D&D General I hate five-foot passages!

[jasper]

I just finished Chapter 7 about 10 days ago. My group talked down the slaads. But other combats can go against them. Poor Droo is just a diet snack for the mind flayers.

 

[el-remmen]

The image in the OP looks like the map is one image rather than something that they could simply move a few bits around. Even if it was more modular it gets complicated when everything needs to be reshuffled to accommodate. Even just stretching a static image to widen hallways can make a mess because then you have terrain clutter and various obstacles also enlarged in ways that can cause trouble. All combined, the OP's post is an example of why the tactical rules are so important to get right.

Yes. Thus why I was talking about “the inflexibility of VTTs,” and said that if it were a battlemat it would be better because the DM could redraw a small portion without it mucking up the entire map.

And yes, I understand that not everyone can play f2f, I am just pointing out a limitation of that kind of virtual play.

 

[MarkB]

Yes. Thus why I was talking about “the inflexibility of VTTs,” and said that if it were a battlemat it would be better because the DM could redraw a small portion without it mucking up the entire map.

And yes, I understand that not everyone can play f2f, I am just pointing out a limitation of that kind of virtual play.

It's not that tough to edit a portion of the map on a VTT in similarly rough-and-ready fashion. Paste a blank white image over the area on the map layer, draw in some lines to show the new corridor layout, maybe adjust the dynamic lighting map if you're using it. 5-10 minutes if you're practiced with the software.

 

[Reynard]

No you don't, you hate survival.

 

[tetrasodium]

It's not that tough to edit a portion of the map on a VTT in similarly rough-and-ready fashion. Paste a blank white image over the area on the map layer, draw in some lines to show the new corridor layout, maybe adjust the dynamic lighting map if you're using it. 5-10 minutes if you're practiced with the software.

It's important to remember that Roll20 isn't the most capable of map editors among modern vtts.

 

[MarkB]

It's important to remember that Roll20 isn't the most capable of map editors among modern vtts.

It's the only one I have significant experience with, and the one I was using as the basis for my above description.

 

[el-remmen]

5-10 minutes if you're practiced with the software.

That’s great, esp. if you can do it ahead of time. . . But still can feel like a long time during play (esp. during remote play since you don’t have the immediacy of everyone being in the same room to make the time pass quicker).

 

[MerricB]

It's the only one I have significant experience with, and the one I was using as the basis for my above description.

Yeah - doing a quick patch of the map is quite easy in Roll20.

Doing a big overhaul, not so much. I think the slaad are the only big creatures in this particular map. I often shrink down big monsters size because Wizards of the Coast keep demonstrating they don't understand how difficult they are to use as miniatures on tiny maps.

(Giants as Huge? ARGH!)

It's really weird - they make all these decisions about making monsters (and their minis) bigger, and it's obvious they want to sell VTT and miniatures... but the adventure design doesn't reflect it. It's all balanced for "theatre of the mind".

Cheers,
Merric

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

No you don't, you hate survival.

Unwarranted. Granted, Survival wasn't one of Task Force Games' best efforts, but it was still a lot more enjoyable than the utterly random dice-fest that Barbarian was. And the safari scenario they added in Nexus added a bit of value.

Old-time readers of White Dwarf with good memories will recognize both of those. They were published in WD long before TFG printed them separately.

And they were both better than Outdoor Survival no matter what Gygax thought of it. There are reasons threads like this exist on BGG.

What? Oh, small-s Isle of Dread hexcrawl survival. Well, never mind then.

 

[tetrasodium]

Yeah - doing a quick patch of the map is quite easy in Roll20.

Doing a big overhaul, not so much. I think the slaad are the only big creatures in this particular map. I often shrink down big monsters size because Wizards of the Coast keep demonstrating they don't understand how difficult they are to use as miniatures on tiny maps.

(Giants as Huge? ARGH!)

It's really weird - they make all these decisions about making monsters (and their minis) bigger, and it's obvious they want to sell VTT and miniatures... but the adventure design doesn't reflect it. It's all balanced for "theatre of the mind".

Cheers,
Merric

That kinda overhaul is what I was talking about as getting messy. Once you start doing a one off here and a one off there you start having more one offs than map pretty quickly.

It's the only one I have significant experience with, and the one I was using as the basis for my above description.

If you want to see the other end of the spectrum when it comes to map editing I'd checkout arkenforge (or at least the trial). Foundry's gold star is in its automation and modularity, I'm also not sure if it has a trial.