Hey there everyone, first post in something other than a gameplay or recruitment thread so here goes!!!
I am looking to run ROTRL pbp on the forums. I am currently running a homebrew. In the homebrew I am not using maps of any sort, but am worried that ROTRL will require them, and I have no experience with making maps for pbp,, no money to buy software.
So can I run it no maps? And if not, what would you fine folk suggesy I do?
Bump
I think it would make very difficult to keep track of. Have you looked at rolld20.com?
I run my play-by-post with ASCII maps.
They aren't pretty but they work.
For example:
Facing the (invisible) vamp in CoT:
.
████○○○Z○○○○████
█████○○○○○M█████
██████○○G○██████
███████A○███████
█████Yi○C○○█████
███████○╙███████
███○○○○○○○○○○███
███○○○○○○○○○○███
█▒▒○○○○○○○○○○▒▒█
█▒▒○○○○○○○○○○▒▒█
█▒▒○○○○○○○○○○▒▒█
█▒▒○○○○○○○○○○▒▒█
███○○▓▓▓▓▓▓○○███
███○○▓▓▓▓▓▓○○███
████████████████
▒ = sacophogi with screaming children
▓ = altar
A = Azhar
C = Cassian w/Rygel
G = Gravlax
Z = Zsz
Y = Amaya
i = Mithra
M = Mathalen
Only downside is the player need to copy paste into notepad OR hit reply for the spacing to look right. Totally without maps becomes a little too much of a "Can I do this" rather than a "I do this".
Totally without maps becomes a little too much of a "Can I do this" rather than a "I do this".
This. It's a lot easier to go mapless when everyone's around a table in real-time and clarifying where everything is in relation to each other if there's a misunderstanding takes seconds and not hours.
I use MapTool, but it has a fairly steep learning curve, imo.
I've seen people use a Google spreadsheet as a map.
I have not looked at roll20, may need to. Im relatively new to any pbp but have no other way to run. Is it free? And how would I use it for my players?
Sorry, it's roll20.net
Ok I took a quick look at it, and the ability to make and customize maps seems pretty simple, may take some time getting used to though. My question would be how do I save my map, and link it for my players to see? And Is there a way to get coordinates so they can say I move to b5 for example, or do I need to find a way to let them move themselves?
RotRL makes the maps for you. In my stint as a GM I simply copypasted the maps from the PDF, took everyones forum avatars and scattered them about the squares with MS paint. Eventually I switched to screencaptures of the free maptool program, which I managed through a bit of trial and error to serve my purposes.
RotR won't REQUIRE maps. But they're there, your rogue will thank you for them, and PbPs need everything they can to speed up combat. Granted updating the map can be pretty time consuming on a round by round basis so often I did so every other round to keep the ball rolling.
I havent started.recruiting yet, I wanted to be prepared first. Also I have the hard copy of the book, not pdf.
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You can play Pathfinder 'mapless', but it represents a variant of the tradational rules. It means ignoring many of the AoO rules, lots of feats, etc. You'll want to make certain you put down on paper what changes you're making, and allow your party to design their characters around those. Just like any other homebrew change. Also you're going to need to be flexible and prepared to make changes when things don't make sense.
As for roll20, I'm not sure that's a match for asynchronous pbp play. According to their forums they're looking into adding some features to make it a better fit.
It sounds like the text grid would work best.
I've used Maptools when I've run games, but I'm just as happy with a quick and dirty diagram in Google Docs, as suggested by Bearded Ben and DM Locke.
And of course you can play without maps, but personally I prefer to at least have some kind of diagram. YMMV.
If you play completely without maps, it will be even more important than for a RL game that your descriptions are very clear and easy to follow. In an RL game, if something is unclear, it may take 30 seconds to a minute for everyone to get on the same page, while in a PBP the same process could take a day (or more, if someone is typically only online once or twice per day).
You should also make sure to state this in the recruitment thread, so prospective players will know what to expect before committing to the game, as well as having the opportunity to ask for clarification on what that would mean for concept A or feat B.
Well general concensus sees to be that maps are where its at-Not that I disagree, I just don't have the knowledge and skills to make it work at the moment.-
So it seems im going to be putting off recruiting for a little while until I figure out a way to make maps that works for me, as is something I can share with my chosen players. I appreciate everyones advice on the matter!
No, no, no, you don't need maps to play Pathfinder! I've participated in multiple play-by-posts both as a player and GM and can say from experience that Pathfinder works just fine without maps. Yes, even with AoOs and flanking and everything else. What does not work is to think in terms of precise battlefield positioning and letting everyone take their turn individually, that is, to play like you have a map and everyone's real-time presence when you don't have either one.
Here's the rules I use for play-by-post for combats (and everything else):
Could you link to one of those play-by-posts? Your rules don't include anything that could help me visualize how a mapless play-by-post works.