So my weekly DnD group has been on Roll20 for 3 years, and now that everyone is working from home, they're pushing for longer games, or games during the day. Which is great for everyone except me, who still has to report to my job site. At least their enthusiasm is there.
Sorry for the double post, but wanted to ask before I forgot.... does Roll20 cost money to actually run a game with? I've got 6 players in my SKT group. Or just to unlock advanced features?
A free account can handle running a game without too much issue. If you want all the maps/tokens/monsters preuploaded and sized and such you'll have to buy the campaign off their storefront but can then be used without the paid accounts. But the things like more storage, dynamic lighting, etc, are all worth it IMO. I run two campaigns (SKT and DIA) on there and couldn't imagine going back to the free account. For one thing I'd probably have to delete all the music I uploaded to make mood playlists!
Thanks. Looking into options to keep my game going. I think we'll try a zoom conference call first since on of my players has proper access to it thru work. But if we are missing the map, I suggested we could try roll20.
I'm not paying to buy the content of skT a second time though. I already have it on D&D Beyond, so I'll see what can be done up uploading my one assests and ones stolen from the web.
(Geez, people. Don't try and make a post while running around doing things in the office. I've had to edit this post three times now for hitting send and running off to check something before actually finishing my thought.)
Maybe 1d4/round with a con-save to continue to hold the weapon? That way it doesn't just outright kill commoners who pick up the weapon. 2d6 is a greatsword worth of weapon.
Goumindong on
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
My D&D group did our test run of Roll20/Discord for socially distanced gaming. It worked pretty well! We're going to do our regular D&D tomorrow night over the net. Fingers crossed, but I could really use some normality.
I think a fun idea I’d like to use more often are things you can attach to a weapon or item you already possess to empower it, almost like levelling it up / giving it a feat.
Edit: The wording is a little off there for proper 5E-ness, but you get the drift.
Somehow a vague idea for 'a paladin character with some sort of twist and some sort of interesting multiclass' has evolved step by step, unintentionally, into the most excessively edgelord character I've ever put together.
A half-drow oathbreaker hexblade who is trying to escape the reach of the probably-not-divine 'deity' of the cult that raised them, which keeps pointing out people they should kill for the greater good, including random innocents who haven't done anything yet.
My Paladin Oath of the Ancients player rolled "you once made a deal with a fiendish entity that is yet to be repaid" on the random table in the AcInc book, so I've given her the option to, at a time of her choosing, become a Hexblade. She's new to the setting, so I just messaged her this suggestion for a back story:
How's this for a back story outline: while on guard duty for the Druid enclave you used to live with, a superior force invaded, and you were almost driven to defeat. In your time of need, you called out to the Feywild to help: the plane of existence where the Faeries live, connected with nature and such. You received no answer (Faeries can be like that), and in desperation and anger, using the hilt of your broken sword as an improvised knuckle-duster, you invoked the name of the Raven Queen, a mysterious entity connected to Death, loss, and the Shadowfell (a dark reflection of the Feywild).
Hearing the suffering and anger in your heart, some aspect of the Raven Queen entered into your broken sword, and a blade forged of shadow emerged from the hilt, just as you landed what you thought would be your last punch. The blade impaled your attacker, dropping them to the ground and imbuing you with some of their stolen vitality.
Your bargain that day turned the tide of battle in your favour, but your dreams are now haunted by visions of the Shadowfell, and a fortress of black ice within a frozen forest. One day, the Raven Queen will remember the service she performed for you on that fateful day, and expect you to enter her service as required. Until then, you serve the Light as best you can, keeping your broken sword hilt as a reminder that your days as a free agent are numbered.
She might decide to stick as pure Paladin, which is also fine, as the Raven Queen then becomes an antagonist I can use later.
I did a test run of roll20 today in anticipation of social distancing D&D. Making and uploading assets kinda sucked, but it was free so what can I really complain about? And for some reason the map I yoinked from dndbeyond did not want to snap to the grid properly (again, working with battle maps scaled for giants blows goats) but I think for a trial it went ok!
