Club Facilities Discussion
We recently had a discussion as to what changes would be worth implementing at the club to make the gaming better. Mike Willis recently spent time down at the club putting up additional shelving and boxing then labelling terrain. This is itself was a great help finding specific items of scenery.
Then I was asked what I thought may be a good idea, so I replied
After Mike and Kevin had finished looking at me with a strange almost surreal confused expression on their faces I elaborated.
The Idea
What I want to do is bring digital role playing into the club’s social space. That sounds a bit fancy but what I mean is to blend the technology available to Internet based roleplayers with software like Roll20 and mix it with a face to face table top experience.
The Challenge
Why you may ask?
A fair question! –
Well if you have ever run a pen and paper roleplaying game you will understand the issues involved in managing the all the aspects of play; the story, the players, the resources, the monsters, the maps, and the figures if you use them. It can be a lot to deal with, but to some that very challenge is what makes being a games master all the more enjoyable and rewarding. Speaking personally though what I never enjoyed was hand drawing maps on a large battle grid or arranging what tiles we should use for a particular map, and solving the puzzle of which bit goes where.
It becomes even more difficult when you try to reproduce a map provided with a published module as module designers assume you own the map pack they have used or expect you to buy it to recreate their adventure. It is rare to find a module that uses simple graph paper dungeons any more.
Even when you are lucky enough to have the right sizes, shapes, and colour of map tiles for the adventure you have to stop for 20 minutes while the map is built. Or you spend hours of your time and money preparing and storing the maps in advance for use on the day, which can cause more problems if multiple maps use the same terrain pieces.
I personally have tried everything from printing the maps in advance and laying them out covered with black paper, to casting my own plaster mould dungeons and and building the scene as the party moves forward with walls and room appearing as the group edge ever onward.
None of the methods I described really make it easy for me to run my campaigns and they all require money spent on ink, paper, plaster, paint, glue etc etc.
So what would be the advantage to merging these two worlds into one?
Well most if not all the adventures I run are published and come with beautifully prepared maps. and for the ones I run which are not published I use on-line sources like Wizardawn to create a unique random map from thousands of Geomorphs. In effect all my roleplaying games have ready to use maps available, the issue is that normally I’me the only one who sees them.
What my players see is my crudely drawn facsimile of the dungeon area or wilderness location they are travelling. My plan is to combining a scanned version of the map scaled to the size of 1″ to 5ft with a full HD 40″ TV Flat screen I can then let the players move their figures across the image as though I had reproduced it faithfully on the tabletop.
I can also use the built in speakers in the TV to create an ambiance in the room befitting the scene in the adventure. Roll20 is free software that not only allows you to create all the maps and music in advance for an adventure but also includes dynamic lighting effects, this means for example if you move your character forward your light source will follow you illuminating the passageway as you go. This particular feature is not free though and we have not tried it yet but I have seen videos with it in use and its amazing.
The Project is Planned
So once a case for the table upgrade was made and accepted we needed to build it, I was tasked with sourcing the TV screen and the Perspex to protect it from the figures and table cover we planned on building. Mike Willis took on the challenge of redesigning the table to house the screen and build it, and Kevin Haynes agreed to do the electrical work and build a power block with HDMI inputs for the sound and video connectivity.
The screen cost us £270, is is 40″ Flat screen 1900 x 1080 resolution, the perspex cost £30.00 the wood cost around £56.00 and the electrics cost approx £10.00. Mike had the wood cut to size, borrowed a circular saw for the smaller cuts and set to work building the table, I have put a bunch of the pictures taken in the building process below.
As the project develops I will post more and more images then at the end I will post a video of the table in use.
Updates
I quick look at the table with the screen embedded and revealed for the first time!
Here is a brief video using the screen in a recent AD&D session the adventurers are making their way through the Hoole marshes in Keoland to confront a giant crocodile when they meet three smaller versions in a random encounter
First D&D Encounter with the table of the future.
Sunday 25th August, the year of our lord 2013. The sun shone brightly on the games club, there had been much anticipation about a new arrival. An arrival which held much promise to change our lives and the way we played forever. I was the first to arrive on the scene, I’d like to say this was due to enthusiasm but honestly it was just easier for me to get transport to arrive early. The wait outside knowing what lay inside was indeed tense.
Eventually Barry turned up with the keys and the portal to the area was opened for us. Myself, Ryan, Simon and Barry walked inside in an almost reverential silence. Showing excellent restraint I walked into the kitchen and flicked the kettle on. Five minutes later I walked out of the kitchen and into the Role Playing Room. I was wielding my Cup Of Coffee and was prepared for what was inside, for in the middle of the table was displayed a multi-coloured icon showing that Windows was loading. It was time to prepare for action and I could feel the tension as people did a final check over their character sheets and made sure they had dice within easy reach should danger rear its ugly head.
The idea of adding a TV into the middle of a table seems a simple one now that it has been done. We play a lot of roleplaying games and board games in this room, many if not all involving tile sets which need to be set up and arranged, causing breaks in the flow of play and occasional swearing as an elusive piece has decided to hide and whilst this gives me personally an opportunity to get another cup o’ tea it has to be admitted that this isn’t the ideal way to do things. Enter Roll20.
Roll20 is a website that hosts a digital board, allowing people to use scanned images and tiles and with pre-loaded images and tiles already available. This allows people to set up a game before hand and then simply load it at the right moment. Counters, playing pieces, Monsters, players and many other things are available in this game as well as tools allowing you to temporarily draw and type on the board allowing people the means to strategise more effectively. The only problem being that it’s on a computer screen and not a board. And this is where Barry’s and others stroke of genius came in. After playing a session on it I’m not going to say it was without its teething problems, any new piece of technology is bound to have some, but it added a lot to the game. Allowing the GM to dynamically unveil new areas as the party progressed through the caves, notes and freehand lines were able to be drawn without resorting to markers and screen cleaner. The GM had a seperate view on his laptop enabling him to see the overall vision and the players to know only what they needed. Background music was also available. We didn’t use the dice rolling feature (although maybe I should have, one critical hit aside me and the d20 fell out with each other that day) as it still feels more natural to actually roll the things but overall this will save a lot of time and effort in the future and seems like the preperation will be easier too once people get comfortable using the tools available.
All in all I’d say this has been a tremendous addition to this aspect of the games club and should allow for the fun to flow more freely in the future. That being said I think there will always be a place for models and terrain here in the right circumstances, and the club has acquired some beautiful models over the years. Will the future of Role-Playing be digital or analogue? The decision is now entirely ours.
Nice writ-up Gareth the game ran smoothly even with the new technology and a few disconnections. I cannot wait to get more use out of it hopefully someone will plan a Wednesday night RPG to make use of it mid week