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Icebreaker's page

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sigh noticed down the page there was already a post about this ..my bad :(
didn't mean to double post


Hey all haven't posted in a long while but trying to spread the word on this wonderful Kickstarter thats really geared for Tabletop RPG players so i figured I'd post it.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1093338811/medieval-village-for-28mm-ga mers

Quote:
Realistic pre-painted modular buildings & accessories in 28mm scale. Accessible and detailed interiors with 1" etched grid on floors.

The whole system is modular and allows you to make custom building configurations

The Large Inn is spectacular and this system would be great for PnP RPGs and Miniature Wargames, I'm grabbing the Large village set and they're trying to drum up some last week momentum.


Marc Radle 81 wrote:

I'm actually glad to hear Paizo is insisting on a Mac version. While it is true there are more PC's than Macs out there, the number of Mac users is still a HUGE number (and the number is steadily growing).

Honestly, it's not a good business practice to alienate any large group of potential customers.

Kudos to Paizo!

There is zero chance of FG being native to Mac OS its built from the ground up on DirectX. This isn't being developed by some big Publisher like Electronic Arts, theres a limit to what can realistically be expected from a developer like this.

To applaud denying support for a platform you don't use, because some users would be alienated? Alienated how? Again this program can work on Mac's thru emulation.
What kinda inferiority complex mentality is that? WOW!


I wanted to add in that I'm disappointed by hearing this.

I love what Paizo has done with PRPG system,but at this time the only way I'll be able to play any RPG is thru VTT. I just don't have enough people in my circle of friends that would be interested in table top RPG gaming.

I'm currently not playing anything,but I've been still purchasing AP and PRPG products hoping that I'd get a chance to play once Fantasy Grounds got an official Rule set.

I don't even care about Official adventure conversions, its the rule set, bestiary, That I want.

Btw mac works thru wine.


Appreciate the update!

One request to consider going forward tho.
Please please don't switch mid adventure path. IF and when it happens make it at a the start of a new series. Heck polling all your subscribers to get some feedback to see who's on board and who's not isn't a bad idea mid 2008.

Such a weird thing I just came back to paizo and Dnd after a long break subbing to Pathfinder then wham! 4e heh should have known something was gonna happen :)


I don't buy the rallying cry scenario. I'm gonna watch/read/discuss everything i can in the next 8 months before I make a final decision.Prove to me why you should get my money ..not give me your money then We'll prove why it was worth it.

However I think Moff does hit on something with 3.5 still feels like it works vs 2.0 which got lost.

My major concern isn't will 4e be fun. I'm sure it will be.

Its the DI that greatly concerns me..I'm a reader and online player only. So everything about it is where I'm interested.

I currently love my xbox360 but I hate paying for online play and have come to the realization that in general (there are exceptions) micro transactions are horrible for the end user.Digital Distribution becomes a way to make more profit not a way to increase value to our customers far to easily.
I've also been an avid MMORPG ( Massively Multi-player Online Role-playing Game) gamer over the years. AS well Im one of those guys that have used Kloogewerks/OpenRpg ect for years now to play.I feel very well educated in this digital world of entertainment and gaming to spot some very alarming things in the whole DI initiative.

1.Going after the MMORPG market is a fools errand.
MMORPG really aren't RPG's except in the character advancement sense. They're huge chatroom-action games..they really are.CRPG gamers that like stuff like bauldersgate ect are the guys that will get into Dnd Online.I think that Ryan D. said this and I agree 100%

2.kids don't pay for MMORPG's their parents do or they buy prepaid cards.
who are they targeting with there subscription services?

3.Players don't need dm tools to play dnd and shouldn't have to pay for them to play online. There has to be teirs to the subscription system.

I need to see a Play for free option with limited access to the DI site..the table and character vault specifically. Weather thats a limited to a few playsessions a month, limited characters ect.YOu can't expect to draw in a large amount of non PnPRPG players to this system without giving them a good taste to get them into it so they'll want to pay for more access.

4.Rent vs buy. I won't subscribe to a service that doesn't allow me to use the products offline.To me thats a dealbreaker I know the 9million people paying 15bucks a month for wow is a real pretty carrot to chase but dnd isn't a mmorpg.
Whats included in the service how much are these enhancements to physical books going to cost(micro transactions say hi)Will virtual Mini's cost money ect ect .

