You can easily take a map you’ve created, print it on some paper and use that as a prop to improve immersion, making your map an artifact of the campaign. All of this can be done to really give your players that tactile feel. Mark them up, make them feel old, and bury secrets in the text. What happens when you’re playing fantasy games? I’ve seen it time and time again, but you can print out your props and really go to town on aging them. The above works really well for a modern, sci-fi, or similar context where technology is available. While the above is focused on hooking players, it should be noted that it was done through the way of props. The maps don’t have to be complete, nor do they have to be accurate – for the players, figuring out how much is accurate or determining if the map can be trusted is a great opportunity to insert plot and roleplaying opportunities. While everyone had a common goal, players ended up with individual secondary and tertiary goals to complete.ĭistributing maps digitally works well for modern conspiracy-style games, or science-fiction universe set games. The idea was that this group of players was being dropped in to investigate the happenings in the town and rescue some of the survivors if able.įrom that minor detail, I was able to start building more story elements in my head based on player stories and motivations. In this initial setup, they were sent the following map: As the game goes on, they get emails in the forms of assignments, threats, and so forth from these various fake emails posed as characters or otherwise. I’ve always done something similar with player folders that allowed me to work in unique narrative opportunities for players, but this was a step forward. I created an email address just for my players to get correspondence throughout the game. In this particular case, I cloned a large apocalypse-style map from on DUNGEONFOG. Thankfully, because you can clone other maps on DungeonFog and take full advantage of the sharing in the community you’ll be able to find something close enough or just right for what you’re looking for. Time can always be the enemy of doing cool things. You can also pass around a tablet with the map for them to reference as you play – it doesn’t have to be as fancy a set up as this, and can be simple to do. As projectors and monitors get cheaper, it’s just a matter of taking the time to build such things for yourself or finding those services that have been able to make things more affordable for the same reasons.Įven if you don’t have a built-in projector or surface to game with, you can hook up a TV or monitor for your players to look and you can display the map for them to reference during your game. It’s simple yet elegant and has non-obtrusive lighting under the table to allow players and the GM to see their possessions without obscuring the ambiance of the game. These kinds of strides forward are absolutely within reach these days. This particular set up is also pretty neat from a construction standpoint. I can only imagine what the future holds for us all when tables react to miniatures being placed in certain areas and more before we hit the levels of VR integration. If you’ve imported your maps through DUNGEONFOG into Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, d20pro or other online services then it gets even easier, but if you haven’t, it is still an exceptionally functional map. Being able to move your miniatures on an actually displayed map that changes, reacts, and opens up as you go. This is kind of dream that I and many others have for a more immersive element. During this transition, I’ve been thinking about some ways to really use this tool to help you engage with your players. Now, there are so many ways to make life easier and I’ve since been blessed with using DUNGEONFOG. Since dabbling in the world of using maps for my games when I was younger, I have often opted to not using them just due to time constraints.
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