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Post by Meph on Nov 4, 2016 20:47:42 GMT
I am about to begin a new campaign with a new gaming group and will undoubtedly have a fully documented campaign thread but I wanted to create a place away from that to showcase the prep I am doing for my campaign. I going to be running 5th Edition with what looks to be 5 players, 4 of which have never played 5E. Those 4 have also either not played D&D in at least 20 years of haven't ever played it. I decided what better time to play Lost Mine of Phandelver. I have heard nothing but glowing praise for that adventure and I figured it's a good way to bring the players up to speed while also bringing me up to speed DMing 5E. So without further ado, lets get on to the prep. I am currently working on large project with Redbrand Hideout that I am not ready to show so this afternoon I was trying to figure out how I wanted to tackle Cragmaw Hideout. I have looked at a lot of threads here and other places about how they did it. I do have the Dragonlock Cavern Tile set but I don't have many printed and I am busy with other stuff. I would also prefer to wait for Curufin and Wyloch to hopefully come up with a set of Cavern tiles before I go printing too much. So I decided to tackle this the easy way. I got the full resolution players map of Cragmaw Hideout and blew it up to 12000x8363 at 300 dpi. Then I used a web based program called Rasterbator which tiled the image for printing. I printed it in B&W on my laser for a test copy. I laid it all out and it came out nice. The plan is to mount it on foam & cardboard with proper elevations. I am debating making it modular so I can lay down pieces as they explore or making it as a whole and covering sections they haven't explored. I usually prefer the modular approach but it will come down to which works best. I plan to use the B&W copies to do all the work and in the end I will finish it off with my full color poster prints. I am open to ideas if you have any.
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Post by misterc on Nov 4, 2016 20:51:10 GMT
if its the first experience of D&D for some of teh players, the gradual reveal might add to the suspense and feel of exploration
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Post by Meph on Nov 5, 2016 0:43:11 GMT
Well the wife printed it but it was printed on normal paper, not the high gloss, thicker presentation paper. There is a little wrinkling from the glue when I mounted it to the foamcore but all in all, I think it came out nice. After seeing it like this I am reluctant to cut it up to make elevations. Since the part will be played through in part of a single session I think I may just leave it as it is. Then when the players are done with it I might just hang it on the wall in the game room.
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Post by margaret on Nov 5, 2016 1:11:43 GMT
They are beautiful maps. Well worth hanging if you have the wall space.
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sotf
Advice Guru
Posts: 1,084
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Post by sotf on Nov 5, 2016 6:27:04 GMT
One thing you might consider is to take some blank paper and cut it to cover parts of the map to keep them out of sight until the players find it.
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Post by fantascientist on Nov 5, 2016 11:08:07 GMT
Looks nice! Personally I prefer laying pieces down as opposed to covering sections up, because the latter implies there is something more to explore in that direction. When you lay them down, it's more of a surprise.
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Post by Meph on Nov 5, 2016 11:14:17 GMT
Looks nice! Personally I prefer laying pieces down as opposed to covering sections up, because the latter implies there is something more to explore in that direction. When you lay them down, it's more of a surprise. I do also. This is the first time I have ever printed a map, usually it's all modular. Cragmaw Hideout is really small and its one of the first things the players encounter in the adventure. Everything before it and the caves should be completed by my group of new players in the first session. I just don't want to spend too much time on something they are going to blow through so fast. We'll see.
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Post by margaret on Nov 5, 2016 17:29:57 GMT
You could cut up your gray-scale version and glue only Caves 6, 7, and 8 separately onto foamcore, then put those pieces down over your black-out when the time comes. Those are the higher caves, so that would help emphasize for your new players that they and the bridge are UP. Since those areas are mostly grayscale even on the color map, a quick brush with blue on the water would make them pretty close to a match with the color map.
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Post by sgtslag on Nov 5, 2016 22:33:04 GMT
Colored pencils? They are transparent enough not to hide the black print, beneath. Just a suggestion. Cheers!
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sotf
Advice Guru
Posts: 1,084
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Post by sotf on Nov 6, 2016 2:10:56 GMT
Looks nice! Personally I prefer laying pieces down as opposed to covering sections up, because the latter implies there is something more to explore in that direction. When you lay them down, it's more of a surprise. Not entirely, a with the maps it tends to work well enough because, unless the players cheated and read ahead, they won't know for sure if it's more there or other things. On top of that, once the map starts, it encourages them to look around for things. And having something like unbleached parchment crumpled up for it actually looks a lot like stone as it is.
