I wanna RPG. Not just battle

I assume you would want to be able to move these crates, tables, etc.

Your best bet is to make creatures and use the images on the creature. that way you can easily move them, damage them, and rotate them.

For your wall of fire drop a red template in the area to show the area is covered in fire.

 

A creature works great as a chest. Since you can have items on its items tab. So when it is opened you can drop the items from the creature right onto the map.

 

Try www.dundjinni.com Check out the forums.

 

As for items, the problem you might run into is if you really want to role play it then players should not know they are looking at a "staff of the magi" - they should have it identified. So what should be displayed is "ornate staff" - and the item should have a trigger on it for the GM that says unidentified. If the trigger is flipped then it is identified as what it truly is.

 

To make the life of the GM easier, said "trigger" could be based off of the system's rules. So say in Pathfinder it is Detect Magic spell, then K: Arcana to identify the aura and then Spellcraft with the appropriate DC. So you could set the DC threshold and once the players roll higher than that threshold, the name changes to what it exactly is. You could also use this type of feature for setting secret door DC's, traps, disable device...you get the picture. This way the PC's can walk around a room see the description's of items in the room and then begin searching (in 4E you could also use the Passive skill number as the PC walks past an item).

 

One reason creatures don't work great as objects right now is because they must be square—no rectangle or triangle shapes are possible. Just thought I'd point that out. IT might be hard to make a bench or table, for example.

 

Can't they be png's with the alpha channel? If so, then you could make whatever shape you wanted. Yes, the outline would be square, but what the character sees is the triangle, bench or table.

 

Good point! Nice thinking.

 

I have used the Image Scaler to "paint" Transparent PNGs that are rectangular. It's a little bit clunky interface-wise, though. Instructions on how to use it are here:
http://help.mindgene.com/tools/map-tools/image-scaler

I have a few defaults, like arrow overlays for stairs that indicate which way is down, or $ marks for secret doors that are 1x2 for straight walls or 2x2 to line up with diagonals. You can use the visibility controls on tiles the same as creatures, and they don't clutter up in the roster either.

 

the problem i see here is this -

Monsters - the only option is a tile identifier, this is acceptable but to be honest I would like the ability to use an actual sprite with transparency.
Monster chests - works but what about locks or traps on the chest? As a GM I would need the ability to prevent the players from accessing the chest BEFORE they 'unlock' it through role play as well as trigger traps as necessary
Items - all are outlined and obvious, what about a gm trigger or something allowing a player to find it without metagaming
Items - need ability to prevent players from seeing unidentified name / abilities (a work around would be GM makes two items and replaces one with the other once identified)
Universal issue - objects should not have a 'square' on them. If a square can be displayed there must be a way to 'hide' this outline
Universal issue - limiting an object to a square shape, this is unfortunate as some rather large items will exist in game that do not conform to this shape

 

The only work around for items / chests until such features are added is to create the container or item, set it to invisible, and make it visible once it is discovered or unlocked via role play