Making Modules Easier to Use

[Redrobes]

I'm a little confused by your post - let me see if I can explain a few things. Basically the VTTs try to emulate the way you play the paper and pen game. Nothing automatically happens unless you ask for it. There is still a DM in the loop and must move monsters from room B to A and he decides which player each monster heads for. In my ViewingDale even all of that fog of war is manually revealed by the DM. Its not like a game. It is pen and paper play and its completely compatible with real dice rolling, paper character sheets etc. The only difference is the communication medium. Its just digital instead of dry erase markers. You can use as much digital aids as your comfortable with. Some people like computer dice to add it all up, combat trackers, PC item encumbrance etc.

The module that you have in paper format can be scanned or digitally photographed and put in as the map. You can make your own map but its not limited to being just able to do that. You can scale the map image to fit the grid size and make it real world scaled. Then anything you add to the map is all in scale - PCs, monsters, chests etc. You can mix the two. Nobody supports direct links into PDF files because the libraries to use them is commercial to Adobe but you can link Acrobat to read the whole file. If you can add a option to open it at a certain page then that would make life easier. I don't know if Acrobat supports that or not.

Anyway, the point is that I could take any paper only module and barring the copyright issues, scan that and enter it in so that you can display that at the game table and present pictures from it in play. I agree that it would be nice to have a version of the map without the GM stuff marked on it (traps / secret etc) so that you could use that as the base but you could put the fog of war on top and reveal the bits that you are able as they explored. The point here is that you don't need a specifically digital adventure to run on a VTT.

Whilst the exact software precisely tailored to just the way you would like it does not exist, I think that there is a lot of stuff which can do essentially what you want. The thread that this one is linked from is talking about the perfect RPG tool and what it has shown is that everyones idea of the exact perfect app is slightly different to each others. This is reflected in the emphasis and differences between the apps that people like myself have written.

It would be a perfect world if all the adventures written were in an interchangeable format and the way you present them was selectable or customizable. In that respect it does not, and is not likely to exist, but the ideas of nailing information to the map and doing away with the room reference numbers and monster stat lookup is done if you want it.

If you disagree then what bits specifically do you think the current software is not capable of. Give me an example and I will make up a screen grab movie if I think otherwise. Even on the digital boards there has been a lot of confusion over whether its a game or whether you have to be on the internet to be able to use them.

Heres a taster of the kind of thing that a VTT is but this 5Mb movie is not showing any of the file linking capability. I know that this thread is about presenting what has been done before but better, but I am just highlighting that there is another way, if your prepared to use a bit of digital aid, to get most of what is being discussed previously, especially in regard to getting the information required for play on the map where its needed.

 

[schporto]

I havent' played extensively with viewing dale.
I'm looking at things more from an adventure stand point. I want the DM's map to have DM's text, that links to details on rules (like spells or awkward rules). I want the players map to have additional images that I can show the players (of puzzles or neat artwork). I want my map to be interactive with stuff to run the adventure, not just a map.
Really my thoughts are more how would I digitize an adventure, and what benefits can that provide, not from providing a map and visuals.
And, as a kicker, I want to buy this adventure already set up. I don't want to do the work to digitize it.
So for instance a lot of people often tweak the details of the adventure. Changing this NPC or that. So what if those were available as PCGen files (or insert your preferred character generator).
-cpd

 

[Ben Robbins]

/edit - Read Ben Robbins module

Sweet. That's exactly what I'm talking about. I can see pretty much all the information that I need to see, right on the map. Excellent work.

Thanks Hussar. In addition to being a kick-ass adventure, Dr Null: Battle on the Bay Bridge was designed to be something of a showcase for assorted game design ideas like Action Shticks, annotated maps, Revelations, etc.

Which also highlights something I'd recommend to JustinA: if you really want to expose your adventure design ideas to a broad audience, consider making a free release to show people what you have in mind.

I suspect there are a lot of small advancements in adventure design made all the time, but because they may be hidden in small press releases that don't get as much exposure there's limited cross-pollination. It's not enough to invent the wheel, everyone else has to see the wheel and start using it too or else it's back to square one.