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Post by lupmet on Mar 2, 2023 19:07:40 GMT
Given the detailed maps and all the locations a campaign can visit, how do you keep track of them? I have in my latest non-BP campaigns run into this problem: the characters visits a number of different locations and I as a GM need to keep track of all of them and also all potential adventure sites etc. I would prefer to have a nice application similar to Google Earth/Maps but where I can drop a pin on a location and when that pin is clicked, a document is opened with additional information. In a perfect world, i.e. on Poseidon, the result would be viewable by others (i.e. the players from their devices) and there would be two modes; player mode and GM mode. I have been experimenting a bit with Obsidian and the Leaflet plugin, I've also put together a mockup using Pixelmator, AppleScript (I love it when an application supports scripting!) and Pyton and generates a map with locations marked and a web page with the map as an imagemap. Neither is CommCore based, i.e. perfect. I've been looking at World Anvil and LegendKeeper but am a bit unsure about the needed investment in time and effort. We have used Obsidian Portal before but was not really impressed, the interface had quite some quirks. What do you use and what are your suggestions? |
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Post by Pawel on Mar 2, 2023 19:14:15 GMT
Given the detailed maps and all the locations a campaign can visit, how do you keep track of them? I have in my latest non-BP campaigns run into this problem: the characters visits a number of different locations and I as a GM need to keep track of all of them and also all potential adventure sites etc. I would prefer to have a nice application similar to Google Earth/Maps but where I can drop a pin on a location and when that pin is clicked, a document is opened with additional information. In a perfect world, i.e. on Poseidon, the result would be viewable by others (i.e. the players from their devices) and there would be two modes; player mode and GM mode. I have been experimenting a bit with Obsidian and the Leaflet plugin, I've also put together a mockup using Pixelmator, AppleScript (I love it when an application supports scripting!) and Pyton and generates a map with locations marked and a web page with the map as an imagemap. Neither is CommCore based, i.e. perfect. I've been looking at World Anvil and LegendKeeper but am a bit unsure about the needed investment in time and effort. We have used Obsidian Portal before but was not really impressed, the interface had quite some quirks. What do you use and what are your suggestions? Whoa, that sounds super techy and impressive. I've been using photocopies of the 2nd edition black & white maps, but I always meet my players in person, so can afford to be a bit old school. Hope other forum members will have some suggestions, though from the sound of it you've likely given it more thought than most! |
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Post by michaelsd on Mar 3, 2023 1:16:50 GMT
I use dokuwiki for that purpose, and all my RPG need. But you need internet to use it.
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Post by neil on Mar 3, 2023 10:16:17 GMT
The maps are being produced as GIS files, so perhaps we could ask Jeff to release those files, and use some GIS viewer to show the maps?
As for what I use for keeping track of game data, I use some combination of Evernote and Google Docs normally. Nothing fancy.
