General question using MS Paint or similar (free) program for Dungeon Mapping
Satyrn
First Post
Well when I have my advice, I assumed it was meant to be used imprecisely, so the DM would start with the starting area showing and then just start erasing in the general direction until he'd shown off enough (or a little bit more) of what he intended. Going for good enough rather than anything close to perfection seemed to be the OP's goal.
WaterRabbit
Explorer
LOL he probably would! But I tried roll20 and it isn't worth the learning curve. I already know how to use PowerPoint to do just about everything I need it to. I have next week off, so I will probably put more time into roll20 to see if I can get it to do everything I want. We'll see.
There isn't much of a learn curve if all you want to do is present maps. If you want to use it for rolls and character sheets there is a small amount of learning needed. For me, the trickiest part is keeping track of which layer I am presenting during play.
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WhosDaDungeonMaster
Guest
Since we play in person, I don't see any advantage to roll20.net over what I am doing with PowerPoint. I tried going through it some more, and am just not that impressed (it looks nice, but meh...). Maybe if I played online with a group, I would appreciate it more, but for now I'll stick with what I've got.
Ovinomancer
No flips for you!
Well, VTTs core functionality is to provide a virtual tabletable where you can display maps and place tokens. They are custom built to do this as the central building block of their program. So, online or not, you're using a computer to display maps and tokens for roleplaying, which is what VTTs do. Not to knock your method, sound oike you've put in a lot of work, but your comment you're not online is completely missing the point -- you don't have to be. You're still using a computer, after all, and VTTs are built to do what you want as the core function.
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WhosDaDungeonMaster
Guest
Except that the displayed map for me can't be the same the players see. There is probably a way to do this with roll20.net but not that I have seen or understood if I missed it.
LordEntrails
Hero
FG, Roll20, Maptools, and all the other VTTs I've seen allow for the mask/Fog of War to be see through for the GM so that they can see what they are revealing and what is coming up and for the mask to be completely blocked. Most allow tokens or indicators to be placed on the map that the GM can see, and the players can't. In short, they allow for a GM view and a player view. But, in order to do that, you have to have two windows/views or whatever you want to call them, one for the GM (shown on the GM screen) and one for the players, shown on the player/common/public screen.
Yes, you can do it with Roll20, you have to have 2 web browsers open, the GM one that is shown on the GM screen, and the player one, shown on the public screen.
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WhosDaDungeonMaster
Guest
So, when you do this, can the sites be linked somehow? No player controls the other screen since it is hooked to my laptop. I don't want to have to move tokens in both browsers.
Ovinomancer
No flips for you!
100%. Everything can be controlled from the DM screen. Alternatively, you can also give out permissions players to greater or lesser degrees.
This does require internet access for roll20. FG could maybe do it on a LAN? Not sure.
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WhosDaDungeonMaster
Guest
Well, one of my players has more experience with it. If we have extra time on Friday, maybe I'll go through some stuff with him for it. Anyway, thanks for the info.
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