Why do people prefer to use discord or zoom or whatever instead of the built in video chat though?
On a related note, my last session was over Discord and the voice and video quality were really good. Combined with digital character sheets and a dice bot in the chat it was quite a pleasant experience.
Alright.... now I've loaded up a ToA map to futz around with and I've the roll20 grid the same size as the map grid, but as soon as I line things up and release the mouse, the map jumps and for the life of me, I can't figure out what I have togged to have the map snap away like that
Alright.... now I've loaded up a ToA map to futz around with and I've the roll20 grid the same size as the map grid, but as soon as I line things up and release the mouse, the map jumps and for the life of me, I can't figure out what I have togged to have the map snap away like that
Not sure how familiar you are with roll20.
Snapping is normal behaviour, you'd need to turn it off if you want to do some precision placement.
Another "thing" could be that you're in the token layer and not the map layer, stuff reacts a bit differently there.
Alright.... now I've loaded up a ToA map to futz around with and I've the roll20 grid the same size as the map grid, but as soon as I line things up and release the mouse, the map jumps and for the life of me, I can't figure out what I have togged to have the map snap away like that
If you right click the image and under advanced click the "is drawing" button the image will no longer attempt to snap to grid. If you just want to one time set something not on the grid you can hold alt while releasing it to have it stay where you set it.
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Also you can resize your map, I believe every square in Roll20 is 70 pixels. resize your image to match and you should be money.
Alright.... now I've loaded up a ToA map to futz around with and I've the roll20 grid the same size as the map grid, but as soon as I line things up and release the mouse, the map jumps and for the life of me, I can't figure out what I have togged to have the map snap away like that
Not sure how familiar you are with roll20.
Snapping is normal behaviour, you'd need to turn it off if you want to do some precision placement.
Another "thing" could be that you're in the token layer and not the map layer, stuff reacts a bit differently there.
Thanks, but I tried some futzing and it didn't work. Maybe I'll look harder next time.
Alright.... now I've loaded up a ToA map to futz around with and I've the roll20 grid the same size as the map grid, but as soon as I line things up and release the mouse, the map jumps and for the life of me, I can't figure out what I have togged to have the map snap away like that
If you right click the image and under advanced click the "is drawing" button the image will no longer attempt to snap to grid. If you just want to one time set something not on the grid you can hold alt while releasing it to have it stay where you set it.
THIS sounds more like it would solve what I'm having trouble with, I'll be sure and try that next time.
Also you can resize your map, I believe every square in Roll20 is 70 pixels. resize your image to match and you should be money.
Yeah, I was playing with resizing the map image 10 pixels at a time and it just got frustrating.
Eventually I just said "good enough", and started the game. Abandoned roll20's chat quickly and jumped into a zoom conference that one of my players set up. As an experiment, this session went well! I finally see why so many of you use roll20/fantasy grounds/maptool/etc. I still very much prefer getting together with my friends, but...you know...the whole world is going to shit, so this makes a lot of sense.
Steelhawk on
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Alright.... now I've loaded up a ToA map to futz around with and I've the roll20 grid the same size as the map grid, but as soon as I line things up and release the mouse, the map jumps and for the life of me, I can't figure out what I have togged to have the map snap away like that
Not sure how familiar you are with roll20.
Snapping is normal behaviour, you'd need to turn it off if you want to do some precision placement.
Another "thing" could be that you're in the token layer and not the map layer, stuff reacts a bit differently there.
Thanks, but I tried some futzing and it didn't work. Maybe I'll look harder next time.
Alright.... now I've loaded up a ToA map to futz around with and I've the roll20 grid the same size as the map grid, but as soon as I line things up and release the mouse, the map jumps and for the life of me, I can't figure out what I have togged to have the map snap away like that
If you right click the image and under advanced click the "is drawing" button the image will no longer attempt to snap to grid. If you just want to one time set something not on the grid you can hold alt while releasing it to have it stay where you set it.
