Tech

Rough Day Yesterday

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

I’ve a lot going on and sometimes my brain and body have to remind me to just stop. I woke up exhausted, with everything hurting, and wanting to tear my own skin off in frustration – and after a few false starts ended up sleeping some more on the sofa to be on my own. When I woke back up, my eyes didn’t hurt quite so much, and I went and had a long hot shower in the dark.

An attempt to steal Lady M away for a coffee turned in taking the cub in to Kingston while she did a groceries run – I’m still not quite sure how that happened, and when I revisited it with Lady M later she went pale and said she’d totally misread what I was asking. The cub on the other hand enjoyed getting out of the house because it got him a chance to wander around CEX and to con me into buying some Jolly Ranchers at a specialist sweet store.

He is obsessed with Mortal Kombat and I think he’s hoping to own and play every version there is. To his great disappointment there was a version for the PS2 (a console we don’t have), and a copy of Mortal Kombat vs DC which according to him is legendary as the worst ever entry in the series and which nearly killed the franchise. We didn’t buy it – but I may grab it for his birthday as a joke gift because I know he’ll still play it.

Fortunately I had counselling last night, and so was able to vent and rage safely in that environment about various issues around personal and work life that are weighing heavily. We’re also starting to get close to that time of year so I’m aware that my brain is looking for excuses to feel awful so I’m keeping that in mind.

My distractions in the evening included watching series two of I Am Groot, toying around in Heroforge, and playing some more Starfield. I’m still feeling grim and unlovable this morning, but at least I’m better rested.

Gherrod Haan

I made another duergar warlord that I may develop for the campaign – Gherrod Haan is a bladesman rather than favouring the axe like his peers. I’m taking quiet enjoyment from playing with the sliders to make each face differ and reflect some sort of personality

Penelope Sarangath

I also made a cute tiefling sorceror called Penelope Sarangath that I feel I now need to actually create a character sheet for. They look very happy and lacking in angst even as they unleash some sort of binding spell. Keeping a blade handy with her tail seems to be a fun hint at a practical approach to life. Her token’s colouring is very deliberately in the colours of the bisexual flag, because why not?

As ever, feel free to grab the tokens for your own use and have fun!

Maps – Playing with Overlays

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

I mentioned recently that there was a new update coming to Dungeon Alchemist that would make transferring hand drawn maps to a digital place easier – so now it has gone live I thought I’d have a quick play. There are some great new additions to the options, including the ability for people to upload their own digital assets from programs like Blender into the Steam workshop. As a result there’s already some amazing new items and textures appearing that I can’t wait to try out.

Back to the maps though – here’s a map that I drew a while back on my gridded paper notebook that is vaguely tomb/temple-like in layout. Beside it is the digital version and some additional overlays to make it look more parchment/map like. I’ve since developed the map further and shared it on the Steam Workshop at https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3029951744

I still need to do a version that’s on an open map rather than the plain dark parchment as doing diagonal walls and circular constructions isn’t supported on the parchment version, but I think I can work around it by using the cave carving as a workaround. I shall post more experiments as I go.

Heroforge Facial Customising

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

I had a nice surprise this evening when I logged in to Heroforge for a bit of post-work tinkering. There had been a promise of more customisation options for the faces of figures and the beta release of that feature went live today for people who either backed the Kickstarter, or who have a Pro Subscription. I fall into the latter camp.

So I’ve had a play and the results are presented here in some form of devilish being. I’ve no idea who or what it is, other than some otherworldly banner-bearer with a flaming sword and vestigial wings.

Between being able to alter skull features and a wider selection of expressions – and then some slider-based options under advanced settings I’ve had great fun.

There’s even options that suggest being able to show someone having been punched in the jaw which offers some intriguing options under the more artistic scene options on the site

There’s a fair few additions to the decal options that can be applied to models as well – such as the pattern on the banner here – as well as more facial decals that can be layered for makeup/skin patterns and the like.

You’ll likely not be surprised to hear I’m planning to look at the models for the DDC to see what tweaks might be possible

Looking At Threads

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

Oh, why not? It’s not giving my details out any further than they already are, and so far it’s a cosy bubble based off my Instagram connections: I’m giving Threads a go and my profile can be found at https://www.threads.net/@ludd72

So there’s a thing, it already feels more intuitive than Mastodon did, and it seems to have aspirations for a wider connectivity so we’ll see what that turns into

Map – Snowy Farm

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

I used this map during this week’s session as the stage for an assassination attempt on one of the characters, but its a suitably generic location for any one of a number of scenarios in a farm or village context. It is basically two fields and a cabin with a roadway running past them and an assortment of bushes, trees, and large stones along side it. The whole scene is smothered in snow, and with the sun overhead it has a certain charm to go alongside the drama of any encounters that might take place here.

Overhead map of a snowbound farm as described in the accompanying text

In this instance I had the group encounter a mysterious figure who sat on one of the stones by the road, roughly in the middle of the map – in this case a winter eladrin consumed with sorrow whose presence lulled the group into concerned care. Then on identifying his target he fey stepped behind the group and tried to kill them. The fight quickly became a hit and run encounter with the eladrin using superior movement and occasional limited teleportation to keep his distance and pepper his target with arrows. It was a close run thing as the group kept healing the target and trying to keep up as new attacks came from different directions.

