few weeks went by but last night I busted out my Paizo dry-erase battlemap and a black marker. I also had a bucket of tokens made in the style of The Newbie DM’s token tutorial. He was very attentive and very interested in handling everything and giving it a thorough inspection.

Rule #1 for others trying this. Have -TWO- dry erase markers. I only had one at the moment and my boy wanted to monopolize it. Instead of turning this experience in to a sharing lesson that would most likely end with him having to sit in the corner, I let him doodle on the map. It occurred to me that  he has never seen these tools before as I normally game online via Gametable when he’s asleep.  Pretty soon, he has his first battle map scribbled…er… drawn:

In exchange for letting him play with the tokens, he allowed me to use the marker. I quickly drew a rectangle. “Okay kiddo. Pretend you’re in your room but you’re up on the ceiling looking down at your room.” I made a space for his door and put his bed and rocking chair on the map. He put down the tokens and began to pay careful attention to what I was drawing. I asked him where his dresser would be but he pointed to the wrong end of the map. It dawned on my that perhaps I need more realistic representations of the items in his room for this to work at this age.

So I abandoned the bedroom map idea and went for something else. I drew a 10 x 2 square hallway and placed two tokens at one end next to each other. I explained to him that each token takes turns moving and showed him that on one token’s turn, he can move 2 squares and the other can move 3 squares. We were going to have a race to see which token would make it to the end first, of course giving him the token that can move 3 squares.  However, when he began to touch and move the tokens around, the lines smudged on the map and he became distracted with playing with the tokens again.

In the end, I’ve decided to bring out these tools/toys regularly so he becomes familiar with them before I began diving in to some game theory and moving tokens around. Also, I plan on making a map of his bedroom using printed cut outs from pictures I`ll take of his bed, chair, dresser, and so on so he can place them on the map himself.

I`m very excited about all of this!

Here’s how to set up an encounter for you (the DM) and your party.

First, have everyone head over to http://encounter.fites.net

You`ll see this screen.

The page/app will update every couple seconds so those connected to your game can see the latest info. Click (or touch if you’re on your iphone/ipod touch) the Menu button. Hit Settings. You’re now at Session selection screen.

Since this is your first time using the application, Click on Game Name and enter a name for your session. You can reuse it later. Mine happens to be called Czar. Original, I know But its easy for my players to find. Please note, the passwords are sent in plain text instead of the *******’s you may be used to. Meaning, if you have a sooper seekrit password you use DON’T use it here. In the Password field, enter a password that people will use to join your session to view the data. For GM Password, enter a password you`ll use to identify yourself as the GM, giving you uber powahz! Well…the ability to add monsters. When that is done, click Menu and Create Game. After showing your game has been created, hit Back. You blank session is ready to go! If you’re returning to the session, use the drop down menu to find your Game in Progress, enter passwords, and press Join Game.

With your blank session, hit Menu, Add Character. Fill in the proper info and hit Add Player. By ticking the Hidden box, only you, the DM, will see the player/monster until you edit the character and uncheck the box.  Here is a populated session with one baddie.

HP is color coded. Bloodied creatures are orange. Those close to death are in red. When I use this, I prefer to give all creatures an HP of 1/1 so the party doesn’t know the true number.

This`ll work for online sessions or live sessions where people have laptops, handheld devices/phone.  Post comments or questions. Right now, major bugs will be addressed if identified. Feature requests will be considered but are very low on the priority list.

The online 4e D&D group I DM brought a concern to me stating that they would like some sort of interaction between our live sessions.  As is stood, we were meeting roughly every 4-5 weeks for a ~3 hour session.  It was very easy to lose momentum and feel a tad lost and out of practice when it came time for us to play a live session.

At first, I began thinking of a few ways to handle the situation. As previously mentioned, I have a server running that allows my players to log in and use the D&D Character Builder without having to buy their own subscription. Some of my players are Linux users and are unable to use the builder anyways. If I left Gametable running on there, we could exchange emails and move our players accordingly on the Gametable map throughout the day. There were concerns right away that managing combat via email would be a hassle and I had to agree thus it was decided we would advance the plot/story line between the live sessions and save the meat & potatoes for when we’re all together online.

But Google Wave is in the preview stage (pre-beta) and is invite only. So I said to my group at the last live session:

It would rock if we all had Google Wave to manage this stuff. I think it would work perfectly for it.

And then one of my players spoke up:

Yeah I’ve got enough invites for everyone here.

Whaaaaaat?! Turns out he had a slew of them and immediately sent out the invites. It took a couple days for them to arrive in our inboxes but within minutes, we all had our accounts set up and were exchanging test waves.

Without going in to how Google Wave works (see this link for a video on that), I firmly believe it`ll allow us to keep the campaign flavor going even between live sessions.

Do others here do campaign work between sessions? If so, what medium do you choose to use?

Sorry, there are no more invites available.

Recently, I came across a new tool that helps me, as the DM, organize and manage my encounters without having to click through several screens worth of info that I just simply don’t use.

Behold! The DM Encounter Helper made by “Insideru”, a D&D enthusiast seen on several message boards.
(Click all the pics for an enlarged version)

And that’s it. Just unzip and run the application. Nothing to install. There are no other screens. Quick and simple. Let’s check out a pic of it fully populated and in mid-encounter. Keep in mind, this is just random data I  made up. Numbers may not add up or be realistic.

