This week I got back to Dm’ing 4e. No, I haven’t dropped Dragon Age, in fact that’s going quite well, but rather I added a game to my schedule. I’m running this game online, and I made it Essentials only, so it’s an experiment of sorts.
One, I wanted to see what Essentials brought to the table on the DM side of things, and two I wanted to see if I could actually keep an online game going for longer than two or three sessions. To start, right off the bat I had problems on the first session of play. My computer was not cooperating with my Skype/Gametable setup. I ended up using Skype off the iPad, which helped tremendously. After the session, I tried to figure out what the problem was and I narrowed it down to Dropbox, which is apparently a big resource hog.
For the second session, I decided to switch from Gametable to Maptool. I like Gametable, but it was doing somethings I couldn’t find a solution for. Some players saw the map while others didn’t for example. We got around it, but it was an unneeded distraction. There were a few other reasons for the switch to Maptool, but the primary one was the amount of people telling me to try it. I avoided it like the plague for a long time because I found it to be too complicated, but later realized that it’s only as complex as you make it, or need it to be.
So yeah, so far I’m two sessions in, and the only issue I’m having is to disconnect a bit from the technology aspect of it and concentrate on the game. I’m finding it hard to not be so concerned with everything working, and I can tell my DM’ing is hurting a bit from it. I imagine that with time it’ll be second nature, like playing at a real table, but I’d be lying if I said that it’s as smooth as a real tabletop experience for me just yet.
As far as the game is concerned, I’m running Logan Bonner’s “The Slaying Stone” adventure. It’s a first level adventure, relatively easy, and sandboxy enough that it’s not a railroady experience. I’ve taken the time to create macros in Maptool to simulate the attacks of each monster in the adventure, so combat isn’t as slow as I thought it would be. In fact, I’m pretty happy with the pace of it.
So we’ll see how it goes, as another issue that will come up is that I’m DMing 4e without being a DDI subscriber, and I want to see to what extent I can keep that up. With a prepublished adventure it’s easy enough, but what happens when I branch out and design my own stuff? So I’m looking forward to seeing how that turns out.
The takeaway for me here is that DM’ing online with Maptool isn’t the technological nightmare I thought it would be, and that 4e is still fun for me. Who knows, I may have to run a Dragon Age game online as well. We’ll see.
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71gamer
August 24, 2011
Maptools can be pretty cool, check out the frameworks and there’s a torrent out there with a HUGE free library of mapping items.
My biggest problem with maptools was with the technology. Often the players would get so involved in the game tech (e.g. why weren’t the dice rolls adding up the proper bonus for an off-hand item, why didn’t my spell hit that minion, etc) that the game moved MUCH slower.
If I ever run another maptools-based game, I will have a ‘rule of fun’ that the tech is secondary to the game, for example, sometimes i actually just rolled dice on the table when there was a lot of combat to take care of–the players appreciated the speed boost (I wasn’t opening every token and searching for the proper attack button and applying the debuffs, etc). Good luck and I’m sure there’s plenty of us interested in how it goes for you.
mbeacom
August 24, 2011
Not a big fan of maptool but its ok after the initial nightmare of programming everything in to make it functional. I adore Fantasy Grounds 2. It’s not free but everything is already built in for 4E and it works awesome. Drag and Drop. Makes gaming online a joy. I actually think it works better than the DDi Virtual Table.
OnlineDM
August 24, 2011
I’m glad to hear that the first MapTool session went okay! Just remember: there’s a community here to help.
newbiedm
August 24, 2011
Yes! I should have noted that in the post. The Maptool community is huge and very helpful. Also very creative. 🙂
Adriano
August 25, 2011
Did you keep the story as written or modify the powers of the stone? There’s been a lot of talk about it…
newbiedm
August 25, 2011
I just started. I haven’t modified anything just yet. Where can I read more about this?
Adriano
August 25, 2011
You can read more from the author at http://loganbonner.blogspot.com/2010/06/slaying-stone-skill-challenges.html, and the reviews are out there. The main problem (which, if I recall, Logan doesn’t answer) is the following:
“The reason why you are hired is as follows. While searching through old historical documents, Treona discovered the existence of an unused slaying stone in Kiris Dahn. This deadly, supposedly evil, item could kill a person with one magical blast, then shatter. Its description states that it cannot be disenchanted, and new one cannot be enchanted. Its creators designed it to only work within 5 miles of the town, which is 10 miles from the nearest major roadway.
So, to review, an exiled monarch’s advisor wants you to explore a town filled with savage monsters to retrieve an item that can kill one person in said town before breaking down.”
That quote comes from the review at http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/14/14827.phtml
That said, everything else I’ve read about the adventure is good news, and I want to try it as soon as I can.
Josh
August 26, 2011
Well, Adriano, let’s hope Newbie’s PC’s don’t read his post =p… lol… and I am pretty sure (I ran the adventure a while back) that you don’t actually know if it will or won’t work outside of town.. all you know is that it is very powerful, and your patron or whatever wants it or wants to keep it out of someone else’s hands. I had a great time with this adventure and my party, and we actually only had one battle… the party spent a lot of time working on getting into town, then they kidnapped a kobold and trying to convince a scared, trembling, nervous, and somewhat slow kobold to help them out was hilarious from the get go… the only thing that almost unhinged me was my invoker using that “guiding hand” spell to try to figure out which ruin to explore first so I had to modify who had the stone and basically have them moving around the town so the PCs couldn’t just run to him/her/it and be done that quick.
Vance
August 26, 2011
I’ve actually been using maptool a lot recently, but in a play-by-post game, so we don’t have any issues with the technology. Basically, I use maptool to put together the map, export the image, and post that on the forum we are using. I do it at the top of every round.
It’s not “live”, but it lets us all still play with my friend who moved to the other side of the country. He wouldn’t be able to join a live game because of the time difference.
Adriano
August 26, 2011
Well, I did post it vaguely at first, and it was held on moderation… I have no problem with it being edited for spoilers 🙂
ST218
August 27, 2011
When I’ve used Maptool, I’ve had the monster stats open next to me, so instead of using macros and such, I’d just do the /roll 1d20+10 or whatever myself. It tends to be easier than searching the tokens if you’re a quick typist.
breitling navitimer
January 1, 2013
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