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Post by Pawel on Mar 3, 2023 10:19:58 GMT
The maps are being produced as GIS files, so perhaps we could ask Jeff to release those files, and use some GIS viewer to show the maps? As for what I use for keeping track of game data, I use some combination of Evernote and Google Docs normally. Nothing fancy. Mark is still finalising some bits in the maps, so I reckon we'll learn more about if/how the raw files get released in the hopefully near future. |
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Post by lupmet on Mar 4, 2023 7:39:30 GMT
We always played in 3D pre-Blight and then we always used maps on paper and the players made notes on paper. This changed with the Blight and now we almost always plays via remotes. We now need to share maps more readily and also the notes and at the same time I would prefer to be able to share my GM notes in an easy way. We currently use Owlbear for maps, Discord for voice (we never use camera or screen sharing – not everyone has a camera (!) and Discord does not include the mouse pointer or any other feature to point on a shown file) and Dropbox for files. It is a good setup but I miss a wiki with a good map plugin. i am not that concerned about the file format of the maps, if they come in GIS or JPEG, but I would like to have is the ability to put a pin on the map and link that to some other webpage. I would prefer if that page was editable, as I don't want to be the only one contributing text (but who am I fooling!?). |
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Post by Pawel on Mar 4, 2023 10:12:52 GMT
We always played in 3D pre-Blight and then we always used maps on paper and the players made notes on paper. This changed with the Blight and now we almost always plays via remotes. We now need to share maps more readily and also the notes and at the same time I would prefer to be able to share my GM notes in an easy way. We currently use Owlbear for maps, Discord for voice (we never use camera or screen sharing – not everyone has a camera (!) and Discord does not include the mouse pointer or any other feature to point on a shown file) and Dropbox for files. It is a good setup but I miss a wiki with a good map plugin. i am not that concerned about the file format of the maps, if they come in GIS or JPEG, but I would like to have is the ability to put a pin on the map and link that to some other webpage. I would prefer if that page was editable, as I don't want to be the only one contributing text (but who am I fooling!?). Yeah, I imagine the Blight changed TTRPG gameplay landscape for a lot of us. Hmm, if I were looking to achieve the results you're after, I'd probably rely on a shared folder in Google Drive, where docs can be collaborated on by the whole party. An image file can have a comment pinned on it (though in reality it's a fairly big square, not an accurate pin) and the comment itself could be a URL of the shared doc? But yeah, let's hope that in the future we can have a fully interactive map with various online TTRPG tools integrated into it! |
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Post by doublea on Mar 4, 2023 21:29:19 GMT
Boy I'm getting such Deja vu from this thread. So this got me to thinking, you know the Google Maps API is open and available, and I know you can totally use it to make your own custom maps of things, which absolutely includes fantasy locations. I think as a promo for the Hobbit movies there was a Google Maps Middle Earth kicking around, though it looks like they took it down. I'm pretty sure armed with the maps from the new Blue Planet someone who is code-savvy could create a full Google Poseidon interface, with Google Maps versions of the Haven Cluster et cetera. Then it'd just be a matter of sharing the map with your players and allow them access to add markers and move them about. ...I know easier said than done but hey  |
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Post by Pawel on Mar 4, 2023 22:34:32 GMT
Boy I'm getting such Deja vu from this thread. So this got me to thinking, you know the Google Maps API is open and available, and I know you can totally use it to make your own custom maps of things, which absolutely includes fantasy locations. I think as a promo for the Hobbit movies there was a Google Maps Middle Earth kicking around, though it looks like they took it down. I'm pretty sure armed with the maps from the new Blue Planet someone who is code-savvy could create a full Google Poseidon interface, with Google Maps versions of the Haven Cluster et cetera. Then it'd just be a matter of sharing the map with your players and allow them access to add markers and move them about. ...I know easier said than done but hey Haha, I reckon you know more about this than any or most of us - I'm sure if you volunteered to do it, we'd all be cheering you on.  I can just about edit a html.  |
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Post by lupmet on Mar 5, 2023 8:26:46 GMT
Boy I'm getting such Deja vu from this thread. So this got me to thinking, you know the Google Maps API is open and available, and I know you can totally use it to make your own custom maps of things, which absolutely includes fantasy locations. I think as a promo for the Hobbit movies there was a Google Maps Middle Earth kicking around, though it looks like they took it down. I'm pretty sure armed with the maps from the new Blue Planet someone who is code-savvy could create a full Google Poseidon interface, with Google Maps versions of the Haven Cluster et cetera. Then it'd just be a matter of sharing the map with your players and allow them access to add markers and move them about. ...I know easier said than done but hey I know there are some "alternative Google Earths" around, some of them are research projects, but I didn't know you could do any planet. Should we all sit and look at Mark until he gets the hint? Personally I would accept Earth only, if I only could decide on which year the map should show as well (I am planning a Chivalry & Sorcery campaign in England 1147 AD, this is the original source of this need), but Poseidon would be wonderful! Do you think we can have street view as well? In AR? Maybe OpenStreetMap would be an alternartive? Google doesn't really allow map pins to link to somewhere, or does it? I never log into Google and have never explored the options. |
