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Xorn
June 15th, 2008, 07:33
Kobold Brigands (https://www.eugee.info/kots/brigands1.jpg)
Kobold Ambush (https://www.eugee.info/kots/brigands2.jpg)
Kobold Lair, Outside 1 (https://www.eugee.info/kots/lairoutside1.jpg)
Kobold Lair, Outside 2 (https://www.eugee.info/kots/lairoutside2.jpg)
Kobold Lair Inside 1 (https://www.eugee.info/kots/lairinside1.jpg)
Kobold Lair Inside 2 (https://www.eugee.info/kots/lairinside2.jpg)

Griogre
June 15th, 2008, 07:56
Pretty sweet looking Xorn. I'm going to be running KotS too in a few weeks. How's it running for you with 4 characters? I think I may have six (which seems like it might be a good number for that adventure).

Xorn
June 15th, 2008, 13:59
Well, as you know, I couldn't really preach the merits of 4th Edition much stronger, right?

Running it with four has been a piece of cake. For the scaling I actually have been doing it on the fly. They are all second level (as I ran the Kobold Lair adventure in the DMG for their intro adventure, and forgot to scale it), so a level 2 encounter for them is 500 XP. (Basically, a level 1 encounter is about a level 2 encounter, for them.)

The next encounter is intended to be n+1, so I throw a level 3 at them, 600 xp. (The encounter is 625 xp, so it's perfect.)

And so on and so forth. The battle in the lair is actually n+5, and I recommend scaling it down to n+4 unless your group is practically full strength, as going more then 4 above the group with an encounter is itching for a TPK or at least a resounding defeat.

That said, I through a level 6 encounter at my four level 2 characters, and they took it apart. I mean it was truly brutal. Granted they were out of encounter, daily, and even utility powers, they exhausted all in-combat healing, and the warlord had two health left (temp HP saved the day this fight), so they were literally at their limits. (A level 6 encounter for 4 level 2s is 1000 XP, so I removed on soldier and 2 minions--perfect match for a n+4 encounter.)

Anyway, for 6 level 1s, you just bump it from 475 to 575-600ish and you have a perfect encounter. For the level 6 encounter, that base encounter as written as 1250 XP, a level 5 encounter for 6 level 1 characters is 1200, so run it as is and you should have one hellacious fight on your hands.

Foen
June 15th, 2008, 17:52
Nice tokens too, Xorn, did you make them?

Stuart

Xorn
June 15th, 2008, 19:06
I modified them, yes. I copied the images from the miniatures gallery on the D&D site, and pasted them into a paint program. Promote the background layer and delete the white background (leaving it transparent) then copy n paste the remaining pixels as a new image. After that resize the token to be 50 pixels tall (or 100 for large, 38 for small) and then if the width will be wider than 50 (or 100 for large) turn off aspect ratio and squish it a little.

Makes for some pretty sweet tokens.

Oh, and the tiefling warlord is a "conversion"--I took a knight with a greataxe and combined it with a tiefling.

Griogre
June 16th, 2008, 00:48
I agree that modifying encounters on the fly seems easy I was just wondering if they scale down as well as they do up.

Xorn, I don't know if I hate you or not for that tip on the D&D minis galleries. ;) I don't use them because I use cardboard heroes or fiery dragon's flats for face to face games (it just sooo much easier to lug them around) so it's never occured me to mine those galleries for pics for FG. I don't like top down tokens so I usually use portrait type tokens.

I agree with Foen and have to say those are really nice looking figures. Now I may have to go and make some new tokens from those galleries (that's why I may hate you). :D

Xorn
June 16th, 2008, 04:14
I won't mention then, that when I ran my last live game, I grabbed pictures of the minis, resized them (keeping the aspect ratio) so the bases were 96 pixels across, then printed them at 96 dpi, after I mirrored them. Then a little glue on the cardstock I printed them on, fold them over, and cut them out. Stick them on a base and I have scaled, nice looking cardstock minis. :)

Kunsgnos
June 23rd, 2008, 22:22
I was looking at your pictures and I have a few questions. first how do you make your screen so big and second you need two screen don't you? sorry for the noob questions, but I am one. thanks in advance.

Griogre
June 23rd, 2008, 22:54
I'm not Xorn but yes as you look at those screen shots he is using a dual monitor setup with FG stretched over. If you can do so it is very good to have two monitors when running. I have two monitors myself however I often have FG just on one screen and a PDF, a browser open and other things on the other monitor.

Wraith
June 24th, 2008, 02:19
I run two screens as well, but I am about to get four and I will post some screen shots of that. I hope it will stretch vertical as well as horizontal.

Xorn
June 24th, 2008, 05:09
Yes, I have a 1680x1050 LCD main screen, plus a 1280x1024 second monitor beside it. I drag the FG window across both of them. That ruleset I was using allows for a very large map window, which is easily adjustable. (A search on changing map size will show you how.)

Foen
June 24th, 2008, 06:01
I only use one screen (1600x1200) and have no problems hosting FG sessions, although I'd struggle if I only had 800x600.

Foen

Xorn
June 24th, 2008, 13:16
I only use one screen (1600x1200) and have no problems hosting FG sessions, although I'd struggle if I only had 800x600.

Foen

Oh yes, I used to run on a 1680x1050 display without problems. But when someone gives you a free monitor... why not?

I've got to admit, it feels so cramped to not use both monitors, now that I'm used to having all this room!

Tokuriku
June 25th, 2008, 15:41
BTW, I'm interested in that ruleset, any chance of it floating around somewhere?

Xorn
June 25th, 2008, 16:45
There's a vastly improved ruleset out there now, check the FUM forums, shouldn't be hard to locate, just look in the 4E ruleset development forum.

