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Wyvern

Wyvern

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Wyvern
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  • Community Atlas: Kara's Vale, Ethra, Doriant

    Nah!

    Once you start using it, you're simply concentrating on what links with the current level you're on, and everything else doesn't really matter. I also found it was really quick to work out how to get from one place to another through several levels rapidly just using this.

    I was less sure about using just red and green arrow lines, given red-green colour-blindness is an issue for quite a number of folks, but having set up the portals with those colours already (because they looked a bit clearer on the individual Level maps), I didn't want to change them. Hopefully the single and double arrow heads will help alleviate any issues that way though.

    Loopysue
  • Community Atlas: Kara's Vale, Ethra, Doriant

    Well, as it's turned out, not quite "next time" for Level Thirteen after all!

    As I was drawing the various Tower levels, and especially when setting-up the cross-level hyperlinks, it soon became obvious I was relying on my own hand-scrawled schematic showing how all the levels connected with one another to manage that. This suggested a further such properly mapped schematic might be helpful for GMs trying to run the Tower with the portals active in the sequence shown on the maps. Thus we also have the Windy Tower GM's Guide map:

    Although it was relatively simple and quick to draw (especially compared with setting up multiple macro hyperlinks per level!), it proved a little more complex than anticipated, thanks to the number of crossing arrow lines. Plus the whole went through around six different hand-sketched iterations before settling on this layout, to try to keep the arrow-line patterning as relatively simple as possible.

    Now it's done though, it has been quite entertaining to use it to navigate using the FCW file's hyperlinks between the levels, when checking them in comparison with the text notes ahead of the final Atlas submission.

    And so REALLY next time, Level Thirteen!

    LoopysueRoyal Scribe
  • What's your rank and points?

    Well, the whole rank and points thing in the current form has only been around since late 2020, when the Forum had a major overhaul. Higher ranks have the advantage of getting longer to edit your own posts, which is handy for those of us less adept at avoiding typos, without being a major difference. Beyond that, it's all just a bit of fun, really!

    Royal ScribeDon Anderson Jr.
  • Live Mapping - Village Battlemap

    Slightly terrifying to watch Remy wearing different thatched roofs as a hat at times on the livestream replay ๐Ÿ˜‰๐Ÿค  (I'm taking time-out from catching-up to check-in here briefly!) The dormer one seemed to work best, though it's not especially stylish ๐Ÿ˜.

    Good stream though so far - even if I have just got a sneak preview of what the final map will look like by dropping-by here mid-replay!

    Don Anderson Jr.Loopysue
  • Game Masters: Preferences for Labeling on Game Maps

    Battlemaps for physical tabletop use shouldn't be labelled at all, because that distracts from the scenic element, and if the map's reasonably clearly drawn, the key features should be obvious anyway - that's largely the point, after all! If you'll need to add hidden elements, use cut-out markers you can drop-in on the map when & where appropriate (or use suitable 3D miniatures/items, like doors, treasure chests, etc.). The process/theory stands for VTT use as well, except everything is digital, of course.

    As I've never used VTT, I can't advise much on that element, although hiding and showing features using the CC3+ Layers is straightforward enough in the FCW files, and easy enough too to store as separate digital images of the relevant views. I'd assume swapping between such separate images should be relatively simple in VTT, but I may be assuming too much on the part of such systems' designers, I realise! (Given that Windows still has to catch up with where some of the alternative PC systems then were 30+ years ago...)

    The only labelled maps are the ones the GM needs to see, other than any props the players may be given/shown - such as a treasure map - and on such props the labels can be as clear or obscure as the needs of the game require.

    Royal Scribe