D&D 5E Advice for a DM's first-time using Roll20 to run 5e?

[Quickleaf]

A friend asked if I'd be interested in taking over DMing (or possibly kicking off a rotating DM thing) for a group on Roll20. I said "yes" after he gave me a quick idea of what Roll20 is like. It also sounds like we won't be doing as much live gaming so it'll be more play-by-post like.

For those of you with more experience using Roll20, what is the learning curve like? Does setting up a map take a lot of time? Any general pointers that might ease me into it with less pain?

Thanks!

 

[Baumi]

It's very simple, but nothing explains it better than Videos!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nHsiT5AEV4&list=PLJGKJMlzabImiNQMQDXyIMq_NxSx0i5Zg

 

[kalil]

My advice:

1) Keep it simple. Dont use fancy features and stuff for your first game
2) Keep it simple. Never ever ever draw maps. There are 9 million+ maps out there that you can steal. Do it.
3) Keep it simple. If you cant figure out how to do something on the virtual desktop just do it on the side and tell the players the result.
4) Relax and have fun

 

[Shiroiken]

There is definitely a learning curve, but it's mostly on how much you want to use. The first thing you'll need to figure out is how to roll dice. It's not very hard, once you get used to it, and the macro features are really helpful. Maps can take a lot of time to do, if you want to create these really nice works of art, so keep it simple at first, using simple Polygon Lines (holding shift will automatically force the line to begin/end on the grid). Fog of War is a great feature, once you learn how to reveal areas, but make sure that you don't use Black Polygon Lines, since players can't tell the walls from the Fog. I wouldn't bother with the character sheets, since they tend to slow down the site IME.

Overall, just be patient. Once you figure something out, it'll make sense, so you seldom make the same mistakes twice.

 

[Quickleaf]

It's very simple, but nothing explains it better than Videos!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nHsiT5AEV4&list=PLJGKJMlzabImiNQMQDXyIMq_NxSx0i5Zg

Thanks, just watched the first video. Good stuff. Seems like a DM definitely needs to invest *at least* an hour figuring out Roll20 in order to get the basics down.

My advice:

1) Keep it simple. Dont use fancy features and stuff for your first game
2) Keep it simple. Never ever ever draw maps. There are 9 million+ maps out there that you can steal. Do it.
3) Keep it simple. If you cant figure out how to do something on the virtual desktop just do it on the side and tell the players the result.
4) Relax and have fun

Thanks for the hint about not drawing maps (presumably in some sort of built-in drawing program?).

I am an amateur cartographer, but when I don't have time to make something, I've found some nice geomorphic battle maps over here:
http://dungeonchannel.com/maps/

There is definitely a learning curve, but it's mostly on how much you want to use. The first thing you'll need to figure out is how to roll dice. It's not very hard, once you get used to it, and the macro features are really helpful. Maps can take a lot of time to do, if you want to create these really nice works of art, so keep it simple at first, using simple Polygon Lines (holding shift will automatically force the line to begin/end on the grid). Fog of War is a great feature, once you learn how to reveal areas, but make sure that you don't use Black Polygon Lines, since players can't tell the walls from the Fog. I wouldn't bother with the character sheets, since they tend to slow down the site IME.

Overall, just be patient. Once you figure something out, it'll make sense, so you seldom make the same mistakes twice.

Thanks for the tip about distinguishing Fog of War from black walls on the map.

And thanks for the tip about the character sheets too. From what I've seen it seems like all the players are into using character sheets thru Roll20 with special macros pre-loaded into the sheets.

Ah, so dice rolling is handled by macros? So there is some programming code involved?

Is there a way to load up a campaign just so I can dick around with the maps and get familiar with stuff? But without advertising that I'm starting a campaign? Just something for me to experiment and learn with?

 

[Baumi]

Ah, so dice rolling is handled by macros? So there is some programming code involved?

Is there a way to load up a campaign just so I can dick around with the maps and get familiar with stuff? But without advertising that I'm starting a campaign? Just something for me to experiment and learn with?

