Virtual Table Top Interview - Savage Worlds Crept In

Gaming Ballistic interviewed R. K. Athey (aka The Savage Troll) concerning Virtual Tabletops and MapTool.  It was a wide-ranging discussion about communities, products, and Chaos Lord Zack.

Net Find - Planetary Map Generator

The Savage Duck found this the other day. He's aware of my star sector generator project and thought this might be of use. Indeed it might be!

It may also be of use to your gamers, especially with the upcoming Savage Worlds SciFi companion coming soon.

The web site is run by Torben Ægidius Mogensen, an associate professor in Copenhagen. For twenty years he's worked off and on with map projections. I did the same in a previous life though not as thoroughly as  Professor Mogensen.

To use the web based generator, simply open the generation console and change the values to your heart's content.

Once satisfied, generate your map. If you ever need to get back to it, simply remember your seed number and other values. It will generate the same map every time. You can see various areas of the map in more detail by adjusting the zoom, center latitude, and center longitude. You can also adjust the grid.

The generator produces BMP format images. You can easily convert them using a product like GIMP, for use in your favorite VTT, like MapTool.

You can also download the code and run it from the command line. See the project page for mote detail.  

Review - The Lightning Train

Fantasy Maps: Lightning Train Map Pack
Publisher: D20 Cartographer
Price: $2.99
Artist: Joshua Bennett


All Aboard! The Lightning Train is about to leave the station. Tracks? Who needs tracks with a train that levitates above the ground on electro-magnetic forces and/or magic? Just don't step in front of the train. Those cow-catchers have a habit of flash frying anything in their way. You might want to steer clear of the engine as well. Lightning bolts fly from the front of the engine arcing backwards in brilliant displays of light.

This is an amazing map set suitable for a Fantasy or SteamPunk settings. It includes maps of the Engine, three different First Class cars, three standard passenger cars, two freight cars, a service car, and caboose. The pack also include four empty cars and object images so you can make cars according to your own personal design. You can mix and match the images anyway you wish to create the train of your choice.

The product includes PDFs for printing, JPGs for importing into your favorite Virtual Tabletop, and PNGs representing objects inside the train. The most interesting file, however, is the MapTool campaign file. It's thing of beauty containing 11 maps representing the outside of the train and the inside of each individual car.

For those who don't know, MapTool is a free VTT you can use in your face-to-face games with a projector, or connect with your friends across the Internet to play online. It is a full-featured program that runs equally well on Mac, Linux, or Windows.

Joshua leveraged several cool features of MapTool to make his map do wonders. It makes full use of lighting and topology meaning your MapTool players will only see what their characters see. The Lightning train also uses Wolph42's teleport pad. With this, players step between cars disappearing from one map and appearing on another.

This product does an equally good job of showing off the artist's talent and MapTool's capabilities. I highly recommend it.

Review: Anderia Map (Free)

Product: Map of Anderia

Rule System: Generic
From: Britannia Game Design LTD.
Price: Free
Artist: Andrew Cowley

We come across free stuff from time and like to let our readers know about it. The map of Anderia is free from DriveThruRPG.com and should be usable in any of your Virtual Table Tops like MapTool or as a handout for your players. Thanks for Britannia Game Design for making it available.

To extract the Map for a VTT, import it into GIMP, select the the map region, then Image->Crop to Selection. The map has a 100 pixels per inch resolution and is about 15"x15" so you'll need to scale it down if you want to print it for a handout.

Planned Changes for MapTool 1.4 - Part 2

This is the second half of the MapTool 1.4 interview with Frank, Craig, and Bill the project leaders for MapTool.

In part one, we discussed the user interface changes planned for 1.4. In this portion, we focus on Macros, underlying architecture changes, JavaScript, third part tool integration, and MapTool plug-ins.

Planned Changes for MapTool 1.4 - Part 1

MapTool is a free, open source Virtual Table Top (VTT) used to connect gamers of all stripes. MapTool includes powerful map creation, token management, light and sight, and initiative tracking functionality in an easy-to-use package that a user can pack with customizations to speed game play.

