How does your IRL RPG group keep track of positioning?
Right now my group is using scratch paper to draw crude maps and diagrams when we need to enter combat or talk about large areas, but it has some serious drawbacks. What are some alternatives that you have used with success in the past?
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My DM uses a marker board with a grid printed onto it cut into jigsaw pieces. Allows him to expand the map as we explore a building and modify or construct rooms easily.
Our group uses a large vellum-like map with squares on one side and hexes on the other (usually using the former) that's more than large enough to suffice for any combat map, with some transparent sheets of plastic over it to draw out terrain and walls using dry-erase markers and not ruin the map in the process. When talking about locations, a map is simply drawn (on paper) accordingly.
Just describing shit and using your imagination works fine unless you're playing a system where beancounting 5-foot steps is of dire importance
I've been thinking about experimenting with Roll20 or a similar online RPG enabler for this purpose. I haven't used anything like that before, but wouldn't it be possible to have all the players join the virtual room with tablets, laptops, or phones and then display the GM's screen on a tablet on the table or maybe a computer screen? I assume that would allow everyone to draw on a blank screen and move their markers a lot easier than drawing and erasing dots on a sheet of paper, which is what we do now when we need maps
I'm making a shitload of terrain pieces and dungeon walls so my playere never have to ask me "what's going on?" again.
It's in no way easier then a paper mat, but I use my pretty extensive collection of wargaming terrain to set up the scenario. We use minis and a mat to trace the vague outline, then during actual play keep distances kinda loose to save on fiddly measuring. Measure in inches, 2 inch= 5 foot if it becomes crucial.
That's what we do, outputting to a TV in our GM's living room near his DM desk, and it works brilliantly.
this is what I do when I DM. I think it works perfectly.
Just get a chessex wet erase mat. They're like $20.
Just remember, for the love of god ERASE ALL RED MARKER AT THE END OF THE SESSION. You can leave every other color on there for weeks and it'll come off with water and a slightly harder than normal rubbing. But red marker will make you cry at the effort.
a whiteboard.
I've tried other stuff, but I just keep coming back to the simple whiteboard.
Photoshop and a flat TV is what a I've been using for something like 2 years now and I swear by it. It's a bit of work to put all the maps together because you have to find high rez copies of them which isn't always possible and then edit out the room numbers and traps but it really fits well with a secretive DM style since fog of war is easy it makes it hard for the players to meta game even just subconsciously. Plus you can have any artwork ready and sorted by room which is nice.
Jesus Christ
This
can confirm about the red marker too
>we could've had a badass DnD app for Microsoft Surface
>user still lives the dream
props to you, you crazy motherfucker
Same. I've accidentally removed parts of the grid trying to clean off old marker.
there was something on kickstarter, I can remember.
it was about hexagon- or squaretiles which can be used for pen and paper rpgs, and are rewriteable too
wasn't able to found it tough, just found that
kickstarter.com
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Honestly I'm surprised I don't see more people doing it, I think it's been picking up a little bit more recently but the quality of life it brings to the game is huge compared to most approaches I see. Running a giant muti-leveled city dungeon becomes so much easier when you don't have to draw it and can switch between levels seamlessly. If for whatever reason we have to stop during an encounter then I can just mark down the locations of all the characters and pick up exactly where we left off.
I would highly recommend it to anyone that's willing to try. Photoshop even has a duplicate window option that lets you make changes to the picture on your screen that show up on the big one as you go.
Sorry if the orientation on these is fucked up im phone posting.
Isn't it a bad idea to use a TV as a table though?
Okay, see, this makes more sense to me. I was trying to figure out how I would go about cutting up a dry erase board at all, let alone into jigsaw pieces, but now I see it's a commercial product
Could you explain to me what's going on here; this looks fuckawesome
I probably would do it with a brand new 4K TV or anything but if you have some old 1080p thing lying around its perfect. I have a sheet of perspex that I just lay over the screen so you won't damage it by rolling dice on it or spilling drinks.
I've been using the same TV for about 2 years now maybe more and it still works fine.
>Honestly I'm surprised I don't see more people doing it
While this is undoubtedly cool and one of the best ways to play the game, there seems to be some really obvious reasons to me that hardly anybody does this.
1, you have to purchase an expensive TV exclusively for gaming
2, said TV needs to be mounted inside a table or somehow propped up flat
3, when not actively playing an RPG you can't exactly use the TV for anything else, meaning it takes up all the space of a table without any of the TV's traditional uses
4, you still have to invest all the time and effort into preparing maps for the sessions
It looks like it's under the table surface to me.
>I have a sheet of perspex that I just lay over the screen so you won't damage it by rolling dice on it or spilling drinks.
Oh, that's the part I missed. That looks very cool.
