Hello/from an Oldtimer DM

Kuzgan_Thunderhammer

All

I have been a Player /DM since the first 3 books and chainmail. I Ran a campaign world for over 17 years and have been through every rendition of D&D, C&S,RuneQuest,RoleMaster and many other flash in the pan systems.
I was recently in a playtest type of Game for 4.0e that lasted about a year on and off once a month. When the DM of that game ended I stepped up to the plate to run the next game for our group.
Tired of my old world and facing a ton of conversion.
I decided to build a fresh Campaign My Campaign is Called "SixMercsForHire". Because we are now all family people and can maybe get together once a month, this game was based on merc missions ( a full write up is on my area of the portal)(Its sloppy right now so bear with me). Anyway I decided to be virtual in my new campaign, using Master Plan displayed up on the big screen, Firey dragon tiles, and Obisdian Portal for all my game info.

Over the years I developed many aides for my various campaigns and with 4.0e there are alot of areas that fall short in imagination and support for a DM. I am not a complainer but a fixer by nature So I am starting to make 4.0 DM aides.

Monster AI:After searching the web and finding that no one had made a monster AI system, I decided to sit dwon and design one. I need to have this in its beta state before my next game day. so when it is done I will post it on my site for people to check it out. I will be in excel formatte.

Ancient Magic Making:I am also designing a skill challange crafting system to add flavor to the game .. this is still in its very early stage but some of my frames of mind are posted on my site.

Visual Aides:I am also a digital artist by profession , I needed effect tiles for my game to be used in Master plan so I designed the proper number of ongoing effects, Acid,poison, lightning.. etc and posted the tiles on my forum. I will be designing more as I go.
http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/sixmercsforhire/forum/sneak-peek-at-new-effect-tiles

Any way I am really excited to have found this site and look forward to be a participating member of the community.

Please for give my site right now I just jumped in and I have never done anything like this.

Kuzgan_Thunderhammer

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/sixmercsforhire

Duskreign

Kuzgan, I agree about the drawbacks of 4th edition D&D, and I run a heavily modified version of it as a result.

These visual aides are fantastic, by the way. I am very interested to see what you come up with next, and on behalf of the community, I think we are all greatly appreciative of your decision to share such a resource.

Garaan has started a campaign called the Fantastinomicon, and I'd like to invite you to join it. It isn't a game, but a repository for fantasy roleplaying resources. Your ideas seem like they would fit in perfectly there, and I think the other contributing DMs would agree with me on that.

"Duskreign":http://www.obsidianportal.com/profile/Duskreign

"Wyrmshadow Campaign Setting":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/wyrmshadow
"Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic

RaseCidraen

Welcome to Obsidian portal! It sounds like you have a very ambitious idea, and I'd be glad to give you some help if you ever need it! You'll find the community here to be quite helpful and knowledgeable. I'm impressed with your effect tiles - I had never thought of using things like that... I've been kind of rubbish using in-game maps as of late (But I wish I could get better... I've been relying on purple prose to get by for a bit too long, Methinks.)

Duskreign

But, that's the best prose of all!

RaseCidraen

Purple Prosish magesty? Or some local equivalent?

Duskreign

Yes?

RaseCidraen

I imagine that it's a lot easier to work with maps when playing Face to Face - I haven't had much of that pleasure, as my group is online only. Although the programs we use allow for wonderful map manipulation, it's time consuming to do things on the fly, as a hand with a pencil almost always trumps a hand with a mouse, or worse yet, a trackpad.

Kuzgan_Thunderhammer

Well like I said I am using Master plan and when I was practicing with it I noticed it had effect tiles and that they could take pictures not just the semi transparent color. So I quickly made up a fire effect with a particle system I had and put it down and made it 6x6 area . It inserted itself under the player counters and looked very eye pleasing.
I have designed monster AI since 2nd edition so to make monster AI for 4.0 is going to be a challange but I as a DM like the monsters to appear to think on their own. 4.0 gives good starting points with the jobs the monsters have but from my experiences it still seems like a big dog pile. I am going to take it further so there can be many suprises for the GM too. Like I said I need this for my next game , I set up the skeleton for it last night and I hope to get it done by saturday night. I still have lots of things to do so I cannot get stuck on the AI for too long.

I do my map making in NWN and NWN 2 I am making alot of generic battle maps because my campaign tends to be more skirmish oriented. The cool thing I like about making maps in NWN is I just rotate it to top view and poof a map or rotate it to another angle and do a screenshot of the town they are approaching, some photoshop work and it can look like a painting or charcoal sketch.

I am still building the town map but I can post a frontier fort I have already completed.

