Some More Thoughs on Roll20

Our campaign continues through Lost Mines as the old group learns 5E and we all learn how best to use Roll20 from different timezones. Here are a few things I've learned about Roll20 along the way in case anyone is curious.

Discord Server is the way to go

We had problems with audio and video through Roll20. Every session started with tech support of trying to get everyone to hear everyone else. Then one of the kids set up a Discord server and we did all the videochat through that and turned it off in Roll20 and haven't had a problem since. Win!

Moving the map

Small thing but Roll20 has two icons, one for selecting things and a second for moving the map around. Its a pain shifting between the two (or forgetting to shift between the two). Turns out you can just use the select icon and right click on the map to drag it around the way you would with the hand icon. Very nice. Wish I'd found this earlier.

Remove Names

To keep track of everyone I turned on the Token names. They appeared beneath the token the entire time but eventually as we got into big brawls the names started covering up whomever was in the squares nearby which was not ideal, instead I turned on Tooltips to have names appear with a Mouseover. I may end up removing even that as the token images are enough  now to tell who is who. How to do it?

1. Select the Token and bring up the Token Settings (lower left circle when you select token). 

2. Deselect Nameplate (beside the character name). 

3. Scroll down and select Show (to the right of Tooltip).

4. Add the info into the Tooltip field.

Damage Rolls

I found out how to set it up so the system rolls player damage automatically. It even adds critical damage which is nice. Saves a lot of time because my players were slow between I hit and figuring out how to roll damage. Now I need to disable the always roll at Advantage so it doesn't add that extra damage to the rolls when not wanted. I also need to figure out how to auto-roll monster damage.

Ditching the Character Sheet, mostly

I found out how to roll for most anything without pulling up the character sheet each time. This was a game changer for me. If you do it right you select a token and get a series of buttons across the top of the map. Click a button and the game rolls as if you had brought up the character sheet and selected that thing. Because I once was a technical writer I wrote down how, but there are YouTube videos for those that prefer to sit through a half hour lesson on how to do it.

Select a token and bring up the NPC character sheet.

1. Click on Initiative

The initiative rolls in the chat.

2. Put the cursor in the Chat typing field and hit the Arrow up Key on your keyboard.

The code for rolling initiative appears in the typing field.

3. Copy the code.

5. Go to the NPC character sheet

6. Go to the Attributes & Abilities Tab.

7. Select +Add (on the upper right).

8. Select the Pencil

7. Replace the words New Ability with a title and select the Show as Token Action button.

8. Paste the code into the empty field.

9. Put the mouse over the empty spot to the right of the title, the select the Checkmark to save the ability.

Repeat for each weapon, spell, or ability you want to have access to without pulling up the character sheet. After all this whenever you select the token the attributes will appear as buttons on the top of the map so you don't have to open the character sheet again (or at least rarely). I did this for my players and it made everything smoother and they were universally impressed with the improvement in game play.

Using this I could give different Monsters multiple weapons and potentially include the damage separately if I can't figure out how to have that rolled automatically.

So the system is starting to work out very nicely.