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.

Interview: Jonathan Roberts aka Torstan

We continue Maptool Month with an interview with Jonathan Roberts, also known as Torstan on multiple gaming forums. Jonathan is another artist who gives back to the virtual gaming community with the release of free tiles and maps to be used online. Publishers noticed his maps and he soon found a second career as a cartographer and artist in the gaming and comic book industry. In his spare time Jonathan contemplates the creation and composition of the universe as a doctor of theoretical physicist with New York University.

We caught up with Torstan between drawing fantasy maps for our imagination and analyzing data detailing the structure of our physical reality.

Review: Devin Night's Dark Forest Token Pack

Product: Devin Night's Dark Forest Token Pack
Price: 5.99
Artist: Devin Night

James Hazlenut aka Devin Night provides quality hand-drawn tokens, artwork, character portraits, and maps for use in RPGs. Many of the tokens I use in Maptool are Devin's. I've also commissioned multiple works from him for story and setting illustrations. I was therefor pleased to see a new set of Devin Night tokens appear on DriveThruRPG.com.

The Dark Forest Token Pack features 79 fantasy creatures for use in your face-to-face or Virtual Table Top game. The product has two downloads; one to print and cut and the other to drop onto your VTT.

This token set includes Animals (Wolves, Bears, Spiders), Bugbears, Green Dragons, Giants (Ettin, Hill, Rock), Goblins (archers, spearmen, clubbers, and shamans), Hobgoblins (archers, fighters, shaman), and Orcs (archers, fighters, shaman, thief). I've included some of the samples below to whet your appetite.

Bugbear

Goblin

Hobgoblin

Orc

Aside from making great tokens, Devin gives back to the VTT community. He was a founding member of the now defunct Four Ugly Monsters. Once that site closed, he made all the FUM tokens available for free. If you'd like to see Devin's token work, visit his Immortal Nights site for over twenty free token packs.

Review: Arsenale Shipworks Maps

Sometimes we fail to see the elegance in something simple. We don't always see the possibilities in the functional and gravitate toward visually stunning. I have to admit when I first viewed the Arsenale Shipworks maps I almost passed them over for this reason.

These fantasy maps are black and white, one to a pdf, and lack eye catching graphics. As it turns out, this is by design. The maps won't eat your print cartridge, have a 1" grid suitable for 25mm miniatures, and print on 8.5x11" paper.

At last count, Arsenale Shipworks has 12 maps available for about $0.75 per printed page. Each purchase includes the map with and without descriptive text. Most maps are a single printed page but two of the maps reviewed required two pages to print.

For you Virtual Tabletop users, the graphics are easily imported into an image editor like GIMP and saved as jpgs or pngs. The resolutions is 100 ppi and the line up nicely inside Maptool. The added benefit to the black and white color scheme is a small memory footprint inside a VTT.

I had two issues with the maps. The map's description exists only on the retailer's product page and each map is duplicated (one with text and one without) in a separate file which leads to disk clutter. I recommend placing a description on a title page and putting both versions in one file, possibly with a text layer than can be turned off for printing.

Overall the maps are a nice offering and well worth the price.

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 )