The Next Innovation in Gaming

[tylerthehobo]

This is the future of gaming...

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxrY7MWEkwE[/ame]


Technology! Dark Tower the game, which somehow was timetravel-ed back to the 80s from the future...

 

[jmucchiello]

and it still requires the DM to do the heavy lifting. It's not like I can buy a Goodman adventure off RPGnow that when plugged into map tools has done all the maps, FoW, etc for me.

If MapTools compatible maps were in high enough demand, Joe Goodman would include them as part of his RPGNow downloads. Problem is the demand is too low and the number of systems like MapTools too numerous for JoeG to even consider spending a dime doing this. And I have no illusion that this will change in the next 5 to 25 years.

And on the other foot, if the WotC ever releases such a tool, it is unlikely they will allow Goodman Games to sell compatible products. Not without a GSL change or a separate license entirely.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

If MapTools compatible maps were in high enough demand, Joe Goodman would include them as part of his RPGNow downloads. Problem is the demand is too low and the number of systems like MapTools too numerous for JoeG to even consider spending a dime doing this. And I have no illusion that this will change in the next 5 to 25 years.

And on the other foot, if the WotC ever releases such a tool, it is unlikely they will allow Goodman Games to sell compatible products. Not without a GSL change or a separate license entirely.

Wouldn't one simple way to get the maps into the VTT - any VTT - to provide the maps as JPGs or PNGs? Sure, you don't get the individual features as unique objects, but maybe you don't need to.

 

[jmucchiello]

Wouldn't one simple way to get the maps into the VTT - any VTT - to provide the maps as JPGs or PNGs? Sure, you don't get the individual features as unique objects, but maybe you don't need to.

That's "the DM doing all the heavy lifting" as The Rouse put it. Maps for adventures are typically available for download. I was assuming the heavy lifting would include tokens (as MapTools calls them) for each monster, pre-arranged on individual maps by encounter with their locations and hit points preset, etc. That level of detail could be sold as a product if there were sufficient demand. I'll bet you could charge printed price for the adventure at that point based on the value-added provided enough DMs saw that as value added.