BTW I love the skill challange part of 4.0 it can be used for so much stuff.

Kuzgan_Thunderhammer

Duskreign

Sometimes, words serve better to lure out the players' imaginations, but when it comes time for combat, I've found even a rudimentary map serves the purpose quite well. The one exception was when I was running for eleven players, three of which were playing via Skype or Oovoo (of which I prefer the latter). The distance-players had some difficulty tracking whose mini was where, how far they were from their intended target, etc. In their case, I kind of had to describe everything in detail anyway, so I did the work twice, once with the dry-erase marker on my map-table, and once again with my violet verbiage.

Huh?

Viole... you see what I... oh nevermind.

P.S. - Neverwinter Nights is great. I love that game, but I never even considered using it to make maps for my campaign. That's a really cool idea!

RaseCidraen

When in combat, I turn to a more, violent verbiage (ha HA!), to suit the savagery of the situation. It's more satisfying to the player when, instead of "The goblin dies", they hear "Alusair throws her weight behind a last ditch swing, driving her bastard sword through the air with such force that the trail it left behind briefly showed the image of her deity. The goblin let out a horrified squeak right before a horrible "tang!" as her sword passed through him like a pickpocket slipping through a busy bazaar, only to come to a rest with the tip buried three fingers deep in the stone wall of the tunnel."

...plus, dry erase markers are so much easier to erase when you make a mistake, compared to trying to loop around a mistake with a map tool.

Duskreign

lol

Kuzgan_Thunderhammer

Well I have done alot of sessions and to get my players going . I am approaching the Merc idea. I have been practicing with Master plan I like alot of visuals and immersion, so I have embraced this new type of DMing with a passion and it has really gotten creativity going.
I used virtual encounter decks and love that too.

As to NWN being used for maps I just posted this to show you an example http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/sixmercsforhire/wikis/frontier-outpost

Kuzgan_Thunderhammer

BTW the finished effect tiles will list the effect. I had just not gotten around to it.

RaseCidraen

That's a brilliant map! I didn't even think you could do things like that in NWN! The closest I had ever come was doing a 3d dungeon in Solidworks, but that's more of a "Oh, hey, I have a hunk of iron, lets make an airplane!" train of thought... It was an awesome looking inverted pyramid, but a gross mis-use of an engineering tool :P

arsheesh

Well looks like I'm late again to the welcome wagon, but anyway "welcome" to the portal Kuzgan! That's a great little outpost you've made there! I've been tinkering around with doing something similar but just can't seem to find the time to pull it all together. Anyway, I look forward to seeing your Monster AI get off the ground, and I wish you the best in building your new site. Since I didn't see than anyone had mentioned it yet, a member of the community known as Chainsaw has made a wonderfully helpful "Help and FAQ's":http://forums.obsidianportal.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=1114&page=1#Item_26 sticky that might be worth checking out.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

JimTriche

Welcome to the portal, whaaahooo for more grognards. Any help on your campaign wiki just ask, there are tons of people here that will help, I know from personal experience.

Duskreign

Rase Cidrean, I must see the inverted pyramid now. I can't un-know that.

Kuzgan, do you want a hand adding the effects/durations? I wouldn't mind either way.

Well, enough of my lavender loquaciousness... no? awwww....

- Duskreign.

Kuzgan_Thunderhammer

Wow Um I must be old because your last posting seemed like a mish mash of stuff, none of which I understood. So hm let me see, help with duration , you mean on the effect tiles, well I was just going to put the name on them for my players to see on the big screen, the effect duration is taken care of in Masterplan but if people are using them as tiles I can do an area for duration to be dry erased into. If thats what you are talking about?

I will see if I can photoshop up the effects tonight after I get home and then work on the monster AI.

Kuzgan_Thunderhammer

Duskreign

Kuzgan, it was a silly continuation of a joke from earlier in this thread.

And I'm 33. That's hardly a child, I think.

I am a bit playful in the forums. If you prefer, I shall wear a tie and cummerbund next time I post. And a monocle. Yes, a monocle.

gaaran

Welcome to the portal from me as well! That's a pretty awesome idea, using NWN for your maps, I might just have to steal that idea :). And As Duskreign mentioned, I started a campaign for people to add stuff to, to share with the community. I think I forgot to add a maps section, so I'm going to do that, but if you're interested, it's "The Fantastinomicon":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/the-fantastinomicon and your maps and stuff would be a great addition if you wanted to share them with the community! Again, welcome!

Kuzgan_Thunderhammer

Never said you were a child said I was oldddddddddddddddddddddddddd

Kuzgan_Thunderhammer

Duskreign

Gaaran, you shameless thief. LOL.

