Zhin
January 25th, 2018, 12:26
I suppose this is going to be my first contribution here. :D
I'd like to start with some background information.
Have been using Fantasy Grounds for about two years as a Dungeon Master and even though being German can add quite a bit of workload when it comes to creating campaigns for my players, I'm really enjoying the system.
In an upcoming game I wanted to use the Harrowing Deck to add some flavor, since I liked the concept of foreshadowing or giving hints to the players with it a lot. At first I just integrated it myself, using the images of the cards I found in the crimson throne campaign, that I had laying around. It was a bit clunky to execute in a game, since it involved a lot of describing what happened to the players and I wanted it to get as close as possible to the experience the players would have when physically sitting with them at a table, performing a harrowing. (I think that just adds a lot)
So since it was so clunky, I thought about using the layers extension to create some sort of table with a 3x3 grid to simulate the feeling of actually putting down cards somewhere.
BUT Before I got there I stumbled upon the Harrow Deck Extension. I'd say it's pretty well executed! I love the fact that players can even physically pick the cards in the choosing themselves and it offers High-Resolution images of the cards + has their description easily accessible for the Dungeon Master, which makes the whole thing a bit more fluent in the game.
There were two things bothering me with it though. The first one being quite major in my opinion and I hope the developer of the extension is maybe able to offer some sort of patch for it in the future.
1. You can't force cards as the Dungeon Master.
I think there should really be an option as the Dungeon Master to pick a specific card from the table of available cards and put it in a position of your choice face down (In RL you could stack the deck after all or do other shenanigans with it, to force a specific outcome)
The extension even allows you to draw single cards from the deck, but the choice is always random. I also tried dragging the pictures from the library directly into a spot of the 3x3, but that also creates a random card in that spot.
Maybe just add the feature to open up a table by right clicking on the deck to show the available cards, which you can drag and drop to a spot you like? That would be perfect.
2. And this is kinda minor, since it only affects non-english players I suppose and you can get around it.
It would be great to be able to translate the description of the cards. Since I play with groups of other Germans I struggled a lot doing a fluent harrowing, since translating the cryptic descriptions in your head while trying to perform is... very difficult and makes it incredibly clunky.
I got around by creating Notes/Story Elements with a translation for each card, which I can pull up when needed. It would be more convenient though to be able to rewrite them directly.
I'd like to start with some background information.
Have been using Fantasy Grounds for about two years as a Dungeon Master and even though being German can add quite a bit of workload when it comes to creating campaigns for my players, I'm really enjoying the system.
In an upcoming game I wanted to use the Harrowing Deck to add some flavor, since I liked the concept of foreshadowing or giving hints to the players with it a lot. At first I just integrated it myself, using the images of the cards I found in the crimson throne campaign, that I had laying around. It was a bit clunky to execute in a game, since it involved a lot of describing what happened to the players and I wanted it to get as close as possible to the experience the players would have when physically sitting with them at a table, performing a harrowing. (I think that just adds a lot)
So since it was so clunky, I thought about using the layers extension to create some sort of table with a 3x3 grid to simulate the feeling of actually putting down cards somewhere.
BUT Before I got there I stumbled upon the Harrow Deck Extension. I'd say it's pretty well executed! I love the fact that players can even physically pick the cards in the choosing themselves and it offers High-Resolution images of the cards + has their description easily accessible for the Dungeon Master, which makes the whole thing a bit more fluent in the game.
There were two things bothering me with it though. The first one being quite major in my opinion and I hope the developer of the extension is maybe able to offer some sort of patch for it in the future.
1. You can't force cards as the Dungeon Master.
I think there should really be an option as the Dungeon Master to pick a specific card from the table of available cards and put it in a position of your choice face down (In RL you could stack the deck after all or do other shenanigans with it, to force a specific outcome)
The extension even allows you to draw single cards from the deck, but the choice is always random. I also tried dragging the pictures from the library directly into a spot of the 3x3, but that also creates a random card in that spot.
Maybe just add the feature to open up a table by right clicking on the deck to show the available cards, which you can drag and drop to a spot you like? That would be perfect.
2. And this is kinda minor, since it only affects non-english players I suppose and you can get around it.
It would be great to be able to translate the description of the cards. Since I play with groups of other Germans I struggled a lot doing a fluent harrowing, since translating the cryptic descriptions in your head while trying to perform is... very difficult and makes it incredibly clunky.
I got around by creating Notes/Story Elements with a translation for each card, which I can pull up when needed. It would be more convenient though to be able to rewrite them directly.