Could you write about Masterplan?
Would you like to write an article for the Masterplan blog?
You might write about how you organise adventures with Masterplan, how it has affected your DM style, or perhaps about a particular feature you find useful. Maybe you’ve learned some tricks that you’d like to share. Maybe you’d like to go the whole hog and write a whole series of articles detailing the creation of an adventure – that would certainly be useful to those who are new to Masterplan.
If you’re interested, email us (masterplan@habitualindolence.net) and we’ll organise an account for you.
September 4th, 2010 at 9:30 pm
I’m new to Masterplan, and haven’t been involved in a role-playing campaign for a number of years. I used to DM campaigns many years ago. Lately I’ve been looking at a lot of the RPG tech tools that are now available to assist the GM and players, and of all the tools I’ve looked at I think Masterplan has taken the best approach. There appears to be a move to fully network pen&paper RPGs (eg. along the lines of Fantasy Grounds II) but my opinion is that to get the most out of a pen&paper RPG the GM and players need to be physically in the same room. That’s why I think Masterplan will achieve greater success than the networking softwares. I’m still working out how to fully use Masterplan, but my impression is that the GM runs the game from his own PC monitor and also controls a second monitor where the players (who are in the same room) can view maps (etc). (I hope that’s correct!) I think this is the best way forward for RPG pen&paper gaming. I think the path that many software developers are heading down in their attempt to completely network pen&paper RPG gaming will lead to a dead-end because it will be unwieldy and unsatisfying.
September 5th, 2010 at 9:52 pm
While I haven’t actually been a DM, while using Masterplan (only two dungeons because our regular DM for the campaign didn’t have time to sit down and prepare a session) I actually find it extremely useful. If one can figure out how to use Masterplan, it can really save them some time preparing for the next session, but if they can’t, Masterplan is like a giant chunk of concrete smashed on top of your feet. They will try to do something, but they won’t get anywhere.
As a D&D 4.0E “Area Designer” I usually only use the software for designing the combat areas and assigning zones where there might be something special (trigger plates, spike pits, magic circles, shallow or deep water, etc.), which ends up with some often pretty good areas. My latest is a large dwarven mine, with 4-6 combat areas, terrain features in every combat area and plenty of options for the players (some rooms allow them to sneak around behind a wall standing 5 foot from the edge of the room, allowing them to get a surprise attack from behind, others encourage alternate thinking, rather than “move 6 squares and hit it with my sword” but instead “use some spell to pull, push or slide the enemy into a certain space which has greater impact on its HP than hitting it with your sword.
However, Masterplan is primarily made for keeping track of all the DM’s notes and the different creatures’ HP and Initiative, and generally making the job easier for a DM.
September 6th, 2010 at 10:08 am
Perhaps you would like to share some of these maps with the community?
September 7th, 2010 at 4:30 am
I’ve done several adventures already with MP, and have run my party through almost all. I find it helps me to flesh out things as I go along, and it’s very easy to change things around. It beats eraser marks all over the paper! My encounters rarely end up the same way they started.
What sort of timeline are you thinking of for article preparation and posting?
September 7th, 2010 at 10:23 am
Any timeline you like; contributors will get an account and can post as often as they wish.
September 7th, 2010 at 10:48 am
I already have a few articles up about Masterplan on my own blog(http://www.auforge.com/), and will continue to expand those. I would be happy to do a few posts for you guys as well though.
September 16th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
I have been using Masterplan to design a “mega-dungeon”, large enough to bring a group of six characters from 3rd to 8th level. I’d be interested in sharing this development process with people on the blog, and what I have learned in doing so.
September 16th, 2010 at 6:44 pm
As an aside, we are five sessions and one level into said mega-dungeon (“Eteminaki, the Citadel of Ancient DOOM!”) so I have some actual play experience with using Masterplan in encounters and to manage my notes.
September 16th, 2010 at 6:49 pm
Sure, send us your name and email address and we’ll set up an account.
September 17th, 2010 at 7:26 am
Regarding the question about whether I want to share some of my maps with others:
I see no reason why I should want to keep the maps secret from the world. The only thing keeping me from having published them yet, is that I don’t know exactly how I publish them. Is there some function in Masterplan designed to publish the maps or is do I just press Print Screen and then dump the screenshot into paint and upload it on DeviantArt or Photobucket?
September 17th, 2010 at 7:31 am
Another note: If you would like it, I might also be able to write a bit about what I do when I make the maps, and what I usually take into consideration and ask the DM. I have a list of things I do during the Map Design Process, that I actually think help me pretty well.
September 17th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
For those of you looking for encounter maps, feel free to drop by an old site of mine – sorry, haven’t updated in years, but the maps can be downloaded and imported into Masterplan easilly enough.
http://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/dungeonsunlimited/
Enjoy!
October 18th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
hello all first i like 2 say BIG fan of master plan can make a encounter in under 15 min if i need 2
. lost of love to you
but
i make encounter on my pc on a USB-stick but if i take that stick to the living room and try to start it up its like my librery is empty. the master plan says:
“due to copyright some files on librery can not be opend”
and its all of them. is there any way to remove that problem?
October 21st, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Your libraries cannot be moved between computers, but your project should open perfectly well.