There is soooo much potential for abuse without definitive answers to all these things.
If the bean counters end up dictating how it will be I'm pretty sure its going to be bad.If the developers that are techno savey gamers have more reign It could be really cool..
the next year will be very interesting thats for sure.


Coridan wrote:


As long as they don't do a 4.5 3 years from now I don't have an issue with the switch.

ya thats a great concern of mine.. after re buying alot of books due to the 3 to 3.5 change I am Leary of jumping right in.

Basically the full set of core books won't be out till this time next year so the first 2 pathfinders should just be fine as 3.5.
After then ..who knows I hope 4e is awesome..but if 4.5 in 3 years is a real possibility I'm tempted to wait a and see what happens with 4e for a couple years before jumping on board.
The whole DI thing with a subscription really rubs me the wrong way tho. Dnd Isn't a MMORPG and all content paid for via a subscription better allow me to download and use at my convenience. if its all accessible only online while being a subscriber..then i'm out.


Mactaka wrote:

"dungeon- and adventure-building tools for Dungeon Masters, online magazine content, and a digital game table that lets you play 24/7 on the internet — the perfect option for anyone who can't find time to get together."

I do like this about the upcoming 4e, having more time for PbP than FtF nowadays. Seems They are wanting to cash in on Blizzard's lucrative online trade.

ahh but do you like the idea of a 10 to 12 dollar amonth fee to have access to that digital table..only as long as you keep paying? Thats where i start to get very worried.


for me i wouldn't subcribe if it went back to all b/w
I love the color art and Maps especially..since i play online and use scanned copies of the maps and artwork for battlemaps and online handouts,the loss of color would really disappoint me to no end.


Neomorte wrote:
Icebreaker, you are a gentleman and a scholar...

Ok i uploaded Occipitus ,with the tremor zones removed,to the SCAP resource site it should show up as soon as its approved.


Neomorte wrote:

THAT is awesome!! The map is just what I have been looking for....Any chance you could remove the tremor zones?

- Neomorte

heh in my haste to get it done for ya i wasn't paying attention and just assumed they were pools of red liquid..LOL ya when i get some freetime this weekend i'll take out the tremor zones as well

plain of cysts is gonna be tuff not sure if ill be able to clone out the path effectivly or not..will see how it turns out


Neomorte wrote:

*bump*

Any Paizo fellas wanna help me out with this? Perhaps Mr. West or Mr. Jacobs?

- Neomorte

I've done the first 3 maps from Occipitus just need to do the smoking eye and plain of cysts

you can grab them at
http://therpgenius.com/Default.aspx?alias=therpgenius.com/shackledcity


129 showed uptoday seems like things are picking up! :-)


Heh kinda funny Dragon 338 Came today 2 days after 337 :-)
Kinda funny still no 129 dungeon tho..but we'll see how it goes.
Glad to see it just isn't my postal code area that was holding things up


I'm always surprised The Cleric Quintet gets so little love when people talk about Salvatore's FR books.I thought it was some of his better story's and characters.
I've enjoyed the Hunter series(2books read) but I'd like to see some fresh stories with new characters in a different location of Faerun for sure.


Im in Hamilton Ontario(about 1hr from Toronto) and Dragon 337 just came today I had a replacement dungeon 128 sent and the original showed up first of last week (same day as replacement) so i'm averaging about 7 weeks to get things.
I'm gonna try and keep track of things as well.
Its not that big a deal to me either way since i'm in the middle of SCAP.I think for me the biggest thing is just getting use to expecting that delay in advance as long as they get here eventually I'll still enjoy them.
hopefully I'll get Dungeon 129 in about 2 to 3 weeks.


honestly your best bet is to use a voice program like teamspeak to avoid all the typing.
another option is to use a scanner and ocr software to simply convert all the boxed text to electronic format to cut and paste as you need.
I can't think of any otherways of avoiding the manual entry.


online is the only way i've played dnd since i was about 13 years old. Way back in 1st edition days.I basically skipped the whole 2nd Edition changes due to cross continental moves and didn't get back into it till couple years ago.

Currently we're using Kloogewerks to play online with a bunch of folks I met playing EQ that all basically loved DnD from their youths and had found the current games just lacked that something that made DnD so much fun.

