Pocket Version

I stumbled onto the Lone Wolf Roleplaying group on Google+ the other day while doing some research for my project. Lots of great ideas floating around there. One thread was about using only a small pocket sized Moleskin sketchbook or notebook and pencil as a solo RPG toolbox. I like the idea a lot. In the realm of design, constraints often foster simplification, streamlining, and fresh thinking on weathered ideas.

So I started thinking a bit about what this project would look like if I applied the 3.5 x 5.5 Moleskin constraint. Then I started mocking up some hex grids and die roll lookup tables in Photoshop, but that was extremely time consuming, so then I dusted off my coding knowledge and wrote a little app that lets me build and save any sized hex grid with any sized labeled hexes, D6 lookup tables, etc.

Even if I don't end up using the Moleskin size constraint for my final product, I can definitely use the app I built to make maps and tables for any size format I go with.

3.5 X 5.5 inch two-page spreads

11x17 hex grid spread at 3.5 x 5.5 inches

D6 lookup table. Need to roll 3D6? Just plop 3 fingers down on the spread.

Here's a random hex cell lookup table for my 11x17 hex grid. It's basically just a D187 table.

Here's what a digit-based D6 lookup table would look like. I can change it to work with any kind of die: D4, D8, D20, d53, etc....

If you are as big of a geek as I am and have any use for these grids or lookup tables, feel free to snag them: right-click>open image in new tab>save as. The images are all 3.5x5.5 inches at 300DPI for printing.

Anyways, it's time to get back to finishing the first draft of my game ruleset, but this was an interesting and productive diversion/thought experiment which produced an asset creation tool that I can use moving forward....