I would like to build or find a website which generates and manages combat grid maps (a square per Medium creature). Or I could instead contribute in some way to a similar website being built by someone else.
I seek the other web developers/designers who would like to collaborate, suggest features, beta-test the website, etc.
For now, I only want to generate some sample maps, probably using SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics, a lot simpler than I would have thought). I want the user to be able to build his/her own maps, add terrain and other features, edit them later, etc. They could, of course, just print them out.
Eventually, I also want player groups to be able to use them in online gaming (with creatures moving around a 2D grid when a player or GM moves them digitally), from one round to the next. To so, I will need to be able to dynamically show shapes like circles and triangles representing area spell effects.
I do not envision building a more complete tabletop environment for AD&D or any other game. Condition tags for creatures would be good, also, but that would be later.
My reason for focusing on a website like this centers around my gaming style as a strategy player. I suspect the demand for it will be somewhat low. Most people I know who play do not see the value in visually establishing the spatial relationship between creatures in combat.
For example, the rules about attacks of opportunity are infrequently used in part because of this. Many other reasons exist, like not believing a particular action distract would cause a creature to let it's guard down. But make it mentally worth the effort, it can help to establish when a creature is adjacent to another one, behind it, etc.
So, if you would like to contribute in some way, please respond on this thread or message me.
Game: D&D 4e or 5e Group type: Online / Face-to-face / either Experience: a few years off an on Location/Timezone: EST, in Maine, USA Schedule: mostly evenings EST Roles sought: Player, Discord: BoinsterPsi#9024 Game style: (usual, with +2 to +7 level adjustment, depending on group) strategy player and power gamer
I suppose I was too ambitious describing it as a way for the GM to control creature movement round-by-round.
It would not be a virtual tabletop, especially at first. It would be a way for users to draw their own maps easily.
Even later on, I do not plan to have it track creature stats. Another site might track creature stats at the same time.
All it would do is show the basic spatial information needed in-game. (Sometimes it would mean substituting an image for a shape.) Condition tags or other relevant info could be edited manually by the player for now.
I envision playing online via videochat, etc. I do not expect to need to integrate them for most games.
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I just signed up for astraltabletop.com . It looks like they have the same type of map generation tools I was thinking of, albeit from templates (a good idea). I haven't figured out how to export characters into a PDF format, though. That is required there. You can't just upload a character. And the latest they AD&D edition format they can accept is 2e, probably for copyright reasons.
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Game: D&D 4e or 5e Group type: Online / Face-to-face / either Experience: a few years off an on Location/Timezone: EST, in Maine, USA Schedule: mostly evenings EST Roles sought: Player, Discord: BoinsterPsi#9024 Game style: (usual, with +2 to +7 level adjustment, depending on group) strategy player and power gamer
I suppose I was too ambitious describing it as a way for the GM to control creature movement round-by-round.
It would not be a virtual tabletop, especially at first. It would be a way for users to draw their own maps easily.
Even later on, I do not plan to have it track creature stats. Another site might track creature stats at the same time.
All it would do is show the basic spatial information needed in-game. (Sometimes it would mean substituting an image for a shape.) Condition tags or other relevant info could be edited manually by the player for now.
I envision playing online via videochat, etc. I do not expect to need to integrate them for most games.
So basically a small subset of features most products already have... With regards to "a way for users to draw their own maps" I've been following this guy who very quickly is building a tool that is extremely easy to build maps with:
That is essentially my goal, to start out with very limited features. Mapping is something that, as far as I can tell, most players do not want to do very much.
Keir does seem to have made a lot of progress with that site you mentioned (https://www.patreon.com/probabletrain), but I cannot afford even a basic membership right now. He requires a 10-pound/month contribution just to be an alpha tester.
Is your site the dndcombat.com virtual tabletop linked to in your signature? I haven't tried it yet, but it seems much more ambitious than I envision for my own site.
And you use a contributer in some way? I do plan to try it out, so I would be beta-testing it anyway. But I mean as a code contributer. I probably at least work out most of the front end features and help with that.
If that is not your site, may I ask how far along with it, and what is the specialty with it, if any?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Game: D&D 4e or 5e Group type: Online / Face-to-face / either Experience: a few years off an on Location/Timezone: EST, in Maine, USA Schedule: mostly evenings EST Roles sought: Player, Discord: BoinsterPsi#9024 Game style: (usual, with +2 to +7 level adjustment, depending on group) strategy player and power gamer
Keir does seem to have made a lot of progress with that site you mentioned (https://www.patreon.com/probabletrain), but I cannot afford even a basic membership right now. He requires a 10-pound/month contribution just to be an alpha tester.
Yeah thats just to give him some funding and let people support it financially if they feel like it. Its a free product once he releases it.
Is your site the dndcombat.com virtual tabletop linked to in your signature? I haven't tried it yet, but it seems much more ambitious than I envision for my own site.
And you use a contributer in some way? I do plan to try it out, so I would be beta-testing it anyway. But I mean as a code contributer. I probably at least work out most of the front end features and help with that.
If that is not your site, may I ask how far along with it, and what is the specialty with it, if any?
Its my site. The main "cool" feature I am working on is an AI running encounters so you can test out how an encounter will turn out in a real simulation using all the spells, feats etc. Its got a long way to go because so much stuff requires coding, I can't build everything in a database. The goal is to finish it by the end of the year.
I put building that content on hold to start on a VTT feature. Its probably similar to what you are talking about minus the players actually drawing the map. I can let you know once I get a first basic barely functional version out. Its slow cause its in my spare time of course.