THIS sounds more like it would solve what I'm having trouble with, I'll be sure and try that next time.
Also you can resize your map, I believe every square in Roll20 is 70 pixels. resize your image to match and you should be money.
Yeah, I was playing with resizing the map image 10 pixels at a time and it just got frustrating.
Eventually I just said "good enough", and started the game. Abandoned roll20's chat quickly and jumped into a zoom conference that one of my players set up. As an experiment, this session went well! I finally see why so many of you use roll20/fantasy grounds/maptool/etc. I still very much prefer getting together with my friends, but...you know...the whole world is going to shit, so this makes a lot of sense.
Good enough is so true. Nothing beats sitting around the table and rolling dice, but a good map program with some voice chat does go a long way in alleviating the stress. I'm going to be attempting an Edge of the Empire game at the end of the month. The Fantasy Flight system is built perfectly for not in person play.
Somehow a vague idea for 'a paladin character with some sort of twist and some sort of interesting multiclass' has evolved step by step, unintentionally, into the most excessively edgelord character I've ever put together.
A half-drow oathbreaker hexblade who is trying to escape the reach of the probably-not-divine 'deity' of the cult that raised them, which keeps pointing out people they should kill for the greater good, including random innocents who haven't done anything yet.
I blame my DM for enabling me.
drow make the best edgelords because if there's no dark corner you just cast darkness
I've never played D&D over the Internet. I've been invited to before, though. Maybe this is a good time to try it.
BTW, I've never listened to the Critical Role podcast, but I got the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount yesterday anyway. There's a lot of similarities to the 4E Points of Light setting in terms of deities, mythology, and fantastical terrain, which I like. I also appreciate that there is a section for Warlock patrons formatted in the same way as the section for the gods is.
I've been playing remotely for the past five years due to moving away from my regular group
If you've got decent AV facilities, it works pretty well from a socialising point of view
I was the only remote player for a while, so the GM didn't have much of a set up from a mechanics point of view - we played theatre of the mind so there weren't many maps to worry about, and it was either links being sent to me on Skype chat or holding up a whiteboard to the webcam
[Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
With all going on and a lot of us, not me though, suddenly having a lot of time on our hands my group of friends have pitched the idea of rebooting our Sliders campaign from many, many years ago.
Some of you, maybe a lot, probably have an idea of what a "Sliders" campaign might be. To the rest of you here is how it works.
Every session or two our party was unwittingly transported to an alternate dimension. So in our original campaign from many years ago the Party would be transported to different settings. Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, Dragonlance, etc. We'd play a session or two there and then get sucked in to a vortex and wind up somewhere else.
Some of the settings were alternate versions of D&D settings, one memorable one had the doubles of our party being enforcers for an evil Overlord.
After awhile we even started having the party pop in to completely different tabletop games, which is how our Halfling thief ended up having to pilot a Blackjack in a Solaris duel.
It is of course silly, but very fun. If the group is getting a little tired of sword and sorcery then BAM you now find yourself in a Cyberpunk world or BAM you've been challenged to a Batchall you must win or become Bondsmen or BAM now you're in Sterling City and must help the Justice Guild defeat the nefarious Professor Insano whose latest evil plot is causing dimensional rifts to open all the city. Or whatever the hell you want.
Each time hoping this Slide is the Slide home.
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
Alright.... now I've loaded up a ToA map to futz around with and I've the roll20 grid the same size as the map grid, but as soon as I line things up and release the mouse, the map jumps and for the life of me, I can't figure out what I have togged to have the map snap away like that
If you right click the image and under advanced click the "is drawing" button the image will no longer attempt to snap to grid. If you just want to one time set something not on the grid you can hold alt while releasing it to have it stay where you set it.