We played alittle when 3E came out online then got sucked back into some online games and in the last couple months we've been Playing SCAP.

SCAP has been great we're all to busy with work,family,kids to spend to much time developing something really great on our own,SCAP did that for us.They're most of the way thru chapter one down in the malchite fortress.So far everyone seems to be enjoying it and hope to keep it up.


had sometime at lunch so whipped it up
here ya go
I'll let Koramado upload it to the aow resource site since my scap recourse account doesn't seem to carry over.
grab the updated map here for now
http://www3.sympatico.ca/icebreaker/soddenholdlower.jpg


Aceospades wrote:
Icebreaker wrote:
Loops! wrote:

Thanks Icebreaker.

Time to cut and paste... :(

What kind of Clone Tool/Image Editor do You recommend?

Loops!

i just use paintshop pro myself

which map are you looking for i can fix it up and upload it for ya if that would help
i'd like a copy of the edited map. I spent all my money on a dungeon subscription and have no photo editing programs. Thanks.

ok i'll upload the aow ones to the aow resource site when i get some time this weekend


Loops! wrote:

Thanks Icebreaker.

Time to cut and paste... :(

What kind of Clone Tool/Image Editor do You recommend?

Loops!

i just use paintshop pro myself

which map are you looking for i can fix it up and upload it for ya if that would help


Loops! wrote:

Dear Dungeon Crew,

I don´t expect a Dungeon Online Supplement #127 Errata! But perhaps someone of the Dungeon Crew could drop in a line concerning future Online Supplements? Will there be solid walls instead of gaps in the places with secret doors on the Player Maps? Or is it a general problem with the Artwork?
I still don´t know...

Thanks for answering

From looking at the maps it seems to me that there never was a wall drawn for where secret doors are.They are infact illustrated as hallways.I wouldn't expect that to be fixed since it would require them to redo the maps.

However if you use a clone tool in an image editor its easy enuff to just paint over the hallway with another section of the wall to fix it for play as a battlemap


I'm curious what the typical delivery time is for Canada? I've yet to recieve 128 but I'm unsure what is considered normal delivery time.I don't want to mail customersupport if i'm still in the expected delivery window timeframe.


Bare in mind I'm a new reader of Dragon so its possible this has been covered to death in previous issues.
One thing as a fairly new dm I'd love is articles that go into depth on how to run some of the more complex themes within the game that comeup in a game.

For example Divination spells,My group is fast approaching the level Where our Wizard who is focusing on divination will start to get some good spells that will potentially reveal alot.We're currently playing the SCAP.

What i've love is some more detailed suggestions on how to handle the reveiling of info from clarivoyance,speak with dead,ect ect.
Something that explains how to approach each one, how they really differ in what information they provide, and some generic examples that can be used with some minor customizing within your game.
IF asking about a Who..heres some examples
IF asking about a Where heres some expamples
IF asking about a Why ect ect


GVDammerung wrote:
..

Ummm sorry nope i disagree with just about everything you just said.

Be an ass, expect to be treated like an ass.
Manners are there for a reason, to treat people with the respect you would ask to be treated with and to garner some level of civility in a conversation.

Many sites keep a firm reign on what type of dialog is acceptable and many don't.
Just because alot of people act like they are shooting the breaze with their buds and the type of dialog usually degrates to vulgar slams like at www.aintitcool.com for example doesn't make it accepable in all conversations no on all sites.

The argument "well everyone else is doing it on the net" doesn't hold water.


Hey Kyle I agree with you 100 percent there is a way to present criticizm thats helpful and there is a way to just be plain rude.

For whatever reason people seem to think being rude is a valid way of getting attention. It isn't and shouldn't be socially acceptable.I always figure that if I wouldn't say it that way to someones face you shouldn't say it to them online.

So in the vein of Constructive Critisizm.
I don't have 128 yet to comment on but looking back in the last few issues one such map that stands out is the Temple of the scorpion god in 124.
Two thing about this maps I've noticed is that for the digital style ones they seem to my eye to have too fine a detail line on the edges of walls and objects and look somewhat flat.

It has really nice texturing and coloring but I really think that having a bolder solid outline around the edges of objects and a bit of a drop shadow would help to make it look abit more solid and have more depth, As well it would Make it easier to view if shrunk down to fit in on a page.

