I have used a variety of camping stoves, from the old suitcase-style Coleman gasoline stoves to the most modern butane burners. But for several years I have been mostly using alcohol stoves (sometimes called spirit stoves) for backpacking. Let’s talk about what’s great about them, and what isn’t.
Author: Walt Page 11 of 13
On a recent backpacking trip, my air mattress sprung a leak. It was entirely my fault. I was using it outside the tent to lie on while I propped my feet up, and apparently didn’t clear the ground thoroughly enough. At bedtime I discovered that the pad would slowly deflate, bottoming out in about 5 minutes.
Now that I had workable maps, it was time to get some tokens. “Tokens” in this sense means small pictures that represent a character or monster, and that can be moved around on the map. We use them to determine how far monsters and people can move in one turn, and who is in range to fight whom. In a face to face game you would typically use metal or plastic miniature figures for this purpose. On a virtual tabletop you use picture files.
In my last post, I wrote about converting my old campaign area maps from paper to digital. I needed digital maps so I could use them on a virtual tabletop. As you’ll recall, scanning them didn’t go very well.
But of course, campaign maps aren’t the only maps we have to deal with as a Game Master. We have to make dungeon maps as well. And so I scanned some dungeon maps along with the campaign maps to see how that would go.
Education Department seeks to remove school’s accreditation
Washington, DC (AP) In a move that has surprised many experts, the Department of Education today announced that it has begun proceedings to formally remove accreditation from the prestigious School Of Hard Knocks. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona announced the move at a hastily-assembled press conference on the White House lawn.
The Plan
Until I started using Fantasy Grounds, my maps has usually been drawn freehand on either graph paper (for buildings and dungeons) or hex paper (for area maps). Most of these were simple floorplans, drawn with a mechanical pencil, though I would sometimes break out the colored pencils for area maps.
When I started the FG campaign I initially planned to simply continue drawing my maps by hand and running them through the scanner. But as soon as I tried it I could see the results were less than stellar. Here’s a sample:
Voice Communications for Virtual Tabletops
When we decided to try using Fantasy Grounds to restart my old D&D campaign, we started with a bunch of demo sessions. We wanted to kick the tires and see how it went. The whole idea of playing virtually seemed new and strange, and we weren’t sure how well we would like it.
During these sessions we had a phone call going with the other player. This was enormously helpful, both to get the initial setup complete, and during the actual game play.
A virtual tabletop (VTT) is software on your computer. It connects to the Internet and allows you to play traditional tabletop games with people in other locations. A VTT provides a shared view of images, die rolls, and other game components (boards, cards, miniatures, etc.). It also provides a communication platform, generally a chat window but sometimes voice communication too.
Not to worry. We have a plan! No, really!
So far this blog has been a bit of a mishmash. Which shouldn’t be too surprising. After all, “a bit of a mishmash” would also describe our interests, our book collection, our home decor, etc. It isn’t exactly a shock that our blog would end up that way too.
But reaching the end of the Grand Tour posts gives us an opportunity to bring a bit of order to things. And we’re going to use it.
March 9, 1946
February 1946. World War II is over and wartime production jobs were ending. During the war, Carl and Georgie worked a number of jobs in several places, finishing the war in Pocatello, Idaho. They elected to return to Iowa, where they both had family, but opted to make a grand tour of the west on the way. Georgie wrote a journal of the trip. The story starts here.
Left Gallup, N.M., the next morning and stopped at a trading post on the Continental Divide where I finally found a ring with a Nevada turquoise, something I’d been searching for the entire trip. Then we drove on to see the Chaco Canyon National Monument.
March 9, 1946
February 1946. World War II is over and wartime production jobs were ending. During the war, Carl and Georgie worked a number of jobs in several places, finishing the war in Pocatello, Idaho. They elected to return to Iowa, where they both had family, but opted to make a grand tour of the west on the way. Georgie wrote a journal of the trip. The story starts here.
Left Gallup, N.M., the next morning and stopped at a trading post on the Continental Divide where I finally found a ring with a Nevada turquoise, something I’d been searching for the entire trip. Then we drove on to see the Chaco Canyon National Monument.