THANK YOU!!!! THIS SOLVED MY PROBLEM!!!! :biggrin:
we escaped xanathar's lair. I went first to test the teleporter to the sewers of waterdeep. It was all good, so I cast Major Image at 6th level to make it appear as if the destination was the first layer of hell (messaging this part to the DM secretly, just as he described my destination via direct message, playing remotely makes this kind of subterfuge work a lot better) and sent a Sending to my party begging for help. They came through as well and I said "ahaha! now you're all trapped here forever and I have all the loot!" and I cast Teleport (subtle spell) back to my character's bedroom
Some of them were like "what the fuck" druid says "god fucking damnit! none of us are level 13 dipshit we can't get home!"
DM: The wind and brimstone assails you, you hear screams in across the endless rocky expanse under the crimson sky
Wizard: hold up, there's no way... our sorcerer haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaates hell, like Devils are the her least favorite fucking thing
...
I cast detect magic
DM: Illusion magic is present within 30 feet
Wizard: I walk in a random direction until I'm outside of the illusion
Party: *breathes sigh of relief*
after 17 sessions in the underdark, and then skull port, and then xanathar's lair, some of them legitimately thought I had taken them to hell, between this and making a Simulacrum of Druid without asking her first earlier I think I'm starting to get on her character's bad side
Some time later:
Xanathar is the most spoiled 6 year old girl possible and the DM is just modeling her exactly as his little sister when she was that age. Xanathar refuses to stay dressed, insisting that her true form is magnificent to behold and should only be concealed before dispatching an unwitting opponent. Ultimately agreeing to wear a fish costume without fighting. She won't eat anything other than expensive sweets and goes into a tantrum like a 2 year old if someone doesn't polymorph her into a fish to play with Silgar once a day. The DM is treating this character as Xanathar with substantially reduced intelligence and wisdom, and going whole hog whining and crying when little Xanathar doesn't get her way
Having been briefed on this, Jarlaxle said that he knew the perfect person to help. He sent over an imperious looking Tiefling woman named "Nana" Ross. She said that she is expensive, and that mutual friends with her employers have convinced them to allow her to "work some manners" into this troublesome child. She will be taking possession of the girl until such time as she behaves properly, which she insists will be soon. First she will introduce this "Xanathar" to a pair of children who know how to behave properly, her primary charges, and that this Zardoz Zord fellow must be well connected indeed to have arranged for her to split her time away from her sole charges.
Methinks Cassalanters are in our near future
*DM slipped up and had her say jarlaxle but at this point it'd just be Zardoz to her
With the quarantine I've been intrigued in getting back into D&D though the last I played was 3.5.
That or Pugmire, that seems cool as well. Naturally online with social distancing and all that.
Even figured out a Gnome Fighter Battlemaster, treating fighting as a necessary evil you can master, distrusting of innate magical abilities. Wizards are fine.
If Pugmire looks interesting to you there's also Monarchies of Mao (the cat follow-up to Pugmire) and Humblewood (campaign setting for 5th Ed with lots of new races, classes and skills, on top of a small campaign).
If Pugmire looks interesting to you there's also Monarchies of Mao (the cat follow-up to Pugmire) and Humblewood (campaign setting for 5th Ed with lots of new races, classes and skills, on top of a small campaign).
Yer a cruel one showing off more neat stuff I have not the money nor people to play with.
I mean, if we're down this rabbit hole let me tell you about Mouse Guard, a Burning Wheel based game where you play a set of actual mice with itty bitty weapons and armour sets, trying to live in a big forest. To level each character has to both succeed and fail in order to progress (because you learn from failures as much as you do successes), the conflict resolution isn't about Winning or Losing, it's about how much you have have to compromise to achieve your goal.
Characters have a Nature stat, which essentially determines how mouselike they are. The closer to 0, the more humanlike, the higher, the more mouselike. You can use Nature to supplement skills you don't have, or to augment them (basically it's your push stat). You can use it for any type of roll, which makes it very powerful, however if you use it for a non-mouselike task and fail your max Nature gets taxed down.
If a character's Nature ever drops to 0 then they go a little crazy, they no longer see the world like other mice and after the mission ends they leave the Guard. On the other hand, if their maximum Nature ever gets and stays at 7 they're too mouselike, too cautious for adventure, and no longer suitable for the Guard.
