Introducing: Judge Denny

I always find it informative to hear how other game-masters prepare and view RPGs.  In this post I introduce one of the dxContent mini/module mini/map contest judges.

I'd like you to meet Denny Edwards, another long-time gaming friend, DM and player.  Denny has a fantastic grasp on plot twists, mystery and suspense.  He creates villains you really hate (I'll get you General Gnaw!), and NPCs you really love (Rest in peace "Decoder").  Below are Denny's responses to my "get to know the judge" questions.

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dxContent: As a game master and/or player, what level of importance do you place on maps and why?

Denny: If a picture is worth a thousand words, a map is worth a thousand encounters.  In the RPG games I’ve played in or ran over the years, maps have always been a staple.  Clearly not all gaming situations call for a map, but more times than not a visual representation of where things are in relation to each other helps provide a better (and hopefully a shared) understanding of what’s going on.  Personally I have a preference that significant combat encounters take place on a gridded map with miniatures or other counters.  I’ve found that a lot of time is saved if you don’t have to ask or explain where something is at and a map solves the problem handily.  If nothing else, even a small map and a pencil make for a much better game. Finally, it has been my experience that maps encourage exploration and curiosity; players  always want to know what’s beyond the edges of the map or what the strange rune etched into the floor is for.

dxContent: How many years have you played RPG games?

Denny: 28 years

dxContent: How many years have you played 3.5 / Pathfinder?

Denny: 9 years

dxContent: Minis are a "must" for your style of RPG play - Yes or No?

Denny: Yes; minis or counters

dxContent: Your game master notes (or player notes if you don't gm) are best described as...?

Denny: Organized and cross-referenced

dxContent: Do you prefer ready-made modules or home-spun material or a mix?

Denny: Mix

dxContent: As a gm (or player if you don’t GM) do you prefer published campaign settings or home-grown settings?

Denny: Mix

dxContent: Favorite role to play in a RPG (stealth, magic, melee-master, etc)?

Denny: Magic/stealth

dxContent: Would you rather play, game master or do both?

Denny: Both

dxContent Map Runner Mini Module Design Contest

As Map Runner nears its official graduation from beta status, I'm holding a design contest to see what people can do with the mapping tools.  The rules are not complex - basically you're creating a very mini-module around a map you make with Map Runner.

Lots of ideas come to mind creature lairs, tombs, castle dungeons, city sewers and more.  So unleash your creativity and show me what you can do with Map Runner (and ultimately help make it better).

dxContent’s Map Runner Mini-Module Design contest rules

#1 - Create a dxContent.com user account.

#2 - Create a single map 14w x 12h (or smaller) map using dxContent’s Map Runner tools.

#3 - Detail your creation using the Pathfinder rules system in 3000 words or less.

• Up to half of your word budget can be allocated to background, plot, environment notes, the other half must be allocated to detailing specific areas on the map.
• Author your submission text in google docs
• save on text budget by linking to creatures / spell descriptions, etc on www.d20pfsrd.com
• Include a screenshot of your map in the Google doc. No maps created outside of Map Runner are allowed, and the map should not be altered outside of Map Runner in any way.
• Your submission text must be “PG-13”.
• Your submission must not use copyrighted intellectual property.
• You waive all copyrights to your submission and place it public domain.

 #4 - Before midnight May 13th 20th 2012 (due date extended!):

1. Post a response to this blog post notifying me of your submission.  Be sure to state your dxContent account name.
2. Share the google doc containing your submission with wheelmanforhire@yahoo.com.

 #5 - Contest submissions no longer accepted after midnight EST on May 20th 2012

Contest Judging

Judging will begin May 21st.  All submissions will be ranked on a 1 to 10 scale by a panel of contest judges in the following categories:

1. Creative use of Map Runner
2. Overall Originality
3. Overall theme
4. Conformance to Pathfinder Rules system
5. Technical Writing / Organizational skills / formatting / layout
6. Effective use of word budget / PG-13 content

In the event of a tie, the earliest submission wins.

Prizes

The top three creations and honorable mentions will all be featured on dxContent.com and/or Not So Random Thoughts, (dxContent.com’s blog). In addition:

1st Place Prize

25 tiles based on your specs will be added to Map Runner*

2nd Place Prize

15 tiles based on your specs will be added to Map Runner*

3rd Place Prize

10 tiles based on your specs will be added to Map Runner*

Honorable mentions

1 tile based on your specs will be added to Map Runner.

*Alternately you can request a feature change/addition to Map runner

-or-

have a custom random generator built for you

Good luck and happy [Random RPG activity]!

Map Runner 99% ready!

Its been a busy first quarter of updates to Map Runner!

First lets talk about the tiles. Map Runner makes maps based on combining tiles (also known as "geo-morphs"). At the time of this blog the tile count is 4,064! I don't know if that is a lot compared to other map generators, but can I just claim that that is the largest geo-morph library in the universe?

Anyway, biggest or not, here is what I've done:

• I've completed the entire list of tiles I had planned and all the possible legal combinations.



• I've added some additional tile variations (and will continue to add more over time)



• I've improved the stair images and added variations for those as well.

Now on to the tool changes. I've made a number of tweaks to the map making tools making them smarter so that they produce fewer illegal tile combinations. For example placing a vertical hallway puts in the end caps, placing stairs starts a hallway, etc, etc, etc.

