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After some advice which program to get.
Instead of having to draw maps I would like to place an led tv on the tabletop and connect it to
Y laptop.
I need to be able to easily load maps from the adventure path PDFs and blow them up to size for miniatures. I also need to be able to easily create my own maps to use.
Fog of war is needed, also the ability to show illumination from light sources would be nice.
Dice rollers and hit point trackers etc not necessary as we are happy with our own hard copies and don't mind rolling real dice.
Cost is not too much of a factor for the right product. Any suggestions?
Check out MapTools. It's a decent freeware program that should handle pretty much everything you're looking for. I haven't personally fiddled with it TOO much, but it's a solid program.
I use Maptools for this. You do have to go in and set your lines of sight so the program knows how to calculate light paths. But you can load map files from any program that can save .jpg images (and probably several other formats too, I just typically use .jpg).
I have had a digital table for a few years now and MapTools is the best tool I've found yet for this purpose.
I also use Gimp just to display maps or photos or other images. It helps to visualize an area if you can show a photo of a comparable area. Also you can show large illustrations of monsters and/or NPCs to enhance the visualization of the players.
After some advice which program to get.
Instead of having to draw maps I would like to place an led tv on the tabletop and connect it to
Y laptop.
I need to be able to easily load maps from the adventure path PDFs and blow them up to size for miniatures. I also need to be able to easily create my own maps to use.
Fog of war is needed, also the ability to show illumination from light sources would be nice.
Dice rollers and hit point trackers etc not necessary as we are happy with our own hard copies and don't mind rolling real dice.Cost is not too much of a factor for the right product. Any suggestions?
Maptools is popular if you don't want to pay any money but requires a bit more work according to past comments I've seen on this topic. D20Pro and Fantasy Grounds 2 both cost money but are very polished products that require less effort to set up. Go check out all 3 options and I'm sure you'll find one of them that suits your requirements.
I believe Herolab is working towards greater integration with d20pro
Herolab is a great character gen resource for online gamers
I use Hero Lab and D20 Pro for a our local game. We have ZERO online use for it as we are all at the table. Each player runs his own character and we do not have anything other then me as the Judge(DM) and the TV on the wall as the only guest "player".
I load the maps and player "handouts" into D20Pro and run it on a 50" LCD on the wall behind me. We have a grid map on the table for marching order and combat...but I remove fog of war on the TV on the wall as they explore. It does not do light sources.
I looked at Maptools and it was way more then I needed locally for my home games. The advantage of Maptools is that it is free. Kind of like PCGEN where it is fan based. But they are both a little more complex then I care for and it is designed as an Online system for remote play.
I prefer Hero Lab and D20PRO as a purchased product that in my opinion is easier to use and meets what I need even if it does cost $.
I'm a long time user of FG, and I can say for sure it wouldn't be good for a virtual desktop in face to face games.
Maptools is probably your best bet. It's really simple to use if you don't use macros, and if all you need is token tracking, line of sight and fog of war - they're all included with the default download. Even has awesome stuff like automatic revealing of fog of war. Well worth the $0 investment.
As for easily making your own maps... Best bet is probably Dundjinni. It's reasonably cost effective and very easy to use (so long as you watch the tutorials). You won't get Paizo quality maps, but its much much better than what you could come up with in paint. It's also quite fast to come up with simple maps too.
I can't comment on D20pro, but it certanly looks online-centric. Most of my own players own Herolabs licenses these days. Only problem with that is constant cost of new books being added into it. :P
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We have used TTopRPG for a long time. It has been working out great. Very intuitive and easy to learn. I really like the Lighting feature. Makes bringing light sources much more important. It uses .NET programming, so Windows only by default unless you have an emulator.
Here is the link: TTopRPG
In the interest of options OpenRPG is linked below. I haven't tried it, I found it while looking over the options for on line play. It is open source / free, so it won't cost anything to try.
http://www.rpgobjects.com/index.php?c=orpg
Snow Crash,
I suggest you check out Battlegrounds: RPG Edition, which was designed with face-to-face users in mind. The interface stays hidden until you need it, to heighten the immersion factor, and this, combined with the relatively hi-res graphics, makes it ideal for use in face-to-face game sessions, whether you plan to use a projector or an HDTV.
BRPG supports dynamic Fog of War (ie, light sources and night vision), as well as a manual Fog of War layer, which lets the GM decide exactly what can and can't be seen by the players.
BRPG isn't a mapping program per se, but many artpacks are available for BRPG that let you create your own custom layouts from component pieces (dungeons, mines, caverns, and even outdoor scenes).
Download the free Demo and try it out. And while you're at it, be sure to also download the newly-updated User Manual, which is very thorough and covers all the latest features/additions to the program.
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Must admit d20pro is catching my eye. My whole crew already uses hero lab as a character generator so that integration looks really handy. Still unsure as to the whole losing the figures and going to tokens for character and monster representation will go down. Maybe we will wind up loving that aspect and I'll wind up with a couple grand worth of minis for sale on eBay :-). We'll see I guess. Thanks for the responses
I just ran a weekend-long game with maptool, projector and miniatures. It works quite well. I'll post some pics soon.
I set up the projector as a second monitor and used my normal monitor as the "GM screen". I launched two maptool clients on my machine, one "GM" and one "player" (just the same app copied and renamed for clarity).
Then I used a mirror tilted 45 degrees to project the image on the underneath of my glass dining room table.
All the fun of using miniatures, plus MapTools vision and light, and some convenient HP and initiative tracking.
I highly recommend getting a short-throw projector so you can get a nice big image without resorting to the use of mirrors, but mirrors work in a pinch. Go optics!