Condition Tracking and VTT

[Dedekind]

I've been DMing Revenge of the Giants using MapTools for a few months (in 4e). Once I got over the learning curve, I am really enjoying using it for combat. The part that has been the most help is condition tracking!

OMG, paragon level conditions are so crazy. At one point last night a monster had 8 conditions (from bloodied, dazed, marked, etc.). In my tabletop game, that would have meant probably 4-5 flags, and the rest of the conditions would have just have been "remembered." (Yeah, right, remembered. Or at least redundantly pointed out over and over.)

On the VTT, however, ... oh my, how much easier. Using the custom conditions I got from the MapTools forums, I had all 8 conditions on the monster and could tell by looking what was going on. It even worked for monsters with "auras" that I always forget in Real Tabletop games. I know there are alternative ways to keep track of conditions, but most haven't worked for me in the past.

While I still prefer the RTT for everything else, I'm starting to feel that VTT is the way for me for Paragon level combat.

Anybody else have the same experience?

 

[Dedekind]

And to be clear, it wouldn't have worked as good with vanilla MapTools. I had to get the codec (or whatever) somebody created on the MapTools forums to make it so awesome.

However... how awesome it is!

 

[OnlineDM]

I agree - I use MapTool both for my online games and for my in-person games with a laptop and a projector, and condition tracking is great. I don't use a framework, but what I've built myself works pretty much the same way.

Out of curiosity, how do auras work in the framework? Is there some kind of visible zone that moves with the creature that has the aura? That would be pretty slick!

 

[Dedekind]

Out of curiosity, how do auras work in the framework? Is there some kind of visible zone that moves with the creature that has the aura? That would be pretty slick!

Oh, nothing that cool. It just puts a ring of a chosen color around the token. It helps me remember, though I do wish it had a true halo effect on the squares around it.

 

[OnlineDM]

Got it. Yeah, I knew about the colored halos, but I thought maybe someone with more MapTool programming skill than I have might have created a floating zone that made it easy for players to see whether their characters were in the aura or not. Oh well - I do agree that the halo is a useful reminder, all the same.

 

[RuminDange]

Are you using the Aura's under the light sources in the campaign preferences or the Halo effect that puts a colored based on the token?

The group I DM for recently started using MapTools and I configured several aura's for a dragon shaman a player is currently running. They don't provide light for vision or fog of war but the colored circle shows all tokens within the aura's effect.

So far finding MapTools a great way to play now that the group is spread out and if I was back to playing in person I would love a setup to continue using it just for tracking vision, effects and other stuff we tend to forget about using mini's.

Still working on a framework to use, since none of the ones I looked at really met the desires I have or handle the house rules we use for some things.

RD