Kobold Hall

[jfrazierjr]

Hi, after playing our first 4e adventure last week, it was clear to me that both me (DM) and the players need some practice. None of us have played DnD since school - a long time ago, we think the edition was Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.

Therefore I decided to run the short adventure in the back of the Dungeon Masters Guide - Kobold Hall, and integrate it into the overall campaign. I have been mucking about in GIMP trying to throw together the four main rooms so that we can use them this weekend (we use Gametable). This is the first room. It's not meant to be pretty (I just noticed when uploading it that the bevel in the floor tiles is the wrong way round) but functional.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x...artamn/kr1.jpg

Stuamn

p.s. I know i've added a little bit of corridor but i want the players just to concentrate on the room they are in and by adding the extra corridor means i can "join up" the rooms in gametable as the players get to them

That's rather pretty stuamn. You may want to consider over top of the floor adding a noise layer set to overlay to vary the floor up a bit, but that's not 100% necessary.

My only "complaint" is that I think the pit looks a bit odd. To me, it looks like a huge emerald set into the floor instead of a pit full of slime. Not sure if it is the color or texture or what. Other than that, I think it's rather nice and I was going to do this myself. If you don't mind, I will grab this (and any other one you do up) and use for my own game.

Joe

[stuamn]

@torstan , thanks - i was wondering how to attach an image. The map is to be used in a program called Gametable http://gametable.galactanet.com/. The program is similar to OpenRPG in that it allows the players to connect remotely, see the map, roll dice and move their characters.

@jfrasierjr - thanks, I don't like the slime either but it was the only texture ii had at the time. I need to find an ice texture for the last encounter so I'll probably look for a slime one at the same time (and re-bevel the floor).

[jfrazierjr]

@torstan , thanks - i was wondering how to attach an image. The map is to be used in a program called Gametable http://gametable.galactanet.com/. The program is similar to OpenRPG in that it allows the players to connect remotely, see the map, roll dice and move their characters.

@jfrasierjr - thanks, I don't like the slime either but it was the only texture ii had at the time. I need to find an ice texture for the last encounter so I'll probably look for a slime one at the same time (and re-bevel the floor).

Cool.

If your not 100% sold on Gametable, you might want to check out Maptool (RPTools.net), which is what Torstan and I (along with goobs of others here) both use. It has a few features that are fairly unseen in most VTT software and it's free. One big benefit is that Maptool is under active development, with a dev release with bug fixes and new features every 2-3 weeks (sometimes less) and the developers are very active on the forums.
Heh... I would "guess" that RPMiller (who is a mod here and also active on the RPTools forums) has probably gotten 200 or more people to sign up at the CG from over there. If you decide to give it a look over, we will be glad to answer any questions you have. One big thing to note is that the 1.3 version is under development and close to switching over to 1.4, but the documentation is still most likely on the old 1.2 version. This is important as there have been TONS of new features put into the Maptool since the documentation was last updated.


Also, just to show impartiality, Redrobes develops and sells a very nice VTT named Viewingdale which has some extremely cool features also. He has a link to his site in his signature.



Joe

[torstan]

Edit: no surpises that Joe said exactly the same thing but faster

You might like to have a look over at maptool - it's also a java app that works as a shared map for people with dice and chat built in.... and macros, and dynamic light and vision and quite a lot more. You can find it over here:

www.rptools.net

The forums are the best documentation. There's a new build out every week or so at the moment and the dev version is now very stable as they are approaching the end of the 1.3 cycle. There's a fair amount of cross-over between these forums and the maptool ones so you'll see some familiar names over there.

[Sigurd]

If you're not too attached to Game Table, and you've already looked at maptool (Its free after all) try looking at Fantasy Grounds....


http://forums.fantasygrounds.com/home/

It's not free but I like it a lot. After a little playing the one time $35 ish price tag is well deserved.


Sigurd

[stuamn]

@ torstan, jfrazierjr and sigurd - I'm downloading maptool to have a look. I just used gametable as a test. I don't think the party would mind swapping from gametable as during the last adventure I published a very large tile and everyone else's computers rebooted. They didn't see the funny side.

@ sigurd I agree, fantasy grounds looks fantastic, however - I'm assuming that everyone else would have to buy at least a lite licence to connect. Believe me the party I'm DMing for are cheap

BTW new slime in kobold hall 1, and I posted a WIP of kobold hall 2, I don't particularly like the coffins, the statues or the altar but time is short.

EDIT: I also added a noise layer (render>clouds>plasma>desaturate) as suggested, and once again the maps are not 100% the same as the DMC, this is due to me moving/adding link up corridors

[torstan]

Now that's a serious improvement. Good work. I like the heavier shadows.

[Steel General]

Cool, I like it. You may want to consider one of the textures on this page for your current (or any upcoming) slime pools.

[jfrazierjr]

@ torstan, jfrazierjr and sigurd - I'm downloading maptool to have a look. I just used gametable as a test. I don't think the party would mind swapping from gametable as during the last adventure I published a very large tile and everyone else's computers rebooted. They didn't see the funny side.

Yea, I like free also. If you have any questions on Maptool, like I said earlier, feel free to ask over there or in this thread. Also, be sure to check out the tutorials on http://rptoolstutorials.net, and you can get plenty of good ideas from there alone. There is even a tutorial specifically for those who just play and not set up maps. Again, one thing to remember is that these tutorials were made 6+ months ago (most of them) and there has been a huge amount of dev work and Maptools has changed quite a bit in that time. New tutorials will be coming as soon as this version has locked down and dev starts on the 1.4 branch.

EDIT: I also added a noise layer (render>clouds>plasma>desaturate) as suggested, and once again the maps are not 100% the same as the DMC, this is due to me moving/adding link up corridors

Much nicer. The floor looks a lot more random now with the noise layer over top.

[Midgardsormr]

I don't think the party would mind swapping from gametable as during the last adventure I published a very large tile and everyone else's computers rebooted. They didn't see the funny side.

Wow. That's quite a bug!

A suggestion for your slime: reduce the saturation and brightness a bit--that should help it sit better in the image and not look quite so phosphorescent. Unless you want it to glow in the dark, which might also be a cool effect.