Its one of the features of Chris West Maps and the maps from AOW that make them easy to view and really appealing even tho they use very different artistic styles.
I've did a quick edit to illustrate what i mean.
Scorp Map


Boredflak wrote:
Thanks guys. What I'm really wanting are the player maps. The online supplements that included maps from SCAP had all of the DM info on them.

Myself and others are painstakingly creating player maps for the adventures on the SCresource site linked above.

So far there are playermaps for the first 4 chapters.
I'll be continuing to do them as time permits.
Just check out the area maps section.


gaborg wrote:

hi! the maps are not all available any more under www3.sympatico.ca/icebreaker.

can you guys please fix that? or is there a point to them being removed?

ya everyythings been moved to the Shackled City Resource site

tons of useful stuff there.
http://therpgenius.com/Default.aspx?alias=therpgenius.com/shackledcity


Robert Nichols wrote:
Archade wrote:
Robert, if you could upload Vaprak's Voice to SCAPResources, I'd be mighty appreciative!

Post me a link and I will do it immediately. :)

Bobby
The Cat.Dragon

here ya go

http://therpgenius.com/Default.aspx?alias=therpgenius.com/shackledcity


So far my group has found quite a few of the items infected with the vanishing. So far they haven’t attempted to use any of them, they seem more interested in selling them to purchase items they are more interested in.
How is everyone dealing with items infected with the vanishing from a sales point of view?
If they sell these items to skie would she notice the cursed nature of the items and if so would she buy them at a reduced cost due to needing to have a remove curse, disease ect.
As well would she simply refuse to purchase the items unless the curse is removed.
I’m curious how everyone has dealt with these situations.


In one location there is an idle pulverizer and it had the command words to start and stop etched into it in gnome.

In another area you have a pulverizer and a dark creeper in a room that the dark creeper instructs to attack all intruders.

My question is as a DM would it make sense to assume the same command words are etched on this one as well and if so each round asking for a spot check by the one character that can read gnome to notice them.
This pulverizer was close to wiping out the group and after making a spot roll allowed the groups wizard to figure out the command words and stop the pulverizer.
should i give full exp for that encounter or just partial since they didn't actually defeat it.
Those pulverizers sure can be devistating with their high ac and some good attack rolls.


Back on subject
I just subscribed to dragon and dungeon , i personally would love to see the occational article in dragon that is about a 3rd party products that are 100% dnd.
I think there are quite afew 3rd party dnd procucts out there that are still dnd and everyone once in awhile would be cool to read about in dragon.
I wouldn't be interested in d20 articles that are about alternate systems like modern or spycraft ect tho.


As good as the current issues of Dungeon have been I find I'm missing Mr.Wests' Maps. I understand keeping a uniformed style for the current Adventure Path ..its makes sense.
Any chance Mr West is going to be doing any work on other adventures in the future? Or has he just moved onto other things?


I just subscribed to a 1year dragon and dungeon account on the weekend
my question is which issues will be the first issue i recieve?
will i get the current dungeon 127 and dragon 336 or will i have to wait for the next issues to ship?
Curious so if need be i can buy these issues locally.
thx for any info


I hope its doing well enough that they are going to continue the trend with Age of Worms.
The shackled city HC is the best buy in PnP I've purchaced since 3.0 came out as far as I'm concerned..for a casual DM like myself its just awesome and so far my groups really enjoying it.


koramado wrote:

Icebreaker, I've had my hands tied up with building and managing the scap resources site for the past week and a half. Now that it is finishing up and needing less attention, I can get back to helping submit files to share. That was the point all along now wasn't it?

I'm still planning on doing Zenith Trajectory, unless you or someone else already has. I haven't seen the files posted to the group yet, though. Let me know.

Koramado

No doubt the sites awesome btw..sure work on Zenith when ever you get time i think i'll start on demonskar next


DM JEFF are you planning on working on the Kopru Ruins map?
I'm just wanting to make sure i don't work on the same map.
let me know either way


aren't metalic and cromatic dragons enemies? since these things are half black dragon wouldn't he want to killthem before their evil nature can grow?


Joined up! a quick question tho..how does one post to the discussion section i don't seem to see anyway to make a post.
I'm presuming this site has no problems with download limits?
Should i be ok removing all the maps from my site then?


