D&D Nerd.com

Once again, I’ve been browsing around in search of D&D goodness that I can share with you all. This time, I’ve come across a setup that one particular DM uses which takes advantage of a projector. However, this is much different from what I had in mind when I’ve imagined this myself.

Rather than having a project sitting on a table, and shining on some sort of wall or screen, this DM mounted his projector on the ceiling. And that’s not the end of it. The projector shines down on a dry-erase board that he has mounted on the playing area.

The DM of course uses a laptop to send a display to the projector. He takes advantage of displaying his desktop across two screens, rather than just mirroring what he sees on his laptop screen to the projector. He uses Adobe Photoshop to display the maps, and through trial and error can set it up so that the squares on the whiteboard are as close to 1″x1″ as he can make it, so that it’s perfect for use with miniatures.

Now, I realize that a projector itself is no cheap investment. I also know that Adobe Photoshop isn’t cheap either. However, for those of you without the cash on hand for at least Photoshop, you may want to look into The GIMP. It’s very comparable to Adobe Photoshop, and is about as easy (or difficult) to use. Depending on your OS, you may need to install some other things in order to get it to work. However, it’s pretty easy to install and get running. It’s an image editing tool that I’ve been using for years now.

So go check out the Digital Map Projection setup! It’s something that’s making me salivate quite a bit right now. (Source: Treasure Tables)