When in Rome...

MatneyX

So, another new guy here.

I'm Dave... husband, father, musician, composer, sound designer, Cadillac owner and enthusiast. I'm 27, and I've been rolling dice for the last 15 years (and I have the THAC0 to prove it!) I used to run the largest non-Cam LARP in Salt Lake City (before Cammies ruined us), and now I co-ST a Vampire: the Masquerade forum game.

I'm in the [long] process of developing a play-by-post World of Darkness game. Would it be too cocky to say "keep an eye on it?" (campaigns/king-county) At the very least, I should have a map with a few hundred hours put into it up within the next week or so.

Anyway... glad to be here. Hopefully I can meet more people locally and internationally, and maybe we can all game some day.

Cheers.

Hardhead

Well, I notice you favorited my campaign yesterday, so I know you have good taste. ;) Seriously, though, I'll check it out. I used to play in the Cam myself (sorry), so I'll keep an eye on what you come up with.

BrokenClock

Welcome!

I look forward to seeing this few hundred hour map.

MatneyX

@Hardhead - I'm not completely anti-Cam -- if I traveled at all, I'd join up in a heart beat, and they're the only LARP in SLC right now, so if I had more time for it, I'd probably play with them. They just came to my game to sabotage it (it took five years for the kids, who are now my friends, to admit that), as "ordered" by the regional ST. Luckily, that ST is now in prison. :p

As far as favoriting your campaign, it looks good, and more importantly, it looks like you've put a lot of time and energy into it. Even if I can't play a game, I love being able to read about it, and I feel a world that's as fleshed out as Crucible is is worth reading. Also, it's probably a blast to play in -- you're not making up EVERYTHING on the spot. :)

@BrokenClock - Now I'm concerned it's a few hundred hours because I'm just slow. :p

arsheesh

Welcome to the Portal Matney, you sound like a well accomplished man at 27! Hm, I'm not seeing a link to your site, but I will definitely check it out once you post one. Also, I'm looking forward to seeing your map as well. What software are you using? Oh, and if you read through the forums you'll find that I'm a big pusher of the "Cartographers Guild":http://forum.cartographersguild.com/index.php?referrerid=15127, a support site for fantasy/sci-fi/AH mapping. If you haven't already done so, I'd encourage you to check out the site, it is tremendously helpful.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

MatneyX

@arsheesh - Thanks. I'm using GIMP, and my only real complaint about it is it's not vector capable, so zooming starts to pixelate things. I've seen you link the Cartographers Guild, but I'm only just now taking a look around it.

Hardhead

The Cartographer's Guild is awesome. That's where I got the tutorial I used to make "my maps":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/world-of-crucible/maps. However, since you're playing WoD, you're going to have a tougher time since you're playing in the "real world." For me, I can put my mountains anywhere, you need to at least have a veneer of realism on your maps. You might want to think about just using real maps and doing modifications of them in GIMP.

MatneyX

That's largely what I'm doing. I took screen shots of the cities / towns I'm basing my fictitious area off Google Maps, arranged them (flip, rotate, resize) 'til I was happy with them, and started connecting lines.

The one thing I'm having a hard time emulating is terrain / topography -- I'm playing in the Rocky Mountains, but you can't really show the elevation changes in a Google-like map.

Morrinn

I also whole heartedly recommend checking out some of the great map tutorials from the nice people over at the Guild, and Welcome by the way!
You seem like an interesting bloke and I'm looking forward to reading up on some of your stuff when you make it public =)

Edit: Oops, looks like I just messed up the url and it is already public! It looks good man, still very rough, but shaping up nicely.