Game Visualization Aid Questions
Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2001 6:32 pm
One of a gamemaster's most important jobs is to draw the players into the game as much as possible, without blurring the line but so much. We have all tried various props. Paper bag maps, music, real antiques, whatever. I have stumbled onto a prop device that looks very promising.
Recently, I've been playing Mech Commander 2. One of the neater features of the game is an almost totally free range of available camera angles. You can zoom way in, or way out, spin 360 around anything, angles from perpendicular to the ground to about a 30-40 degree range. It is also a good looking game. Everything seems to have a unique feel, fractal I guess. Lots of different objects.
The game also has a mission editor.
My idea is to use the mission editor to create a world that the players can actually see. The players can see the village they are in. "See that tree right there? That's where the Su-Monster is! And from out behind those trees over there come his buddies!" A picture is worth a thousand words. A world that can be seen must be worth something. 3d diaramas eat up valuable table space, even on the largest tables. Vinyl battle maps, while critical for combat, just lack detail. Regular maps are so, 20th century.
My regular group has been using computers (mostly for reference) during our sessions for a couple of years now, we have the hardware and the savvy to make this concept fly from a technical standpoint. There are more than a few objects available in the editor that look like they could fit in a medival setting.
The problem is that the mission editor is a bit complicated for us old geezer types.
Has anyone else tried this? Maybe with another game? Has anyone seen or used a similar utility aleady designed for a D+D kinda setting? Heck, anybody want to convert an old paper map to something in this kind of format?
Thanks
R.Carter
Recently, I've been playing Mech Commander 2. One of the neater features of the game is an almost totally free range of available camera angles. You can zoom way in, or way out, spin 360 around anything, angles from perpendicular to the ground to about a 30-40 degree range. It is also a good looking game. Everything seems to have a unique feel, fractal I guess. Lots of different objects.
The game also has a mission editor.
My idea is to use the mission editor to create a world that the players can actually see. The players can see the village they are in. "See that tree right there? That's where the Su-Monster is! And from out behind those trees over there come his buddies!" A picture is worth a thousand words. A world that can be seen must be worth something. 3d diaramas eat up valuable table space, even on the largest tables. Vinyl battle maps, while critical for combat, just lack detail. Regular maps are so, 20th century.
My regular group has been using computers (mostly for reference) during our sessions for a couple of years now, we have the hardware and the savvy to make this concept fly from a technical standpoint. There are more than a few objects available in the editor that look like they could fit in a medival setting.
The problem is that the mission editor is a bit complicated for us old geezer types.
Has anyone else tried this? Maybe with another game? Has anyone seen or used a similar utility aleady designed for a D+D kinda setting? Heck, anybody want to convert an old paper map to something in this kind of format?
Thanks
R.Carter
Just open up the editor, draw some land, and drop some appropriate monsters into it with that stand still. Then enter the world and have the DM camera (or whatever) float around in it to enjoy the 3D stuff.