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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cherno" data-source="post: 6084249" data-attributes="member: 6704531">Some general information on how I planned my campaign.Keep in mind that this was a face2face seesion, so some things of course won't apply to internet play.First of all, the technical setup.One client laptop is connected to a big TV, and has a wireless mouse so players can comfortably control their characters from wherever they are sitting. For the next session, I will also buy a small bluetooth keyboard so I don't have to stand up and go to the laptop everytime I have to change maps (The client laptop showed maptools at fullscreen the whole time).By all means do NOT think that everything will just work right away. First, you have to install the program on the client pc, and then create a networking connection between client and server, and THEN you have to make the maptools client find the maptool server game. Having someone with networking experience helps a lot. Be prepared to spend one hour or more on any issues that may appear.The DM laptool just sat on my lap the whole time with a small mouse connected to it so I didn't have to use the touchpad. It was a little weird looking directly at the laptop screen in front of my while the players where following the action on the big screen to the right of me, but I found out that it isn't a big deal and soon I got the hang of it.[sblock=11]<img src="http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3662b0kuybtjg7.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />[/sblock]Secondly, scenario/session/campaign design.If this is the first time your players will use a Virtual TableTop program, make sure that you show all the power Maptools has as soon as possible so the players will be awed and thus motivated to play. The very first scenario begun with the characters standing outside a door with a small window in it. Now the players can get to know how skill checks work because they have to roll a Stealth check to see if they can open the window without anyone behind it noticing. Just make it a nearly impossible to fail check. Then, the window opens... What, there's actual line-of-sight tracking, and even fog of war? Woohoo! This was pretty much the actual reaction of my players when they saw this:[sblock=12]<img src="http://www.abload.de/img/untitled-2j3x5ma7jyn.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />[/sblock]Bottom line: If there is a cool thing to to a see, show it and/or let them do it! Use the great drop-in functions available for Maptools!As noted above, the players started with one character each and fought their first two combat encounters with them. Then they freed the other two characters, so after getting to know their initial ones with all powers and stats and the basic game rules, they were ready to take care of two characters each. All those powers can be overwhelming, so make sure to feed it all bit-by-bit.The prison scenario was made very easy on purpose: Enemies had about 12 HP which is very low; They were not there to provide a real challenge, but rather to serve as means to teach combat basics. Think of videogames like Diablo or whatever: The first level will invariably be filled with enemies that have no real chance of hurting your seriously and mostly drop on one or two hits. When the players reached the Sand Raiders encounters, they were stuned to find out how dangerous combat can really be.Thirdly, presenting the game world.My players never played D&D and only one of them had played some Shadowrun about 15 years ago. No one had any clue what Dark Sun was all about. However, a roleplaying game, even if it's just a hack-and-slash-fest, has to have some framework, a world where the action takes place. Athas is different from your standard fantasy setting, with many aspects peculiar to this campaign setting. As a primer, I made a 10-minutes-PowerPoint presentation outlining the important things to know about Dark Sun: Races, Culture, Environment, defiling Magic etc., of course with big pictures on each slide: People love looking at pictures, and people hate reading text! Some basic oral and visual presentation knowledge helps a lot. At first, your players might feel like they're at university or in an office meeting, but if you give the right visual stimulation they will soon be glued to the screen and take interest in the game world.Fourth, physical components.Me and my buddies, we mostly play Ameritrash boardgames: Arkham Horror, Gears of War, Descent, Last Night On Earth, Nexus Ops etc. What I love about these kinds of boardgames is that they have great art and beautiful physical components: Finely detailed miniatures, big sturdy game boards, health tokens, little dollar bills for keeping track of money... that sort of stuff. Having a pile of little dollar bills in front of you is far more engaging than writing "$50" on a scrap of paper.[sblock=13]<img src="http://www.abload.de/img/charsheet_vert_front3c3jcf.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><img src="http://www.abload.de/img/charsheet_vert_back0s2hjc9.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />[/sblock][sblock=14]<img src="http://www.abload.de/img/cards1tjsj9sqjnc.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />[/sblock]For every gaming project I prepare, I try to make it as board-gamey as possible when it comes to physical components. For Dark Sun, there was the additional issue of it being potentially overwhelming with all the stats and powers, at least for someone with no prior role-playing gaming experience. So what is needed are only the most neccessary things a players needs to know about his character. I made small character sheets with a nice portrait on it so a player knows immediately who is in front of him, and only the most important stats on it. I could have just used a black-and-white sheet, but seriously, which one looks better?The combat cards make up the second half of each character: Players are accustomed to using cards from other games, and the easy color-coding green-red-black for At-will, encounter and daily powers is also easy to remember.[sblock=15]<img src="http://www.abload.de/img/rimg36475vk78tnkgb.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />[/sblock]The overall goal is to not make players shy away from the game because there's just too much information on the table in front of them. KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid!The chessex fire sprinkle dice were specially bought for this game because their color scheme fits in perfectly with the orange-yellow, black Dark Sun theme (that is also prevalent on the character sheets!) so everything gaming-related on the table looks as if it came from the same box.