It’s not finished but @RawrBear is making a game where you can be a fox starfighter pilot or jaguar technician, which I think is pretty cool. Off the top of my head I think it’s called Beastwing.
Multiverse is an online video game platform making it as easy as possible to make, play, stream, and share tabletop role-playing games, with a creator focused marketplace.
For every one nerd who plays table top games, there are are ten more who would if getting started was just more intuitive. Jump into your next adventure with friends, whether they're across the table or across the world, in a click.
Join your friends from anywhere: In-game voice and video, as well as text chat.
No Math, No Manuals: Get straight into the storytelling. No need to memorize rules and stats, seamlessly combine the function of video games with all the freedom of tabletop role-play.
Become the story you want to see: An inclusive and expansive pixel character creator, easily customizable, with an engine to support designs of your own!
Bring the battle to the screen: Watch every hit land with our ever-growing library of combat animations.
All the tools to craft the ultimate adventure: Design levels, story flow, interactions, with ease and without compromise. Set the stage, prep a puzzle, lay some traps...
See the world through your characters eyes: With every player on their own screen you can get creative. Same game— different gameplay!
Keep the story at your fingertips: A sleek customizable interface to fit your play style.
The Marketplace: Build the stories you want to play and share them instantly to the Marketplace for other players to purchase. Illustrators, pixel artists, sound designers, writers, etc — Multiverse grows with you.
Twitch Streaming: Stream directly from within Multiverse, play with your viewers directly with in-game features.
That looks real neat, I wonder how flexible the system you can use is. Like, is it basically set to what's pre-coded in there or could you go and build 5th Ed in it (or the relevant parts, anyway).
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WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
So prepping for Roll20:
- Player tokens, check
- Free battlemaps in the internet, check
- Actual Scenario, Not Check
- Video conferencing app, check
- Monster tokens, Not Check (depends on #3)
- Learning Roll20 UI - Not nearly enough
- Player tokens, check
- Free battlemaps in the internet, check
- Actual Scenario, Not Check
- Video conferencing app, check
- Monster tokens, Not Check (depends on #3)
- Learning Roll20 UI - Not nearly enough
Any tips/tricks I should now about Roll20?
Yeah my group of 6(including me as DM) are going to run a remote game Saturday evening. I plan on investigating roll20 but are there any other options? Is it worth paying for roll 20?
I don't think the added features for the paid option are worth it.
The only thing I'd recommend is getting some sort of map making tool because the roll20 options are just horrid.
I use:
Dungeon Painter Studio (available on steam, 15$, lets you make pretty grid maps that have a roll20 format option, hasn't had an update in a while though)
Wonderdraft (15$, useful for making non combat maps of worlds, continents, areas, but not city level)
Dungeon draft (from the same guy that made wonderdraft, early access atm, but is shaping up to be really nice, competition to DPS)
Sort of the same question others are asking. Never used Roll 20, is there any good guides? The whole add on thing makes it a bit confusing on what you need to get started. Like do you need the D&D rulebooks if you have them in print?
Sort of the same question others are asking. Never used Roll 20, is there any good guides? The whole add on thing makes it a bit confusing on what you need to get started. Like do you need the D&D rulebooks if you have them in print?
I've used Roll20 only once and the short answer is: NO.
Roll20, at is base, is a tabletap simulator. You lay down a map on one layer. Throw some tokens on another layer and bobs your uncle. Everything else can be handled via voice/video chat as if you and your buds where hanging out around a table. There is a dice roller built into the chat. There is are macros you can program, character sheets you can populate and browser extentions you can download and etc. I plan on using none of that. Just a simple tabletop to simulate the map, and video/voice chat to hang with my buds.
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Yea we use the free version of Roll20 for maps, tokens, text chat and dice rolling, and a discord room for the voice chat. Works like a charm. We all just use our regular character paper character sheets in front of us.
