TUTORIAL: Aligning and Formatting those pesky Dead Suns maps(With Pictures!)

[Ahpook The Destroyer]

Hey everybody! I made a thing!

This is a Tutorial, complete with pictures, on how to format and properly align ALL of the Dead Suns battle maps on your favorite VTT. Many people have expressed difficulty with this, so I thought I would try to help.

Enjoy and if you have any questions, suggestions to make it better, or need help, please feel free to hit me up. Huzzah!

From the Tutorial Introduction:

"My group recently started running Dead Suns on Roll20. My poor GM was having a really hard time of it because he couldn't get the maps to align correctly to the grid. After doing a little digging in forums I discovered that MANY people were having the same issue, and not too many of them knew how to fix it. I realized that my VTT-Fu was fairly strong, strong enough for this task and...voila!

This tutorial (which will expand as the final books in Dead Suns are released) will show you a quick, dirty, and fairly simple method for formatting and aligning these maps. I use Roll20, so that is the VTT environment I am going to be using here. I don't think it will be very difficult to adapt this to other VTTs.

I specifically chose this particular path to formatting, rather than say editing the maps themselves, because it requires no knowledge of graphic design or art programs. All you need is the free adobe acrobat PDF reader, a basic paint program or GIMP, and your favorite VTT."

TUTORIAL

[Arakiel]

OMG you are my favorite person in the world right now. I can't tell you how annoying this was until I saw your post.

[Ahpook The Destroyer]

Arakiel wrote:

OMG you are my favorite person in the world right now. I can't tell you how annoying this was until I saw your post.

Glad I could help!

AtD

[TVB]

Greetings Starfinders! I just wanted to let everyone know that the tutorial has been updated with the maps from Dead Suns book 5 and the deckplan of the Sunrise Maiden. Enjoy!

AtD

[Ravingdork]

I never realized this was an issue, as I've never had much trouble aligning maps on roll20.

Do people not read the simple instructions that roll20 provides on how to do this?

[BigNorseWolf]

Ravingdork wrote:

I never realized this was an issue, as I've never had much trouble aligning maps on roll20.

Do people not read the simple instructions that roll20 provides on how to do this?

Right, because following the instructions for everything always works. Nothing ever goes wrong when you do exactly what the instructions tell you, nope...

With that said, are people not setting the map to "is drawing" ? I don't see any major problems with the maps.

[url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xmhyrZetSM09iORM2rnFQiQemA9m1Uhdk3DB_TKrctk/edit]Never gets perfect results but repeat the magic chant

close enough for state work...

[Ahpook The Destroyer]

The problem with these maps is that the edges arent whole squares on most of them. Thus they will never align properly without some jiggery pokery. If one isnt versed in how to trim them with an art program like gimp, it can be very frustrating to get them to work. Thats why I made the tutorial.

AtD

[Ravingdork]

Ahpook The Destroyer wrote:

The problem with these maps is that the edges arent whole squares on most of them. Thus they will never align properly without some jiggery pokery. If one isnt versed in how to trim them with an art program like gimp, it can be very frustrating to get them to work. Thats why I made the tutorial.

AtD

Ah, I see now. As a graphic designer, that's not much of an issue for me, but I can see how it could be really frustrating for those who lack such tools.

[Ahpook The Destroyer]

Yeah for crusty old gamers that are lucky they can even use Roll20 it was a nonstarter.

AtD

[Spippity]

First and foremost, OP, you are amazing for doing this work. My group has been going through this AP on Roll20, and you've done a great job with map sizing. I struggled with aligning the maps in book 3, and I wanted to share my realization, hoping it will help others. The DS3 map numbers do not line up with the maps as they appear in the book. I'll mark the rest as spoiler text.

maps:

...............Book Order.........................Tutorial Order
Map 1....Asteroid K9204...................Not listed
Map 2....The Star-Eaters Spine........Listed as Map 1
Map 3....The Splice/Marrowblight...Listed as Map 2
Map 4....Skullcap Gorge...................Listed as Map 3

Once I figured this out, all the maps fit perfectly. Again, thank you for your work, as my group is still finding it helpful. If anyone happens to have the correct dimensions for the first map in the book, or can point me to an updated guide, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks again!

Edit: I was able to figure out the dimensions for the map missing from the Tutorial. I'll post it here with the spoiler tag.

First Book Map:

DS3 Map "Asteroid K9204"-37x23- 35.29x21.86 (2471x1531p) offset L/T/R/B