Questions about DnD

[E7AO]

I am new to dungeons and dragons and have been looking for a way to get into the game but have been unable to find a steady local group with whom to attempt DnD games with, while looking for a way to play DnD online it seemed if maptools was one of the go to programs for playing DnD over the internet.

Now my question is what exactly is the best way to go about getting into DnD (Lets say 4e since I heard it was more new user friendly)

- What resources would I need to begin playing DnD via maptools (info books, rule books, basically what I would need to get out there and purchase and have in front of me)

- How to become familiar with using maptools to play DnD (Tutor games for new players, spectating games, basic interface and game interactions)

- How to learn DnD itself (I've watched Dnd tabletop games played and have experienced some of the older DnD games such as baldur's gate and neverwinter so I have a basic understanding of mechanics but I have never tried playing the tabletop itself)

[Lee]

I say the best way is to jump in and ride the lightning, so to speak. There's a section here called "Looking for Group", you'll find ]people looking for other people to campaign with. Try joining a 3.5 DnD/Pathfinder or 4e campaign and your answers will be answered quickly without needing to invest yet on physical materials. While I haven't tried them out myself, the DnD frameworks look robust enough to not need hands-on material right away.

[wolph42]

as for getting a bit familiar with maptool up front: http://rptoolstutorials.net/
also there is an extensive online library for dd3.5; http://www.d20srd.org/ where you can read up on the rules. They also did have actual documents you could download, but they were forced to take those down. At least here you get the basics. Probably (though not sure) there might be something similar for 4E as well?

[Cherno]

Hello,

I have been going through the same process you have described and spent days and days preparing a session and learning the rules and how to DM.

Tomorrow is the big day and I will see if it will all work as intended

I plan to write a detailed report on my experience, what tricks maptools has to offer, and how to set up encounters / how to convert them from a book to MT.

It'll probably be Saturday or Sunday before I get to write the report. I will be conducting a face-2-face session but most things are of course adaptable to network play.

For now, you could take a look at my thread to get a first idea of what I'm trying to accomplish.

http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=23057

As a first step, I would recommend just watching a few basic MT tutorial videos to get to know the program.

As for D&D books, you at least need the Player's Handbook as it has all basic rules. The Dungeon Master's Handbook is important too. There's a range of new Essentials books that you could also get instead.

If you're looking to build your own encounters, you could also either get the Monster Manual or get a subscription to D&D Insider.

After you have an idea of how the basic game mechanics work, try out the different 4E frameworks. Each has different functions, find the one that offers what you are looking for.

[jfrazierjr]

Hello,

I have been going through the same process you have described and spent days and days preparing a session and learning the rules and how to DM.

Tomorrow is the big day and I will see if it will all work as intended

I plan to write a detailed report on my experience, what tricks maptools has to offer, and how to set up encounters / how to convert them from a book to MT.

It'll probably be Saturday or Sunday before I get to write the report. I will be conducting a face-2-face session but most things are of course adaptable to network play.

I would suggest that a GM new to MapTool a few things.

• Start with JUST the basics... add the MapTool lighting, VBL, etc over time.
• As above, TEST with a SEPARATE MAPTOOL instance connected as a player(same machine or another machine.. it does not matter) BEFORE the game as you are adding new features or functionality. This is mainly so you can be sure you fully understand how X works before getting into the middle of a game and realizing you just wasted people's time because you did not understand how X really worked!
• while doing the above, BACKUP YOUR CAMPAIGN OFTEN to a different name and before ANY MapTool version upgrade!!!! If you add a feature and can't get it working the way you expect, it would suck to have to call off a game 5 minutes before start. Another possibility is use a cloud sync service such as Dropbox which has a version of source control(ie, same filename, but you can "revert" to a previous version if you ever need to.
• If your players are new to MapTool, and ESPECIALLY if people are using their own computers, BE FULLY PREPARED TO BLOW OFF THE FIRST SESSION as some/most/all of them will screw with MapTool(such as drawing stuff) and basically interrupt the game as they are trying to learn MapTool's features. We all know "that guy" and some of know several of them, so just assume its going to happen. (it does help a LOT if the players would watch the video tutorials first though and play on their own before hand.
• Make sure you able to host BEFORE the game starts(several days/weeks ahead). Again, it sucks to have it be time to start and your router is not configured correctly to allow you to host, thus wasting peoples time.

[Cherno]

Yes, saving the campaign file under different names every once in a while is a god way to have a backup when you accidently screw things up

[Jagged]

I would suggest that a GM new to MapTool a few things.

• Start with JUST the basics... add the MapTool lighting, VBL, etc over time.
• As above, TEST with a SEPARATE MAPTOOL instance connected as a player(same machine or another machine.. it does not matter) BEFORE the game as you are adding new features or functionality. This is mainly so you can be sure you fully understand how X works before getting into the middle of a game and realizing you just wasted people's time because you did not understand how X really worked!
• while doing the above, BACKUP YOUR CAMPAIGN OFTEN to a different name and before ANY MapTool version upgrade!!!! If you add a feature and can't get it working the way you expect, it would suck to have to call off a game 5 minutes before start. Another possibility is use a cloud sync service such as Dropbox which has a version of source control(ie, same filename, but you can "revert" to a previous version if you ever need to.
• If your players are new to MapTool, and ESPECIALLY if people are using their own computers, BE FULLY PREPARED TO BLOW OFF THE FIRST SESSION as some/most/all of them will screw with MapTool(such as drawing stuff) and basically interrupt the game as they are trying to learn MapTool's features. We all know "that guy" and some of know several of them, so just assume its going to happen. (it does help a LOT if the players would watch the video tutorials first though and play on their own before hand.
• Make sure you able to host BEFORE the game starts(several days/weeks ahead). Again, it sucks to have it be time to start and your router is not configured correctly to allow you to host, thus wasting peoples time.

All excellent advice. If you can get one of your mates to test before the proper game session, that's always worth it. That will confirm your network settings and also whether or not your files take too long to download.

[noct]

i like to get one of my buddies to be sort of like an assistant GM, a guinea pig if you will, to test my macros on, save a back up of my campaign (im super protective of losing a file to corruption or a bad hdd), you know things like that, maybe help me set up my framework and fill in the blanks of players' tokens when theyre new to the system.

I think the easiest way to get into DND, as you said lets say 4th edition, is kind of how it always was back in the day, sit in on a game, now you can ask people around on here if you can sit in on their maptool games, or with youtube handy and lots of people streaming their sessions, you could watch some videos on there and get yourself really excited to play some 4e.