Kuzgan, should I count the d's in Old, like the rings of a tree?

gaaran

Haha!

*steals duskreign's monacle*

Duskreign

Blast and confound you. Pip pip and all that rot.

gaaran

Oh, cheer up old chap. You'll be right fine without it. Made you look a bit of a dandy. ;)

Kuzgan_Thunderhammer

Gaaran :

In the olden days... lol.. I use to hand draw all my maps then hand draw some perspective views to show off something important. Now I just build it , tip in up to flat, take a screen capture, tilt it down zoom into an interesting angle or mood, etc screen capture that , this is all done in the toolset FYI if you did not know.
Moode light everything all built in if I want . Then the capture can be taken into photo shop and be made into a charcoal sketh, or and old map you name it , but the cool part is you can come back to your town and change it. Anyway it just came to me like a bolt of lightning to make it in nwn or nwn 2. If you want to make a larger scale map you can use all their overland tools . I will be posting my oveland map soon so you can see what I mean.

Kuzgan_Thunderhammer

Duskreign

Egad, man! Verily, I am aghast.

Dandy, you say? Harumph!

Double Harumph!

Oh, fine. I relent. You've done me a great service. T'was a silly affectation. Right right, old bean.

Now, I'll just fetch my gold pocket watch, flat-top straw hat, walking cane and springer spaniel and be off.

"me":http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_473nrD5vEv8/S2LJ__MdIRI/AAAAAAAACNw/UsEjkIlHjMU/s400/man-with-dog.jpg

gaaran

that's awesome Kuzgan, I've made some stuff in the toolset before, just for fun, but that's a pretty great idea! I look forward to seeing the map.

Duskreign

I need to reinstall NWN2 and try this.

RaseCidraen

Damned! My tardiness has bamboozled me, for I was about to meet your monacle, and raise you a pocket watch! However, I'll see your flat-top straw hat and raise you a Top-Hat! (Truly a gentleman's duel if there ever were one...)

With regards to the Pyramid: I'd be more than glad to show it off, if I could find it again - I think it's on an external harddrive at home - it's a tricky bugger to locate, for sure. Also, it's difficult to take a decent 3D picture of, what with it being a pyramid and all.

The concept was as follows: The party came across a fortress that was being built by the Big Bad, and for some reason, I thought it would be awesome if the fortress had something akin to the Spire on the Outlands in it, and for some reason, it led up to a floating inverted pyramid made from solid Obsidian. They snuck in, and they found that it was a very impenetrable fortress - or it would be, if it were actually staffed with guards: the entrance was, essentially, a kill box, but they were in no danger (although they didn't know it at the time.) Some exploring later, and they start to get towards the flat top: they run into an entire floor of prison cells... but the cells are too large for normal human containment, and the bars are all Cold Iron - and for some reason, there are external slits that are fairly wide at the back of the cells. They find one creature "locked up" - a shadow dragon, of all beasties. They anger it, somehow (I forget), and it flies out through the slit (So yes, it's essentially an inverted pyramid airborne monster dispenser.) They attempt to scale the side of the pyramid using a rope, while being assailed by the Shadow Dragon, and one of their NPC friends loses their grip and falls due to fear. The mage abandons rope, and Alters Self to get wings and catches her, but can't fly upwards, so he's coasting down to the enemy encampment below. Then, the other PC, in an act of insanely bad dice rolling on my part, charms the dragon and rescues them both. Ultimately, I wanted them to be running for the secret door at the top of the Pyramid, but it turned into a leisurely jaunt after that debacle - so much for good cinema! Although I suppose I sufficiently wowed them by introducing them to the entire Multiverse all at once when they got into the top of the pyramid - Think the scene from Hitchhikers inside Magrithea, but bigger. And with the Great Wheels.

Phew! Sorry for the languishing language and periwinkle paragraph above, but I lack the time to make it shorter!

Duskreign

lol

Kuzgan_Thunderhammer

All who are interseted:

Work progresses on the Monster AI I have initial Target decision logic for INT up to 12 Layed out and in the excel spreadsheet. and now starting to work on engagement logic,blooded logic,leader logic.. It should only take 2 D20 die rolls to run the logic One Red One Blue(or any other 2 seperate colors). The logic will include the various jobs monsters have assigned to them, Brute, soldier,control,etc..This will of course take time to tweek but I sure hope to have it in beta done by Saturday night.
I need it for my next game so I need it to be finished up to INT12. Which is the smartest Gnolls they will be facing.

Kuzgan_Thunderhammer