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Post by Pawel on Mar 5, 2023 9:31:12 GMT
Boy I'm getting such Deja vu from this thread. So this got me to thinking, you know the Google Maps API is open and available, and I know you can totally use it to make your own custom maps of things, which absolutely includes fantasy locations. I think as a promo for the Hobbit movies there was a Google Maps Middle Earth kicking around, though it looks like they took it down. I'm pretty sure armed with the maps from the new Blue Planet someone who is code-savvy could create a full Google Poseidon interface, with Google Maps versions of the Haven Cluster et cetera. Then it'd just be a matter of sharing the map with your players and allow them access to add markers and move them about. ...I know easier said than done but hey I know there are some "alternative Google Earths" around, some of them are research projects, but I didn't know you could do any planet. Should we all sit and look at Mark until he gets the hint? Personally I would accept Earth only, if I only could decide on which year the map should show as well (I am planning a Chivalry & Sorcery campaign in England 1147 AD, this is the original source of this need), but Poseidon would be wonderful! Do you think we can have street view as well? In AR? Maybe OpenStreetMap would be an alternartive? Google doesn't really allow map pins to link to somewhere, or does it? I never log into Google and have never explored the options. Haha, I think Mark may have put way more time into this project than he originally anticipated or quoted for, but hey, we could always try to commission him separately for something like this. As for the street view in AR, yeah man! That's what TTRPG is all about! Just gotta shut your eyes and listen to the Game Moderator narrate... Though having said that, on Poseidon it would probably be sea view, not street view! |
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Post by doublea on Mar 5, 2023 14:25:46 GMT
Boy I'm getting such Deja vu from this thread. So this got me to thinking, you know the Google Maps API is open and available, and I know you can totally use it to make your own custom maps of things, which absolutely includes fantasy locations. I think as a promo for the Hobbit movies there was a Google Maps Middle Earth kicking around, though it looks like they took it down. I'm pretty sure armed with the maps from the new Blue Planet someone who is code-savvy could create a full Google Poseidon interface, with Google Maps versions of the Haven Cluster et cetera. Then it'd just be a matter of sharing the map with your players and allow them access to add markers and move them about. ...I know easier said than done but hey Haha, I reckon you know more about this than any or most of us - I'm sure if you volunteered to do it, we'd all be cheering you on. I can just about edit a html. Haha you don't want me bumbling about this stuff, I'm a machinist not a code monkey. XD Though that said what an awesome community project that would be, right? I just have a poor understanding of the scope of what is really involved. You know that said, I wonder if we should set up a Blue Planet wiki? Poseidon CommNET? I don't think even the superfan sites are online anymore, I looked for Bluedive and it doesn't seem to be working right anymore. Not surprised honestly. This forum is the most active BP community that there's been in twenty years. |
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Post by Pawel on Mar 5, 2023 16:36:00 GMT
Haha, I reckon you know more about this than any or most of us - I'm sure if you volunteered to do it, we'd all be cheering you on. I can just about edit a html. Haha you don't want me bumbling about this stuff, I'm a machinist not a code monkey. XD Though that said what an awesome community project that would be, right? I just have a poor understanding of the scope of what is really involved. You know that said, I wonder if we should set up a Blue Planet wiki? Poseidon CommNET? I don't think even the superfan sites are online anymore, I looked for Bluedive and it doesn't seem to be working right anymore. Not surprised honestly. This forum is the most active BP community that there's been in twenty years. Oh yeah, there actually exists a Blue Planet wiki, created by our own neil! You can find it here. There was a considerable amount of work put into it but it's been a while since it saw an update. I'm sure more data could be poured into it to make it even better. |
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Post by doublea on Mar 5, 2023 17:40:31 GMT
Oh man and I didn't even know about it! Thanks for the link, and awesome work neil! |
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Post by neil on Mar 6, 2023 9:59:40 GMT
I only inherited the wiki when the previous maintainer couldn't host it any more. But it needs some love, so let me know if you want an account there to add things.
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I can just about edit a html. 