It is The Savage Troll's go to technology for time-crunched gaming since it removes much of the setup and travel time required for our favorite hobby. You simply drop a map onto the screen, create a few tokens to represent PC and NPCs, start your MapTool server, and play.

The 1.3 version of MapTool is in Release Candidate mode which means the developers are tidying up a few final bits and pieces before all work on 1.3 stops. At that point the developers rip the code apart and do major modifications and upgrades to the existing code base while adding a slew of new functionality. This leads to the inevitable question regarding what's changing, what's staying, and what's leaving in terms of MapTool form and functionality.

The current project leads for MapTool ( Frank, Craig, and Bill ) took the time to answer a few questions regarding MapTool 1.4. Luckily for us they had a lot to say so we broke the interview into two sections. The first, Planned UI Changes for MapTool 1.4, is presented below. The follow-on interview regarding macros and other functionality should follow in one week's time.

Screencasts from The Savage Troll: Maptool Servers, Chat, and Dice Rolls

We continue MapTool Month with a series of screen casts showing MapTool Functionality. Maptool is a free, open source product and project written in Java which functions as a virtual table top.  This 10 minute video demonstrates how to start a server, how players connect to the server, chat commands, and dice rolling during a game.

Related Links:
MapTool Screen Cast 1
MapTool Screen Cast 2 Download

Screencasts from The Savage Troll: MapTool Introduction

If a picture is worth a 1000 words, what's a screencast worth?

We continue MapTool Month with a series of screen casts showing MapTool Functionality. Maptool is a free, open source product and project written in Java which functions as a virtual table top.

In this screencast we discuss launching MapTool, adding maps, Fog of War, PC and NPC tokens, and movement. You can view the video on YouTube or do a right click save from this link.

Since this is our first venture into screencasting any constructive advice and criticism is appreciated. Well, either appreciated or callously disregarded. We are trolls after all.

MapTool Month Redux

We tried. We really, really tried to pack all our MapTool articles in 28 short days.

Sadly, we failed.

On the upside we're continuing our MapTool emphasis for another month. That's right: March is MapTool Month Redux on The Savage Troll!

Articles this month include:
Our final interview with the MapTool Gang of 3.  We discuss the direction for version 1.4 Fantasy map creation using Jonathan Roberts' map tiles and Devin Night's top-down tokens Resource libraries “Vision and Light: A Step-By-Step Guide On How To Setup Your Own Savage Setting with MapTool.”

Thanks to everyone who helped make February our best month ever for The Savage Troll. We're doing our best to make sure March is even better!

In February we offered discounts on five products from DriveThruRPG. In March we're actually going to give stuff away. That's right: free stuff!  Woot!

Here are the rules: The first five blog followers to comment on this post in March gets a freebie from DriveThruRPG. To be eligible for the prize, you must first be a blog follower. To become a blog follower click the 'Follow' button in the sidebar.

Once a comment is received, we'll contact you about picking one of five gifts to download from DriveThruRPG.com.

Good luck everyone and thanks again for your support.

Staff of The Savage Troll

Interview: Craig Wisniewski - Maptool Gang of 3

We continue Maptool Month interviews with the father of MapTool frameworks, Craig Wisniewski. Frameworks allow for the creation of custom settings, screens, and macros that automate game mechanics. I've created one such framework but there are many, many others. Throughout this interview you'll find screen shots from some of the more popular frameworks.

Craig added the HTML frame and dialog functions allowing for the creation of custom windows using HTML/CSS with links and buttons that run MTScript macros. He also added the ability to update Token properties from within macros to automate game mechanics like hit point reduction due to a successful attack. Other biggies include trusted macros created by the GM and LIB: tokens which allow for the distribution of frameworks and other MTScript utilities. Basically, without Craig I doubt we would have the frameworks you see in MapTool today.

Craig refuses to adopt a pseudonym or use an avatar. Some feel this reflects the practical manner he brings to MapTool development. It could be he never intended to stick around long enough to need a nickname or stylized image. Still others believe he just likes it when people ask why he doesn't have them. Whatever the case, we present the very practical interview of Craig "No Avatar" Wisniewski.

