Unorthodox DM's guide to props

[BestMori]

hi
today we're going to learn how to make your events shiny.

So first,
Why props?

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Besides just looking cool, they actually DO serve a purpose.

• Props are extremely useful for conveying information about the scene.
  
• They can be used to direct the party and help navigate them through the event.
  
• They open up new options for running the event.
  
• Helps keep the party engaged and active in the event.
  

For instance, I (ironically) don't go on events, but this is how I imagine some of you may lead the party with your lovely paragraphs:




Okay! Pretty good start! Let's check our scene, right?


And this is where I think a lot of you with really lovely writing might fall short! But it's okay, we can fix that.

For starters, let's pick a pretty location to do this thing. Ideally, you want to pick an area that is part of the Event maps, or if you have to, an over-world location that is so far out of reach, nobody will bother it.



(-Event Open World)


(-Snow Mountain Dungeon)


[img limit]

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(Far away location, 840,919,1)



You pick what best suites the tone of the event, for this example, we'll be using -Snow Mountain Dungeon.




So, let's go ahead and begin with spawning in some stone. Just to keep the immersion, I try to use a material that reflects the actual prop. (like "wood" for bookshelves, "stone" for buildings.)




Go ahead and add a description, because now, if the party clicks on the prop, it's like they're "Examining" it. We'll be spawning in 5 stone, and changing the sprite to a wall. All sprites listed at the end ..


(This is why we chose stone!)



Super cool right? Now let's spread these out, there are five of them, remember?





Oops! Why does it look like that?

And the layering! Yuck!


Here's how to fix that.
The simplest way to update the object and fix the light is to simply pick it up, and place it back down
 





Now this looks much better! The light is updated, and the layering doesn't seem so wonky anymore!


.. Except that it does this now. 


[img limit]

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What if I don't want the character to be able to walk through the decoration? Well that's a simple fix too. Unfortunately, you'll have to spawn the prop in again, so this can be very tiresome if you're working with a lot of items, but try leaving some form of placeholder so you can quickly make the edits after you screen out a map. Spawn in the fresh item (Stone), and just re-sprite it. It'll have the lighting updated and the player will be "behind" it.






Try to think carefully on how the players are going to move through the map. If they're heading South, you probably want a lot of props that obstruct the view of the characters, so it looks natural and realistic. If they're heading North, you want the characters to obstruct the props, so you don't get awkward clipping.

Combine this with other items and now you can incentivize the players for exploring the map.




For items that the player is meant to interact with, consider making the object a "Blank," so it doesn't accidentally stack and get lost in a legitimate stack of wood/stone/etc! Blank items can also be worn, so consider how that may affect your event. That is actually how I did the effect for the exploding crabs. The explosion was a prop "Blank" item!



The white flashing is merely just the block animation of the crab. No different than a normal character wearing a hat, just with some creative liberties!






Throw in some creativity with these elements and you can potentially make some very interesting scenarios.

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I hope this helps to some extent and gives some bright ideas to any aspiring DMs. s/o the map making team for making these lovely playgrounds. If I missed anything (which I probably did,) I'll edit this post at a later date, but feel free to talk to me if you have any questions on how to do certain effects.



AND REMEMBER TO CLEAN UP AFTER YOU'RE FINISHED!

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Here is the Kott Mori ApprovedTM Starter pack. This has all the sprites I've ever stolen for the purpose of entertaining people, and it's an unorganized mess. Enjoy.

[color=var(--text-link)]https://www.dropbox.com/sh/47rzm5uk9jodc...ZRQna?dl=0[/color]