I'm the opposite to a lot of you with how I use Roll20, I guess. I own my campaigns through Roll20 and pay for the premium features. I own the monster manual on the site so I can drag and drop enemies out of the compendium and not need to do any work to make them function. I have a bunch of music I've uploaded to make playlists like Taverns, Calm Social, Tense Social, Paranoia, Battle, Boss Battle, Sorrow, etc. All my players use the digital character sheets with varying complexity macros to give them single button pushes for spells/attacks/skills etc. Combat and skill use is a breeze with all these tools, and we blaze through things like a complex combat in a fourth of the time it seems to take in the physical games I've played. I take the extra time to draw the dynamic lighting on any custom maps, though all the campaign maps come with it already created.
Not that Roll20 is perfect, there are sometimes little hitches like my API sandbox broke for last nights game so I couldn't use my one button macros for assigning token icons, or sometimes music will stop for the players but not myself. Overall though I absolutely don't think I could play without the premium sub, no room for my uploaded music, no dynamic lighting, a relatively tiny storage for maps/tokens/handouts, and losing the API that lets me have some nifty DMing tools would make the game much less fun to run on my end. I also run more than one game so being able to share my compendium to all my campaigns so my players can use the books I own to drag and drop things to their sheets and such is another simple pleasure.
All that said I have the time to do the extra prep running a Roll20 game can take. If I were to play more theater of the mind or didn't have lots of prep time and just wanted to use roll20 as a communal place to see tokens and roll dice, I could see not bothering with any paying into it.
Khildith on
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
I think a lot of us right now are using Roll20 as a substitute for our regular in person games. If I was running a dedicated online game full time I could totally see diving deep into roll20 and it's paid features.
Posts
Thanks. Looking into options to keep my game going. I think we'll try a zoom conference call first since on of my players has proper access to it thru work. But if we are missing the map, I suggested we could try roll20.
I'm not paying to buy the content of skT a second time though.
(Geez, people. Don't try and make a post while running around doing things in the office. I've had to edit this post three times now for hitting send and running off to check something before actually finishing my thought.)
Maybe 1d4/round with a con-save to continue to hold the weapon? That way it doesn't just outright kill commoners who pick up the weapon. 2d6 is a greatsword worth of weapon.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Oh hey, blade's sword
Monk
Rogue
Paladin
Undecided (previously Ranger)
A half-drow oathbreaker hexblade who is trying to escape the reach of the probably-not-divine 'deity' of the cult that raised them, which keeps pointing out people they should kill for the greater good, including random innocents who haven't done anything yet.
I blame my DM for enabling me.
Hearing the suffering and anger in your heart, some aspect of the Raven Queen entered into your broken sword, and a blade forged of shadow emerged from the hilt, just as you landed what you thought would be your last punch. The blade impaled your attacker, dropping them to the ground and imbuing you with some of their stolen vitality.
Your bargain that day turned the tide of battle in your favour, but your dreams are now haunted by visions of the Shadowfell, and a fortress of black ice within a frozen forest. One day, the Raven Queen will remember the service she performed for you on that fateful day, and expect you to enter her service as required. Until then, you serve the Light as best you can, keeping your broken sword hilt as a reminder that your days as a free agent are numbered.
She might decide to stick as pure Paladin, which is also fine, as the Raven Queen then becomes an antagonist I can use later.
Why do people prefer to use discord or zoom or whatever instead of the built in video chat though?
Not sure how familiar you are with roll20.
Snapping is normal behaviour, you'd need to turn it off if you want to do some precision placement.
Another "thing" could be that you're in the token layer and not the map layer, stuff reacts a bit differently there.
If you right click the image and under advanced click the "is drawing" button the image will no longer attempt to snap to grid. If you just want to one time set something not on the grid you can hold alt while releasing it to have it stay where you set it.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Thanks, but I tried some futzing and it didn't work. Maybe I'll look harder next time.
THIS sounds more like it would solve what I'm having trouble with, I'll be sure and try that next time.
Yeah, I was playing with resizing the map image 10 pixels at a time and it just got frustrating.
