Going digital with Maptools and 4e

[jcayer]

I remember following your progress and that was part of what inspired me to finally take the next step. I'm looking to build something a little more permanent, but still something I can break down and store.
My initial plan it to build 2 folding tables, that latch together and have a large hole in the middle. Then have an insert with a rear projection screen, and the ability to mount the projector beneath the table.
Since I also do woodworking as a hobby, this shouldn't be too hard.

 

[OnlineDM]

Slick! I can't wait to see the finished product.

Just yesterday I volunteered to take the next turn as DM for my in-person campaign with friends, so I should get a lot more use out of my projector rig soon. That makes me feel a little better about having taken the plunge!

 

[Hussar]

Schweetness and light. Good stuff all around.

Yeah, using a maptools framework to take care of the grunt work would make life easy.

Just a question, could you not simply put on PC tokens onto the map and use a wireless mouse? Pass the mouse to the next guy and away you go.

 

[Maccwar]

Maptool is awesome but after 2 years of using it for my F2F campaign I have just switched to tiles and tokens instead.

During those 2 years we had a lot of fun and I had no real complaints from the players. We had all sorts of encounters which would have been much harder to run and track without it.

My reasons for the switch come down to prep time and atmosphere. I found I was spending more time drawing elaborate maps than designing the plot elements of my campaign, fine when I had plenty of spare time but not so good now things are busy. We were running the campaign on my TV but I feel the game has a better atmosphere when we're huddled round the miniatures and all at the same table.

I still like maptool and its great for online games but right now I'm enjoying going back to basics.

 

[Hussar]

If you're using Maptools and a projector, why are you drawing maps? There's a bajillion maps out there for use - and I'm fairly certain that you could find most of what you want pretty easily.

I've been using VTT programs (first OpenRPG, now Maptools) for about eight years now, and I can honestly say I don't think I've ever drawn a map.

 

[falcarrion]

Check out pymapper to make maps. It is a wonderful tool and its free.
I use it to make maps to use on Maptools.

 

[Katana_Geldar]

I use map tool for online ToH and it was rather interesting re-creating the maps from that module...but I have a question about conditions..how the HELL do I change the markers on the tokens from the default ones? I want to use those ones that are in one of my faolders, but cannot work out how to drag them over to be actual conditions.

 

[Hussar]

Thanks for that falcarrion. I'm a sucker for new mapping programs. There's some fantastic scripts on cartographer's guild for turning maps into battlemaps as well. Great for stripping away the room numbers and such.

I used it, for example to change a beautiful map into a functional one.

 

[Hussar]

I use map tool for online ToH and it was rather interesting re-creating the maps from that module...but I have a question about conditions..how the HELL do I change the markers on the tokens from the default ones? I want to use those ones that are in one of my faolders, but cannot work out how to drag them over to be actual conditions.

Changing the markers is done within the frameworks, I believe. You'd be much better off asking over at the Maptools forums though. They're pretty helpful over there.

 

[OnlineDM]

I use map tool for online ToH and it was rather interesting re-creating the maps from that module...but I have a question about conditions..how the HELL do I change the markers on the tokens from the default ones? I want to use those ones that are in one of my faolders, but cannot work out how to drag them over to be actual conditions.

Well, since you asked - and since I LOVE to talk about MapTool...

Go to Edit - Campaign Properties. Go to the States tab. There you will see all of the states listed with their various options. To change the image of one of the states, click on that state, then click on the Browse button next to the Image box. Browse to the image you want, double click it, then click the Update button.

Voila!