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Well, I am a member of the old site and have downloaded stuff there before the switch, but it won't let me anymore.
Thanks for the idea. So, what you're saying is that I can scrub the secret door from the scan/PDF and put a pin that the players can't see. Then when/if they find it, I plop down a secret door token. Pretty cool.
--Dale--
Yeah, the door tokens looked very interesting/good, but I couldn't access them either.
Had issues with my Saturday game, which resulted in me spending a lot of time working on my campaign Sunday instead of the 4E_JPG quick start. I'll try to get it finished tonight. Half the footage is recorded, though.
I need to add a disclaimer to the token linking though (in the adventure creation tutorial) that it might cause token loading problems. Maybe just take that tip out all together.
Nothing wrong with that. :) I hate constantly having to tranfer PC tokens from map to map though (I'm lazy ;) ), and it's a bitch when the fight shifts so half the party is on one battlemap and half on another. There is something in Murphy's Law that says the PCs will fight all over a map "seam" where two battlemaps join every once in a while too. :p Naturally you can make overlaps, but if you follow that to it's logical conclusion you might as well put it on one map if you can.Quote:
Originally Posted by Xorn
Heh. That's a good point, really.
One perk I've found since switching from one big map to several smaller is that I don't have to worry about masking very often. On that big map, if I mess up the masking, it's a pain to fix it. On battlemaps it's rare that I even need masking.
True but honestly, I've gotten to the point I don't reveal by unmasking that much anymore - pretty much only if I happen to have a player map for that specific scenario.
I'd much rather draw on the mask on top of the map (or let the players do it) if I only have only one map and it's a GM one. It's much more forgiving and I don't have to worry about grids not lining up on pre gridded maps and I can modify the underlaying map on the fly if I'm using one I got off the Internet so it matches my adventure better.
I found so many great maps on the Internet: where I go this is a great map - except for just one part. By tracing over the map on the mask I can easily fix that part. My style is to let the players wander whereever and while I like to prepare I tend to do the minimum until I know "for sure" they have decided to do that particular adventure - because about third of the time or more they will wander off and do something else.
Edit: Typo :p
I'd love to see a tutorial that detailed how DMs of mapping expertise deal with "fog of war", hidden rooms, map layers, and the like.
Being a novice to this, I am still a little confused on how people handle masking a hidden room so players don't see it, especially a difficult to hide one (like a secret room inside another). How are pins added to the map? Is there more layers than just the grid possible? Quick ways to navigate a map? I really hat having to highlight that lower left box and holding down to scroll about.. ugh.. Etc.
A "donut" secret room is the worse case for unmasking. Ultimately if you are going to unmask it you unmask it like a corridor. Naturally you players will probably take note of this. If you design the map and you plan to unmask don't make rooms like this. If you are stuck with a map like this the best thing to do is make a seperate map of the secret room and fill in the space on the bigger map and put a pin in it (I'll get to pins in a sec) with a link to the secret room map. Just a FYI if you start unmasking something and realize you made a mistake and you have not yet let go to remove the mask if you hit Esc then it will clear the "outline" line.
If you are making your own maps and plan to unmask them to players then put 5 feet or so of wall where the secret door would be. This gives you "slop" so if you are off a bit on the unmasking it won't matter.
On "map pins" they are just a shortcut on the map just like links in a story book entry. You make them by right clicking on the map -> Layers -> Enable shortcuts to show short cuts then drag and drop any link box (little shaded box) on the the map that will make a pin. I'd do it this way when you first "pin" a map but holding down the Ctrl key also shows the pins and allows you to drag and drop them on the map.
There is just the mask and grid layers though you can make tokens invisible. You can drag a map around by holding down the middle mouse button to "pan" it. :)
One thing about FG - it was made to simulate the RPG tabletop online. Regardless of whether you think that was a good design decision it has given FG the lowest learning curve of any of the VTT software out there.
I know I missed masking in my quickstart tutorial, but I thought I made mention of navigating a map quickly. Holding the middle mouse button will move the map around. Pins are in the adventure module, in the building master maps section.
Xorn, you said that token linking can cause a token loading problem. Can you elaborate on that please?
--Dale--