Looking for local virtual tabletop application

[Anakondaz]

Me and my friends are gathering this Friday to play our first session of D&D. I was going to go get grid paper to play it on, but then I thought, what if I just download a map on my computer, display it full-screen, and take my monitor off the stand and lay it down. Is there any good (free) application to build a good looking map and display it full screen? It would also be cool to have keybindings to toggle tokens on and off the map, and to control them while staying in full-screen.

Also, little tips on how to be a good DM would be nice too. . I've never DMed before.

 

[falcarrion]

Me and my friends are gathering this Friday to play our first session of D&D. I was going to go get grid paper to play it on, but then I thought, what if I just download a map on my computer, display it full-screen, and take my monitor off the stand and lay it down. Is there any good (free) application to build a good looking map and display it full screen? It would also be cool to have keybindings to toggle tokens on and off the map, and to control them while staying in full-screen.

Also, little tips on how to be a good DM would be nice too. . I've never DMed before.

With the time constraints (this Friday) I would go with the graph paper. Most virtual tabletop have a learning curve. That way you have more time to lay out a plan on what your looking for in a virtual tabletop.
Such as:
Are you going to play with minatures?
Do you just need to be able to display a map?
How big is your monitor?
What kind of computer equipment do you have?

To start you off check out maptools.

 

[Mark CMG]

Also, little tips on how to be a good DM would be nice too. . I've never DMed before.

This might help -

http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...-dming-advice-links-fixed-july-20-2008-a.html

 

[heruca]

I would not recommend that your first-ever DMing session be using a virtual tabletop, especially one hastily-chosen with too little time to get well-acquainted with the software.

 

[Oryan77]

I also recommend that you start off simple. Get your graph paper (or get a Chessex Battlmat and some wet erase markers) and get used to DMing and playing D&D first.

I've been DMing for 12 years or so and I just now got my first virtual tabletop setup going. This setup alone is an entirely new learning curve. I haven't even been working on my campaign for the last month because all my time is going into getting this tabletop setup working right and learning to use the application I chose to use (Map Tool, and I highly recommend it once you are ready to do this).

Also, you asked for some DMing tips:

When you DM, you are going to be overwhelmed. Even an experienced DM is extremely busy during the game focusing on running the adventure, NPCs, and talking to the players. When you add an electronic battlemat setup, that only adds to the amount of work you will be doing as DM.

Focus on being a good DM first. Then slowly add new things to your game. You don't want to be good at using something like Map Tool but then suck at being a DM. It will be pointless.