But the big news is that I've added the basic text tools so that you can not label your maps with key numbers / letters or labels (" 'ere be trezure!").

There is more planned, but I'm not ready to "let the dragon out of the cave" on those features yet, but at this point I've armed all you overworked DM's with the basic tools you need to create attractive dungeon and sewer maps for your campaigns, that you can save in the cloud and work on from anywhere you have web access.

Have fun building the Dungeons of [RandomRuinedCastleName]!

Map Runner Save/Open features now enabled!

I have good news map makers! The Save, Save As, and Open features for Map Runner are enabled! Now you can keep your mapping goodness safetly tucked away in our database for you to work on anytime, anyplace and come back to it again and again.

Next on the agenda is to get the text tools implement as well as finish the library of tilesets so you don't get those ugly green broken image links when your work requres a tileset that isn't created yet.

Enjoy making (and saving) your [RandomBossMOnster]'s Lair

Sneak peak at dxContent's Map Runner

Map Runner is in the works! It's my new tile-based map editor allowing you to quickly flesh out maps for your on-going campaign. Here is a screen shot showing a dungeon I whipped up just for this blog entry:

As you can see, there are a lot of cool things you can do with Map Runner: layout hallways, rooms, doorways (with or without doors), low areas (in this example a sewer area) and place stairs.

Lets take a quick look at some of the tool menus you'll find. The first one I want to show you is the "Basic" menu. Here you can layout your halls, corners, intersections etc. Its as easy as selecting a tool and clicking on the map grid.

Another important menu is the "Doors" menu. With this tool you can add doorways and optionally fill them with various types of doors (Normal, Bars, Secret and Concealed). You can also remove doors with the Remove option.

This next menu is called "Inters'ct/Edge" (intersections & edges). With this menu you can add large open areas and large open areas with "low" areas. There is also a "crosser" tool. For the Dungeon tileset this allows you to make bridges across the low areas.

Here is one of my favorite menus, its called "Details". Many tiles have alternate versions of themselves, like round vs. square corners or in this example a room tile that can be turned into a 10x10 or 5x5 hallway.

This mapping system Is "tileset" driven. I provide you with thousands of pre-draw tiles and then using the tools they are automatically placed. But building maps by selecting from thousands of tiles is not fun... so as you can see the menus allow you specify what you want and where and the software does all the work of finding the right tile to fit your needs.

I'm making this a free tool for everyone and it will be cross-browser compatible. So if you like IE, Chrome, Safari or Firefox I've got you covered. I've left in slots for new tilesets also, so down the road I could add an outdoor tileset, a castle tileset or whatever comes in demand.

Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas or general questions. Have a [PositiveAdjective] day!

Miscellaneous Improvements

I recently made a few improvements to dxContent.

First, I've added an option so that text fields, picklists and radio buttons on the MakeForm~ function can remember the users previous settings. This means that when turned on (field-by-field capability) users don't have to keep re-selecting previous settings. I experienced this annoyance while testing the city block generator and most recently the latest dungeon map generator. The end result is that its now much quicker to generate variations from an "options" type screen. I haven't enabled this feature for the City block generator yet because of some issues it will cause, but it is working for the Beta Dungeon Map Generator.

Second, I fixed an issue on the generator pages. I've noticed that sometimes the generator isn't ready to go until after the google ads have finished their animations and such. If you clicked the generate button before the page was ready, you'd get an error message. There is now a simple "Loading... (please standby)" message that turns into the generator name once everything is ready to go.

Third, I continue to improve the random map generation functions. I've added a second "base shape" to the dungeon map (not to be confused with a tileset shape). A base shape is like a template floor plan, a starting configuration for the dungeon. The first shape was a random rectangular hallway, the second creates two long intersecting corridors.

Fourth, another improvement to the random map generation functions. Some of the early maps were filled with tiles pretty much for the entire map dimension. While this created some neat dungeons, I knew this had to be more flexible. So there are some new features showcased in the latest beta generator that allows you to set a simplicity level on a scale from 1 to 10. One extreme gives you a map filled with tiles and the other remains fairly true to the base floor plan. Here are some examples with increasing simplicity levels (1, 5, and 10)...

Have a [RandomPositiveAdjective] Day!

Random Dungeons!

I had my first taste of Basic D&D as a player with the The Keep on the Borderlands, and I was ready to DM. First thing I needed was a dungeon. My first endeavor was the worst 10 levels of random denizens ever produced.

I soon discovered that endless dungeon crawls do not make for good campaigns, but as a DM you'll ALWAYS have the need for dungeon-like settings, sewers and other hidden lairs. Creating maps can be time consuming and dxContent is all about saving DMs time.

So, I'm excited to announce some new features to dxContent. I've added a host of functions for creating dungeons! (specifically man-made subteranean areas at this point). Check out the beta-random generator for trying out some of the future tools. These tools are still under development, but they are at a point now where useful output can be generated.

The core of these map generating tools are Tilesets. Tilesets are like puzzle pieces that when used in combination make a larger map. The first tileset has over 300 tiles and features doors, halls, ledges pits and open areas.

Here is a quick and dirty dungeon generated from choosing just a few options like height, width, number of stairways, etc.

The generator has a few flaws right now like creating some doorless rooms on the periphery of the map, and roomless areas with doorways, but every good concept has to start somewhere. I'll continue to refine, add tilesets, functions and features as the year wraps up. Let me know what you think.