Game: D&D 4e or 5e Group type: Online / Face-to-face / either Experience: a few years off an on Location/Timezone: EST, in Maine, USA Schedule: mostly evenings EST Roles sought: Player, Discord: BoinsterPsi#9024 Game style: (usual, with +2 to +7 level adjustment, depending on group) strategy player and power gamer
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Hello all,
I would like to build or find a website which generates and manages combat grid maps (a square per Medium creature). Or I could instead contribute in some way to a similar website being built by someone else.
I seek the other web developers/designers who would like to collaborate, suggest features, beta-test the website, etc.
For now, I only want to generate some sample maps, probably using SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics, a lot simpler than I would have thought). I want the user to be able to build his/her own maps, add terrain and other features, edit them later, etc. They could, of course, just print them out.
Eventually, I also want player groups to be able to use them in online gaming (with creatures moving around a 2D grid when a player or GM moves them digitally), from one round to the next. To so, I will need to be able to dynamically show shapes like circles and triangles representing area spell effects.
I do not envision building a more complete tabletop environment for AD&D or any other game. Condition tags for creatures would be good, also, but that would be later.
My reason for focusing on a website like this centers around my gaming style as a strategy player. I suspect the demand for it will be somewhat low. Most people I know who play do not see the value in visually establishing the spatial relationship between creatures in combat.
For example, the rules about attacks of opportunity are infrequently used in part because of this. Many other reasons exist, like not believing a particular action distract would cause a creature to let it's guard down. But make it mentally worth the effort, it can help to establish when a creature is adjacent to another one, behind it, etc.
So, if you would like to contribute in some way, please respond on this thread or message me.
Game: D&D 4e or 5e
Group type: Online / Face-to-face / either
Experience: a few years off an on
Location/Timezone: EST, in Maine, USA
Schedule: mostly evenings EST
Roles sought: Player, Discord: BoinsterPsi#9024
Game style: (usual, with +2 to +7 level adjustment, depending on group) strategy player and power gamer
How would this be different from Roll20 or the many other virtual table tops?
I have one on the go too, but I need to stop working to speed it up :-)
I suppose I was too ambitious describing it as a way for the GM to control creature movement round-by-round.
It would not be a virtual tabletop, especially at first. It would be a way for users to draw their own maps easily.
Even later on, I do not plan to have it track creature stats. Another site might track creature stats at the same time.
All it would do is show the basic spatial information needed in-game. (Sometimes it would mean substituting an image for a shape.) Condition tags or other relevant info could be edited manually by the player for now.
I envision playing online via videochat, etc. I do not expect to need to integrate them for most games.
*****************************************
I just signed up for astraltabletop.com . It looks like they have the same type of map generation tools I was thinking of, albeit from templates (a good idea). I haven't figured out how to export characters into a PDF format, though. That is required there. You can't just upload a character. And the latest they AD&D edition format they can accept is 2e, probably for copyright reasons.
Game: D&D 4e or 5e
Group type: Online / Face-to-face / either
Experience: a few years off an on
Location/Timezone: EST, in Maine, USA
Schedule: mostly evenings EST
Roles sought: Player, Discord: BoinsterPsi#9024
Game style: (usual, with +2 to +7 level adjustment, depending on group) strategy player and power gamer
Again, Roll20 has all that, as do other products.
So basically a small subset of features most products already have... With regards to "a way for users to draw their own maps" I've been following this guy who very quickly is building a tool that is extremely easy to build maps with:
https://twitter.com/probabletrain/status/1271011980602757120
That is essentially my goal, to start out with very limited features. Mapping is something that, as far as I can tell, most players do not want to do very much.
Keir does seem to have made a lot of progress with that site you mentioned (https://www.patreon.com/probabletrain), but I cannot afford even a basic membership right now. He requires a 10-pound/month contribution just to be an alpha tester.
Is your site the dndcombat.com virtual tabletop linked to in your signature? I haven't tried it yet, but it seems much more ambitious than I envision for my own site.
And you use a contributer in some way? I do plan to try it out, so I would be beta-testing it anyway. But I mean as a code contributer. I probably at least work out most of the front end features and help with that.
If that is not your site, may I ask how far along with it, and what is the specialty with it, if any?
Game: D&D 4e or 5e
Group type: Online / Face-to-face / either
Experience: a few years off an on
Location/Timezone: EST, in Maine, USA
Schedule: mostly evenings EST
Roles sought: Player, Discord: BoinsterPsi#9024
Game style: (usual, with +2 to +7 level adjustment, depending on group) strategy player and power gamer
Yeah thats just to give him some funding and let people support it financially if they feel like it. Its a free product once he releases it.
Its my site. The main "cool" feature I am working on is an AI running encounters so you can test out how an encounter will turn out in a real simulation using all the spells, feats etc. Its got a long way to go because so much stuff requires coding, I can't build everything in a database. The goal is to finish it by the end of the year.
I put building that content on hold to start on a VTT feature. Its probably similar to what you are talking about minus the players actually drawing the map. I can let you know once I get a first basic barely functional version out. Its slow cause its in my spare time of course.
cool
Game: D&D 4e or 5e
Group type: Online / Face-to-face / either
Experience: a few years off an on
Location/Timezone: EST, in Maine, USA
Schedule: mostly evenings EST
Roles sought: Player, Discord: BoinsterPsi#9024
Game style: (usual, with +2 to +7 level adjustment, depending on group) strategy player and power gamer