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milojaggerson
Paint Manipulator
Laying tile on the floors...
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Post by milojaggerson on Nov 8, 2016 15:48:41 GMT
This is the same approach I am taking for most of the other areas in the Curse of Strahd. I use MS Paint to size the graphics appropriately, then have the program's print utility tile it. One of the maps took like 60 sheets of card stock. It is a very good technique for getting large quantities of maps ready for players that can go to any area of the sandbox. I have only printed about two-thirds of the maps in Mike Schley's maps for the module. After getting the maps down on foam core I wanted to create some tiles like AJ did with Heroic Maps. Wish I had time to do that.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Nov 8, 2016 17:52:53 GMT
CoS not a sandbox though.
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milojaggerson
Paint Manipulator
Laying tile on the floors...
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Post by milojaggerson on Nov 8, 2016 18:44:01 GMT
By what measure is CoS not a sandbox?
Certainly the players are looped into facing Strahd, but when and how the party faces the vampire are very much up to the players (for the most part). It may not be as free-form as some prefer, but it most definitely is a sandbox. Perhaps a sandbox with rails, but still a sandbox. About the only thing not sandboxed in the game is the introduction to the realm and the first adventure in the Death House, but after that the players can go pretty much anywhere within the realm that they wish to explore. But for that matter, many adventures start with the "man-in-the-billowing-cape" introduction (deus ex machina).
In fact, I encourage my players to go were they desire, even though our game has been "frustrated" on more than one occasion when the party took a "left-hand" turn, when I anticipated a "right". After completing the Death House in Barovia, nothing holds the party to playing or interacting with the denizens of that forlorn burg save their own curiosity, condescension, or hubris. I suppose a GM could drive them to anything within the realm that the GM wanted, but then that situation is not unique to CoS.
From what I observed, most adventures follow along very similar lines anyway: 1) An introduction in which the characters find out about/experience/discover some terrible wrong/wonderful treasure/objective to be met. 2) A middle portion through which the characters have some sort of opportunity to display their prowess and develop their personal stories and interactions. 3) A climax and resolution in which the characters face a significant challenge / end-stage boss before attaining their prize (revealed in the first stage). 4. A epilogue that either concludes the adventure, or sets the next scene.
I realize that the above is a very rough sketch of an adventure's general outline, but most of the time that is the basic flow of one. Else the adventure becomes much like an Ottis Redding song, "sitting on the dock of the bay".
Not that it makes much difference, "Potayto-potahto, tomayto-tomahto". It seems the psychology of CoS, and that which makes it such an exhilarating campaign setting for me, are the repercussions of the choices made by the players on all the characters in the game (PC and NPC). Will the party destroy the devil Strahd? From the outset, when they first learn of the malevolent evil that rules the land they certainly seem desirous of that outcome, but over time they may come to excuse the Count's evil and become sympathetic to his plight (boy I hope they don't do that - but in my role as the story-teller understanding the nature of the horror they face, it is a possible outcome). Will they restore Gertruda to her mother in Barovia? Will they free the celestial at St. Markovia? There are TONS of choice and sandboxy decisions to be made.
While my diatribe has most likely not persuaded or changed your opinion, it is hoped that at least you may understand in what measure I use the term sandbox.
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Post by Meph on Nov 8, 2016 18:59:39 GMT
Don't get him started on his "sandbox" rant again, DNDPaladin has one view of what a sandbox is, the rest of the gaming world has another. COS most certainly IS a sandbox. The adventure is laid out with lots of objectives to complete. It's setup as a non-linear adventure. The players can choose any which way they want to go and can skip parts of it if they wish. It fits the definition of what most games view as sandbox style play. DNDPaladin believe a sandbox means the DM prepares nothing and just lets the players do anything they want.
