Pathfinder - Kingmaker (got tired of pasting together maps)

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naturaltwenty
Kobold
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Sep 18, 2008 9:35 pm

Pathfinder - Kingmaker (got tired of pasting together maps)

Post by naturaltwenty »

I've used alot of VTT's starting off with OpenRPG years ago then moving on to ScreenMonkey and also Fantasy Grounds 1 (migrating to 2). I usually ran those games due to people not being close by that wanted to try new systems.

Fast forward 6-7 years and my gaming time has grown as my kids have grown up but the tedium of drawing battles or making terrain (paper or otherwise) sucked too much time. As I prepped to run Paizo's Kingmaker AP (and adopting the PFRPG rules-set*) I did what I normally do. Rip out the images from the PDF, as a subscriber you get the PDF along with the hardcopy, and use PosteRazor to blow up the images. I had a whole day set aside to do it but that got ate up by an emergency at work.

With time running out I went and checked out one of our offices Benq projectors and downloaded the latest version of MapTools. I didn't need the bells-and-whistles for a face-to-face game, just something to me to use as the DM for the maps and to project the maps onto a table.

A quick stop at the hardware store for some 48" zip ties to attach the projector vertically to the ceiling and voila - Maptools with projector up and running.

Issues
I did not setup a PC for the players. I had them use their minis on the table but that presented issues if I had to scroll the map (I'm going to be purchasing a shorter throw projector or some other solution - see below). Note that this is a projector issue and not an issue with Maptools.

Since this was my first time really using Maptools I was learning on the fly and most of the skills I'd learned from the other apps worked. All-in-all I took a little while to get used to the tool but it was still faster than prepping the maps physically or drawing them as we played.

I've got my notes on questions but I'll not post those until I actually RTFM or watch the tutorials:) -my one hiccup is that I found out that I could run two instances of Maptool on the same PC instead of my solution of remoting into my desktop from my laptop and displaying the player's screen from that.

My solution for that is to ditch the projector and setup a PC with Wunderworks and a shared monitor for the players to move their tokens themselves.

Summary
Maptools has made running my face-to-face Pathfinder game a treat and I look forward to using it for many more sessions!

Sincerly,

Gregory A. Volz
Natural Twenty Games
www.naturaltwenty.com


*I had switched over to 4e with one group but this group wanted to use Pathfinder. As a DM one of the reasons I really like 4e is it's lower prep time to run if you use their DDI tools. Now with Maptools my prep time for running 3.5/Pathfinder (and the HeroLab software I purchased) is much more manageable and doesn't make it seem like work.

neofax
Great Wyrm
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Location: Philadelphia, PA
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Re: Pathfinder - Kingmaker (got tired of pasting together ma

Post by neofax »

Welcome to MapTools and Pathfinder! I also am prepping Kingmaker to play with my kids and if you would like, I can share most of my setup if you want so we both don't have to do the chore. I don't know if you are using a FW or not, but I would suggest using Lidsay's as it has become the defacto standard that most 3.5/Pathfinder games use.

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Azhrei
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Location: Tampa, FL

Re: Pathfinder - Kingmaker (got tired of pasting together ma

Post by Azhrei »

naturaltwenty wrote:I did not setup a PC for the players. I had them use their minis on the table but that presented issues if I had to scroll the map.
Yeah, that's the only problem with a projector in combo with physical minis. If you're willing to go all virtual, the map sizes are limited only by the memory you give Java (1.5GB max for 32-bit systems, or physical RAM size for 64-bit machines).
My solution for that is to ditch the projector and setup a PC with Wunderworks and a shared monitor for the players to move their tokens themselves.
My f2f games are typically with 3-6 people and they all bring their own laptop. I set up a wireless router in the middle of the table and while it's an old router, it's fine for MapTool purposes.
Summary
Maptools has made running my face-to-face Pathfinder game a treat and I look forward to using it for many more sessions!
Cool! Thanks for registering on the forum and telling us about it! We realize that it actually takes some effort to do so. :)

You'll want to check out the General > User Creations > Campaign Frameworks forum to locate a collection of basic settings for different game systems. You don't have to use them, and there is some learning curve if you choose to do so, but there is a lot of long-term payoff as MapTool can manage more and more of the number crunching and leave you to the story building...

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