About me: My name is Michael. I’m a 30-something gamer living in Colorado with my wife Barbara and our four cats. When I’m not playing and blogging about Dungeons and Dragons, I work in finance and enjoy traveling, golfing (badly), skiing (even worse) and playing board games (I’m not so bad at that).
Contact: You can always leave comments on the blog (I love those!) or send me an email at OnlineDungeonMaster@gmail.com. You can also follow me on Twitter as OnlineDM1.
Michael,
Just saw an announcement for D&D Virtual table from Wizards.
Here’s the link:
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/26286405/The_Dungeons__Dragons_Virtual_Table
Awesome! I’d love to get in on that beta. I’ll definitely try out the Virtual Table when I get the opportunity to do so. I love MapTool, of course, but if the Virtual Table turns out to be better I’ll be happy to switch.
Hey, I was looking at your blog and noticing you had experience with MapTools. I was just curious what you did for visual aids. I currently use Fantasy Grounds 2, but we find it kinda buggy and were thinking of switching. One thing I do like though is being able to have a library of images and flash a couple up during the game.
If I have an image I want my players to be able to see, I simply put it in a directory that I’ve mapped in MapTool and drag it to the tabletop. It’s extremely easy – I’ve done it on the fly many times.
I haven’t tried Fantasy Grounds 2, but I know a lot of people like it. For me, though, I’ve been completely happy with MapTool, and since it’s free I’ve seen no reason to switch to anything else.
If you need any assistance with MapTool, just let me know!
If I drag an image onto the tabletop it seems to show up as a token – and is very small. Is there a way to just drop an image onto the tabletop without resizing?
This, I can help you with. Before you drag the image to the tabletop, change the layer that you’re dragging it to from Token (the default) to Object or Background. On those layers, the image will be pulled onto the map at its native size, whereas on the Token layer it’s automatically resized to fit in one square.
Ah… perfect. Do all the players need the repository before I can do this, or can it be on the fly from my archives?
Just had a friend connect to my server and test – answered my own question.
This program is awesome, easily comparible to Fantasy Grounds II, if somewhat more complicated to use.
Great – I’m glad it’s working out for you!
Are you planning on having more one shot D&D games for newer-ish players any time soon? Thanks!
Yeah, I think I’m about due for one of those! Send me an email (onlinedungeonmaster@gmail.com) with information about when you’re available to play and what kind of character you might like, and we’ll go from there!
Michael,
Here’s another interesting technology to check out.
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/12/epawn-arena/
While I love this and would love to have, I’m thinking the play area may be small for a DnD encounter. But the possibilities could be pretty cool.
Andy
Yeah, I think the Microsoft Surface attempts are more promising for D&D just because of the size, but this is similar. I don’t know that it’s something I’d personally use (the projector’s fine for me), but I’d certainly love to try it out if anyone had a setup like this one!
Michael,
Thought you might be interested in this alternative take on online roleplaying:
http://playconclave.com
Not so much about enabling traditional live, GM-based roleplaying online, but rather about providing the cooperative, party-based roleplaying experience via an online game. Good for those of us who have trouble not only getting groups together in real life, but who also struggle to schedule sessions.
Nick,
Yeah, this isn’t the sort of thing I’m particularly interested in. It’s an online role playing game in the vein of World of Warcraft and the like, not a game run by a DM/GM. I’m sure it’s loads of fun, but there’s a lot of that sort of thing online, and it’s not something that I have any expertise in.
Michael
Just wanted to say that your blog is fantastic! It’s been incredibly helpful and has been a big part in me realizing that I can still find a way to roleplay even with my hectic life. Your use of Maptools is great! I’ve started up a game using Facebook groups to do a faster play by post style, and trying to document my results as well in my blog.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Jason – thanks for the kind words! I’m glad I’m able to inspire you to fit roleplaying into your busy life. Have fun!