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
Comments
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
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
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!
...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.
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.
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
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.
I will see if I can photoshop up the effects tonight after I get home and then work on the monster AI.
Kuzgan_Thunderhammer
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.
Kuzgan_Thunderhammer
Kuzgan, should I count the d's in Old, like the rings of a tree?
*steals duskreign's monacle*
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
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
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!
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