DungMeister's page

Gaming memory from AD&D/2E days that still makes me chuckle: I'm the DM. The party's scout/magic user somehow gets himself captured by a group of pirates who set off with him across a very large lake. A psionic monk manages to polymorph himself into a hawk in order to follow the ship, so as to report back on its destination, in order that the party can eventually follow and make a rescue. As the monk can psionically perform telepathy with the party, I let the whole group remain in the room instead of pulling the player aside as per my routine. The whole trailing the pirates and communication with the party thing takes several minutes in RL. Suddenly I couldn't help but break into laughing, followed by the whole group, as it dawned on us all that Rob(player), the monk, was the whole time flapping his arms in chicken dance fashion. His expression, as he couldn't understand why the laughs, was, as is the memory, priceless.

I'm curious. Did you succeed in finding satisfactory software to accomplish your goals?

I recommend taking a look a some great tutorials on YouTube for Maptools that go step-by-step on how to create maps and more importantly adding your vision layer.

Start simple and have your players give you feed back. The great thing about using a free tool is that you're only investing your time for the software.

I highly recommend watching the intro videos:

• MapTools Tutorial - 1 of 4
  
• MapTools Tutorial - 2 of 4
  
• MapTools Tutorial - 3 of 4
  
• MapTools Tutorial - 4 of 4 (advanced, macros not really necessary unless you're going hardcore...can probably skip)
  

Personally I'm considering of upgrading from MapTools to d20Pro (paid program), just because I like their animations.

Thanks Harmor for the advice. Ill have to check out the d20Pro. I also note that there is an open beta out for Roll20.

The amount of tech/online info for RPGs is dizzying. I have developed RPGT&OMADD(Roll Playing Game Tech & Online Material Attention Deficit Disorder) How can I get anything done on the campaign when I can spend hours checking out the great materials here and elsewhere?!

Another old timer with interest in getting the AD&D campaign up and running after more than two decades hiatus. I am nearly convinced that I will be using Pathfinder as my game format and am hoping to use some tech tools to make the design and play process easier(and allow connecting with distant players).

I will probably be using MapTool as my VTT and DMFTodd's DMsFamiliar to track combat(and maybe the campaign via the codex tree). I am hoping to avoid any major pitfalls in planning as I start exploring the use of these tools. So...to anyone with experience with these tools, do you have any advice along the lines of "don't make this mistake as you get started, or you will be spend endless hours backtracking/re-engineering."

As an example, when beginning to set up campaign maps within MapTool, is it wisest/easiest, from a scaling standpoint, to begin zoomed out and then design down, or vice versa. I intend to open play with a largely outdoor adventure/hex crawl.

And any other advice/comments about these tools, or other related techs, is appreciated. Thanks in advance! DM