Assembling Geomorphs in Gimp

As you probably know, I produce a line of geomorph tiles for VTTs called Dungeons in Blue. I was chatting with a customer via email recently, and they asked how to assemble geomorphs into complete maps without using an image editing program. I didn't have a good solution for them and eventually discovered that they felt Gimp was a bit too complex for such as simple task.

Random Tables II - More Excel

A few days back I posted an ultra-simple example of a random table in Excel. Since I'm making a few tables for another project, I thought I'd do a slightly more complex (and useful) example, and explain how it works. Here's the basic table, which uses a percentile dice roll and has variable ranges for each table entry.

Random Tables - An Excel Quickie

Someone over on G+ was asking about tools to make random tables for RPGs. I mentioned Excel and the poster said they weren't very good at using the spreadsheet. Since quick and dirty tables are pretty easy with Excel, I thought I'd throw together a quick example, so... here:

This is a very simple table with six entries (A2-A7). A1 is a formula which randomly selects an entry from the table using the INDEX and RANDBETWEEN functions. A8 is a text copy of the function used. Each time you hit the F9 key, RANDBETWEEN recalculates its value, and uses it as an index into the table. Here's what the INDEX function means:

• A2:A7 is the array to work on (that's six rows by one column).
• RANDBETWEEN(1,6) chooses a row value between 1 and 6, inclusive.
• The final 1 parameter chooses the first column.

Points to note:

• The INDEX function takes an array, a row, and a column as parameters. You can get fancier and use RANDBETWEEN for both row and column to create a two-dimensional table.
• The RANDBETWEEN function picks a number from the integer values between and including the given low and high.
• The row and column values in INDEX are values within the given array (A2:A7). The first row/column is always one, and the highest value is equal to the number of rows/columns in the array. Don't use spreadsheet row/column values!
• Using an array reference inline like that leads to unreadable spreadsheets. If we were doing a more complex example, we'd apply a name to the data range, and use that instead.
• What works in Excel generally works in Open Office or Google Drive documents. For example you can see the Drive version right here.

OK, that's it, quick and dirty. There's more complex stuff in this post right here though.

Observations on Play by Email Games - Part II

In the first part of this two-part series, I wrote about the setup and prep I use for running play by email (PBM) games. This article will focus on the action, the actual running of the game. If you've followed the advice in the previous post, you have players ready, a game concept set, character info at hand, a mailing list running, an organized space to write in, and a schedule to follow. Now what?

Observations on Play by Email Games - Part I

If you read this blog, you've probably figured out by now that I run a lot of play by email (PBM) games. The biggest reason for this is that my old gaming group is now about a 10 hour drive away, which means my face-to-face gaming with my favorite gamers is rather limited. At the time of this post, I've run at least a half-dozen long-term PBM games, years of gaming, hundreds of turns. A few weeks back I saw a post on rpg.net asking for guidance on running a PBM game, so I thought I'd put together a collection of notes based on my own experiences. Hopefully it'll prove useful to anyone trying to run a PBM game. This post is focused on setting up for a PBM game, the next post will focus on running things.

Tiled Floor Tutorial using Inkscape and Gimp

Over on G+ I was asked how I created the tile floor I showed in my tile grunge tutorial. Here's the basic method I used, in what I hope is a useful format. First, here's what we're shooting for:

Let's begin, shall we?

Tile Grunge in Gimp Tutorial

I've been doing a bunch of work with floor tiles this weekend, and stumbled across a pretty quick and easy way to add some nice grout grunge to floor tiles using the standard filters available in Gimp. Here you go!

Island Forge - That Next Step

If you've read any of the previous Island Forge tutorials (like this one or this one), you've probably checked out the results on the Isle of Test. If you've been there, you've probably seen this in the wilderness...

Now What?

Island Forge - A Guard Tutorial

This is another tutorial on using Island Forge's Island Builder. This time we're going to create a guardian creature using three actors, the guardian, something to appease it, and the person being guarded. You can see this in game by visiting the Isle of Test, and checking out the Guard Bunny, Sir Robin, and the nearby Pile of Grain. Save the grain for last so you can see the guard functionality.

Island Forge - FedEx Quest Tutorial

I've been feeling guilty about ignoring Island Forge, especially now that the game's developer has run a successful Kickstarter, and moved to a free to play model. I logged back in this morning, poked around my large-scale island project, and realized I had a lot left to do. That's still work in progress, but I decided I'd do something small and useful too, so here's a quick tutorial on how to create a FedEx style quest.