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In every game I have played, save one, we have used a grid of 1" x 1" squares that represented 5' x' 5'. I love the tactical aspect of it all. My players and I have a tackle box of lego man bits that they create their PC out of to represent them on the field and we go with it. We have one more session before the GM hat switches over to me... and I want to do something new.
My idea is to get my hands on a cheap projector (>$100) and mount it to the ceiling. By angling the projector down, or perhaps by mounting a small mirror, my aim is to project topography and floor plans onto the grid. I'll play around with the image sizes and resolutions and scale them accordingly, but I believe it would add a whole new dimension beyond "This circle here? That's a tree."
Has anyone toyed with this idea before? Can you suggest a projector to use? There is no need for 1080p or anything and wireless IS preferred as I do not want to run 30 feet of USB/HDMI cable.
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I get the feeling you might want to try setting up a game online (maybe use Roll20) before you go ahead with the projector idea.
You're likely to either get a better idea of what you want to do with the projector, or a better idea with some other hardware.
Projecting from below is an interesting concept that I hadn't thought of... Perhaps a white cloth under glass or a foggy piece of plexy glass... The issue here would be blinding the players when they lean over the table or the dog nudging it when she comes to see if anyone dropped snacks. You wouldn't get the same resolution... But again, I'm not going for HD images either.
As for online, I recently discovered roll20, and while I love the idea for while I am, say, deployed or at a three month school, I dislike it for use in our games. If everyone just brings their laptops, why invite everyone over to begin with? Don't get me wrong, it is an amazing venue but not quite where I want to go with our games.
That said, projecting from underneath solves a few issues. Draping cords from the ceiling and engineering a way to hang it that isn't an eyesore the other 28 days of the month or engineering a set of mirrors. The issue here would be distance as the projector would be much closer to the "screen".
Research will now commence.
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I'm not thinking everyone brings their laptops, but you're after a projected screen with a map on it. That's what a VTT like Roll20 does (and there's other VTT's out there if that's not your favourite flavour).
So if you can find a way to do what you're talking about with a screen, and you can use a VTT, you might get a better quality solution.
I tried once with my TV hooked up to the desktop. I usually run Final Fantasy battle themes for fights lol
That said, a staple of our get together is building our little Lego avatars and moving them about the grid.
I may still look into roll20 for the graphical resources, but I want to keep the core of moving pieces around like super complex chess.
You still can use miniatures for a roll20-type tabletop. Just have the on-screen tokens be very minimalistic (like colored circles) and place the figures on that. This way you can still make use of fog of war and lighting stuff that's built in to a lot of these kinds of programs. Those features turn the game into a totally different animal, like playing Skyrim with no dungeon lighting on the highest difficulty...
I've just started toying with a FAVI LED PICO Projector to project maps down onto the table top. It comes with a remote and its about 7"x3"x1/2" and weights less than twice the TV remote.
The idea is to load up whatever maps the GM needs, depending on its storage, or just our Kingdom maps, so they're always available. That should cut down on my ink use since we could just use the e-maps.
Its very lightweight so attaching it to the ceiling fan over the table shouldn't be a problem, the fan rarely gets used. I also have several telescoping pointers/magnetic picker-upers to adjust the height if need be. But if its projection capabilities are anything like an old slide projector, we should be able to just clip it to the fixture and do it all remotely.
If its storage is too small, then a long USB cable should do the trick.
I'm really going to have to do this now for our next game. I'll start with the flip maps since I have most of them.
Oooh! You meant using roll20 simply from the resource or GM tab. I have not used the site myself yet, but once I get the logistics of the projector down I will. After that I'll experiment with the angles. I'll look up the one Queen mentioned after we move ( just bought a house with a sunken Den that screams Game Room ). Then to work out if I am going to project from the top or bottom.
Top down :
Clearest images.
Greater distance from the table (easier to focus)
Dog can't bump it
But...
Have to mount it from the ceiling
Potirntally have to drape cords
Projects on top of miniatures
Bottom up:
No hanging cords
No need for a mount
Quick and easy set up
No overlay on minatures
But...
Blurred image projecting onto a sheet sandwiched between glass
Dog and feet could bump it
Closer to the surface, may need to elevate table to get full coverage of projection surface.
I would just google for it, there a several gaming groups who already use "projector battlemaps" (hanging, bottom up, mirror-use etc.) I think you will easily find some tips there.
Check out this YouTube video of a virtual tabletop. Apparently materials for their project only cost around $200 and it looks super-cool.