The combination of large open spaces and objects that blocked line of sight meant that the focus of the encounter kept shifting, and kept people on their toes. It was huge fun.

I made this map in Dungeon Alchemist and exported it into Roll20 with lighting set for daylight so I didn’t have to set a lot of light sources. The usual zip file is here as snowy fields.zip and as ever if you use it, have fun! I’d love to hear what stories you use it for.

New Map Software Update Dropped

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

I’ve been waiting for it with bated breath but the new release of Dungeon Alchemy came out today. I’ve only just started playing with it but the new caves functionality and the tweaks to the interface have got me very keenly investigating. The expansion is called The Floor Is Lava and its out on Steam for free on top of the main package (which is only about £30 or so). I highly recommend it if you’re creating VTT maps for your games or looking for maps to print out.

I haven’t finished it yet, but this is what I’ve put together this evening using some of the new features – a ruined bridge and abandoned hut near a cave that may have something nasty lurking in it. Perhaps its a troll bridge over muddy waters?

Map – Guest House

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

I put this together for my games as a generic guest house map – largely because of the reverse heist that we’re doing for the one-shot adventure. Its a town-based guest house with three floors. Five rooms are for guests, while the sixth is a master bedroom for the owner. There is a latrine on the first floor. and a bathroom on the top floor. The whole map is geared for a 39×22 grid which leaves a small border around the whole thing – and the floors go from left to right as they ascend.

There are two doors on the ground floor – one from the garden at the top, and one from the alleyway on the left hand side – and various odds and sods plonked into the map by Dungeon Alchemy. I’ve included a zipfile below with the map jpeg export, original dungeon alchemy file, and the generated text file that defines walls, doors, windows, and light sources for Roll20.

As ever, for Roll20 you import the jpg to the background layer and then, while the dungeon alchemy api script is running, paste the text file contents into chat. That will resize the map and graphic and line up all the walls and features. Let me know what adventures you have with it…

Source file – guesthouse.zip

Laser Tag Party

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

We had the excuse of a celebration and a special request from the cub – and that’s how we ended up driving round the M25 to out the back of Caterham to play some laser tag in the woods. The original plan would have had us just watching while kids battled it out, but with some last-minute cancellations we had enough slots for myself and Lady M to join in while boy s watched from the side-lines and huddled under all our coats.

The mechanics were fairly simple – a sensor on the gun and three types of gun: a sniper, an assault rifle, and a submachine gun – each with differing rates of fire, range, reload times, and damage done against a notional value of hit points. Two teams of roughly a dozen on each side, and referees keeping an eye on it all. We had one hundred hit points per life, and five lives in a non-contact game where minimum distance to the other team was five metres.

And you know what – I really enjoyed it. We all did. I favoured a sniper so I didn’t have to run around too much and could put years of pinpoint FPS gaming to good use. The games were quick with some variants and two different arenas – and footing by and large was good despite snow and frozen mud. One small disclaimer, I did manage to lose my footing and do a very impressive tumble where I broke my fall by landing with the point of my elbow in my rib. It’s a bit sore, but some painkillers and the occasional wince of discomfort are seeing me through.

I hadn’t heard of GO Laser Tag before – and not having to wear a load of sensors was a big bonus – staff were friendly, kept good control of the sessions, and all seemed to be focused on making sure everyone had a good time. Their website is https://www.golasertaglondon.co.uk/ and for something a bit different that caters to a wide age range its a good option. We all enjoyed ourselves and have been making noises about not being averse to doing it again. Let’s face it, for the British that’s a glowing endorsement.

It also gave me a good excuse to give the new car a bit of a stretch on the motorway rather than just the local trips I’ve been doing for work and while I’m not a petrol-head, it was a smooth transition and satisfying to get some different driving under the belt. The new car is a plug-in hybrid so while it runs quite happily ramping up battery power from the flywheel to augment general driving, it can also operate as a purely electric car. As soon as the charge card is all sorted out, I’m looking forward to using it on the local commute.

Clanning Together

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

The last few nights I’ve been playing Destiny with boy s and Lady B. We’re each one different platforms due to the wonders of cross play. I’m on an XBox, Lady B on a PC, and boy s on a PlayStation. We’re using Discord for voice comms and it’s turning into a nice semi regular end of an evening bit of fun.

We’re using a Clan I set up back in the first Destiny game to help organise our Roster, and it’s another good example of how tech can be tangled in new combinations to bring us all together – albeit this time united in the desire to shoot aliens in the face and dance in the middle of battlefields.

Admittedly it’s now one in the morning but as I had my Moderna booster shot this morning my arm is currently very stiff and sore so I can’t settle anyway. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. I spent a fair chunk of this afternoon dozing on the sofa.

So, that’s why I’m blogging a little later today as I try to switch my brain off and curl up with Lady M. Here’s to a quiet day off and a body that continues to more or less behave for a bit