ZEITGEIST Battle Maps and Roll20 Releases

W'rkncacnter · May 9, 2022

i was thinking of running gears of revolution at some point (in several months at the earliest, probably, since i've never actually DM'd before and i am not crazy enough to try to run gor as a first time DM), and i noticed grabbing maps from the pdfs to use in roll20 was...impractical. i know that the roll20 zeitgeist addons include all the battle maps from their respective books, but the release dates for the roll20 addons seem erratic - the dying skyseer (seemingly) came out for roll20 in march of 2021, while digging for lies (again, seemingly) came out in september, and always on time, according to a comment on the digging for lies page i linked, came out (or at least was supposed to come out) a few days after digging for lies. as a result, i'm wary that i might end up getting all the way to the most currently released book, and then need to put the campaign on hold while waiting for the next book (which at the time probably wouldn't be 6, but still).

so is there an actual timeline for these roll20 releases, or are they just released whenever? if so, will that ever change, and is there another way to get high-res, player ready (i have the whole adventure path as pdfs, so i can fill in traps and things myself) battle maps for acts 2 and 3 in case i catch up to the latest release?

arkwright · May 10, 2022

I use a program called NitroPDF to extract images directly from PDFs. Alternatively, you could set your Adobe Acrobat Reader snapshot resolution to high and grab screenshots of the maps from the PDFs. It will require some photoshopping. You may benefit from the latest photoshop's AI tools which lets you reduce pixelisation. Attached is one I have made for my game.

W'rkncacnter · May 10, 2022

arkwright said:
I use a program called NitroPDF to extract images directly from PDFs. Alternatively, you could set your Adobe Acrobat Reader snapshot resolution to high and grab screenshots of the maps from the PDFs. It will require some photoshopping. You may benefit from the latest photoshop's AI tools which lets you reduce pixelisation. Attached is one I have made for my game.

i'll give nitropdf a shot, thanks

Tormyr · May 11, 2022

The Roll20 releases come out every few months. There was a delay last year as I was trying to wrap up War of the Burning Sky, and I have been finishing up another large project. Once it is out of the way, The Gears of Revolution will be my only large project, and the releases will accelerate.

Book 6 should be out in late June. At worst, Book 7 would be out in September. Even if you decided that you were going to catch up to book 7 by then, the Roll20 releases have a lot more than just the maps. You can start with just book one, and then get the rest of act 1 once you decide you are happy with it.
https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/bundle/15350/z-act-1-the-investigation-begins

W'rkncacnter · May 11, 2022

Tormyr said:
The Roll20 releases come out every few months. There was a delay last year as I was trying to wrap up War of the Burning Sky, and I have been finishing up another large project. Once it is out of the way, The Gears of Revolution will be my only large project, and the releases will accelerate.

Book 6 should be out in late June. At worst, Book 7 would be out in September. Even if you decided that you were going to catch up to book 7 by then, the Roll20 releases have a lot more than just the maps. You can start with just book one, and then get the rest of act 1 once you decide you are happy with it.
https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/bundle/15350/z-act-1-the-investigation-begins

ahhh, thanks for the clarification! in that case i think i'll get the first act (and probably bonds of forced faith, too) on friday when i get paid. i did rip the maps with nitropdf, and the resolution on them wasn't great, so hopefully the maps in the roll20 release are better (and even if they're not then i get to be lazy so i guess i win either way)

MarkM · Jun 13, 2022

The Roll20 conversions are great, and are a big time-saver. I very highly recommend them.

The only frustration is the continually delayed release schedule. We play once a week and my players are pretty thorough, so I don't think we move through the material that quickly. The biggest challenge of the campaign is that I keep running out of material and having to stall, change to another campaign, or take time off to wait for the next release. With such a long and complicated story, taking breaks or switching back and forth between this and an unrelated campaign to kill time make it difficult to keep momentum and continuity. If the remaining adventures could be released every two months, it would make the experience playing through the campaign much smoother and better.

Tormyr · Jun 13, 2022

MarkM said:
The Roll20 conversions are great, and are a big time-saver. I very highly recommend them.

The only frustration is the continually delayed release schedule. We play once a week and my players are pretty thorough, so I don't think we move through the material that quickly. The biggest challenge of the campaign is that I keep running out of material and having to stall, change to another campaign, or take time off to wait for the next release. With such a long and complicated story, taking breaks or switching back and forth between this and an unrelated campaign to kill time make it difficult to keep momentum and continuity. If the remaining adventures could be released every two months, it would make the experience playing through the campaign much smoother and better.

Understood. I have another large (multi-year) project that is being wrapped up in the next few weeks as I have been trying to get the Zeitgeist releases out the door. With that released, Zeitgeist will be my only large project and will have my full time until it is complete.

MarkM · Jun 17, 2022

Tormyr said:
Understood. I have another large (multi-year) project that is being wrapped up in the next few weeks as I have been trying to get the Zeitgeist releases out the door. With that released, Zeitgeist will be my only large project and will have my full time until it is complete.

That is good to know and good to hear. As long as Book 6 comes out in late June as planned I'll be in good shape for the immediate future. If 7 comes out by September and then the remaining books come quicker after your project is finished, that should be a lot better, at least for our campaign. I appreciate the quick response!

Tormyr · Jun 29, 2022

So I had Covid last week, and it threw me off finishing on time. For those of you who need adventure 6 right now. Please message me, and I will see how I can accommodate you.