When you combine all the features (except “dungeon dressing”, which isn’t related to the others) you can make Dungeonographer into a very simple virtual table top which is especially suited for forum games or situations where players have devices that only have a web browser.  (These changes apply even the free version, although if bandwidth becomes an issue for the upload feature that may change.)

Here is a more detailed text recap/how-to:

• Randomly generated room descriptions (bullet points) by room type: Click the “Add/Edit note” button on the left, then click a spot on the map and the note dialog appears.  Near the bottom, there is a drop-down for you to select a room type.  (More room types coming soon.) Then click the “(Re)Generate” button and you’ll see a room description appear in the main text area.  You can do that as often as you like.  Once you get something that’s close, you can freely edit the description.  (Or of course ignore the random generation and do it from scratch.)
• Tokens: There are several creature/character map tokens now in the “Map Items” tab.  Select that tab on the far right.  They are in the overall list of map items, but you can also select “Tokens” from the drop down on the top to see just the tokens.  Once placed, you can click the “Select/Move Map Item” button to move the tokens.  More tokens also will be included in an update in the next couple of days.
• Hide/Show areas:  This requires you to draw your rooms/corridors/areas as “Shapes.” Which is pretty easy, just select a fill texture for a floor, border texture for a wall and draw a polygon for the bounds of a room.  (There is a “snap” checkbox to snap it to the grid.  Also, make sure you check the box that the shape is a “room/corridor.”)  The random dungeon generator does rooms this way now as well.  Anyway, once that has been set up you can right click any room/corridor/area created this way and hide or show it.  The first room you click this way will hide the rest of the map.  Each time you click a new area will let you show the area.  You can also go back and hide a room again.  There is also a menu item in “Options” called “Show All Rooms/Areas” which when checked will show the whole map even if some rooms are set to be hidden.
• Map Upload: This feature is meant to facilitate play by message board or play remotely (over a phone line, skype, hangouts, etc.)  It is sort of a very poor man’s virtual table top.  I recommend you turn on “grid numbers” (left sidebar) so players can shout out/type “I’m moving to 23.10″ for example.  Anyway, once you’ve set the map to only show the rooms the PCs know about (see prior point) go the the “File” menu and choose “Upload.”  A pop-up with instructions appears.  You can upload the whole map or click-drag on the map to create a rectangle (which will be outlined in red).  Then the whole map or the selected area will be uploaded to a folder on the dungeonographer website.  You’ll see the web address and an id code in the response message when successfully uploaded.  And you can tell your players the address and code. You can repeat this as often as needed during your session.  The id of the file on the website will be the same until Dungeonographer is restarted.

But then I thought there are probably a bunch of other small publishers, blog writers, electronic game publishers, etc., who could also benefit from a large collection of monster art.  So I thought it made sense to Kickstart that specific task as well.

The initial goal is worthwhile, but not huge and difficult: 100 monster images covering over 50 different creatures. (In some cases we do 4 versions of common creatures, in other cases we do 2 versions, and other creatures are rarer so I only plan to do 1 of each of those.)

But even better, if we meet the initial goal, we’ll keep putting the money toward more art and grow the collection. Wouldn’t it be crazy/fun to do all the monsters in the 3.5 SRD? (We’re not biased toward 3.5; Its simply an easy baseline on which to settle.)

There are two sets of rewards: a less expensive set intended for web/electronic (non-PDF) publishing (on-line games, “apps”, blogs, general website graphics) and another set meant for PDF and print publishing. The latter will have mostly 1/4 page @ 300dpi size graphics, but at least 10% and likely 20% will be full page. The print/pdf versions could always be scaled down to sizes appropriate for web/electronic use.

I think/hope this is a great way for other blog writers to inexpensively add more art to their posts, allow other small publishers to improve the quality of their art or shift their budgets to more custom art by using this collection, etc.

Here is the project page: Monster Stock Art Kickstarter

The other Kickstarter project is: Monster Stand Ins

A little over a month ago when I was able to fulfill all the Kickstarter pledges for DungeonMorph Dice, I had extras of 2 of the 3 sets. The manufacturer recently sent me more dice, and now I do have all 3 sets in stock. I’ve also put together a bundle of all 3 sets at a discounted price. The cards, font, and battlemats are also available. (In fact, the battlemats are free until bandwidth becomes an issue.)

Link: DungeonMorphs – Dungeon Geomorph Dice, Cards, Font & More

In case you’re unfamiliar with the project, DungeonMorph Dice are 3 sets of 5 dice each where each side of each die is a different 10×10 connectible dungeon or cavern geomorph. Each die is approximately 1″ in size due to the complexity of the designs.

And here are a couple of selected reviews:
http://www.gameknightreviews.com/2011/12/product-review-dungeonmorph-dice-and-cards-from-inkwell-ideas/
http://monodesire.blogspot.com/2011/12/dungeonmorph-dice.html

Finally, don’t forget I’ve also got my next Kickstarter going now: Monster Stand-Ins (Plastic Card Miniatures) – Kickstarter

A centaur and a cyclops, a griffin and a unicorn — and their bones — not the usual stuff of science exhibits.

