MapToolSo you want to play D&D, but your old gaming group has moved out of the neighborhood. Or maybe you'd like to play D&D over the internet, and play-by-post on forums just isn't for you. Or maybe you're looking for a way to integrate your PC or laptop into your tabletop gaming sessions in order to take advantage of the technology that wasn't available to gamers in the '80s.The solution? MapTool. MapTool is an online, multi-user, graphical, interactive, programmable virtual tabletop. Okay, that was a mouthful -- MapTool is a java application that seeks to emulate and enhance the tabletop experience. It will also program your VCR and service your car. Well, maybe not those last two... |  |
Mapping
MapTool allows you to create enormous maps to play on. You can import a pre-made map, or create one in MapTool. The application offers a number of basic drawing tools, but they leave much to be desired -- however, with the ability to import images, there is no reason to use these drawing tools unless you find yourself in a hurry. MapTool preserves image transparencies, so you could piece a map together by placing trees and rocks atop a grassy background to create wilderness, you could plop some houses down to make a village, and you can lay out dungeon tiles for that Temple of the Damned you wanted your players to crawl through. All imported images can be resized and rotated to suit your needs.MapTool uses a flexible grid system that allows you to switch between square and hex grids, as well as resize and reposition the grid. Furthermore, since MapTool tracks the distance traveled by a token, you can decide whether you want diagonal movement to cost more, as per D&D 3.5 rules, or not, as per 4th edition rules.
An innovative "vision-blocking-layer" (VBL) system allows walls, pillars, and any object desirable to block player line of sight. Players see through the eyes of the token(s) they control, and computer strategy game-style "fog of war" hides portions of the map that have yet to be explored. Game Masters can keep hidden tokens on the map visible only to himself, revealing them to the players with two simple mouse clicks.
Gameplay
MapTool allows you to easily host, or connect to, a game server. Players can communicate by means of a chat box, but must rely on an external voice-over-IP application such as Ventrilo for voice-chat. Dice rolls are made with simple chat box commands such as /roll 1d20+5 to roll a 20-sided die with a +5 modifier, and other commands include whisper functions, private dice rolls, and emotes. If you're capable of scripting them, advanced macro functions can automate dice rolls, track hit points, and even create an entire virtual character sheet -- but if you are a script-n00b like myself, you can simply download macros created by other MapTool users off the community forum.With these macro functions, combat becomes smoother and easier to manage than in a real-life D&D session. Without them, you have to track hit points manually, but the character token system facilitates this experience, rendering it no more difficult than erasing and scribbling on a paper character sheet. An initiative tracker lists everyone's initiative order, shows how many rounds have elapsed and whose turn it presently is, and can mark anyone who has readied an action.
Closing Remarks
I have been using MapTool for about a year and a half and have seen its list of features grow with each new release. Even its beta releases are stable -- I cannot recall a single instance where the application crashed or made me lose data. I am, however, mindful to stay one beta-release out of date; but the developers are nonetheless quick to respond to bug reports and patch up new releases with fixes.Thanks to MapTool, I've been able to run weekly online sessions with my geographically widespread gaming group. Sound integration would be a nice touch, in order to play sound effects, stream music, or broadcast voice, and this seems to be a feature that many users want to see, so who knows what we may see in future MapTool releases.
Check out it out at http://www.rptools.net/
