RPTools Online Tabletop Games..your experiences?

[Emirikol]

We're trying out RPTools-Maptool for running our online tabletop games. Mainly because it's freeware and updated all the time. What have your experiences been?

It appears very similar to Kloogewerks, Fantasy grounds, openRPG, but not as complicated. Virtual online tabletop is going to be the way of the future anyways for people who can't get together as much as they like.

I've been very satisfied with the capabilities of RPTools-maptool. It's got minis, maps, and a dicebot. It was easy to set up and once I figured out how to set up my router (port forward), I have been toying with it ever since. I quickly realized as a DM, i've got to spend a couple extra minutes before the game making sure that I've got an encounter map and monster tokens available (but most of those are in the download library..or I guess I can drag them from a thumbnail since it instantly makes them).

I think my main tabletop group will be using it for side-quests between games. If that works out, i'm thinking I'll do another campaign.

I orignally was shown Kloogewerks, and am not very proficient at using computers otherwise, so I've been hesitant..but enough nights of not being able to game because of "get together difficulties" has moved me towards the online tabletop.

What have your experiences with RPTools-Maptool been?

Jay
(btw, our prior discussions on this were at the gamers-seeking-gamers forum)


..

 

[DonTadow]

I swear by it.

Right now i use it only for my projected game, but have used it for online tabletoping in the past. We used skype for the role playing and maptools to keep track of everything. Worked great

 

[azhrei_fje]

I GM my Sunday night face-to-face game using MapTool. Originally, not everyone brought a laptop with them, but once they saw how cool MapTool is, I don't think they'd be happy going back to a battlemat. I know I wouldn't.

I'm also playing in "TheLev"'s Tuesday night game and that one is strictly online. We have people in three timezones that get together to play. We've had an occasional glitch, but we've had to chalk that up to the connection(s) because they are sporadic and only when the available connection is slow and/or unreliable.

 

[Emirikol]

Screenshot of set-up:

 

[trevorscroft]

On a total side note, not sure if you are aware, but you can even further customize your layout by clicking on and dragging the frame titlebars to rearrange, or even pull them out of the main window.

 

[Jasperak]

Are there any good (preferably free) resources for creating maps to use in RPTools?

 

[trevorscroft]

There are quite a few free map creation tools. As for the actual images to put in them, here are some starting points:

http://dunjinni.com/forums/default.asp?C=4
http://forums.rptools.net/viewforum.php?f=8
http://rpgmapshare.com

You might also check out this site that's a community dedicated to helping people learn how to make maps:

http://www.cartographersguild.com/

 

[Emirikol]

Are there any good (preferably free) resources for creating maps to use in RPTools?

Well, you can download lots of stuff on the website (free).

I typically just google an image. You can come up with tons of stuff that way.

Another option is that the paizo site has DUNGEON magazine web enhancements where you can download all of the maps from the past 20 issues or so.

Jay

 

[evildmguy]

I have just started looking at it but am unsure if I will use it. I need something like this but am not the best when it comes to prep stuff.

However, it was easy to configure and figure out. It made it a lot more interactive and would make it easier for the guys not physically at the table to be involved with the action. So, I hope to use it soon.

I want to get a lot of icons and extras down and installed so I have most things there. I haven't tried hard to find them yet, though.

edg

 

[Emirikol]

I did a couple things that work out well:

I google pictures, for example, orcs:
http://images.google.com/images?q=orc&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GFRC&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi

I also put a shortcut to my RESOURCES folders on my desktop. Then I can quickly open stuff up and save it to the files. I don't dink around making token circles and crap. I just put the picture up there.




jh