You can include Dice-Rolls with macros, but you can also simply type it into the chat (Example: /roll 1d20+3 ) or use the dice-tooltip on the left side (just click on the correct die-symbol).

You can make macros (which is very easy) but certainly not required. If there is some kind of roll that you will constantly make, like attacks, then it's very usefull to make that roll into a button. But that code is usually nothing more than what you will write into the chat.

Campaign are not automatically advertised. I always have one or two test-campaign just to try out some Roll20 Stuff.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=2569]Baumi[/MENTION] Thanks, I started up a test run, and there's just so many questions I have!

How do I designate something a token? How do I add a turn to a token once designated? And I have to add a turn to every token of every enemy in a fight? Ugh, tedious.

Why can't I get rid of fog of war easily and quickly?

Why are "tokens" grossly oversized compared to maps? (using "Roll20 approved" Devin's tokens & geomorphs)

How on earth do I label rolls?

And why do dice rolls take up so much damn space in the dialogue box? Is there a way to shrink the space dice rolls take up?

Haha, this is definitely going to take more time than I thought to figure out.

 

[iserith]

@Baumi Thanks, I started up a test run, and there's just so many questions I have!

How do I designate something a token? How do I add a turn to a token once designated? And I have to add a turn to every token of every enemy in a fight? Ugh, tedious.

Why can't I get rid of fog of war easily and quickly?

Why are "tokens" grossly oversized compared to maps? (using "Roll20 approved" Devin's tokens & geomorphs)

How on earth do I label rolls?

And why do dice rolls take up so much damn space in the dialogue box? Is there a way to shrink the space dice rolls take up?

Haha, this is definitely going to take more time than I thought to figure out.

A lot of these questions are best answered on the Roll20 forums. The community there is pretty helpful.

Every image is a token unless it's on the map layer. There is a simple macro you can use to automatically roll initiative and add the monster and its init to the turn order.

I don't recommend using the built-in character sheets. I find this slows down the game. Instead, I have everyone do "token actions" by inputting macros into the Abilities & Attributes tab of the character sheet. This way when you click on your token, a list of buttons comes up. Then you just hit the appropriate button and you're done without needing to pull up the sheet and sort through it. This also allows you to format it in a way you prefer rather than what they give you.

The easiest way to get rid of fog of war is to pull down the page tab where it has all the pages in the campaign (little blue tab), click on the page's settings button, the check/uncheck fog of war. If you're talking about revealing a section for players, choose the polygon reveal tool on the left toolbar.

A square in Roll20 is 70 pixels. Resize the images and they should snap to grid. Or you can right click on them and "Set Dimensions." Then type in the number of pixels or squares you want it to be.

I'm not sure what you mean by labeling rolls. If you mean to get it to output to "Dexterity Check: 20..." that's an inline roll and the macro text is "Dexterity Check: 1d20" with double brackets around 1d20 and without the quotes. (I'm not sure how this forum will take me typing those brackets out.)

For the amount of space the die rolls take up, I recommend not using the character sheets and using token action macros that have inline rolls.

If you want, send me an invitation to your campaign and I can leave a couple posts there that may be of use to you. If we happen to be on at the same time, I can answer your questions live.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=97077]iserith[/MENTION] Thanks very much! You covered a ton of questions that I just was having trouble finding in the Roll20 help wiki. Particularly the size of a square in Roll20.

I don't know your email so I can't invite you that way, but here's the link to the Test game I'm running to figure out how this all works.
https://app.roll20.net/join/952067/sZsmsQ

 

[iserith]

[MENTION=97077]iserith[/MENTION] Thanks very much! You covered a ton of questions that I just was having trouble finding in the Roll20 help wiki. Particularly the size of a square in Roll20.

I don't know your email so I can't invite you that way, but here's the link to the Test game I'm running to figure out how this all works.

No link here - you can send it to me in a PM. It'll be the "Share Link" that comes up when you click on Invite Players on the right side of the campaign.