digital miniatures & mapping?

tadanokami · Jun 13, 2014

RPG's need to move more and more into the benefits of our current technology. Using digital miniatures and mapping we can bring improved efficiency, record keeping, and players to the game. Cross platform mobile devices can be used both in proximity to players in a room, as well as with remote players. Some complain this is sacrilege, but I don't see why we can't have both physical miniatures/mapping as well as digital simultaneously. I'd love to play RPG's with friends that are just not able to be in proximity, and in real time. All feedback welcome.

Tonguez · Jun 13, 2014

Why not just play Skyrim online or Neverwinter

Daelkyr · Jun 14, 2014

Tonguez said:
Why not just play Skyrim online or Neverwinter

For the same reason we don't post helpful comments instead of snark. We don't want to.

I've used virtual maps projected from a monitor embedded in my table to put our physical minis on. I've also used virtual tokens as well. The ability to use fog of war style vision blocking readily helped my players delve the dungeon complex with a sense of discovery. We still had paper character sheets and rolled dice on the screen. In a more, theatre of the mind style play I could definitely see that set up as cumbersome and needless. And I only ever did that with my short lived Pathfinder game.

Playing with people online using roll20.net can be incredibly rewarding. I've made many friends playing LFR that way. I can definitely see the benefit of a group staying in touch with a few move away members in this way. A projection of the tabletop on a TV and having the remote player Skype in to interact with the rest of the group.

I love the technical innovation of VTT for online and face to face gaming. And as long as we don't replace the essential human elements: imagination, socialization, and shared experience, then DnD can weather whatever digital innovations can be thrown at it.

tadanokami · Jun 14, 2014

absolutely

The trouble with full on video games is they supplanted nearly all of the development experience of the game...you don't need to imagine or really think much about the game...just react. Unless your an obsessive compulsive about endless loops and redundant imagery playing a video game has a shelf life for appreciation. With a role playing game the your imagination is as some would say limitless. However some electronic assistance in miniatures, map making, record keeping adds some stimulation, and definitely efficiency. Sometimes classical RPGing can have drag in the play time due to be unprepared for an anomaly in the game. I just found this KICKSTARTER that has a video that generally can illustrate the point...check it out by going to KICKSTARTER, and look under IRON ATLAS.

bone_naga · Jun 21, 2014

tadanokami said:
RPG's need to move more and more into the benefits of our current technology. Using digital miniatures and mapping we can bring improved efficiency, record keeping, and players to the game. Cross platform mobile devices can be used both in proximity to players in a room, as well as with remote players. Some complain this is sacrilege, but I don't see why we can't have both physical miniatures/mapping as well as digital simultaneously. I'd love to play RPG's with friends that are just not able to be in proximity, and in real time. All feedback welcome.

Yeah, been there done that. Maptool, free download, java-based program. I've used it for online gaming with friends in other states as well as at home (I built a game table where my LCD TV folds down into a table and I have it hooked up to my computer so I can drop a map onto it).

Man in the Funny Hat · Jun 21, 2014

We can't have nice things.

Burning Yeti · Jun 28, 2014

Daelkyr said:
Playing with people online using roll20.net can be incredibly rewarding.

I want to second this... Awhile back I started up a Pathfinder game using Google Hangouts simply because I have two kids and there's a limit to the number of times my wife lets me out of the house each week. All the players were people I see every week (though usually for boardgaming) but playing online really let us explore a different space. We used Roll20, and the mapping ability was a revelation and tremendous fun.

Not the easiest to figure out at first, but once we got rolling I was pulling various character and monster images from the web and making little tiny PNG files to serve as avatars for both the players and NPCs. Throw in a Pathfinder Gamemastery map as your background (or any similar image from a roleplaying PDF) and you've got a great (and attractive) mechanism for running your combats.

I definitely think this is an area of the game space that needs to be explored more.

Morlock · Jun 29, 2014

tadanokami said:
RPG's need to move more and more into the benefits of our current technology. Using digital miniatures and mapping we can bring improved efficiency, record keeping, and players to the game. Cross platform mobile devices can be used both in proximity to players in a room, as well as with remote players. Some complain this is sacrilege, but I don't see why we can't have both physical miniatures/mapping as well as digital simultaneously. I'd love to play RPG's with friends that are just not able to be in proximity, and in real time. All feedback welcome.

Agreed. I was just looking the other day for something like this and wondering why there aren't any.

Maybe there's just not enough money in it. Make that probably.

Cherno · Jul 1, 2014

With the required infrastructure (for face-to-face sessions, I recommend two laptops, a big flatscreen TV, as well as a wireless mouse and mini-keyboard; I am not a fan of the ceiling or table-mounted projector) VTT gaming can be a lot of fun. Depending on the game, framework, and VTT program you use, the GM has to put in a lot of work beforehand (creating maps, tokens, setting up scenes and so on), arguably more so than with a purely pen and paper session, but the actual VTT gameplay, being computer-aided and enanced, can be much easier because the computer can take care of a lot of things you'd have to keep track of yourself otherwise, such as ongoing status effects, hit points, area effects, inventory, and so on. I like my games complex and beautiful, so I often work about 2 hours prepping for every hour game time. I guess there are GMs that just start with only a few notes and then slap everything together on the fly, which would be the other extreme. In my pinion, VTT and PnP both have their strength and advantages and some things can be done in one that can't be done in the other.

I created a thread long ago about my experiences with MapTools and D&D 4E:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...aptools-my-experiences-and-tips-for-new-users

megamania · Jul 7, 2014

all of this is pretty but the cost and skills involved means I'll do DnD the original way- paper and pencil.

digital miniatures & mapping?

tadanokami

First Post

Tonguez

A suffusion of yellow

Daelkyr

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tadanokami

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bone_naga

Explorer

Man in the Funny Hat

Hero

Burning Yeti

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Morlock

Banned

Cherno

Explorer

megamania

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