Raised
July 6th, 2008, 22:03
Quick question: Did you just copy/paste similar tiles to get rid of the little icons on the monster map?

PS: Quick question part II: Did you manually put in the monster stats or is there some faster way to import stat blocks?

Xorn
July 6th, 2008, 23:13
I manually put them in once, in a campaign I called Monster Manual, and exported that module (indexed in the library). Then when I make a new adventure, I can drag those personality entries from the library into the new campaign (then close the monster manual to avoid a bug in the ruleset).

I have a HP scanner and some decent OCR software though, so I'm still cut and pasting the monster manual entries in.

Oh and yes to the first question: I just use a clone brush in PSP to edit out the icons.

Raised
July 6th, 2008, 23:28
Ok. Looks like I have a bunch of Data entry ahead of me ;P

Thanks for the quick response!

kcheu
July 11th, 2008, 04:00
are you by chance going to post this module?

Xorn
July 11th, 2008, 13:09
No, this module is almost an exact copy of the Keep on the Shadowfell module (only changes I made to the text were when it referred to a page number). So, it's copyright.

kcheu
July 12th, 2008, 15:22
the tutorial on modules is great as is the mini's tutorial also. i have been drawn back into d&d 4e ( old player ) and stumbled upon this VTT and now playing with long distance friends is possible. I wanted to know if you are going to post a tutorial on those fantastic maps. I am trying to figure out how you did such a great job since I am going to run KotS soon.

Xorn
July 12th, 2008, 17:52
The maps? Oh that was pretty easy. I'll whip up a quick walkthrough/picture tutorial. If you don't have a scanner, you might be SoL though.

You could just as easily make maps with one of the free map programs out there, or Dundjinni is very affordable for the product, and then there's Campaign Cartographer 3/Dungeon Designer 3--that's a bit higher on the price side, but an incredibly powerful software (with a respectable learning curve to go with it).

The Stone Table (CC3 map) (https://www.eugee.info/images/cc3/thestonetable.jpg)
The Stone Table w/ Lighting (CC3 map) (https://www.eugee.info/images/cc3/thestonetablewlights.jpg)
Tavern Ground Floor (DJ map) (https://www.eugee.info/images/dj/tavern.12a.jpg)
Tavern Second Floor (DJ map) (https://www.eugee.info/images/dj/tavern.12b.jpg)

DJ is easier to use, but if you want lighting effects and blurs, etc, you have to do postwork (or have art that has the shadow, etc), while CC3 is pretty much self contained. Nothing done on these maps couldn't be done with a regular paint program, but they are easier to work with for sure.

Xorn
July 12th, 2008, 18:22
Step 1: Scan the map in. (https://www.eugee.info/images/fg/map.tut1.jpg)
I scanned in the map at 300 dpi, because that would make it bigger than 50 pixels per square. As that's the scale I want to end at, I just need it bigger than that.

Step 2: Straighten the map. (https://www.eugee.info/images/fg/map.tut2.jpg)
Now that I have my scan, I zoom in really close to see the pixels, and see if the lines on the map are level with the window border. In this case, they are, which is pretty rare. Normally I have to rotate the map 0.1-0.3 degrees to get it straight. This just helps the grid look right when you overlay an FG2 grid on the map.

Step 3: Resize the map to the right scale. (https://www.eugee.info/images/fg/map.tut3.jpg)
You need to measure the distance in pixels between two points, and resize the map by a percentage to get to that size. I used the crop tool (because it's easy to adjust the size of) to measure 6 squares across. You can see at the top it 318 pixels, and I need it to be 300 pixels. Divide 300 by 318 and the calculator shows the result. My program will only resize to a whole percent, so I resize it by 94%. If I draw a grid over this one starting at the center of the map, it will be hard to see where it starts to mismatch at the edges.

Step 3A (Optional): Save a DM map.
Copy and paste this image as a new image, and resize it down 50% more (half-size) and save it as a DM version of the map, that's keyed.

Step 4: Erase the DM keys off the map. (https://www.eugee.info/images/fg/map.tut4.jpg)
Use whatever method works for you. I'm using a clone brush; I set the area to copy from (I picked a similar corner) then when I draw it copies the other area over where I'm drawing. You might notice this image is a bit blurry--I forgot to take a snapshot of this step so I just blew up the DM map (making it blurry) and did it real quick to show the step.

Step 5: Finished Product. (https://www.eugee.info/images/fg/map.tut5.jpg)
This is the final map--I normally crop/trim the excess space off the sides of the map right after straightening it, but I forgot till this point.

EDIT - Yeesh, I neglected to trim the right half of my desktop off on a few. Sorry!

Xorn
July 14th, 2008, 13:35
Added some more shots from the session last night. (Which by the way, might be the most fun I've had playing D&D since I was in high school.) That was a long time ago, as an informational side note.

Torture Chamber A (https://www.eugee.info/kots/kots.2a.jpg)
Torture Chamber B (https://www.eugee.info/kots/kots.2b.jpg)
Crypt of Shadows (https://www.eugee.info/kots/kots.5a.jpg)
The Skeletal Legion (https://www.eugee.info/kots/kots.7a.jpg)
Sir Keegan's Tomb (https://www.eugee.info/kots/kots.8a.jpg)

Polyhedral
August 9th, 2008, 20:57
quick noob Question, how do you indicate facing with side on figures as icons?

Griogre
August 10th, 2008, 00:45
D&D doesn't have facing rules anymore so this is not an issue normally.

Polyhedral
August 10th, 2008, 02:27
Thank you. (need more text to post)