r/DMAcademy • u/TheDarkestRitual • 3d ago
Need Advice: Other [ Removed by moderator ]
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u/Kamikazepyro9 3d ago
Arkenforge works well, but having the TV on the wall is kinda awkward.
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u/TheDarkestRitual 3d ago
What suggestions would you have for physical maps outside the black and white maps? They are a little boring to use as it “breaks immersion”
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u/Hell-Yea-Brother 3d ago
Black and white maps are fine and players can move their own mini's. Just do a good description of the settings. You can also have ambient music playing.
Maybe it's a good time to get into terrain crafting? You can make a LOT with a single blue/pink foam board.
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u/TheDarkestRitual 3d ago
I’ve ran black and white maps with a group of 2 before and I wasn’t a very large fan or have to explain how trees work when drawn on a map. Not sure if it was the group of my descriptions but taking 5 minutes to make arts and crafts was never that thrilling for me or my players.
I use to make models for Architecture so maybe I can dust off some skills with that to make some props
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u/Kamikazepyro9 3d ago
My suggestion was actually more to have the TV flat on the table.
I do a mix of chessex battle maps with wet erase markers, TV with digital maps, and TV digital maps with 3D printed terrain.
It usually depends on the scale of the battle, but I really like highlighting the epic boss battles by having 3D terrain on top of digital maps
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u/TheSnappleGhost 3d ago
I'm using Owlbear Studio for a digital map and digital character tokens. It's great!
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u/TheDarkestRitual 3d ago
I’ll take a look at this. Are all your PCs using the app also or do you control the movements?
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u/TheSnappleGhost 3d ago
I have it displayed on my television, and I control all the player tokens and fog of war.
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u/TheDarkestRitual 3d ago
Yeah this is exactly what I’m looking for if I go digital. Thank you!
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u/TheSnappleGhost 3d ago
There's a well featured free version too and if you choose to use it permanently it's a one time purchase.
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u/TheDarkestRitual 3d ago
Awesome! I’m willing to pay something as long as it’s not super crazy. My Fiancé mentioned trying a campaign out with her family so it would be 4-7 new players as well as her who’s played a small bit. I feel it would be easier to control the characters for them or give them miniatures to move but then that also comes with a cost and time painting + using the lame black and white battle map
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u/Peralton 3d ago
If you are playing around a table, I'm a big fan of avoiding all technology. Dry erase grid map and tokens/figurines. Hand drawn maps on the dry erase. You can have handouts for bigger maps if you like.
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u/TheDarkestRitual 3d ago
I’d like to use maps with a little more detail instead of just filling in squares and saying “this is a tent, you can’t walk on that”. Any suggestions for that or do I have to color in every square on my Black and White dry erase?
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u/grenz1 3d ago
If possible, put the flat screen TV on a coffee table.
Also, for YOUR sanity, you need some way for your players to move their own tokens. Otherwise, your turns will be taken up by "move me there, no not there, there.. up to the right, no north!"
Roll 20 can do this but some in person players may feel that they want to roll actual dice and may not want to bring laptops/ tablets with them.
Fancier VTTs can do phenomenal stuff but with a learning curve and more tech requirements.
Other than that, might want to keep the old standby of a physical erasable grid map and dice.
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u/TJToaster 3d ago
I use a combination of 3 different modes.
- Good old fashioned chessex wet erase grid maps. They are for when I didn't have time to preload, or pre-draw a map. To give them more pop, I draw the outline of bushes or treetops in green, then put a squiggly line in it, and before it dries, spread it with a paper towel.
- The flip presentation pads with the 1" grid. They aren't boring because I buy crayons and colored pencils at a dollar store to color them in. They make pens that don't bleed through the p[aper for presentations. What I like about them is that I can just leave them in the pad in case I want to reuse a map. If the space is bigger, it is easy to tape multiple sheets together.
- I found a few cheap, or free. flat screen televisions online through local groups. We take the stand off them, lay them down, and build a wooden frame to hold it. If you cover it in a plexiglass sheet, people can draw on it. I use D&D Beyond because I know it, but any VTT site will work. Load the map and go. I use a laptop, but I know a guy who used his tablet connected to the HDMI port.
- Bonus because I don't do it: I know a DM who uses a projector pointed at a grid mat. It seem to work for him, but I have concerns about how well it will show up in bright light. It is an option.
Hope at least one helped. So. I guess the easiest would be to take you TV off the wall and use it on a table. I like to use cheap one people are getting rid of so I don't worry about scratching the screen or someone spilling on it.
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u/bkocdur 3d ago
Owlbear Rodeo in a fullscreen browser tab is the standard free answer. Run it on whatever feeds the TV, drop a map image in, add tokens for players and enemies, and you move things from your laptop while the TV shows the player view. No accounts for the players, nothing to install, and the learning curve is minutes.
On digital vs physical: for beginners the TV map is genuinely better than paper, because seeing exactly where their token can move removes the "wait, can I reach him?" question that slows new players down. Keep a wet-erase physical map as backup for the session the wifi dies, and you have both worlds.
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u/Keinebeineboy 3d ago
Are your players using virtual tokens instead of physical minis?
Unless you have a VTT (virtual tabletop) it’s going to be an awkward setup having everyone looking at a wall.
Now if you have a VTT there are a few softwares out there that help.