I'll throw in another vote for Maptools. Go to Rptools.net, it's free, easy to use in its most basic format, and quite powerful if you want to put some time into it.
I've been using Maptools for 2 campaigns/4 adventures now (the premade WotC adventures: H2, H3, P2 and P3) and its great. I scan the battle pictures from the book, put them into paint, cut out the monster markers, put the maps in maptools, and throw some monster tokens on the map. I can prepare a battle like this in about 5-15 minutes, depending on the size of the map and the number of monsters.
I hook my laptop up to an lcd screen and use my laptop for the "DM view" (I can see invisible and hidden monsters) and the lcd screen for the "PC view" (so that they can't see invisible/hidden monsters).
The only suggestion that I have for this is to get two laptops if at all possible. That way the DM can set up a server, the other laptop can connect to it, and the PCs can use the second laptop to move their characters around the map. (Currently my group only has the one laptop, and the PCs have to tell me where they want to move, which is less than optimal).
I've been using Maptools for 2 campaigns/4 adventures now (the premade WotC adventures: H2, H3, P2 and P3) and its great. I scan the battle pictures from the book, put them into paint, cut out the monster markers, put the maps in maptools, and throw some monster tokens on the map. I can prepare a battle like this in about 5-15 minutes, depending on the size of the map and the number of monsters.
I hook my laptop up to an lcd screen and use my laptop for the "DM view" (I can see invisible and hidden monsters) and the lcd screen for the "PC view" (so that they can't see invisible/hidden monsters).
The only suggestion that I have for this is to get two laptops if at all possible. That way the DM can set up a server, the other laptop can connect to it, and the PCs can use the second laptop to move their characters around the map. (Currently my group only has the one laptop, and the PCs have to tell me where they want to move, which is less than optimal).
