Online supplements for digital projection tabletops?

[tav_behemoth]

My group recently borrowed a digital projector and we're trying out implementing some of the ultimate gaming table goodness we've read about. Since we're running through Savage Tide (they just buried Captain Javell in a crate beneath Kraken's Cove, having beaten her with a seriously lucky bunch of grapple rolls), the online supplements are going to be the number one source of tactical maps for us.

I've seen people post on these boards that they use the online supplements for maps too, so I'd appreciate any help you can provide to get us started! Right now we've been trying to use a Mac to cut and paste images from the online supplement into Photoshop, which we were hoping to use to do some layers for lighting/fog-of-war. We ran into the problem that we couldn't paste into Photoshop; we were able to paste it into Powerpoint, and we did eventually get it into Photoshop by taking a screenshot. So our first question is just how do you work with the online supplement PDFs? But I'd be glad for any advice or discussion of how to achieve digital Paizonian nirvana.

I set up a Google group to allow us to share homemade maps and get into technical discussions: http://groups.google.com/group/paizonian-digital-projection

[Rezdave]

tav_behemoth wrote:

... trying to use a Mac to cut and paste images from the online supplement into Photoshop ... We ran into the problem that we couldn't paste into Photoshop; we were able to paste it into Powerpoint, and we did eventually get it into Photoshop by taking a screenshot. So our first question is just how do you work with the online supplement PDFs

The standard area selection tool in Adobe Reader or Acrobat should work just fine to Copy a region, then Paste in Pshop.

I do it all the time ... just tonight, in fact, to make some home-brew tokens for tomorrow's session.

Rez

[tav_behemoth]

Hmm - I was able to copy an area on my Windows machine using FoxIt Reader's snapshot selection tool, and paste it into Word. So our problem was just with Mac, Adobe Acrobat (Reader I assume), and Photoshop.

I just added the three-layered Photoshop image of the Vanderboren mansion to the Google group. We used it to run a side adventure last night (projecting it onto the wall 'cause we don't have a ceiling mount yet, and sticking minis to the wall with blu-tak) that was quite a bit of fun! Our rakasta 2/monk 2 and fighter 1/ranger 1/scout 1/barbarian both have boots of striding and springing, and they were leaping on & off the 20' walls of the manor compound like outtakes from Crouching Tider, Hidden Dragon. (I made up some rules on the fly to cover springing back & forth up a the walls of a corner like I've seen in parkour videos and Jackie Chan movies).

[Mordun77]

My group has been making good use of these online supplements too for tactical maps. I've been using Adobe Illustrator to File>Place pages from the .pdf, then ungrouping and removing the clipping mask to remove the footer, header, or text I didn't need.

I used to rescale the maps so 1 square=1 inch and then print them off onto multiple 8.5 x 11 pages and tape them together as a battle mat, but lately we've been using Smithworks' Fantasy Grounds II (www.fantasygrounds.com, and no, I don't work for them ;). I use a laptop running the DM license connected to the TV running a player version of the program to display the map, and players pass around a wireless mouse to move their character's tokens. It is wonderful for measuring ranges, area of effect, zooming and panning over large distances, etc. FG also has a handy 'masking' feature that lets you use 'fog of war' so they can't see the whole map. It also saves a lot of printer ink!

[Krome]

For Photoshop to open a PDF you go to File/Import/ PDF Presentation... and select the page you wish to import to Photoshop as well as the resolution you want to use.

The PDF page appears and you can cut and crop as normal.

Or if you are using a a Mac simply take the file in the Finder and drag it to the Photoshop icon in the Dock. It will automatically bring up the Import PDF so you can choose your options.