Interview: Bill Hart - Maptool Gang of 3

We continue Maptool Month with an Interview with Bill Hart aka Dorpond from the MapTool forums. Trevor once described him as MapTool's energizer bunny. Bill found MapTool and began contributing almost immediately. He was a driving force behind the current MapTool visions system. He drove home the point that an elf with lowlight vision should see the map differently than a dwarf with darkvision.

Bill continues to support MapTool contributing to design and testing of the product. Those who don't produce code for a living often don't understand the old 40/20/40 rule of coding. Forty percent of a projects time is spent in analysis and design, twenty percent coding, and forty percent testing. Thus Bill is the forty percent bread in the MapTool code sandwich.

The other quality Bill brings to the table is endless enthusiasm.  You simply can't get the man down even with a troll club (trust me, I've tried). He believes deeply in the mission of MapTool of providing a free, quality tool that brings gamers together.

So, without further ado, the Dorpond interview.

Interview: Frank Edwards - Maptool Gang of 3

MapTool is my weapon of choice for online games. It started as a virtual battle mat but grew into a fully configurable, game system agnostic, online table top with rich map making capabilities. With MapTool you can create custom properties and data for your characters and creatures within your gaming 'verse, roll dice inside an integrated chat system, and track initiative. With the addtion of MTScript (MapTools scripting language) you can fully automate game mechanics within MapTool to share with your friends across the Internet.

MapTool is an open source Java project meaning the product is free and its source can can be viewed and changed, if desired. Since it's written in Java it works on Mac, Linux, and Windows operating systems.

The project has dozens of contributors who donate their time to provide code, testing, and content. Last year, long time project head Trevor Croft stepped down handing control of the project to a triumvirate of talented technicians while running out the door mumbling something about going to the store for a pack of cigs. We all thought this odd since Trevor doesn't smoke. He was last seen in Las Vegas being thrown out of a casino for testing a card counting program developed for an Android phone.

As we continue Maptool Month on The Savage Troll, we bring you interviews with each of the Gang of Three (as we call them) who direct the MapTool project. We start with Azhrei interview followed by Dorpond, then Craig, ending with a combined questionnaire about the features slated for MapTool version 1.4.

First up, Frank Edwards aka Azhrei.

Review: Story Maps: Ruins of the First Age

From: Savage Mojo
Price: $6.95
Artist: Mike Burns

Ruins of the First Age includes two maps of 12 tiles each meant for printing and use in face-to-face games. The map depicts ruins and surrounding area with 8x8 inch tiles. If you plan to use it for a Virtual Table Top there's some work ahead of you. The maps are 8x8 inches bounded by white borders that overlap a bit. You'll need to crop the border before using.

If you plan to use this product in a VTT, you'll need to crop the border first with an image manipulation program. I use GIMP. While GIMP can have quite a learning curve, it is highly functional and quick if you know a few tricks. For more information check out Beginning GIMP by Akkana Peck.

You can crop the images quickly by importing all the pages at once into GIMP assuming all the images are identically layed out like Savage Mojo's. This creates one layer per page. Crop the image to the corners and it crops them all at once.

Torstan's Maps

Jonathan Roberts is a map maker who, through pure altruism, improved the quality of my fantasy maps greatly. He's also a cartographer for Kobold Quarterly, Sunken Empires, and Adventures in the Hyborian Age. 


Under the name of Torstan, he contributed tile sets and maps to Maptool which either ship with the product or can be downloaded into it. His work greatly speeds the development of new fantasy scenarios through the use of drag and drop map making. I created the Ogre Bandit Lair adventure with his tiles.


Jonathan released the latest map set in a series titled Low River Map Pack. The set contains battle mat pdfs for printing and jpeg files to import into your favorite Virtual Table Top. It also contains a Maptool campaign file with the maps preloaded. You can find the entire bundle of Fantastic Maps on DriveThruRPG.

Sample Map from the Low River Collection

Interview with Trevor Croft, creator of MapTool

With a full-time job, a newborn baby, and a virtual tabletop software application project all consuming his schedule, Trevor Croft, creator and caretaker of MapTool, was kind enough to take a few moments from his own busy life to answer a few questions.

(Article originally appeared in The Dice of Life )