Questions from a prospective GM

[Trantor_Trollbane]

Hi all,

I have about a year of RPG experience, all via PBP, but I'm interested in trying my hand at running my own game. I've looked through some of the posts found in the Tips for GM's thread which have been helpful, but I have a few other questions I'm hoping to get some input on.

-The system I plan to use is Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells, but the book doesnt go into GM'ing at all. Can anyone provide some input on how you would go about setting up combats? How many enemies, how stong of enemies, etc? I'm not going for the lethality of OSR games, SS&SS does treat its characters as somewhat powerful, but not neccesarily as balanced as something like 5E, where fights are generally all pretty manageable, (this could simply take some trial and error which is fine too).

-I want to run a hex crawl sandbox game, so I'll be looking at generating a random world map with a hex grid with rows and columns numbered so I can keep track of POI's and party locations. Is their a file size limitation for uploading map images in the forum? And can anyone recommend a free resource for generating a map like this? Also, I do pretty much all this on my phone/tablet, so mobile friendly is a huge plus.

That's it for now, though I'm sure I'll have more as I continue getting my notes and thoughts togethor. Thanks in advance for you help!

[GreyWolfVT]

Knowing absolutely nothing about SS&SS I would say based on the minor bit of research that perhaps referring to a DM's Guide for an OSR system that is similar? I see there is also a SS&SS Addendum book not sure what that has in it just noticed it was out there. I see mention that SS&SS is compatible if not part of or similar to Swords & Sorcery I think they have a DM Guide though again it is a system i am unfamiliar with but I know we have DM's on here that have run and played that perhaps they can chime in with better advice than I have.

[dmw71]

Can anyone provide some input on how you would go about setting up combats? How many enemies, how stong of enemies, etc?

I wouldn't.

I want to run a hex crawl sandbox game...

Especially in a hex crawl game.

A general geographic region couldn't care less how powerful an adventuring party is, and should possess threats that are both within their capabilities, and far exceeding them. I've never heard of the 'Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells' game, but it sounds D&D-ish. Assuming they're similar, a party could just as easily run into a single giant rat as they could witness a dragon flying overhead. One they could easily manage; the other, not so much.

As the saying goes: "Discretion is always the better part of valor."

However...

For a specific POI, sure, it is perfectly reasonable to use a general challenge rating (or hit die total, or whatever measurement your game system uses) to plan the different challenges.

Matt Colville has a good video on challenge rating -- Challenge Rating, Running the Game #44 -- and the way he uses it (which he discusses at the 1:38 mark) might be useful for you.

I'll be looking at generating a random world map with a hex grid with rows and columns numbered so I can keep track of POI's and party locations. Is their a file size limitation for uploading map images in the forum? And can anyone recommend a free resource for generating a map like this? Also, I do pretty much all this on my phone/tablet, so mobile friendly is a huge plus.

I haven't used it myself (yet), and I don't even remember how I first came across it, but I bookmarked a tool that might be useful for you:

Hex Describe

Edit

Holy $%^&, this site/tool is awesome!

I didn't do anything other than press the 'Submit' button at the bottom of the page and it generated a MASSIVE hex map, fully detailed. I took a scrolling screen grab of the resulting screen and it was HUGE -- the image was 2,594 x 164,190 pixels (I'm not sure why Windows Explorer is displaying the vertical pixels as 33,118?) and the JPEG file was over 100MB!

File.jpg (95.67 KiB) Viewed 940 times

Unsurprisingly, attempting to attach it resulted in a "File too large" error:

File too large.jpg (23.77 KiB) Viewed 940 times

I don't know what this file size limit is (this might be a Greg (ToniXX) question, but I assume it's something reasonable. I know I personally use uploaded images all the time and have never had an issue.


If you do, however, encounter the error, I can think of a couple ways off the top of my head to overcome it:

1. Hosting the original image on an external site and just referencing it here; or
   * See: How Do I Add A Picture To A Post?
   
   
   I use the second method described personally, not the first (which would be required in this case), but I assume the process described still works (the post was from 2012 and a significant update to the forums was performed earlier this year/late later year? that might have changed some functionality.
   
   Someone here, I'm sure, will be able to assist.
2. Resizing the image into something more manageable.

[dmw71]

I'll be looking at generating a random world map with a hex grid with rows and columns numbered so I can keep track of POI's and party locations.

The Fantasy World Generator tool on the donjon website (which is awesome!) also has a 'Hex Grid?' option and the resulting file produces, as you might expect, hexes on the map.

Both are probably worth exploring to see if they'll work for your needs, and I'm sure other tools exist as well.


thirdkingdom (who's all about the hex!) might be able to lend an assist here.

[Trantor_Trollbane]

Thanks all, a lot of good info here!