It's photoshop on a TV plugged into my laptop. I use the layers in photoshop to create different effects that I can edit on the fly such as removing fog of war as they enter a room, multiple floors, secret doors and hidden traps. If there is anything specific you want to know I am happy to share.
We just lie it flat on a short table when it's game night, and when it's over you just put the stand back on the bottom of the TV and sit it upright like normal. I've seen people installing the TV in tables and stuff but that seems unnecessary and annoying for the reasons you listed.
That is so awesome
I'm wondering how you keep the TV upright. How flat is it? Do you have a picture of that model of TV?
Anyone ever have luck using a projector? Hooking up to a laptop or something?
How would that work out? Project it onto the floor? Or just pass a laptop along so that everyone can see the moves on the wall?
It's just lying flat on a small table. I guess it helps that the back of the TV is flat so it doesn't rock around. I can't get a picture right now since I'm at work sorry.
I imagine it would be exactly the same as using a TV. That was actually my original intention before I did the TV. The issues I saw researching it would be getting a projecter with a quality equal to a TV was going to be much more expensive, you have to replace the bulbs and the projecter will shine on your figures but it seems like it work work fine as long as you can spare the extra cash.
Stretch out your foreskin and simply tattoo the map on with black ink. When it's time for a new map, simply tattoo your entire foreskin with a single solid color and then tattoo the next map on.
Simple and cost effective.
Also, couldn't you project it up onto a thin surface?
Project it onto this guy's foreskin
No, but seriously I imagine you could. It might save time to project a map onto paper or a white board or something and draw over it if need be
LEGO
LEGO boards with little slots for scenery and characters and connectivity with other boards
Got any examples?
>1-inch grid interfacing, ironed onto brown fabric I had. Made to dimensions of table.
>Vinyl tablecloth on top, used steam from iron and heavy books to stretch it out and remove creases.
>Can draw on top with wet-erase markers, wipe off with wet TP or papertowel or whatever.
Works pretty good. Like it much better than paper.
In the future I want an LCD screen under a glass tabletop.
First time dm here for a pretty new group, just made pic related and it works a treat. Before that we just used theater of the mind but a simple white board and grid tape works great.
Thats not too shabby. Do you find the grid tape gets in the way of drawing stuff? Does the fact that its black make it hard to see what you draw?
I, , deliberately went for light grey board and yellow lines, so when I draw over it in dark blue or black, my lines show up.
Interested to hear what solution you came up with to the issue.
If you want to spend money? Projector.
If you want to save money? Theater of mind.
Far from the only or best options, as this thread has indicated.
I'm particularly fond of the suggestions in and
These are pretty nice, you can write on them with the right kinds of pens.
They also do both hex and square.
Are you a player of mine?
I use Maptool from the RPTools, displayed on a TV in my living room.
I mostly ignore distances unless it's ludicrous for a character to position themselves where the player wants to be in a short amount of time.
Also, having a visual representation helps some people visualize the scenes, and I don't see anything wrong with that.
I bought Dungeon Painter Studio on Steam (shill shill), so I build my maps with it (and PS), then I usually import them to Roll20.
The next project is obviously an interactive table, either I build a TV into it, or just throw a projector on the ceiling.
TV under a glass table connected to my old PC
I've got one of these that I've had for years, it's got a bit old (some patches don't really wipe clean anymore), but in a way it serves as a reminder of games and campaigns our group has played over the years.
Thanks bro, grid tape doesnt get in the way at all and makes its still easy as ever to draw stuff. Im not much of an artist so i dont go mad drawing scenery or anything just circles and blocks and whatnot with various coloured markers. All in all it works great was pretty cheap to make
I have a copy of Skyrim (or Oblivion) running in the background on godmode. When my players travel I just move the character and describe the surroundings. They literally haven't figured out its just skyrim and oblivion this entire fucking time. I almost shit myself laughing when I described a giant throwing a crab 30 meters into the air by a river.
A projector and MS Paint?
>TV under a glass table connected to my old PC
Can you post pics or further description? Curious how your setup is compared to the user earlier in this thread
No way do you really do that. How does it work? Can they see the screen? Isn't everything real time?
What would you use MSPaint for?
a very simple supercheap and time-saving option is to mark a grid on a piece of paper with a pen. it requires a ruler and takes less than 5 minutes.
then you use tokens from boardgames or coins or whatever as characters and obstacles. the DM can draw walls and obstacles with pencils or use more tokens and pencil-shaped objects.
you can erase the pencil and the grid will stay. eventually after a lot of uses the paper will be worn out and you will have to ask one of your player to spend 5 minutes to do another one.
that's for the combat; you can keep track of the dungeon's rooms by drawing a crude sketch on a piece of paper.
you honestly don't need many details for combat, and while having a dedicated drawing board or a printed out dungeon is nice looking, using a Risk army as a tree is way faster.
But this is objectively wrong though. Images stimulate the game