I uploaded your maps to www3.sympatico.ca/icebreaker, DM Jeff
as well i split it into 2 pieces and ran a moira reduction tool on it ..cleaned up quiet nice.


Zaister wrote:
I don't want do be too greedy, but it would really be cool to get something like this from the new poster map in the hardcover, since the nortwest part of the city is so dark on the old map. Any volunteers? :-)

go to www3.sympatico.ca/icebreaker and redownload it

koramado cleaned it up looks much better now


koramado wrote:


I went ahead and blended out the page folds and scan flares from the map you posted, Icebreaker. I wanted a cleaner version, too. It's been uploaded to the SCAPresources group for everyone.

Could you email that to me at icebreaker@sympatico.ca and i'll upload it to my webpage? I can't get the SCAPreources one due to the exceeded download limit.


koramado wrote:


I'd be happy to help out with this as well. Do you need the extra hands? Maybe divide up the chapters and go from there?

I'm all for that!I'm currently working on Drakthar's Way I've finished the bathhouse and map1.

I've uploaded all the ones i've done so far to
http://www3.sympatico.ca/icebreaker/

The Yahoo SCresource group is overloaded atm so i'm just gonna post a link to this address on there for now,since i think i don't have an upload cap on that site(we'll find out anyways).

It looks like DM Jeff is working on Flood season
Perhaps you could start on Zenith Trajectory?
All I'd ask is you use 300dpi for scans if possible that way they'd all be the same resolution.


DM Jeff wrote:

I joined the Yahoo group and will try to get some of my stuff up there over the weekend. To make a long story short, I'm taking a number of the maps, "Paint Shop Pro"-ing out all the secret doors and numbers, scaling them to 1-square = 1-inch and printing out color battlemats for miniatures.

No, I don't *think* I'm clinically insane.

Wait till you see both levels of the Lucky Monkey. :-)

-DM Jeff

I've started doing cleaning up the first few maps manually as well.

I'm not sure what resolution your using but i scanned these in at 300dpi the free 72dpi ones just got to blocky when blown up.
so far i've got these ones finished ..let me know how they compare i'd love to pool our resources ..there are alot of maps to do if they're not going to be made available.

http://www3.sympatico.ca/icebreaker/jzadirune.JPG

http://www3.sympatico.ca/icebreaker/malachitefortress.jpg


I'm curious if Paizo is planning on offering the maps for the hardcover in a PDF format like the current issues of Dungeon Mag?

Where there is a players version of the maps with the secretdoors ect removed?

I'm not asking for a timeline I'm just curious if it is your intention to at somepoint.

The reason i'm asking is I play DnD exclusivly online and use copies of the maps as online battlemaps.

Obviously the DM's version requires alot of image editing to remove the traps room numbers ect,where as the current batch of Maps in the pdf format for each issue of drungeon are perfect to use with minimal Photoshop work on my part.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.


which hooks did you use to start the sunless citadel?
Was it possibly the search for the missing adventures/youths?
if so i think you could wrap that up just using the first level from Sunless Citadel.
Have them alive but have been sold into slavery ..make the head Hobgoblin guy part of the slavery ring that has documents in his possession that leads to the slavery ring in cauldron.

when the players get to cauldron they'll hear of the kidnapped kids and put two and two together and realise there is a grander plot based out of cauldron and the rescue of the missing adventures from sunless citadel becomes more a secondary plot to finding out the mystery of whats going on.

With some polish this could work fairly seemlessly.


Zaister wrote:
Is there by any chance an electronic version of the map of Cauldron available that has a higher resolution than the 72 dpi version that is available in the downloads section?

I've scanned the poster map from my issue of dungeon 97 .

you can get it from
http://www3.sympatico.ca/icebreaker/CAULDRON.jpg
its 1.2mbs and about a 1to1 ratio to the actual fold out.

Since i use Kloogewerks exclusivly to play a web enhancement of the maps without markings for the Hardcover would be a dream come true and save me HOURS of photoshop work since i use scans of the actual maps within Kloogewerks as the battlemaps for onlineplay.

If this link is a problem for Paizo in anyway please email me and i'll take it down. I wouldn't think it is since its just a bigger version of the pic you can get from ya's but i don't want to ruffle any feathers either way.