Putting It All Together

We've got a Roll20 account, we've got a map, we've got a bunch of tokens and we've created some macros. We're now ready to play!

As the GM you pick which page your players are viewing by dragging the Red Tag to the page in the Page Toolbar at the top of the screen. It might be an idea to create a welcome page for your players, maybe an image to get them in the mood.

In the blog about creating the map we didn't mention a few important things. We didn't talk about doors and traps. These can be added as tokens or drawn on to the map. And we didn't talk about the 'fog of war' function. This is how you can reveal the map as your players explore. To enable this go to your page settings and click the 'Fog of War' tickbox (your map will darken). Then, while you are playing you can select areas to reveal using the 'Eye" icon in the tool bar.

Once you are ready to play you need to invite your players to the game. This is as simple as clicking on the 'Invite Players' button on the game splash screen. You can either send the invite by email or just copy a link and send it to your players using whatever chat program you've been using.

We have been using Zoom for our games but choose whatever you are comfortable with (be aware that the free version of Zoom has a 45 minute limit on video calls so it might be worth paying it… although one of your players might already have an account).

Then you need to spend a few minutes making sure everyone was comfortable with the interface. I made sure everyone had control over their token. This is done by clicking on the character in the 'Journal' tab. and choosing 'Edit'. One of the options is the box that lets your players take control of the token. Depending on how you set up your macros you will now also need to make sure that your players have access to your macros too.

Let your players have some fun. Let them click the macros and move the tokens about.

And once you're all comfortable you start the game!

Remeber that Roll20 is an gaming aid - don’t let it get in the way of your game. If something isn’t working then just move on. Don’t rely too heavily on the technology, describe what the characters see, if the dice rolling is slowing down the game then just roll your dice at home.

I’ve found that Roll20 has allowed us to carry on playing and in some ways it has added a new element to our games. To be honest I don’t know if I will carry on using it once lock down is over but I am glad it exists.