D20PRO Community Update
By
By KrilionGD, D20PRO Community Manager
Hello, everyone! As some of you may already know, I am Krilion GreyDragon (D20PRO Community Manager), and I will be trying very hard to maintain a weekly update for D20PRO. I hope to outline what is currently going on behind the scenes, in the marketplace, answer questions, give some tips and otherwise be a first point of contact or bridge to the community.
It is my hope that I will be able to help everyone in what ever aspect it is that they need help with — whether that is a technical issue, a tip or trick on how to mold the software to make it do what you want, or just a simple question about the future of D20PRO. If there is something I do not know or cannot answer, I will do my best to find it out for you.
A little about myself: I’ve been gaming since the mid 80s, cut my teeth on D&D of course. In the decades that followed I ran a Bulletin Board System (BBS/Fidonet) for gaming before there was a public internet. I met my wife of twenty years at a Shadowrun game. We have two wonderful daughters, who also love gaming. We all enjoy a multitude of various RPG games and often get games just to read the rule sets.
I am a Texas native; I spent some time on the Mescalero/Apache reservation in New Mexico. I spent a few years in South Korea while I was in the Army. BBS’ing got me into computers, which led to being a PC tech for many years. Since then I have moved into web design and databases and dabbled in a fair share of programming languages though I haven’t really mastered any of them yet.
I look forward to meeting everyone.
News this week:
- We did a ‘Free RPG Day’ set of contests; thank you to those that participated. We are still trying to reach some of the participants to give out awards. If you are one of those individuals, please drop me (krilion_gd) a pvt msg on the forums; please include the contest# you responded to.
- The Rules Sets for D&D and Pathfinder got a small update on the marketplace. A new markers.zip was added. The new version has 300+ map markers in it which is about double the previous version count. You can find them in the marketplace at (Pathfinder) and (D&D).
Note: If you have customized your rules files, once you redownload the marketplace item, in your campaign, you can import just the markers by deselecting the other items on the import list.
- Aberrations Sample Pack is available for sale in the D20PRO Marketplace. The completion of this pack also fulfills some more of D20PRO’s Kickstarter goals for our backers. This item can be found on the market place at Aberrations Sample Pack.
Questions this week:
- Q: I backed the Kickstarter. Is there any update on this?
- A: The official status of the Kickstarter can always be found on the Kickstarter page.
- Q: I backed the Kickstarter. Will I have to pay to upgrade D20PRO? Do my guest slots carry over?
- A: This is explained on the D20PRO Unlimited Kickstarter FAQ.
Tips this week:
- Active Tokens vs Library Copy.
I find myself not keeping primary PCs and NPCs in the library. Usually what I do is create a map that has nothing on it other than a simple background and call it “TransitionMap” or “WaitingRoom”. I keep all my PCs and major NPCs on this map.
In this way, I can export this map at various times, such as just before the PCs level up — thus giving myself a backup to go to if needed. My NPCs are usually set to hidden, in case the players have not met one of the NPC tokens.
Then when I need the PCs or an NPC, I just click over to that map and move the token required to the active encounter or dungeon or whatever. Then once the encounter or scene is complete, I move them back to the “Transition” map while they are awaiting the next scene or game encounter.
In this way, I only have to worry about one set of tokens and do not have to keep an active set vs a set in the library.
Likewise, it allows players to roll things and do stuff from their characters when you are out of scene or not on a specific encounter map or the like. Give it a try. It might work for you…
- Game Organization.
Mindmaps are a fantastic way for a GM to visually keep track of all those pesky details in a game. Mindmaps are essentially flowcharts on steroids. Many of them are totally free or opensource. These offer a way not only to keep notes, add pictures or even web links, but it offers a great way to visualize exactly how everything in your game relates to everything else.
Krilion GreyDragon (Krilion_GD)
D20PRO Community Manager
