Easy instructions for GMs to setup an RPG campaign with MapTool

adventuremagic123 · Post by **adventuremagic123** » Sat Mar 23, 2019 10:38 am

Some GMs (DMs) have commented in other forums that their players are having trouble setting up MapTool.

Macros for playing Pathfinder 1e can be found at:

Home < Board index < General < User Creations < Campaign Frameworks and look at "Pathfinder 1e MapTool macros to help other GMs".

My campaign is having very little trouble. I wrote a document that seems to be helping us a lot, so I decided to share it with you. All you should need to do is make some minor changes for your campaign.

I've included files in PDF, Word, and Open Documents format.

The document tells you exactly how my group plays remotely and how (in detail) we setup all the tools we use to do that.

These instructions are for MapTool 1.4.0.5.

adventuremagic123 · Post by **adventuremagic123** » Sun Mar 24, 2019 11:31 pm

These are greatly simplified instructions for MapTool 1.4.1.8 (and they will probably work for 1.5.X).

Phergus · Post by **Phergus** » Tue Mar 26, 2019 8:57 am

Well done! I'm sure these were a big help to your group and may provide guidance for others getting an online group off the ground using MapTool.

Thanks for sharing.

quikdagger · Post by **quikdagger** » Tue Mar 26, 2019 3:06 pm

This is amazing and exactly what is needed. Used them for my group in which I had a couple new players and couldnt for the life of me remember all the steps to get it up and running for them.

adventuremagic123 · Post by **adventuremagic123** » Sat Mar 30, 2019 12:37 am

Thank you, both. That was very kind, and I'm very glad they helped.

adventuremagic123 · Post by **adventuremagic123** » Sat Mar 30, 2019 9:02 am

BTW, I've recently run into a problem, and I'm not sure how it started. Maybe a Windows Update? Maybe because I have multiple MapTool versions installed at the same time?

Problem: My group can no longer use the RPTool.Net connection method BECAUSE none of my MapTool versions can detect my external IP address -- and thus they cannot register correctly with the RPTools.Net server.

Solution:

1. I look up my external IP address on my router.

2. I start my server (if you don't blank your RPTools.Net user name, you will start getting a harmless warning message periodically because that causes your server to try to register).

3. I tell my players my external IP address and have them use the Direct Connect method (I actually mock it up and send them a screen shot in our group chat).

Everything works fine this way.

adventuremagic123 · Post by **adventuremagic123** » Sat Mar 30, 2019 9:12 am

Another tip is that when you start your MapTool server, you'll have two issues to deal with:

1. The firewall on your router must map your external IP address and the port number you want to use with the internal IP address and port number for the computer you are using.

2. Your antivirus software has a firewall and you will need to configure it to allow connections to the Java you are using to run your MapTool server. You can find this Java most easily by starting up your MapTool server and, then, use your antivirus software to change your firewall settings, which will show that instance of Java running and the connection rule it has for it (and that's what you have to change).

Just to be clear. None of your players need to worry about these issues -- only the GM.

adventuremagic123 · Post by **adventuremagic123** » Sat Mar 30, 2019 9:15 am

As soon as I have time, I will write up instructions to help GMs out with these issues.

adventuremagic123 · Post by **adventuremagic123** » Wed Apr 03, 2019 11:51 pm

Just so everyone knows ... My group is back to using the RPTools.net tab connection method for connecting to my MapTool server. It works now. I don't know what the issue was before. Maybe an RPTools.net registration server outage? Maybe some sort of local problem of mine?

I do have to say that in the face of an issue like this, the guys that worked on MapTool did a really great job ... very over the top!

I'm saying that as a technical person.

The entire problem was very easy for us to work-around -- whatever it was. And, this is the first time I've run into that in the now 4 months we've been using MapTool.

You guys make me very proud of our craft! Thank you!

I'm saying this not just because of this situation but also because MapTool continues to be a very, very solid VTT for my group, and we all really enjoy using it.

Phergus · Post by **Phergus** » Thu Apr 04, 2019 2:46 pm

Thanks for the kind words!

The details with the registry outage can be seen here:

https://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27989

adventuremagic123 · Post by **adventuremagic123** » Fri Apr 26, 2019 12:18 am

BTW, just to be clear and so everyone knows, the RPTool.net tab method of connecting to the MapTool server has been working fine for us.

There apparently was just a very brief server outage that one time when we had trouble. The work-around for the problem is found above.

The instructions I provided above in various formats work great for my group, and you should use them.

adventuremagic123 · Post by **adventuremagic123** » Wed May 22, 2019 5:46 am

adventuremagic123 wrote: ↑
Sun Mar 24, 2019 11:31 pm
These are greatly simplified instructions for MapTool 1.4.1.8 (and they will probably work for 1.5.X).

Actually, in 1.5.X, the separate Launcher goes away. Instead, you have to setup the launcher parameters somewhere in the Perferences dialog and restart MapTool.

Barrybip · Post by **Barrybip** » Thu Jul 11, 2019 3:12 am

Eh, hrefs in a Maptool frame opens up an external browser.

Any way to have external HTML pulled in and display with MT? I really dont want to leave the application when referencing the data.

adventuremagic123 · Post by **adventuremagic123** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 12:18 am

Yes, except I can't answer your question about pulling the HTML from an external source. Look at the "Frames tutorial" and the "Introduction to Dialogs and Frames" -- both in the tutorial section of the MapToolDoc Wikki.

You can also download my Pathfinder 1e framework to see examples.

RPTools.net