[sblock=16]<img src="http://www.abload.de/img/speckled-fire-dice-se4ok3e.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />[/sblock]--- Post Updated ---Fifth, some tricks I learned when DMing.Preparation is everything!!!There's a door? Put a info token next to it thas has all required information about traps, locked status, and any other information in it's (GM) Notes. Tip: If you make the info token an object (change to -> object), it doesn't interfere with any actual character tokens, but the information from the Notes can still be easily read if you click on it while on the Token layer. VERY handy.Have a trap? Same deal: Skill check to spot, Skill check to avoid damage, everything immediately visible.Players disover a new room? Info token in the middle, just click on it and read the description! Anything happens? Write your "script" in there, too! For example, let's say two creatures will emerge while the players are investigating the room. Just write "[drag creature AB & B into room]" into the room Notes so you remember it!Enemy drops loot? Write it in his Notes, but also put an info token next to him that also has the loot listed!All info tokens should of course be invisible to players.While we're at it, let me describe how I prepared the enemies. I used Rumble's Slim framework which has a nice little character sheet where you can store all required information (well, almost, but the rest can be written into the Notes field). Take the time to type in all the information from the monster stat block, including the powers! Now you just select the monster token, and in you "Selection" window you can see all powers the monster has and how to use them. Things like HP, AC and speed will be displayed in the bottom left when you hover your mouse above the token. For even more information, open the char sheet with F2.Info tokens can also be used for overall Encounter descriptions; I use two on every map: One that has the "Arrival" information and one that has the "Development"/Leaving information. Put em near the start and mark them in different colors or use different images for each. Another use is for having monster tactis ready. The goal is to have all the important information from an encounter description as presented in a book handy inside Maptools.On map creation: First of all, I think that maps should look nice. You could draw some black lines on a white background to mark walls and doors, but a visually far more impressive way would be to use one of the many dungeon or overland graphic available on the net. I use Photoshop so it's easy to do whatever kind of map in whatever style I need, but even with dedicated mapmaking programs you can achieve great results. It might take more time, but if your players feel like they are really in a musty old prison than on a chessboard in the middle of Nothing, its totally worth it.Second, believe it or not but I don't consider myself to be creative at all. I have a hard time creating stuff from scratch; however, I found out that just starting with a map will soon be an automated process. I only need a vague idea of the map and the reason why the characters are there. For example, I knew that it is a prison and that the characters should a) kill some low-level enemies and b) free their comrades. So I had to have at least two rooms: One guard room and one cell room. A third room contained a mini-boss in the form of the guard captain that gave a taste of things to come in regards of enemy toughness and powers. Once I had mapped out some rooms and hallways, the ideas just kept flowing in: Make a small window into the door for players to look through! Put a pit trap here, and see if players can spot it! Let the captain drop the keys to a storeroom! Let the prisoners in their cells grab the guards through the bars if they get too close![sblock=17]<img src="http://www.abload.de/img/prisonb0jx4ptjn5.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />[/sblock]How to actually start an encounters:Load the map on your GM PC. make sure it's not visible to players. Drag the player tokens to the starting positions (I just cut and paste the tokens from one map to the next), and use "expose - only currently visible" so they don't see more than they should. Now make the map visible for players and load it up on the player(s) PC.I generally create some commonly used overlays for area effects that I make available to the players (and for myself). Just drag it out of the way when not in use. Maybe Maptools has an easier way to do it, but I haven't found out yet <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Creating Social encounters & Towns:I use a generic background image, like a market scene, to set the mood.NPC tokens are hidden from view and only are made visible when they actually talk or do something important. The idea is that players will have it easier to follow the action if they actually see a portrait of the character that is talking instead of you just describing his features. I took inspiration from videogames again: Ultima VII and NWN come to mind, where NPC portraits appear when you initiate dialogue.In my info tokens, I have the scripts for all interactions: A guard at the city gate might ask for an entry fee, and listed next to it are also the Diplomacy or Intimidate checks associated with it. Two NPCs might be arguing, so just write down what they do and say.Merchants have tokens as well and you can also just copy an image of their goods list into the map and make it visible to the players when they want the buy something.[sblock=18]<img src="http://www.abload.de/img/untitled-4xou5donjh6.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />[/sblock]Some things that I still need to work out:Remembering things like damaging auras. If a character starts or ends his turn next to an enemy with a d.a. he takes damage, but I forget it most of the time. [Edit: Just use light source auras that only you as the GM can see]Keeping track of Marks (Fighter Marks, Hunter's Quarry): Dead tokens don't drop their marks which can get confusing) [Edit: See two posts below]Keeping track of enemy powers: This is probably to biggest issue, I don't know if there's an easy way to do it. for now, if a creature uses a power that recharges somehow I have to add generic Reminder marks, and I'm never sure which is which. [Edit: Reminder marks can be given a name; just name it however the power that was used is called. Edit2: Screw the reminder marks, the Slim framework automatically greys-out any encounter, daily or recharge powers if you click on their macro button. Just let the "just roll, don't apply damage" box checked when the power's frame opens, and click ok.]</blockquote>

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