TFTools for GMs and Players

[malchidael]

Originally Posted by Chris Rice

That would be extremely useful, both personally, and to the TFT community at large as this would make it easier to share adventures and maps.

I know it's an expensive, complicated option, but it can be done in Campaign Cartographer/Dungeon Designer - I put this simple room together pretty quickly (but, I had the base megahex grid already done).

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZE...XPUMfZS5UqKdoK

I would prefer a simpler option, however - while I like Campaign Cartographer for local area maps & campaign maps, I've never enjoyed doing dungeons/labyrinths with it.

Actually, an option that allows you to design a labyrinth at the 1 hex = 1 megahex scale, then allows you to zoom in and detail the rooms would be nifty. Ideally it would handle "half hexes" to square-out some chambers.

[larsdangly]

I agree there are enough special demands for making a 'canonical' TFT map that it calls for some new tools. I would call that a business opportunity rather than a problem because anything you make has several thousand customers lined up. But it is something that the game could use.

Fundamentally, the biggest challenge is that the standard way of treating spaces in TFT is to assemble them as collections of megahexes, which tesselate in unusual ways. This works great in an 'in game' way, and I'm glad they don't seem to have changed this core part of the system in the new edition (stick to your brand!). But, it does clash with the way people intuitively want to create maps that include rectilinear features.

It would be really helpful to provide some sort of play aids that let you integrate the hex and megahex discretization of the play space with 'natural' depictions of buildings, hallways, caves, etc. This could be digital, but there isn't much history of SJG going down that path and they probably don't have the staff to create that sort of thing. It would be more in their wheelhouse to create some hard-copy play aids, in the form of next-gen tiles that are an evolution from the current model we will get in the boxed set.

[GreyMage]

I have always used the flats and vertexes to draw rectilinear features or free-formed the buildings, ignoring the hex/megahex grid, and overlaying it later. GM call as to if the hex had enough space for a char to occupy. Does not mean we can't have nice tools though ;)

[Mallen the dark]

While digital may not be SJG normal route, they have gone this route before with GURPS character assistant (GCA).

[Mallen the dark]

A while back, I saw a web site that did play maps for printing. This artist drew everything on hex map paper. He had ships, airplanes, temples and other building so that all GMs had to do was print and play. Can't remember the name, but I think it closed several years ago. Maybe it moved, but the orginial site was pulled down.

Dragon magazine did the same thing for a while, but they were on grid maps.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by tomc

I remember hand drawing a big hex sheet of poster paper

I pasted photocopies of the megahexes to poster board and cut them out. (Now, we get pre-made dry erase megahexes. Kids these days just don't understand the struggle...)

We had wet-erase roll-up mats with hexes even back then, though I didn't get one of my own for another ten years, I don't think.

[ldorn]

Updated version of the Character Lab and Wizard Lab programs?