McNinja
2015-12-28, 05:54 AM
After completing a slightly altered version of the Princes of the Apocalypse campaign and using some maps created by Mike Schley, I was at a loss for maps - I was beginning the next section of the overall campaign, and drawing everything out would take way too long each session. I could learn how to use Photoshop, which wouldn't be too difficult, but then I realized that I owned Starcraft 2... which has it's own world editor.
It works like a charm. It took a bit of getting used to (it isn't nearly as simple as the Warcraft 3 world editor) but I managed to finish my first map, and my players thoroughly enjoyed it - I put my TV on the coffee table, hooked up my laptop, and bam, a 3d table map with weather effects and ambient noise. It lacks a grid, but that's not really important when I can accurately represent a blizzard with howling winds and animated snow instead of talking my players through the environment. Unfortunately, this newfound ability to put cool things on a map is also what got me into trouble with the Deck...
So on this sweet map I made an area with two interesting looking temples (if you're familiar with SC2, they were two xel'naga temples/shrines, low-tech enough that they looked like they belonged in a high-fantasy game), and I hoped the players would see them, search around them, and move on. Nope. Instead, they wanted to get in. One had an altar, the other, a sphinx. The sphinx temple was simple, they passed the sphinx's test and got a clue as to the whereabouts of their quest objective. The other temple had a chest slowly appear on the altar, and three D100 rolls later the players reach in a grab out a small pouch containing 22 cards. They all somehow roll incredibly high on the arcana checks to figure out what the cards are, and after a short conversation, they each take turns drawing 1 card.
45 minutes later, the entire group has 10 wishes, has leveled up twice, has gotten about 6 rare items, 3 other wondrous items, all of them have emnity with someone we don't know and two of them pulled donjons and were imprisoned... for about six seconds because two other players pulled Fate cards right after they vanished. If I wan't planning for my players to be demigods anyway I'd be figuring out a way for them to lose their new stuff, but it works out well for me.
Anyone else had some absurd things happen with the Deck? I've always seen people talking about how it's never a good idea, but I never really understood why until now...
It works like a charm. It took a bit of getting used to (it isn't nearly as simple as the Warcraft 3 world editor) but I managed to finish my first map, and my players thoroughly enjoyed it - I put my TV on the coffee table, hooked up my laptop, and bam, a 3d table map with weather effects and ambient noise. It lacks a grid, but that's not really important when I can accurately represent a blizzard with howling winds and animated snow instead of talking my players through the environment. Unfortunately, this newfound ability to put cool things on a map is also what got me into trouble with the Deck...
So on this sweet map I made an area with two interesting looking temples (if you're familiar with SC2, they were two xel'naga temples/shrines, low-tech enough that they looked like they belonged in a high-fantasy game), and I hoped the players would see them, search around them, and move on. Nope. Instead, they wanted to get in. One had an altar, the other, a sphinx. The sphinx temple was simple, they passed the sphinx's test and got a clue as to the whereabouts of their quest objective. The other temple had a chest slowly appear on the altar, and three D100 rolls later the players reach in a grab out a small pouch containing 22 cards. They all somehow roll incredibly high on the arcana checks to figure out what the cards are, and after a short conversation, they each take turns drawing 1 card.
45 minutes later, the entire group has 10 wishes, has leveled up twice, has gotten about 6 rare items, 3 other wondrous items, all of them have emnity with someone we don't know and two of them pulled donjons and were imprisoned... for about six seconds because two other players pulled Fate cards right after they vanished. If I wan't planning for my players to be demigods anyway I'd be figuring out a way for them to lose their new stuff, but it works out well for me.
Anyone else had some absurd things happen with the Deck? I've always seen people talking about how it's never a good idea, but I never really understood why until now...