Ashrem Bayle
Explorer
So I'm sitting here at work on a break and I decide to put it toward some campaign prep. I'm writing up stats and such and I'm thinkig that I need to print some of this stuff out so I can playtest a big fight this weekend. I want it to be challenging, but I don't want a TPK on my hands.
Then it hit me. Why wait?
I fire up AutoCAD (but just about any digital drawing tool would work) and set to work. I create a series of 1" tiles and arange them in the form of the battle area. Then, I created a circle with a PCs name in it. Using the "attdef" command, I create a section for Wounds & Vitality (as I'm going to be using them in the test) in the circle. Copy, then paste as block.
Viola!
I now have a blue circle with a PCs name in it. If I click on it, I can move it and if I double click, I can fill in the characters current Wound/Vitality point. It's like a digital version of a Heroclix base.
I then created one for each PC and then one for each monsters. With the monsters, I changed the shape from a circle into various other shapes then added their health info as well.
So now I have a "battlemat" with "miniatures" and the mini's have the added benifit of having their health info stored right on them. Off to the side, I'm going to put other information like spells and such for the characters who have them.
Now, with all the character info stored in a Word Character Sheet, a dice roller program, and the SRD, I can do a complete playtest without ever touchig anything but my mouse. Ain't technology grand!
I don't know why I never thought of this before.
Then it hit me. Why wait?
I fire up AutoCAD (but just about any digital drawing tool would work) and set to work. I create a series of 1" tiles and arange them in the form of the battle area. Then, I created a circle with a PCs name in it. Using the "attdef" command, I create a section for Wounds & Vitality (as I'm going to be using them in the test) in the circle. Copy, then paste as block.
Viola!
I now have a blue circle with a PCs name in it. If I click on it, I can move it and if I double click, I can fill in the characters current Wound/Vitality point. It's like a digital version of a Heroclix base.
I then created one for each PC and then one for each monsters. With the monsters, I changed the shape from a circle into various other shapes then added their health info as well.
So now I have a "battlemat" with "miniatures" and the mini's have the added benifit of having their health info stored right on them. Off to the side, I'm going to put other information like spells and such for the characters who have them.
Now, with all the character info stored in a Word Character Sheet, a dice roller program, and the SRD, I can do a complete playtest without ever touchig anything but my mouse. Ain't technology grand!
I don't know why I never thought of this before.
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