Entitled “Mythological Wildlife,” the exhibit aims to make folks think about how we know what is real, says museum director Richard White. A paleontologist, White says the exhibit also looks at how folklore might hold a few hidden scientific stories.

Full Article

Monster Stand-Ins

The new-news is that I’m able to include 12 plastic card stands with each set of Monster Stand-Ins.  If you’re unfamiliar with the project, or you missed the last update (a la carte pricing; increase from 160 to 200 minis) please keep reading.

Monster Stand-Ins are a set of 200 plastic card miniatures (like cardboard minis, but on credit-card-like plastic) of creatures for games that use miniatures. Use them when you don’t have enough miniatures or don’t have the right miniature. The front of each will have a full-color picture of a creature and the back will have a matching silhouette.

The plastic makes them much more durable than home-printed minis or even cardboard minis. Because they are plastic, you can also freely write on them with a dry erase maker. Writing the hits taken, special conditions, or even Kobold #12 on the mini itself makes tracking which creature is which and which has been hit much easier.

So originally the project was to do 160 miniatures.  However now the set will come with 200 plastic-card minis.  Also, anyone who orders one physical set may order extras in an almost a la carte fashion: order an extra card’s worth of minis for just $.50.  There are 8 small creatures on a card, 4 mediums on a card, 2 larges or 1 huge per card.  The project page lists which creatures are on each planned card in the set, and for the most part it makes sense.  (The 4 skeletons are on a card, the 2 owlbears are on the same card, etc.)  So if you want around 50 orcs, you can get them for just about $6. (Plus the cost of 1 base set.)

Finally, as noted in the first line, the set will in fact include 12 plastic card stands.  If you need more, pledge an extra $3 for 20 more.  They will primarily be black, but if there is high interest in giving a variety of colors we can do that.

Honestly, I had a similar idea for miniatures in a different genre.  But I’m not a sculptor, nor do I have any experience with creating miniatures, so I decided to kick off my “Monster Stand-Ins” (plastic card minis) Kickstarter project.  (The purpose and price points and genres are so different that they aren’t really competing.)  And of course I’ve got Dungeonographer, Hexographer, the Coat of Arms Designer, and other tools on this site…

Anyway, I’d love to see how far Crossover Miniatures can go.  Can we snap off/on (or even glue) different pairs of legs, torsos, and heads?  Sort of like a 3 piece model kit. Maybe optionally add a few more things like a cape, hood, weapon, etc.  It should be just a few pieces per mini to keep complexity down and ensure that most legs can fit with most torsos and most torsos can fit with most heads.  (Of course, you may need a few classes of mini parts.  For example: regular men, hulk-like men, aliens  and women.)

Please check out the Crossover Miniatures project and consider supporting it.

Orders through Tuesday will be sent out priority mail to help make get them into Santa’s sleigh.

Also, please check out my next Kickstarter project: Monster Stand-Ins.  The project is a set of over 150 cardboard minis, but printed on credit-card-like plastic for improved durability and dry-erasability (mark hits taken, special conditions, or even “Kobold #10″ on the mini itself.)

But meanwhile, I couldn’t wait any longer to start my next Kickstarter Project: Monster Stand-Ins.  (I simply love creating things and being able to share them.)  Here’s the project introduction from the Kickstarter page:

Monster Stand-Ins are a set of plastic card miniatures of creatures for role-playing games or war games or board games. Use them when you don’t have enough miniatures or don’t have the right miniature. The front of each will have a full-color picture of a creature and the back will have a matching silhouette.

They will be printed on the same kind of plastic used for credit cards, which make them much more durable than home-printed minis or even cardboard minis. Because they are plastic, you can freely write on them with a dry erase maker. They will also have shield and health icons on the back to optionally note the creature’s armor class and hit points (or hits taken if the GM doesn’t want to tell the players the starting hit points.)  Writing the hits taken, special conditions, or even “Kobold #12″ makes tracking which creature is which and which has been hit much easier.

I really hope I’m able to offer a good value and thought of a useful evolution of the core concept.  Please consider making a pledge!

• Now you can set the hex sizes (number of pixels wide) to several values between 18 and 48.  The values in the drop-down were chosen because they make a proper (or nearly proper) hexagon when you apply the math.  I think.
• The above change caused changes throughout the tool to dynamically size the map icons, etc.
• You can now load and save a map in a native XML format.  Previously the only way to save the map was to export it to Hexographer’s format.
• And you can now export the map as a PNG image.

The hex width is set using a drop-down in the upper left corner.  The load/save/export as PNG features are invoked with buttons near the bottom of the interface.

You can get it here: worldmap.jar

(Save it to your computer.  If Java is installed on your computer correctly, you should be able to just double-click it to run it.)