Tabletop Mapper - new download link?


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Try MapTool from rptools.net

Question said:
It would seem file no longer exists.
TableTop Mapper had some neat features, but it was a bit of a pain to use.

If you want to track a tool that is under active development (and I mean active!), check out the MapTool project at rptools.net. It's free as in speech and free as in beer, too. TMapper didn't have source to go with it. :)
 


andargor said:
:eek:

It's something like KloogeWerks, but free?
Hmm, not exactly. The goal of MapTool is to present the map view to a bunch of network-connected machines (like KW) and when a token is moved on one machine's map, it moves on all of them (like KW).

But the focus is NOT on being an all-inclusive tool for the DM: it's strictly for displaying maps. There is a simple command window so that private notes can be passed back and forth (DM-to-player at least, and I think player-to-player). Right now it supports a square grid quite well, and there is on-going work to support hex grids, too.

It has fog-of-war, but there are no "solid" walls yet to block a light source. (The development team is envisioning an layer in the graphics engine to represent solid walls and such, and the DM will draw on that layer to identify where the walls are. That layer will work just like the FoW layer, so that the same user interface will apply to both.)

It has some problems: without a "solid" layer, the FoW must be cleared manually by the DM (by drawing on the FoW layer); without a "solid" layer, movement is point-to-point, although there is already support for waypoints during movement; there are not enough keyboard shortcuts for all of the functions; and probably a few more.

However, it has templates for shapes and light sources can be attached to tokens (such as characters or monsters). The snap-to-grid can be turned on or off by the DM. There is brand-new support for "stamps", which allow the DM to interactively modify the map on-the-fly. They have "boundless maps", which are stipple patterns that repeat forever -- very useful for "random encounter"-type combats. (And those maps take up very little space when saved to disk, because the entire map consists of "use this stipple; repeat it".)

It's worth trying out the "Web Start" version, since you don't even have to install it. It wants Java 1.4, but performs better with 1.5 (1.5 has optimized alpha blending, for example, which is used for the FoW).

If you visit their site, say "hi" on the forums. :)
 

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