Monday 30 January 2012: The Siege of Jainesville
This map is what I just spent the morning putting together for Monday night’s mass battle against the hordes of undead (hundreds). Since this game is played on-line using Map Tools, I wanted to make it something special.
I fully expect the PCs to all die, but I could be wrong.
In the Name of the King
This is the map of the, as yet, unnamed Valley where the campaign takes place.
The hexes are all 3-mile or 1 league in scale, the entire map 32 by 32 hexes, with the Keep all the way down south. The only things currently on the map are three villages, which are known and claiming independence from the Kingdom.
I was aiming to have thirty locations/adventure-sites keyed to this map, and I also planned on having a duplicate map showing the ‘zones’ that not only show the difficulty/danger level of the area (based on average Hit Dice or Levels of monsters etc) but will also be used to determine which Random Encounter/Wandering Monster tables are used.
Now, after reading some of the comments in previous posts, I am thinking that I should (as PackofGnolls said) make it more random: still keep it ‘tier’ based, but with random tables that link to prepared adventure sites. There will still be areas keyed on the map, but now I am thinking that they’ll be the ‘important’ areas; those places that will need to be ‘cleared’ or otherwise dealt with in order to claim the Valley. More on in another post.
Any suggestions as to what I should place in the Valley, leave a comment.
Guess I should talk about what style or tone I’m aiming for: a fantasy version of the Middle Ages, maybe edging towards the Renaissance period. Low-key magic, rare, wonderful, feared and potentially deadly. A degree of Weird Fantasy, but no overly science fiction or gonzo elements, unless there’s a very good reason.
Main ‘monsters’ are going to be bandits, humanoids (but only a couple), unique creatures (some based on D&D monsters, others not), and things like that.
And here is the map:
Map of the Valley
This is the map I’ve put together (with the excellent Hexographer) for the starting zone of my upcoming D&D/LotFP campaign.
The Starting Zone
Now all I need to do is generate another 13 locations for possible adventures, exploration and TPKs.
LotFP WF RPG
In a few weeks we shall finally start our new campaign, using the LotFP Weird Fantasy rules.
As we play on-line using MapTools, I had to spend some time putting together a framework that would cover most of the rules we’d need (makes it more fun to play on-line if nothing else); so that’s what I’ve been doing for the past few weeks.
My macros aren’t the most elegant, and no doubt there are easier ways of coding them, and there are likely to be some bugs here and there (although I think I got them all).
Anyway, for anyone who is interested, I give you the framework to use: LotFP_cmpgn.
Hope someone finds it useful, and feel free to let me know if there are any errors or if someone out there has a better way of doing it.
The other day, Greywulf posted about Corkboard, and using it as a gaming tool. Basically, it opens a unique url for you, not secured, that is a corkboard type background with post-it notes. Copy & Paste images, add text, simple and easy to use.
This got me thinking. At the moment I run a game every week using Map Tools and playing on-line with my brothers, cousin and a friend who are spread across the country. It works really well, for the most part, but I am always looking for ways to enhance the experience. We are currently running through the Dawn of Defiance adventure path for the Star Wars Saga game, but once that has been completed I intend to set up an Old School D&D campaign. It will be more of a Sandbox styled game, I’ll use modules for various locations, wandering monsters, the whole assumed set really. There’s be a town to use as a base, henchmen to hire, all that. I also wanted to have a notice-board outside the local inn, to feed them rumours, plot hooks and so forth. I was just going to create a board on Map Tools, but now I think I will use Corkboard instead. Should work really well.
And, if anyone is interested, since I am going to be using Map Tools to run this game (using the Weird Fantasy lotFP rules) I have been hard at work putting together a set of macros for the game. Once they’re finished and tested I’ll post them up, if anyone thinks that would be useful.
