Kaihaku
2009-07-16, 08:46 PM
When it comes to long distance long term campaigns I've found that I prefer play by post to all other implementations. It's hard enough to get people together for a game when you're in the same neighborhood, when you throw in different time zones things really start to go to pot. That's not to say that there aren't significant problems to PbP, there certainly are...and I think I just might have found a solution to one of them.
I've found Image Maps to be a pain to edit, lining up grids can be obnoxious, uploading is ugh, and downloading can be ugh-er. The nicer ones often end up massive in size, beautiful to look at sure but a pain to use.
So, long story short, GoogleDoc Spreadsheets (http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=t1p0uzeZelnRzXMb7AQuhJQ). Easy to edit, no uploading, easy to save a battle turn by turn, grids are in by default, don't need to find an image host, and size is minimal. And, to top it all off, you can list other useful info on the side and can still pop in a few images for added flavor if you so desire (though there's something to be said for simplicity). It's not perfect mind, resizing the grids for the map is a bit of a pain for one, but I prefer it over Image Maps.
I've found Image Maps to be a pain to edit, lining up grids can be obnoxious, uploading is ugh, and downloading can be ugh-er. The nicer ones often end up massive in size, beautiful to look at sure but a pain to use.
So, long story short, GoogleDoc Spreadsheets (http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=t1p0uzeZelnRzXMb7AQuhJQ). Easy to edit, no uploading, easy to save a battle turn by turn, grids are in by default, don't need to find an image host, and size is minimal. And, to top it all off, you can list other useful info on the side and can still pop in a few images for added flavor if you so desire (though there's something to be said for simplicity). It's not perfect mind, resizing the grids for the map is a bit of a pain for one, but I prefer it over Image Maps.