Eventually I just said "good enough", and started the game. Abandoned roll20's chat quickly and jumped into a zoom conference that one of my players set up. As an experiment, this session went well! I finally see why so many of you use roll20/fantasy grounds/maptool/etc. I still very much prefer getting together with my friends, but...you know...the whole world is going to shit, so this makes a lot of sense.
Good enough is so true. Nothing beats sitting around the table and rolling dice, but a good map program with some voice chat does go a long way in alleviating the stress. I'm going to be attempting an Edge of the Empire game at the end of the month. The Fantasy Flight system is built perfectly for not in person play.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
drow make the best edgelords because if there's no dark corner you just cast darkness
BTW, I've never listened to the Critical Role podcast, but I got the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount yesterday anyway. There's a lot of similarities to the 4E Points of Light setting in terms of deities, mythology, and fantastical terrain, which I like. I also appreciate that there is a section for Warlock patrons formatted in the same way as the section for the gods is.
If you've got decent AV facilities, it works pretty well from a socialising point of view
I was the only remote player for a while, so the GM didn't have much of a set up from a mechanics point of view - we played theatre of the mind so there weren't many maps to worry about, and it was either links being sent to me on Skype chat or holding up a whiteboard to the webcam
Some of you, maybe a lot, probably have an idea of what a "Sliders" campaign might be. To the rest of you here is how it works.
Every session or two our party was unwittingly transported to an alternate dimension. So in our original campaign from many years ago the Party would be transported to different settings. Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, Dragonlance, etc. We'd play a session or two there and then get sucked in to a vortex and wind up somewhere else.
Some of the settings were alternate versions of D&D settings, one memorable one had the doubles of our party being enforcers for an evil Overlord.
After awhile we even started having the party pop in to completely different tabletop games, which is how our Halfling thief ended up having to pilot a Blackjack in a Solaris duel.
It is of course silly, but very fun. If the group is getting a little tired of sword and sorcery then BAM you now find yourself in a Cyberpunk world or BAM you've been challenged to a Batchall you must win or become Bondsmen or BAM now you're in Sterling City and must help the Justice Guild defeat the nefarious Professor Insano whose latest evil plot is causing dimensional rifts to open all the city. Or whatever the hell you want.
Each time hoping this Slide is the Slide home.
THANK YOU!!!! THIS SOLVED MY PROBLEM!!!! :biggrin:
we escaped xanathar's lair. I went first to test the teleporter to the sewers of waterdeep. It was all good, so I cast Major Image at 6th level to make it appear as if the destination was the first layer of hell (messaging this part to the DM secretly, just as he described my destination via direct message, playing remotely makes this kind of subterfuge work a lot better) and sent a Sending to my party begging for help. They came through as well and I said "ahaha! now you're all trapped here forever and I have all the loot!" and I cast Teleport (subtle spell) back to my character's bedroom
Some of them were like "what the fuck" druid says "god fucking damnit! none of us are level 13 dipshit we can't get home!"
DM: The wind and brimstone assails you, you hear screams in across the endless rocky expanse under the crimson sky
Wizard: hold up, there's no way... our sorcerer haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaates hell, like Devils are the her least favorite fucking thing
...
I cast detect magic
DM: Illusion magic is present within 30 feet
Wizard: I walk in a random direction until I'm outside of the illusion
Party: *breathes sigh of relief*
after 17 sessions in the underdark, and then skull port, and then xanathar's lair, some of them legitimately thought I had taken them to hell, between this and making a Simulacrum of Druid without asking her first earlier I think I'm starting to get on her character's bad side
Some time later:
Xanathar is the most spoiled 6 year old girl possible and the DM is just modeling her exactly as his little sister when she was that age. Xanathar refuses to stay dressed, insisting that her true form is magnificent to behold and should only be concealed before dispatching an unwitting opponent. Ultimately agreeing to wear a fish costume without fighting. She won't eat anything other than expensive sweets and goes into a tantrum like a 2 year old if someone doesn't polymorph her into a fish to play with Silgar once a day. The DM is treating this character as Xanathar with substantially reduced intelligence and wisdom, and going whole hog whining and crying when little Xanathar doesn't get her way
Having been briefed on this, Jarlaxle said that he knew the perfect person to help. He sent over an imperious looking Tiefling woman named "Nana" Ross. She said that she is expensive, and that mutual friends with her employers have convinced them to allow her to "work some manners" into this troublesome child. She will be taking possession of the girl until such time as she behaves properly, which she insists will be soon. First she will introduce this "Xanathar" to a pair of children who know how to behave properly, her primary charges, and that this Zardoz Zord fellow must be well connected indeed to have arranged for her to split her time away from her sole charges.
