New GM questions.

[JoeCarr28]

Actually, to be honest, I've become so reliant on some of Roll20's features, particularly the dynamic lighting and having all the player and monster stats just a click away on each token, that I would prefer use it for face-to-face games in place of a regular battlemat. I know, I know, very un-old school, and my players would probably revolt. I hang my head in shame .

Also, not sure how long the laptop/tablet would last before someone spilt drink all over it.

[Solomoriah]

Depends on how clumsy your players are... though Murphy's Law would tend to indicate about 5 minutes...

[Jandolar]

Actually, to be honest, I've become so reliant on some of Roll20's features, particularly the dynamic lighting and having all the player and monster stats just a click away on each token, that I would prefer use it for face-to-face games in place of a regular battlemat. I know, I know, very un-old school, and my players would probably revolt. I hang my head in shame .

Also, not sure how long the laptop/tablet would last before someone spilt drink all over it.

Hmmm. I might have to look into Roll20 then, just for reference of course.

[Hywaywolf]

Roll20 is awesome, but I don't know how I would take it having to use it at a table with everyone present. I would rather just reach forward and move my figure on the battlemat than have my computer up an running. Now something like this might be an option ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFVXfsd4Nao

or this

[shadowmane]

This brings up another question. Solo has high resolution copies of a lot of the maps and stuff for the "official" stuff. Perhaps putting some of them up in a Roll20, or online supplements page would help people using Roll20 and other similar software.

[Hywaywolf]

The thing about roll20 is that if they are up on any site then they are available to roll20.

[dymondy2k]

I use Maptools for my tabletop games.. I have an old laptop that I use as the 'Map' while the players explore the dungeon. It speeds up the game alot since they don't have to do their own mapping.

[LtTibbles]

I had a question for those that use battle mats in their live games. I'm gonna be starting up a game with some friends who have never really played pen and paper games and this will be my first time playing/gming a game in person, and I was just curious as to how other people handle dungeon exploration.

Do you guys generally use them only for combat encounters, do you (or have a player) just draw the dungeon as they make their way through, or do you draw out the dungeon ahead of time and reveal it piece by piece? (If so how do you handle the "fog of war" so to speak.)

[Longman]

1) Distances only really matter with ranged weapons and usually only come into play at extremes.

Hmmm ... that's quite a sweeping generalisation. It's certainly one way to play the game. But, equally, it's perfectly possible to play the game with precise distances...if that skeleton's 30' away, and your movement rate is 20', that could be important right? (if, as a GM, you decide it is).

In most situations, the scale only matters for brief periods during combat, but then it can be really important.

If they're out foraging for food and meet a lion and everyone runs, you don't necessarily map that at all. The lion runs faster and catches up with the slowest player. That's all.

If they're shooting at goblins on the other side of a gulley, you just need to know roughly how far away the enemies are, so you can get the missile distances right. Might not need to draw it, and even if you do, only sketch it loosely.

If its a tough encounter with multiple enemies and you are going to use 'parting shot rules' and precise spell effect areas, and so on, I think you do need 5' squares, or at least to take a whole lot of time in describing scale and distance, otherwise the players can't make the best decisions. In the long run mapping is easier.

In terms of making the game fun...you gotta remember that a rules-heavy, simulationist, myth-heavy game is just a totally different thing to a rules-light, narrativist, player-led game. The two things are like hockey and golf.

So just experiment and see what everyone likes. Sometimes people have no idea what they really like until they try quite a few different things.

[Togo Galthus]

Do you guys generally use them only for combat encounters, do you (or have a player) just draw the dungeon as they make their way through, or do you draw out the dungeon ahead of time and reveal it piece by piece? (If so how do you handle the "fog of war" so to speak.)

We use a notebook for dungeon mapping, but when combat ensues, I draw the room on the battle map and place all the characters and monsters on it. When the fighting is over, we go back to the notebook for orientation.