Keep on the Shadowfell battlemats

[loydb]

I don't own the rights to the door symbols (or any of the others) as far as distributing them individually.

The pixel scale is 120 dpi (so 120 pixels per inch, 5' squares).

The arcane symbols are visible to the players, why would they be removed from the floor?

[jfrazierjr]

loydb, will you be producing VTT versions of these maps? Please?

Also, for those that may not be totally aware, you can use VTTs with these maps in your face to face game. I adds a whole new experience to a face to face game when you bring a VTT in to the session. You can use fog of war and vision blocking and make your players sit on the edge of their seats wondering what is around the corner.

If the VTT has individual vision capability, and your players are willing and able to use laptops at the table, the experience goes up even higher because PCs will disappear from view when they go around corners and the player starts screaming and going what do I need to hit and all the other players desperately want their initiative to come around so they can run around the corner.

Additonally it makes it really easy for the GM to pass notes to the players without anyone else being the wiser.

The reason I'm bringing this up is I recently played in an online game that was basically an old school dungeon crawl, and I have to say that it was one of the most fun sessions I've ever had because everything was a surprise and I couldn't see what was happening to other players when they went around the corner and were suddenly set upon by a horde of zombies. It was an absolute riot, and I would encourage everyone to at least give a VTT a try at the table just once to see what you think.

heh.. of course, my first thought is the scene 3/4 of the way through StarWars where Han and Chewbacca run around a corner chasing some stormtroopers while Luke and Leia stand there..... then 5 seconds later, Han and Chewbacca run past them the other way and Luke and Leia have this dumbfounded look on their face for like 2 seconds....until the stormtroompers start shooting at them...

[RPMiller]

I don't own the rights to the door symbols (or any of the others) as far as distributing them individually.

You aren't distributing the symbol you are distributing a picture of the symbol. It is the same as using it in your map. This was done in PhotoShop yes? If they truly are licensed, just post a link to where we can get them, or simply remove them and let us worry about dropping in a door of our own. There are a million of them out there.

The pixel scale is 120 dpi (so 120 pixels per inch, 5' squares).

Just to clarify, that is not 120 dpi. It is 120 ppi just like you defined it. There is a difference between dpi and ppi and there is an entire thread devoted to the discussion if you are interested in the termonolgy. Just search for "dpi vs ppi". Yea, it's a pet peeve of mine.

The arcane symbols are visible to the players, why would they be removed from the floor?

Hm... perhaps those aren't the same ones I thought they were... never mind then.

heh.. of course, my first thought is the scene 3/4 of the way through StarWars where Han and Chewbacca run around a corner chasing some stormtroopers while Luke and Leia stand there..... then 5 seconds later, Han and Chewbacca run past them the other way and Luke and Leia have this dumbfounded look on their face for like 2 seconds....until the stormtroompers start shooting at them...

Exactly!! In our game, one of the PCs ran up ahead and around a corner and we were like, "er... you might want to... " and then he suddenly replied, "We have company". We had been encountering swarms of rats up to that point so we were like, "Yea, we know. The place is infested with them." Then he replied, "Ah, no. It appears that some of the residents are upset." We were in some ancient buriel catacombs beneath the city.

Then the thief a little over eager decides he wants a piece of the action and runs around the corner and smack dab into the lead zombie of the group of 12!! Let's just say that he didn't fair too well after his inital attack. Apparently he had a hinderance of Over Confident... He played it very well though.

[jfrazierjr]

I don't own the rights to the door symbols (or any of the others) as far as distributing them individually.

The pixel scale is 120 dpi (so 120 pixels per inch, 5' squares).

The arcane symbols are visible to the players, why would they be removed from the floor?

Though I am in no way asking you to spend the time to remove it (or anything for that matter), if you provide the base image, and then anything else separately such as chairs, doors, even floor carvings as png images with transparency, then said image could be used anywhere, as well as the base map could be used without said images and the whole thing becomes much more reusable. Think if it this way, what if the GM does not want the symbols anywhere on any of the maps. Providing it as a separate object just gives him that choice.