Methinks Cassalanters are in our near future
*DM slipped up and had her say jarlaxle but at this point it'd just be Zardoz to her
That or Pugmire, that seems cool as well. Naturally online with social distancing and all that.
Even figured out a Gnome Fighter Battlemaster, treating fighting as a necessary evil you can master, distrusting of innate magical abilities. Wizards are fine.
Yer a cruel one showing off more neat stuff I have not the money nor people to play with.
Cuddly lil questing owl would be great.
Characters have a Nature stat, which essentially determines how mouselike they are. The closer to 0, the more humanlike, the higher, the more mouselike. You can use Nature to supplement skills you don't have, or to augment them (basically it's your push stat). You can use it for any type of roll, which makes it very powerful, however if you use it for a non-mouselike task and fail your max Nature gets taxed down.
If a character's Nature ever drops to 0 then they go a little crazy, they no longer see the world like other mice and after the mission ends they leave the Guard. On the other hand, if their maximum Nature ever gets and stays at 7 they're too mouselike, too cautious for adventure, and no longer suitable for the Guard.
Mouse Guard is really neat you guys.
- Player tokens, check
- Free battlemaps in the internet, check
- Actual Scenario, Not Check
- Video conferencing app, check
- Monster tokens, Not Check (depends on #3)
- Learning Roll20 UI - Not nearly enough
Any tips/tricks I should now about Roll20?
Yeah my group of 6(including me as DM) are going to run a remote game Saturday evening. I plan on investigating roll20 but are there any other options? Is it worth paying for roll 20?
PSN:Furlion
The only thing I'd recommend is getting some sort of map making tool because the roll20 options are just horrid.
I use:
Dungeon Painter Studio (available on steam, 15$, lets you make pretty grid maps that have a roll20 format option, hasn't had an update in a while though)
Wonderdraft (15$, useful for making non combat maps of worlds, continents, areas, but not city level)
Dungeon draft (from the same guy that made wonderdraft, early access atm, but is shaping up to be really nice, competition to DPS)
I've used Roll20 only once and the short answer is: NO.
Roll20, at is base, is a tabletap simulator. You lay down a map on one layer. Throw some tokens on another layer and bobs your uncle. Everything else can be handled via voice/video chat as if you and your buds where hanging out around a table. There is a dice roller built into the chat. There is are macros you can program, character sheets you can populate and browser extentions you can download and etc. I plan on using none of that. Just a simple tabletop to simulate the map, and video/voice chat to hang with my buds.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Not that Roll20 is perfect, there are sometimes little hitches like my API sandbox broke for last nights game so I couldn't use my one button macros for assigning token icons, or sometimes music will stop for the players but not myself. Overall though I absolutely don't think I could play without the premium sub, no room for my uploaded music, no dynamic lighting, a relatively tiny storage for maps/tokens/handouts, and losing the API that lets me have some nifty DMing tools would make the game much less fun to run on my end. I also run more than one game so being able to share my compendium to all my campaigns so my players can use the books I own to drag and drop things to their sheets and such is another simple pleasure.
All that said I have the time to do the extra prep running a Roll20 game can take. If I were to play more theater of the mind or didn't have lots of prep time and just wanted to use roll20 as a communal place to see tokens and roll dice, I could see not bothering with any paying into it.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981