Re: Spelljamming DM Utilities

Well, I tried OpenRPG (http://www.openrpg.com, of course) a while ago and
was pleasantly surprised... IT SUPPORTS HEXES!!! (that and it's stable).
With the addition of a nice starry background, of which there are millions
available, you've got a nice copy of the basic Spelljammer playmat.

All models that are imported into the program must be online (this is done
partly to avoid some nasty issues that WebRPG had with miniatures).
Unfortunately, you can't rotate models, unless you make 6 pics (or 4,
really, with some inversion) of every model, but you can use directional
markers on them (an arrow pointing in the direction of heading or facing).
3D combat isn't very viable in this environment, though you could probably
do it very crudely by adding the ship height to the label of every mini...
this is pretty much what 2e SJ does with the little yellow markers, if
you've ever used that optional rule.

What I previously thought impossible - playing Spelljammer games over long
distances - is now quite easy to accomplish. The major barrier is getting
good ship mini. I don't know how many people use OpenRPG, but if it is a
substantial amount a page of minis might be a good addition to one of the
larger Spelljammer sites.

(Also, on a related note, you can import deckplans into it to run ship-board
combats, assuming you find good PC/NPC/monster minis you like.)

Slight warning: The program is still in alpha, and can be finicky if you
mess up on syntax. I've never tested it with actual Spelljammer, but have
used it for standard 3e combats without a glitch, and generally abused it by
throwing various errors its way, most of which it has managed to avoid
(stuff that would kill WebRPG when I tried it a year earlier).

As stipulated by the original poster, it's free and open-source, and under
license to keep it that way forever. Powered by Python, not sure whether it
can run on non-IBM-compatibles, but probably yes.



¤ A Psh



-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Conner [mailto:raconner@?????.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2001 9:36 AM
Subject: Spelljamming DM Utilities


Hello

Tilaurin posted a web site for a free mapping program that I had never heard
of before. This got me to thinking, something I do every so often!

How many of you out their know of web site's that have utilities for
Spelljamming or utilities that could be adopted for spelljamming! Lets put a
list of these utilities together! Let's stick to the free software site's.

Maybe Static can have links to the web site's, If the owner's of these web
site's agree.
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