[loydb]

I know what you're asking -- but that exact thing is specifically forbidden according to the license for the commercial Profantasy symbol sets. There's a whole encryption thing going with the reader on to prevent exactly that -- the redistribution of the symbols as PNGs.

I've used a few of the CSUAC symbols, but I don't keep track of which ones they are. They can be obtained at the GM's Parlor I think.

On the next set of maps I do, I'll put some thought into how to set up sheets that will both support the way I work and allow me to easily save a 'bare' battlemat for VTT. I'll still be unable to provide the PNGs as tokens, but it's a start anyway . . .

loyd

[Valarian]

For these particular maps all you really need to do is drop the grid and tell us what your pixel scale is. That is how many pixels are there to a grid square. I'm assuming the grid is one square = 5'? How many pixels are in one square side? That gives you ?? pixels = 5'

What Rob means is that, for a VTT, the size of the image determines the scale. For instance, a map that is 10 squares by 10 squares at 50px = 5' would be a 500x500 image. At 100px = 5' it would be a 1000x1000 image. The GM running the game can then drop tokens scaled at the same pixel to foot ratio and they will be the correct size for the map.

Personally, I like having at least one square near the scale to illustrate the scaling and to allow those whose VTTs have a grid scale selector (a widget to set the size of grid) to draw the grid on to the map.

EDIT: The scale is 120px = 5' as stated. There's a second page ... Note to self: must look at number of pages before replying.

[Valarian]

On the next set of maps I do, I'll put some thought into how to set up sheets that will both support the way I work and allow me to easily save a 'bare' battlemat for VTT. I'll still be unable to provide the PNGs as tokens, but it's a start anyway

Do you not use CC3 for the dungeon drawing then? If you're in CC3, it should just be a case of hiding the relevant layers (Furniture etc.) and exporting the base image out.

[RPMiller]

I know what you're asking -- but that exact thing is specifically forbidden according to the license for the commercial Profantasy symbol sets. There's a whole encryption thing going with the reader on to prevent exactly that -- the redistribution of the symbols as PNGs.

Got it. That is the answer to that issue, and I fully understand. As I mentioned, just leave them off then. Those of us that have CC3 can pull the images from there ourselves, and if we don't we can just grab one of the thousands of door symbols already created or make our own.

I've used a few of the CSUAC symbols, but I don't keep track of which ones they are. They can be obtained at the GM's Parlor I think.

Yup. Excellent collection and I also highly recommend it.

On the next set of maps I do, I'll put some thought into how to set up sheets that will both support the way I work and allow me to easily save a 'bare' battlemat for VTT. I'll still be unable to provide the PNGs as tokens, but it's a start anyway . . .

loyd

Do you not use CC3 for the dungeon drawing then? If you're in CC3, it should just be a case of hiding the relevant layers (Furniture etc.) and exporting the base image out.

What Valarian said.

EDIT: The scale is 120px = 5' as stated. There's a second page ... Note to self: must look at number of pages before replying.

[loydb]

Over on the RPTools forum there's a link to a VTT package for Shadowfell Keep.

http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic....r=asc&start=45

Hopefully that will work!

[jfrazierjr]

I know what you're asking -- but that exact thing is specifically forbidden according to the license for the commercial Profantasy symbol sets. There's a whole encryption thing going with the reader on to prevent exactly that -- the redistribution of the symbols as PNGs.

I've used a few of the CSUAC symbols, but I don't keep track of which ones they are. They can be obtained at the GM's Parlor I think.

On the next set of maps I do, I'll put some thought into how to set up sheets that will both support the way I work and allow me to easily save a 'bare' battlemat for VTT. I'll still be unable to provide the PNGs as tokens, but it's a start anyway . . .

loyd

Oh, thats ok. I had no idea taht some of the images were from CC. I have not tried making any battlemaps, but when I get around to it, I plan to be careful for that very reason with the images I choose to use.