In-Game PnP Table with DM. On the fly encounters, Proper PnP gameplay within NwN.

Comments

• Tonden Member Posts: 223

  February 2018 edited February 2018

  This is an Overland Map Travel Tileset I started working on.
  
  The idea is that DMs could create a world map using it and put placeables for all the key points of interests. triggers would be placed on each tile and upon enter there would be a 35% chance during the day and a 20% chance at nice of an random encounter. If an encounter is triggered then it would send the party to a random encounter area that matched the terrain tile the players entered on the overland map. This area would spawn a random encounter. Once the players exit the random area they would be put back at the same location they were at on the overland map. Then once they reached a placeable they could click on it to enter a key interest area.
  
  The idea is to be able to cover a large area without having to make a bunch of pointless areas, while at the same time still giving you enough random encounters between key interest points.
  
  To me its kind of like the map in the middle of the table during PnP games and your PC's are like the figs. But when you enter a key point of interest area then its more like an 3d game.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I'm not sure if something like this is what you had in mind.
  
  
  
  
  

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• Volsys Member Posts: 4

  February 2018

  At its purest form, every player joins with their normal NWN client, and virtually sits in my toolset-pre-made "PnP room" and we all play PnP DnD, rolling virtual dice for many typical things similar to what youd find in openrpg/roll20/fantasy grounds.
  
  I would DM in the traditional fashion over a voice app within the DM client "You see a long dark hallway and hear a hollow scratching from a nearby door" and players would respond in fashion. Should someone decide to open the door, I would then transport these players to the encounter where I would continue to DM with the typical NWN DM client fashion. Once the encounter is over, transport everyone back to the room and continue the traditional PnP session.
  
  Something like your example that would indeed work as it's along the same lines. However the overall session would still reside in that room like a traditional DnD session.
  
  This allows an unprecedented amount of freedom for the players, and far less module-making time for the DM. I always felt it would be the best way to play NwN mimicking the PnP experience.

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• SaintPhillip Member Posts: 59

  February 2018

  So how would combat be handled- Typical P&P die rolls or action combat?

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• Volsys Member Posts: 4

  February 2018 edited February 2018

  Almost all combat would all be handled via the NWN engine in the game unless it was a minor encounter. I would either transport the players to a premade-encounter for specific encounters, or to one of the premade-empty-spaces (cave, castle, room, wilderness, etc) where I would spawn the encounter.
  
  Everything else is roll played at the table, with the occasional premade non-combat encounter with merchants, quest givers, nobility, theives guild, i.e any type of person or persons they'd have reason to be in a room with (outside of pure parley which is handled at the PnP table). For example I had a "shop" premade with the furnished room and the shopkeeper. The idea was to roleplay the shopkeeper and drop items purchased on the fly. I had plans like that for many of the main characters we'd see throughout the campaign.
  
  Again this allows so much more free-form in both what a DM can present and handle, both pre-planned and on-the-fly, and offer players an almost unrestricted world similar to a PnP session. It would feel far more like everyone sitting at a PnP table until combat happens, then transporting the characters to resolve that combat.
  
  Its basically Fantasy Grounds with NwN handling the combat, but in a far more cooler and useful way.
  

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• Maloney Member Posts: 8

  February 2018 edited February 2018

  That looks amazing, Tonden. I think an overworld map with a regionized random encounter system makes a ton of sense for both downloadable adventures and PWs, and would save people from needing to make a bunch of mostly empty zones and needing to fill them, and would also make it easier to help players find eachother in the world rather than having a couple of players spread out over 50 areas.

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