azhrei_fje Hi, Emirikol.
I'm using MapTool for my FtF game on Sunday evenings. I had been using v1.2b32, but have recently moved to 1.3b14. I might move to 1.3b18 because I like the idea of tables and I'm a little annoyed with some token sizes not snapping to grid properly. Trevor just released 1.3b22, but it's pretty flakey, so I'll be waiting for a later one.
Concerning tips... Pick the most recent build that is stable for what you plan to use it for (such as 1.3b18) and use it exclusively until you know it well. You can upgrade to a later build down the road, but having a single version that you use for your games means you'll learn how it works and not have to deal with the latest features. Also, campaign files are not always portable from one release to the next, so you want something that will work for awhile.
I am running my group through RttToEE and there are a lot of site-based encounters, so I have done the maps for those sites. I try to map out the locations that I think the players will get to in the next session, but you know how players are. I spend about 3-4 hours a week drawing maps, but I am doubly damned in that regard: I'm a perfectionist for nice-looking maps, but I have no art talent whatsoever!! Not a good combination at all!
In order to act as the game server, you're machine will need to be able to respond to incoming packets on a given port (the default is 51234). This means either port-forwarding your router or using some type of UPnP.
When executing MapTool, the JVM can be configured with a given amount of memory as a maximum size. This must be big enough for all of the maps you plan to have loaded at a single time. I run my games with 1GB as the limit, but rarely see the memory counter in the bottom-right corner of window go above 180MB.
The above deals entirely with setup: networking, version issues, memory config, and so on. The other half of the picture is usability.
I have my Image Explorer panel in MapTool configured with about 4 different top-level folders. One of those top-level folders has the same name as the current campaign setting. I peruse the images that I have scattered across my hard drive (I'm not very organized in regards to those images) and copy the ones I think I might use for a particular campaign locale into the campaign-specific folder. So when the folder is named Hommlet, I copy into it the tokens I'll use for the Cannoness, Burke, and the rest of the NPCs. I also add images that correspond to the random encounter tables (although I don't use the random encounter tables for more than just ideas). I also add any objects that I might need, such as wagons and carts, farm animals, and so on.
One thing that MapTool doesn't do -- that I wish it did -- is to keep track of the source location of the token. If I drag a token onto the map to represent an off-the-cuff NPC, it would be nice if MapTool would put the path from the Image Explorer panel into the GM Notes or something so that I can find the token easily later, if needed.
Remember to set the "Visible to Players" toggle correctly. It's annoying for the DM to be referring to creatures and talking about attacks when the players can't see the beastie! In general, I pre-create as many of the NPC tokens as I can and save them on a map that the players don't have access to. Then I can switch maps and copy-n-paste the tokens over. If the map becomes complicated it can slow down this process, so another option is to create an area completely covered by topology and put all of the NPCs in there -- with the "Visible to Players" already turned on. PCs cannot move into topology areas so they'll never see the NPCs, but they're easier for the DM to find and place.
Three-dimensional encounters are tough in MapTool; keeping track of height is a pain. I typically put the height (in feet) into the creature's name field so that it shows up by just mousing over it. With 1.3b18 there is also the "property popup" that can be configured via a combination of File -> Campaign Settings... (I think that's where it is) and the token properties. This allows things like movement rate, hit points, and AC to appear on a mouse-over. I find updating the HP too slow though and only use it for movement rate and some key skills. (I use DM Genie for tracing all of the creature statistics in detail.)
(Okay, my fingers are tired. Maybe I'll post more later. HTH.)
