The Battle Board Builder

A Battle Board is the map players move their miniatures on to show where they stand during an encounter. The Battle Board Builder is the webpage in which you will build the Battle Boards for your campaign.

The builder is separated into three parts. On the far left is the Battle Board Form where details are filled in about the map such as its name and size. The grid in the middle is where the Map will be drawn. And on the far right are the Drawing Tools.

Basically....

To draw a map - select an image out of the Drawing Tools by clicking its radio button and then click in the Map where you want that image to appear. To quickly fill an area double-click a square, run your mouse over the squares to be filled and then double-click the last square to get out of fill mode.

Note that images are either (Clear) or (Blocked) in the Drawing Tools. No matter how it looks, a character cannot move into or through a blocked square. Lastly, give the Battle Board a name and click Record Changes. If you ever need to make changes to it, clicking its title in the "Other Battle Boards" section will load it into the Builder for changes.

The Battle Board Form.

On the far left is the form where you will record various bits of information about the Battle Board. All changes need to be recorded with a click of the "Record Changes" button to be put into effect.

Name - Typically it is a good idea to name the Battle Board after the encounter it will be used in. Depending on whether you are creating a new Battle Board or editing an old one a number of different items can appear in this area.

The "Start Over with a Blank Form" checkbox will discard the current Battle Board, losing all changes made, and return to the Battle Board Builder's default settings when you click the "Record Changes" button.

If you are editing a Battle Board, a checkbox named "Duplicate" will appear in this area. Clicking it will create a duplicate of the current map but under whatever name you provide. If you change the name but do not click Duplicate you will simply change the name of the current map. For this reason, the original name of the Battle Board will appear in red above the name box.

Columns and Rows
The numbers put into these boxes control the size of the map. 18 Columns and 21 Rows creates a page of graph paper 18 steps wide and 21 steps high. The size of the graph paper only effects the visibility of the map you have drawn. If you shorten a 20x20 map to 10x10. A big chunk of the map will simply not be visible. The details of the map are not erased and changing its size back to 20x20 will show them once again.

Both columns and rows max out at 999 squares. Unfortunately, the javascript used to power the Battle Board will grow uncomfortably sluggish around 400, so for optimal performance try to keep your maps smaller than 200 each.

Move Map
These two list boxes allow you to move the details of the map by a number of steps (aka squares) horizontally or vertically. Adding rows and columns to a map always expands the page in a southern or eastern direction, so to draw into the north or west you need to add page space and then use the Move Map boxes to shuffle the detail down to where you can add onto them.

Magnification
100% magnification shows you what the players will see when they use the map. Changing it to 50% or 25% will zoom out and make it easier to draw the map. Magnification is only used in the Battle Board Builder and has no effect on the map's actual use.

Delete this Board
Checking this box and clicking Record Changes will delete the board currently loaded into the editor.

Other Battle Boards
This is a list of the Battle Boards you have made for this campaign. Clicking a title discards any changes you may have made to the current Battle Board and loads the new one into the editor.

The Map.

The map is always titled with the Campaign Name and the Battle Board's name (if any) Unlike the actual Battle Board used in a game of the ToAd it comes with numbered rows and columns which are there as nothing more than a guide to you in building the map.

To draw on the map simply pick an image out of the drawing tools and click in the square where you want it to appear. If you don't like it, pick a different image and click in that square.

To quickly fill an area with one image, double-click a square to go into fill mode and then run your mouse pointer over the area. Once finished, double-click again to get out of fill mode.

The Drawing Tools.

These are the images on the far right hand side of the screen. Basically you click on the radio button in the row of the image you want and then tap your mouse on the map to draw with it. Note that the images come in two flavors: (Clear) and (Blocked). No matter how the images may appear, characters can only move through squares marked as (Clear). Blocked are blocked.

Set Name
Currently there is only one set of images known as the "Basic Map." In the future the ToAd plans to have different sets which are more atmospheric such as Caverns, Swampland, Castle or Starship. When this happens you will be able to select them using this box.

Type
The type box limits your selection of images, making it easier to quickly put up walls and doors and such.

Player Start Circles
One image which has no counterpart in the world of gaming is the player start circle. These are essential in that they detail where the player's icons will appear when the Battle Board is first entered. If no player circles are drawn into the map the players will be stacked on top of each other in the upper left hand corner and quite possibly trapped by being dropped in a blocked square. Always include player start circles!

Space, Blank
This "image" always appears in the drawing tools, using it will clean out any square it is clicked on. All new maps contain nothing but blank space, and generally the more blank space a map contains the more efficiently it will run.