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View Full Version : Computer assist hexcrawl software?



harpy
2012-02-20, 08:37 AM
Is there any software out there that helps facilitate exploration/hexcrawling that looks like something akin to the Civilization computer game?

Some of the features I'd dream for:


GM map creation. Whether it was square or hex, the GM could create the map with all the attendant features.
The player side of the viewer would have that classic blacked out fog of war. As players crawled around the map they'd uncover terrain.
How much they uncover would depend on elevation, in wood, etc.
Some kind of "movement points" would be used to set how far they could go in a particular time period. Roads are easy, mountains are hard or even impassible.
Be able to track resources, like food and water.



Now, one could say, "why not use Civilization?" but I'd like something that is more of a master/client software setup. The GM would have a laptop on their end showing the whole world and where the players are. The players would see a client side version with fog of war and their resources getting tracked. They get to pick where they want to go by selecting a new space to enter into.

I know that there are VTT games that offer fog of war and the master/client setup, but the fog of war seems to be light source tracking, rather than designated at each individual space. It's also of course focused on tactical maps, rather than strategic ones.

What would be super duper awesome would be a software package that rolled getting lost rolls, random encounter rolls, and random feature rolls each time the party enters a space and then feeding that information to the master side. Along with GM created content at a space that pops up, designated as master or client side information.

I'd really like to have a computer assisted hexcrawl experience. Let the computer track and present a lot of procedural information to the players, and free me up to focusing on how to flesh all of that out in as robust a way as possible.

McMouse
2012-02-23, 02:54 PM
Some MapTool frameworks (http://forums.rptools.net/viewforum.php?f=33) will do much of what you're looking for. At the very least they can be used for:

GM created maps
Player-based fog of war (though it might take some digging to find one that modifies areas exposed based on terrain type)
Resource tracking of many different kinds
Significant combat simplification
Triggered prepared encounters


I'm not sure if any of the frameworks currently support movement limits, though they certainly streamline total movement in combat (by listing number of squares, and showing a path for example). It might be a starting point, at least.