During august, my players and I had a "summer break" in our (almost) weekly DnD/MapTool game, so I used the free time to try to show/explain MT to other fellow french gamers.
I posted an "add" on a few roleplaying french forums, offering an online "course"/demo about MT, over 3 sessions : a player oriented one (what can you expect to see and do as a player in MapTool) and two GM oriented (creating maps / using lights and VBL and basic properties/macros).
At first, it was aimed at D&D 4E (with our own translated version of DevientNull's framework) but since some of the attendees weren't willing to play D&D, we used the framework and RPTroll's Savage World framework as examples of "high-end" macro programming.
I had 2 to 6 "attendees" for each session and that it went quite well, despite a lack of preparation on my side and things I forgot to talk about ...
We used TeamSpeak and 1.3.b56.
And I have to reschedule new sessions in september for new "attendees".
I'll try to do new sessions every other month after the next round , as long as there will be new people interested.
Most people I introduce to MT are very enthusiast about its possibilities and quickly "get it", but at first, they are kinda turned down by the UI and the learning curve (when left on their own).
Even translating parts of the software, wiki and FAQ seems to help but isn't enough. However, "live" demos followed by Q/A does the trick. Video tutorials in french should do it either but I don't have the knowledge and time (and courage
) to make them. (If anyone's willing to do them, I'll host them !
)
But ... in the end,
"L'essayer c'est l'adopter" as we say in french ("Trying it is keeping it").
PS :
Also, I took the liberty to buy the "maptool.fr" domain name, directing it to my website wich is now almost totally dedicated to maptooling in french (forum, sharing ressources ...). It clearly states it's a "fan site" and all rptools.net usefull links are present.