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Post by Meph on Nov 8, 2016 19:07:44 GMT
This is the same approach I am taking for most of the other areas in the Curse of Strahd. I use MS Paint to size the graphics appropriately, then have the program's print utility tile it. One of the maps took like 60 sheets of card stock. It is a very good technique for getting large quantities of maps ready for players that can go to any area of the sandbox. I have only printed about two-thirds of the maps in Mike Schley's maps for the module. After getting the maps down on foam core I wanted to create some tiles like AJ did with Heroic Maps. Wish I had time to do that. I am quickly seeing the benefits to preparation time that printing a map in this format and attaching it to foam core can be. While it doesn't have the same visual appeal of 3D terrain, it sure makes like easy for the DM. I decided to go with full True Tiles for Redbrand Hideout. I must get this off my chest but Mike Schley is a jerk! What was he thinking with odd spaced rooms. Most tiles run in 2 x 2 tile increments and he designed his rooms 1 square, 3 square, 5 square. There are two approaches I could take. First I could just resize rooms to fit the tiles i have or I could print new tiles to fit my needs. I chose the latter like an idiot. This has forced me to print a lot of custom tiles and i'm still working on it. I know it's a little hard to see because I have bad lighting in the pic and most of them are unpainted so far.
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milojaggerson
Paint Manipulator
Laying tile on the floors...
Posts: 161
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Post by milojaggerson on Nov 8, 2016 20:27:28 GMT
I think the TrueTiles set has one and two space tiles that should help. I'm still in the process of printing out the enough basic pieces necessary to layout an entire floor, but they are a very nice bit of kit to have in the box-o-props. I think mixing up the media styles (such as using DM Scotty's 2.5, the foam core print outs, and the TrueTile system) makes it visually interesting for the players. Every time I break out a new piece, regardless of the style, the players want to pick it up and examine it. Foam core makes that the hardest thing for them to do though, as I place cardboard to cover the areas the players have not explored yet.
Nice job with the TrueTiles stuff!
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Post by Meph on Nov 8, 2016 23:16:55 GMT
I think the TrueTiles set has one and two space tiles that should help. I'm still in the process of printing out the enough basic pieces necessary to layout an entire floor, but they are a very nice bit of kit to have in the box-o-props. I think mixing up the media styles (such as using DM Scotty's 2.5, the foam core print outs, and the TrueTile system) makes it visually interesting for the players. Every time I break out a new piece, regardless of the style, the players want to pick it up and examine it. Foam core makes that the hardest thing for them to do though, as I place cardboard to cover the areas the players have not explored yet. Nice job with the TrueTiles stuff! It does have some one and two space tile but it's missing some essential pieces for this particular puzzle. Curufin made me some quick and dirty tiles that are helping. One of them is single square hallways. The problem is that there is no way to make a single width hall way and have it conform mathematically with Truetiles and the 1.25" tile. Fortunately the places where I need them don't happen to actually share a wall with any other tiles so it doesn't matter that they aren't mathematically correct. They just work. I might do a little creative redesign of the dungeon to make tile layout a little easier.
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Post by Meph on Nov 9, 2016 13:02:14 GMT
I did a little redesign of the dungeon this morning and changed the way I utilized some pieces. I also cut down on the dead space between rooms which means less outer walls needed. I like this setup better. I am working on printing the final pieces I need. I think once I get the pieces I need I am going to look into creating the elevations. The left and right side should be lower with the middle and chasm higher. Should come out nice if I can get the time to get to it. I still have a lot of painting to do.
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Post by Meph on Nov 9, 2016 13:31:21 GMT
New group that for the most part hasn't played in 20 years so I figured some new dice were in order. I am a junky and have a LOT of dice so I figured I would pickup 7 sets with pouches on Amazon. 2 of the players have been playing all along and have lots of dice so they might not want new sets but this gives me enough for a set for each of the 5 players and a set for each of my kids, who I plan to run through LMOP also. Pretty good deal for the price. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H5ZPXYA/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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Post by l7arkness on Nov 9, 2016 13:52:35 GMT
New group that for the most part hasn't played in 20 years so I figured some new dice were in order. I am a junky and have a LOT of dice so I figured I would pickup 7 sets with pouches on Amazon. 2 of the players have been playing all along and have lots of dice so they might not want new sets but this gives me enough for a set for each of the 5 players and a set for each of my kids, who I plan to run through LMOP also. Pretty good deal for the price. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H5ZPXYA/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1Very cool of you to do this amount of prep for your games and as a player I envy the gamers that get to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Exalt to you
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