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Comissar
2017-10-03, 04:30 AM
Hey, so, not sure if this should be here or in arts and crafts, but I figure since it's directly for a game I'd ask here first.

I'm currently running a Masks: A New Generation game and I want to create a handout to go along with a plot point that's going to come up in the next couple of sessions. The quick version is that the heroes have discovered an underground laboratory with a lot of unpowered equipment in it with, presumably, nefarious purpose behind it. The team has a tech focused Delinquent, and an electric powered Nova on it, so I'm 90% sure they'll try and get everything turned on so they can figure out what it's about. This feeds in to a plan I have for a future arc, which is going to be based on alternate timelines and realities, that I want to start hinting at here. My idea is that the machines they've found are capable of providing information on a variety of times and realities. This'll get displayed on the screens but, due to the neglect the machines have suffered due to abandonment (as well as wanting to preserve some mystery), the displays are going to be a garbled mess with only some sentence fragments being legible. These fragments are going to be things that people have said or will say (going to try and do some predictions of what the PC's will say, as well as seed some of the comments throughout NPC conversations).

Now ideally, I'd like to have the handouts be the screen displays. In my head, it's an old style black screen with green text overlaid on it. The sentence fragments would ideally be spaced around the screen (maybe 5-6 fragments per screen), with the rest of the space being an illegible, distorted mess. I had a quick look for text scramblers online, but none of them seemed to match what I was looking for. However, I'm also not quite sure what terms I should be using to search, and I was hoping some of you may know of a tool I could use to achieve my goal?

Failing anything else, I'll just have to boot up photoshop and do it the old fashioned way :smalltongue:

Grod_The_Giant
2017-10-03, 01:56 PM
Could you maybe use the Fallout hacking minigame as a starting point?

(Also, love the Pokemon art in your sig)

Comissar
2017-10-03, 03:01 PM
Could you maybe use the Fallout hacking minigame as a starting point?

(Also, love the Pokemon art in your sig)

Had a quick google (never actually played fallout), but that looks like a good starting point!

And thanks! :smallsmile:

ATHATH
2017-10-04, 12:26 AM
Look up "Zalgo Generator".

Also, are you sure that you want to introduce time-travel/time-related elements to your campaign? They tend to produce LOTS of plot holes and general confusion, and I've never seen a time-travel plot executed perfectly.

An alternative to time travel that I like to use is traveling to parallel dimensions that are exactly like your own, but created X amount of time before or after your dimension was created.

Comissar
2017-10-04, 01:33 AM
Look up "Zalgo Generator".

Also, are you sure that you want to introduce time-travel/time-related elements to your campaign? They tend to produce LOTS of plot holes and general confusion, and I've never seen a time-travel plot executed perfectly.

An alternative to time travel that I like to use is traveling to parallel dimensions that are exactly like your own, but created X amount of time before or after your dimension was created.

The time travel is strictly with a single character, and it's a single NPC. Even then, the time travel is alternate worlds type time travel (following multiverse theory). I also think my players are unlikely to try and abuse it. The only part of it that is trying to straight up predict what's going to happen is the display of the machine, and on that I'm going to be keeping it vague anyway.

Regarding the Zalgo Generator, I did see that, and I may end up using elements of it, but my problem with it is that I don't have the control I want for what's legible and what isn't. Appreciate the suggestion, though!

Mordaedil
2017-10-04, 05:37 AM
If you want that, I recommend just keeping a couple of windows open, one with more legible result and one with more obfuscated and then copy from both and paste them together.

It uses some special characters that are in the font-table for certain languages that have that side-effect if you stack them up enough, so it should come together. If it doesn't quite fit together as you want, try typing the full sentences out and copy paste from how you want it.

Mutazoia
2017-10-04, 05:50 AM
Photoshop is a bit too overpowered for what you are trying to do, but your on the right track. Create a JPG at 150 - 300 DPI and type out your info. Save the file. With the file still open, reduce the dpi to 72 dpi or less (the lower the dpi, the more pixellated it will get when printed) and save. Now, on the low rez file, cut out the words or sentences that you want to remain sharp and readable, and make that area transparent. Save THAT version as a separate jpg. Copy/pasta the lower resolution file (the one that has been cut up) on top of the higher one. Compress the layers, save that as a 3rd file (at 300 dpi), and print. Or just print straight from photoshop, but keep both the high and low rez (un-cut) versions of the image, so you can do this trick again to reveal more data as necessary.

Since ( I assume ) you will be using a black background to simulate the computer screen, the lower resolution file will act as a mask for the higher resolution one. The mask will print blurry as all hell, but the parts under it at the higher resolution will be perfectly readable through the cut out (transparent) areas, and the black backgrounds should merge so that the cutting shouldn't be easily apparent.

donpaul
2018-05-02, 02:05 AM
Hi,

I know I'm too late for this reply but this method worked for me. So, I'm just putting it out there so that other people too can refer to it. :)

You can actually use Zalgo Texts, that will get you exactly what you want.

Reference Links:

1. http://www.zalgotextgenerator.com/
2. https://www.techwhoop.com/zalgo-text-generator/