Has COVID hit your gaming?

[Kallatari]

Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip

Looks interesting. Any hints for a novice user? Useful YT vids, etc?

EDIT: My current TTRPG group play GURPS, so we're rather invested in using a hex grid for managing combat. Is this easy to achieve in MapTools?

The short answer is Yes. If you just want to use the default MapTools, possibly with the existing GURPS Framework, it should be easy enough without any problems. Getting a hex grid imposed on your maps, and locking token movement to the Hex is easy.

There is an RPTools Forum/Community where you can find a FAQ, and I've seen a couple videos on how to use it, but I don't remember where. So there is a lot of online material on how to use it available.


The longer answer is it depends on how much of the MapTool features you want to use. Where MapTools shines compared to the other VTT - in my opinion - is how powerful it is with respect to coding new macros for it. But that power is also where it can get finicky and cause headaches for you if you make a mistake somewhere.

For example, getting it to load with the right amount of memory (which is determined based on how complicated your framework and macros are) is sometimes complicated, for no reason that we've ever been able to determine. Seems to be something about whether you install Java before or after you install MapTools. (I also use a slightly older version of MapTools, so this particular problem may have been solved more recently.)

MapTools doesn't have a "polished" look to it, but I've found it to be the most powerful of the VTTs out there with how you can program your own macros and build your own frameworks for specific games. That's why we stick to MapTools instead of the other more polished programs. Everything can be automated... Everything! If you are willing to program it. And I'm not a programmer, yet I learned how to do it easily enough, so it's not too complicated if you want to learn how.

In the past, for example, I've had macros for attacking where you pick the attack and target, and MapTools calculates range, darkness (modified by your Night Vision), cover, facing, you name it, does the attack roll, does the defense roll, rolls damage, determines injury based on hit location, DR and wounding modifier, and subtracts the HP from the target, then adds in the shock penalty. All with the click of a button and the selection of a couple variables.

I actually moved away from those all-encompassing builds because: 1) the large complicated macros require more memory to not overflow, which led to the aforementioned loading with correct memory problems; 2) when you want to add something else, it became more and more complicated to have intermingled/cross-referencing coding and finding where you made a programming errors; and 3) someone spends Luck to reroll or interferes with something in the process and we need to go back and change things manually, and that got way too complicated (ok, let's give him his hit points back, he didn't use his parry either so remove the multiple parry penalty, etc.).

I now have a simpler more step by step framework/macros, with smaller codes (easier on the memory and to recode if there is an error), and a lot more manual entries of modifiers, making it easier to skip some steps if we don't want to use them during play.

Unfortunately my framework has a lot of my own house rules coded into it (I have six attributes, damage for melee attacks is calculated completely differently from RAW, etc.), so it can't be used universally by other GURPS players. But there is a traditional GURPS framework out there you can download. And I believe it is compatible with the official GURPS Character Assistant program, so you can export/import your characters into MapTools. So if you want to use it to play GURPS, MapTools is ready to go.

So in summary, yep MapTool can do what you are looking for. If you want a Hex Map, the ability to roll dice, and just play a game, it is perfectly suitable for doing that without any issues. If you want more, it can do that also, but that's where it can get complicated.

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by Kallatari

<Long and extremely detailed answer>

Ta muchly! That was comprehensive and thorough.

Good thing I've got a bit of spare time on my (frequently washed) hands.

[kirbwarrior]

It's largely done the opposite. Scheduling anything ever has always been a nightmare for me (Scheduling falls apart roughly 40% of the time for the next day) so everyone having more free time actually helps. That and I've been using r20 for years and much of that through typing that I lost basically nothing through this.

There are a lot of downsides to being an introvert with social habits (and with quitting M:tG, this is my last one), but COVID was not one of them.

[simulatoralive]

Amazingly enough, I've seen a small silver lining to the Covid-19 cloud.

I've been gaming off and on with one guy for the past 4 years, just because we couldn't find another player. We almost had a new player recently, but he never showed up.

I bought a headset toward the beginning of the worries, just to make sure I could keep in touch with people if things got bad. That got me looking into Discord as a way to keep in touch.

In the end, I invited an old player from years ago (back in Utah) to join us via Discord and today I GMed for one local player and one remote player. It was a lot of fun.

So, this virus scare has gotten me to reach out and connect with people in new and different ways and revitalized one of my favorite hobbies. In the past I've always been against online tabletop RPGs, but now I'm glad I gave it a try.

[Dr. Beckenstein]

Well, our Shadowrun Group tried discord yesterday, and it worked rather smoothly. There were some minor disturbances (bad audio, loss of signal), but these were probably caused by the hardware and did not that really hindered the game.

Really annoying is the cancellation of the conventions. The season was just to start, and all the preparations from the organizers and the participants were totally useless. Since most conventions only happen once a year, this is really disappointing.

[Miley Spears]

It's been weird for me! I was going into the Peace Corps which would probably mean no RPGs for a couple years. But with the virus all volunteers are withdrawn. I hadn't really started yet but already quit my job so now I'm looking for work!

[Andrew Hackard]

My D&D game is on hold -- we had a session three weeks ago because we knew it was likely to be the last in-person game for some time. Unfortunately, we didn't quite get through the adventure, so we're talking about ways to wrap it up with a two- or three-hour online session. Hoping that can happen this month.

[Koshka]

One of my groups is on hold. No one ill, but we're playing a Zombicide: Invader campaign and no one wants to try disinfecting all those minis.

The other group is still meeting, for the moment. The GM is looking into online options just in case -- half the group lives in Iowa, half in Nebraska, so if either state issues a stay-at-home order it'll affect all of us.

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by Koshka

One of my groups is on hold. No one ill, but we're playing a Zombicide: Invader campaign and no one wants to try disinfecting all those minis.

Ehem. Cough--Tabletop Simulator--Cough!

Hope I didn't get any COVID on your link there . . . sorry.

[Koshka]

Tempting, especially since I just got my stimulus e-check, but the app only runs original Zombicide, not the new one.