Plan and play table-top gaming adventures with Maptool

Maptool is a powerful program if you want to play table-top role-playing games with people over the internet. The name might sound like it is just for creating maps, but it can also be used with other people instead of working with paper maps.

It is still used by the person running the game to create the gaming environment but exactly what can be seen by other players can be controlled to keep the challenge of never knowing what is round the corner. Gamers are connected via the internet.

Installation is simple and it can either be installed on your computer or run directly from the internet using the Launch page on the RPTools website. The latter is a good idea if you want to try the software before installing it.

We're not experienced table-top gamers so we did find it hard to know where to start with Maptool. There are tutorials to be found on the RPTools website.

There are even commercial games available now that use Maptool. You can watch a video trailer on Youtube, which gives an idea of the maps that can be created, along with some very stirring music.

Once you get the hang of the basics though, it is a very powerful tool and a great way to use your computer to improve table-top gaming. It can work out line of sight, for example, and the effectiveness of torchlight in dark places.

It also has a macro function to speed up regular events in a game.