Virtual Table Tops: Specific Features

[DMFTodd]

Having gotten frustrated with Klooge, I'm looking at changing VTT software. Specifically, I'm looking at software that can do these things:

1) Work for a 3.5 game
2) Easily import a map from an image and set a scale for it. Bonus points for unbounded maps.
3) Be able to enter a character sheet of some sort and use that for die rolling
4) Ability to handle buffs. If I get a Bull Str, the program should let me note the +4 somehow and adjust my attacks, damage, and climb rolls.
5) Can easily create tokens. Should be able to create a token cropped from a larger image.

[Merkuri]

My group uses MapTool. It's a very generic VTT but it allows a heck of a lot of customization and automation so folks have made "frameworks" for a variety of different games. Here's one for 3.5e. If you don't like that framework there might be others on the RPTools forums in the User Creations/Campaign Frameworks section, or if you're willing to put some work into it you can look into the macro "language" they have and build your own logic into the game.

Using a framework should be able to get you points 1, 3, and 4. MapTool can do 2 by itself without any extras. It can do unbounded maps, maps from one huge image, and maps built from "stamps" (smaller images that you can use to build larger maps).

You can drag any image you want into MapTool straight from your desktop or whatever file structure you have. If you have the token layer selected when you do this it'll create a token with that image. If you want to be able to crop images and give them a nice border before you tokenize them you can use TokenTool, made by the same folks.

Two of the things I like most about MapTool is that it's free and is almost constantly being updated. They're very close to finalizing the 1.3 version. The most recent version is 1.3.b59. B60 is due out soon, and there's some talk that this could be the last version in the 1.3 chain before they move onto 1.4 (where they can start drastically changing things without worrying about maintaining compatibility with older versions), so what's out now is very stable.

It's built on Java, so it'll run on just about any operating system you can think of (if it supports Java, MapTool should work on it).

[azhrei_fje]

Originally Posted by DMFTodd

Having gotten frustrated with Klooge, I'm looking at changing VTT software. Specifically, I'm looking at software that can do these things:

Well, Todd. You sat in on my Tuesday night game last week -- what did you think? We got to talk about it for about 3 minutes at the end of the session, but if you'd care to write a bit more I'd like to hear it. A few things to recap:

1. We're playing PF Beta and not 3.5, but they are very similar.

2. You didn't see much in the way of map creation. In fact, you joined a rather confusing encounter: rotating rooms within a labyrinth. When I started planning this encounter, I decided to use different maps and move the tokens between them. After running the session(s), I have now decided it would've been better to have a single MapTool "map" with four separate areas to represent the four different positions that the labyrinth could be in at any given time.

3. We're using an old version of lmarkus' 3.5E/PF framework so it's not quite as fancy as the latest and greatest, but it does have a basic character sheet function. I don't know if you got to see that; there's a Character Sheet macro for each token that brings up a summary of the stats. Clicking on a stat either (a) rolls the appropriate dice or (b) allows the user to modify the values. For example, clicking on STR rolls a strength check and clicking on Dodge let's you change the dodge modifier to AC.

4. The framework does minimal handling of buffs. I have it on my TODO list to add additional macros to handle the more common spells. The biggest issue is that there is no stacking implemented in the framework. We've been discussing this on the RPTools forum and have what we think is a solution, but it will likely be some time before it's implemented.

5. Token creation is handled via TokenTool, not MapTool. However, if you have both open at the same time you can drag-n-drop images into TokenTool, crop them as desired, then drag directly to MapTool. Since you're going to play 3.5 you really don't need to create tokens at all for monsters: check out IMarvinTPA's database (search his posts at forums.rptools.net). He has all of the SRD monsters' data in a database and his web site can generate MapTool tokens on-the-fly. So you click the link for a Large Fire Elemental and the token is downloaded to your desktop where you can drag it into MapTool -- all stats and attacks are already setup for use with lmarkus' framework.

As I said at the beginning, I'm interested in your opinion of the game session. This Tuesday will be the continuation of the labyrinth, but if you'd like to join us the following week (October 13th) they should be through that area.

[Hand of Evil]

Have you looked at Fantasy Grounds?

[DMFTodd]

Well, Todd. You sat in on my Tuesday night game last week -- what did you think?

Wanted to run a few games before commenting:
Maptools takes care of the 5 specific things I wanted and seems stable. It has some glaring omissions in features (easily, exactly scale a map, change the image on a token, save tokens back to the resources, easily move all players to a map), but it seems stable and in active development. I'm hoping some of those omissions can get addressed. I'm going to press on with it.

Klooge still seems to have a much better feature set but suffered from three problems: (1) it's performance just got to buggy to keep using it (2) Lack of a user community (3) Development seems to have stopped.

[Merkuri]

Originally Posted by DMFTodd

...easily, exactly scale a map...

I'm not sure if this is what you were talking about, but in the lower-right of the screen you should see the zoom percentage. Click in there and you can type a value for the zoom instead of using the mouse wheel.

Originally Posted by DMFTodd

...change the image on a token...

Double-click on the token and either directly drag a new image into the image on the top left or click the little + icon in the top right of the image and pick your new image.

Originally Posted by DMFTodd

...save tokens back to the resources...

Right-click on the token and select Save. You do have to pick a directory that your library is looking at in order to make it go back to the library. Oh, did you know you could add your own locations to the library, so you can pick a more easily-accessible location if you don't like the default location? To do this, go to File -> Add Resource to Library.

Originally Posted by DMFTodd

...easily move all players to a map...

Tool -> Enforce Players to Current Map or Ctrl-E.

Originally Posted by DMFTodd

...but it seems stable and in active development.

This is one of the biggest benefits to MapTool, IMO. Our group used OpenRPG for a while, and I got sick and tired of coming across strange bugs that I knew nobody would be able to fix. Now, if I find a bug, I report it and odds are it'll be taken care of in the next build (if it's easily reproducible). If I want a new feature, I ask for it and if it's not too difficult it'll probably get in several builds down the road.

[DMFTodd]

And the benefits of an active user community is shown: If you say the program can't do something that it can, somebody can correct you. Thanks Merkuri, that was a big help!