D&D 5E Increasing my map-fu for Out of the Abyss

[PSusac]

The best solution that I have found for this problem is a two parter:

1) Get your flat-screen TV, put it on it's back and slap a piece of plexi-glass over the top of it to protect the screen. You can draw on the plexi-glass like a battlemat. I got my plexi-glass at ACE hardware for $35. Hook your computer up to the screen and use it as a second monitor.

2) Put your graphics into power point. You can actually do a lot right in powerpoint to edit the graphics (it's not professional grade, but then neither am I). Pre-drawn maps work great, because Powerpoint lets you draw boxes that you can animate. This means that you can cover up parts of the map with these boxes, and then click on them and they disappear, as a sort of "fog of war" experience.

 

[Fion]

As someone who runs games predominantly over Roll20, it is difficult to do a 'theater of the mind' game of D&D 5e instead of grids, tokens & battlemaps. However outside of D&D I do use Roll20 for games that have no grid rules (or barely none). One of my favorite game lines is World of Darkness and I have both an ongoing Vampire: the Requiem 2e and Werewolf: the Forsaken 2e stories going. My group uses Skype for voice and while a VTT isn't strictly necessary it's still very handy. I can throw up images of a new NPC that helps immerse my players and give them a solid idea of who they are interacting with, or put up a map of the city the game is based in, often that I alter as events take place in the stories.

In D&D specifically I'm getting ready to run an adventure called Murder at Baldur's Gate, albeit quite heavily modified. This is a pre-release D&DNEXT 'Sundering' story that is heavy on the RP, exploration and light on combat (many of the encounters are entirely optional). While I'll set up battlemaps for those encounters just in case, most of the game will be spent on a 'page' in Roll20 with maps of the city of Baldur's Gate, anotated with specific landmarks. The adventure wonderfully comes with several images of major locations and when my party visits them, I'll put them on screen for a visual aid.

So while playing an RPG (even D&D 5e) on a VTT like Roll20 certainly lends itself to using grids and battlemaps and the tactical combat that results in set-piece encounters, it's still quite easy to use it more as a visual aid than a combat simulator.

 

[Motorskills]

I will also be purchasing digital copies of the maps,

Where are these available from?

 

[designbot]

Where are these available from?

http://mikeschley.zenfolio.com/p497268819
http://theredepic.bigcartel.com/category/out-of-the-abyss-digital-downloads

 

[CanadienneBacon]

And here are the maps from Jared Blando: http://theredepic.bigcartel.com/category/out-of-the-abyss-digital-downloads.

 

[Guest 6801328]

Are you a programmer? I've used d3.js to create interactive overlays.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Me? No. Undergrad in computer Information systems with speciality in database design and management, and I know Oracle. But am definitely not a programmer. Not my bailiwick. Wish it were!

 

[RobotElder]

One warning to all you mapmakers out there: I have observed that the chances of a party of adventurers deciding to explore an area is inversely proportional to the amount of time and effort you made creating that areas map.

DM: "You see a carved stone door in the cliffside."
Players: "We don't have time... let's keep going."
DM: ...

 

[Guest 6801328]

Me? No. Undergrad in computer Information systems with speciality in database design and management, and I know Oracle. But am definitely not a programmer. Not my bailiwick. Wish it were!

Ohhhh...with that background you totally have the mindset for coding, though. Here's an app I wrote, for The One Ring, using a d3 hex overlay on a map:
http://thawing-shore-2005.herokuapp.com/autoload

(The UX isn't completely intuitive, but shift-click to create Journeys on the map.)

 

[CanadienneBacon]

No, nope, nosiree! Currently working as an attorney! Thanks for the compliment, though!