Hey, all. I've been reading through the boards and see a lot of posts about a lot of different software products (including Excel ;)) that people use to run a game. I'm looking for something to facilitate my own game, but my game is face-to-face. I just hate the time wasted drawing parts of a dungeon as my players explore...a hallway/room at a time.
Here's what I'm looking for:
A piece of software which
1)will allow me to display a map (most likely on a 2nd monitor) which can be revealed in parts easily as the group explores (fog of war.) I would PREFER something that auto reveals as you move the figures (a la Battlegrounds) but that would take walls/doors/etc. into account (realizing that I would need to setup the map beforehand to tell what lines would act opaque for line-of-sight.)
2)will allow me to display the same map on my own screen without the fog of war, allowing me to place traps/monsters/etc. during the course of the game (dice rolls/notes optional.)
3)will allow me to move tokens that represent players/monsters/npcs/traps/etc. around the map (the locations of which would be rendered real-time on the 2nd monitor.) Hopefully, this would also indicate visibility of the token regarding current light sources, also.
I've played around with Battlegrounds some...and I mostly like it, but the fog-of-war seems a bit too manual for my tastes (or it allows them to see through walls, which is worse.) Also, the manual reveals don't seem to line up very well with the example lines...that is, if I draw a rectangle on the screen, the actual reveal is shifted slightly from the lines that show during the dragging process.
I've looked at screenshots for Fantasy Grounds, but haven't really checked it out, yet. I *MUCH* prefer the way that Battlegrounds looks (and the ability to scan in or copy a map from Pathfinder,) but I'm going mainly for functionality.
It is POSSIBLE for me to use a 2nd computer as a client for the players, but I'd prefer to do it all on one machine, just using 2 monitors.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Tigarri
Check out the map tool on RPtools.net
It does pretty much exactly what you are asking.
It is designed for internet play, but I have run two instances on the same PC, and dumped the screen for each to a different monitor....
Thanks! I tried this out this weekend. On Saturday afternoon, I ran to BestBuy and bought a 25' S-video cable. I took my PC into the living room and set it up in a corner opposite my TV (46-inch widescreen.) I used the TV as my 2nd monitor, putting the client instance on that screen and the DM instance on my own monitor.
Worked like a charm. Only took about 2 hours to get the whole thing setup and running, including taking the Catacombs of Wrath map and adding the Topology layer to block view through walls/doors, creating tokens for all of the players/monsters, and learning the software enough to actually run the game.
It went great. With more time before the next session (2 weeks), I'll be able to make better tokens for players, prepare tokens for all of the monsters in Pathfinder 1 and 2, and get all of the maps setup. With the token macros, I'll be able to setup all of the monster's attacks as well. So far, it looks like this will replace my battle map. :)
Wow, I wish I were technologically inclined in this way...we play face to face, but have yet to find a map solution that's perfect...for now, we use dungeon tiles for overland stuff, and the modular map pieces from the boardgame Descent for dungeon crawls...I think that's as good as a low-tech solution as there is...
Welcome to the world of MapTool!
I'm also running Rise of the Runelords using MapTool in a face to face game. I gave all of my players laser pointers, they love it.
Two other really cool tings to do: use Word (or other Word processor) to help the group take notes of major events. It helps people to remember names and places if they can see them as well as hear them. In the past a typical conversation might go
DM: "The refugees need aid, and perhaps if you traveled to see Laurebec you might be able to..."
Player: "Oh wait can you spell that for me?"
DM: "Yeah sure. L. a. u. r...."
This way you can have all the words ready and copy and past from one screen to the next during conversations.
The other nice advantage of using MapTool is adding pictures to describe things. In the past, sometimes I would put up a book and show it to everyone. Sometimes this gives off as a "kindergarden class" feel. Handing out copies, or passing around a copy takes more time and is staggered. We had an awesome moment in our first session when someone asked "what's a hagfish look like?" A few seconds later and I had it up on the screen.
And MapTool saves a ton of time in prep work and drawing maps. I just wish Paizo would release unlabeled maps. I'm also running War of the Burning Sky and they don't seem to have a problem releasing a separate pdf with just the maps.
Also, do you use two monitors? It works out very well if you can. You can run two (or more) instances of MapTool on the same PC and connect them together. In one instance you can have all of the figures already placed and ready to go, but hidden from the other instance by default (right click and select "hide from players"). You can even paste the stats block of the creatures into the notes section of the tokens. I also add "makers", hidden pictures of the Pathfinder label in every room that include the room description I need to read.
I also used Photoshop to blow up the Sandpoint map really big, and since I'm not connecting to anyone online and my laptop is beefy, I can zoom all the way down to the 5' scale in the Sandpoint map. We ran the entire first session, to scale, on that map. It was awesome.
Also, do you use two monitors? It works out very well if you can. You can run two (or more) instances of MapTool on the same PC and connect them together. In one instance you can have all of the figures already placed and ready to go, but hidden from the other instance by default (right click and select "hide from players").
Yeah, that's exactly what I did. On my monitor, I was using the GM (Server) session...on the TV was the Player (Client) session. I have it setup to force my view on players, so when I zoom/recenter on my screen it does it on the TV as well. The only problem I really have is that my TV isn't HD...so text isn't very readable. As far as I can tell, there is no way to resize the labels on the tokens. Zooming in doesn't zoom in on the labels, either.
Oh this sounds promising. I am going to have to try this out..
I wonder how this will work on a standard tv .. the resolution is terrible, but the visuals should work.