Woo. What can we see here? This encounter pits our PCs, seen on the bottom, against 4 magical ceiling mounted Crossbows of equal stats. Crossbow 1 is already taking 5 ongoing fire damage. C3 is bloodied, marked, and blinded. Crossbow 4 is toast, Jamlamin and Belgar are both bloodied. The Initiative order is on the right hand side.  Everything is right there. No screens to flip through. The colored boxes next to the end of the Crossbow data are a big help. The blue one is used to copy Monster data from one creature to another. So if I wanted to have a 5th Crossbow with the same stats, I could click the [+] sign there and drag the blue box down to the blue box of the new blank field..and BLAM! This works great for minions.

Since the players keep track of their damage and HP, I only need to be concerned with the baddies. When they take damage, I simply enter the damage value in that blank box and press enter. The damage dealt is subtracted from their current HP and a new current HP value is shown. If they are bloodied, the program knows and colors their current HP red. If dead, its black and they are moved to the bottom of the Initiative list separate from the others.

For status effects, right click the orange button and choose what you want. To remove an effect, right click and and de-select the item from the list.  Right click on the gray area in the program to bring up a basic menu allowing you to load and save an encounter as well as some log options. Oh. You can also set it Always On Top.

Check the “Keep PCs” box before hitting the Reset/New button to remove only monster data. If you’re interested, you can enter the XP value for each monster and the program will calculate XP per PC for you.

While there are some limitations as to how many monsters/PCs you can have listed, I now fully rely on this program for helping manage my encounters.

To grab the program, hit this link:

http://www.czaralex.com/dmeh_v0.5.0.zip

]]> http://www.czaralex.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=682 5 http://www.czaralex.com/blog/?p=662 http://www.czaralex.com/blog/?p=662#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:40:44 +0000 Czar http://www.czaralex.com/blog/?p=662 Perhaps you’ve seen them around the RPG Blogger’s Network. People are making their own multi-level D&D maps. As I’m just about to get in to face to face sessions, I really wanted to `woo` my players, some of which are completely new to D&D.

For my setup, I took a map that already had two levels to it. Here’s a small segment of it:

Booyah. Two levels. Thinking ahead, if I were to cut that upper walkway out, I’d have a blank 4×4 block underneath it. I busted out the GIMP and went to work. To “show” what was under the walkway, I copied the walkway itself, pasted a new instance of it in the image, rotated it 90 degrees, and lined it up. Blam:

Its important to mention here that you need TWO saved copies of your intended map. One will be for the bottom level and the other for the top level (more as needed as you map may vary). Sure, the edges look a little rough and non blended. Big deal. They don’t have to be. You’re going to cut this newly revealed passage way and you can take those non-blended edges off as you cut.

Repeat that copy/paste process as necessary for any area on the map you may want to “reveal”. You may have to get creative and copy from different areas on the map and then paste it where you need it. In my opinion, it doesn’t have to look perfect. D&D is about imagination, anyways.

When I had all the editing done, I printed out two copies of my map, one of the bottom level file and one of the top level file. I then set to work using my hobby knife to carefully cut out the parts from each map copy and laying them in their proper piles. I had to refer to the digital copy of the maps several times as I was dealing with 9 different 8.5×11″ sheets per map and found myself asking “Is this a top or bottom part?” for various map items/rooms.

After everything was cut out, I glued the bottom level parts to some poster board. Nothing special. The 50 cent stuff you get at Wally World. I then glued the upper level to a $5 piece of foam board acquired at the local craft store. Using my hobby knife, I cut out the top level from the foam board using several strokes over each line to cut all the way through.

I did a little measuring and decided I wanted the top floor 2 inches above the bottom. With a $1.50 1/4″ wooden dowel rod I bought at the local hardware store, I cut off 5 support pieces in that length.  Using hot glue, I attached them on the underside of the upper level in spots to promote good balance and what not.

The map has two sets of stairs to get to the top level (or down from it). On the underside of the steps, at the top where they begin, I cut a slit with the hobby knife and folded the steps down. They’re still attached to the top level but now are angled properly. I had to add a 1″x1″ square in front of one of the steps as the elevation of the top level left a bit of a gap in from of the step where it would normally touch the bottom floor. Oh well.

Here’s the finished product:

Of course, now that I have the pictures to stare at, I can see some areas that need a little touch up. No worries. Nothing a little glue and hobby knife action won’t fix! Also, I had other uses for this foam board before this so please ignore the printed white letters you may see. I’m tempted to make some walls but just aren’t that creative. Suggestions for that?

Hello. D&D hotline.

Yes.. I…I…just want to end it all.

Sir, please stay on the line with me.

Okay.. so its not like that. But I read today in my WOTC RSS feed that there is going to be a test run for a few days of a new service.. the D&D Hotline.

Here’s part of the text from the official page.

If you have a question about running 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons, whether it’s a technical rules quandary, or would simply like to improve your DMing skills, here’s your chance to speak directly with the folks at Wizards of the Coast! Expert DMs—including R&D’s Mike Mearls and Rob Heinsoo—will be on hand to field your calls on the DM Hotline.

I wonder if WOTC is testing the waters to see if there would be a need/market for a (wo)manned line available for those playing a little 4e that get stuck. Could WOTC be using data, such as are people calling with game mechanic questions, or just asking how to improve their game play?

If its becomes a dedicated line with scheduled hours, how much would YOU pay to call such a service?