Ken L
April 25th, 2016, 12:01
Who here still uses drawing tools to draw a map by hand?
I'm one of those that do, especially for improvised encounters.
Here are a few roadblocks I've hit using the drawing tools:
1.) All newly created drawings are a pre-set size. It's more configured for simple doodles as opposed to large scale maps unless you wish to have grids of 10x10 pixels. The Drawing expansion tools are buggy at times and often crop off part of a drawing. They tend to conflict when re-sizing the window. (I use a wacom tablet and often resize to a large dimension)
2.) There's no way to distinguish a drawing by the GM or the player either by color or some method to distinguish who drew what.
3.) Lack of colors "this is lava" "this is a lake of water"
Now to address some of the above.
1.) I can draw the map and prepare it in <insert graphics application> but the point is to handle 'winging it' as the general rule of thumb is that you can't plan for everything your players will do.
1.1) I can upload a white background image of AxB dimensions which will fix my canvas which I can draw on. If I choose too small or too large though I can't adjust it as needed.
2.) I could rule that players can't draw, also there are legitimate reasons for a player to draw on a map still.
I'm curious if this feature is used by other GMs as much as I plan to. Drawing things as needed is fast'n cheap. Not that I don't like to plan out large maps and fancy settings, but when there's so much going on and I'm starved for prep time, I can either postpone the game, or run minimal; and I choose the latter. It's also a throw back to the old days where your brain was the graphics card, and the little notations on the grid aided your players for encounters. One's game doesn't live or die by lack of graphics; at least for me, as my groups are social affairs where we joke and make voices.
Being able to draw manually with better tools would greatly help. I wonder if FG sees this feature as overlooked too.
I'm one of those that do, especially for improvised encounters.
Here are a few roadblocks I've hit using the drawing tools:
1.) All newly created drawings are a pre-set size. It's more configured for simple doodles as opposed to large scale maps unless you wish to have grids of 10x10 pixels. The Drawing expansion tools are buggy at times and often crop off part of a drawing. They tend to conflict when re-sizing the window. (I use a wacom tablet and often resize to a large dimension)
2.) There's no way to distinguish a drawing by the GM or the player either by color or some method to distinguish who drew what.
3.) Lack of colors "this is lava" "this is a lake of water"
Now to address some of the above.
1.) I can draw the map and prepare it in <insert graphics application> but the point is to handle 'winging it' as the general rule of thumb is that you can't plan for everything your players will do.
1.1) I can upload a white background image of AxB dimensions which will fix my canvas which I can draw on. If I choose too small or too large though I can't adjust it as needed.
2.) I could rule that players can't draw, also there are legitimate reasons for a player to draw on a map still.
I'm curious if this feature is used by other GMs as much as I plan to. Drawing things as needed is fast'n cheap. Not that I don't like to plan out large maps and fancy settings, but when there's so much going on and I'm starved for prep time, I can either postpone the game, or run minimal; and I choose the latter. It's also a throw back to the old days where your brain was the graphics card, and the little notations on the grid aided your players for encounters. One's game doesn't live or die by lack of graphics; at least for me, as my groups are social affairs where we joke and make voices.
Being able to draw manually with better tools would greatly help. I wonder if FG sees this feature as overlooked too.