Roll20 Face to Face Question and Call for Suggestions

I am looking for some guidance from GM's who are using Roll20 as an enhancement to face-to-face gaming sessions. Last fall my group finished an AD&D 2E campaign that went for three years. Over the course of the campaign we would meet and sit around the table and I would have my laptop hooked to a projector. On my screen I had a Virtual Machine running Windows with the BRPG virtual tabletop application running. On the projector screen I had a VM with the player version of BRPG. I would manipulate the view of their VM based on their input while controlling the action from my VM. Now that I am moving onto the Roll20 platform I am trying to figure out the best way to adapt to the new environment for the new campaign we are starting in a couple of weeks. Remember, I have one important limitation that most people who are using Roll20 do not: I am going to equip one person other than myself with the "player" laptop that is hooked to the projector. They will manipulate the player's view, and I would also like to have them handle housekeeping for the player side of the game. That is what I am having trouble wrapping my head around. For instance, if all of the player's had laptops and we were playing in a networked Roll20 environment then I would create character sheets for everyone and they would be in charge of maintaining their character sheet and using it for their rolls and to track stats. That is because I really want to leverage the capabilities of the API and macros to make it easy to calculate Initiative, To Hit, Saves, etc. However, it seems like it will be A LOT of work for one person to keep 6 character sheets updated and to manage rolling for all of the PCs (not to mention that the other players probably won't be happy being removed from rolling for their character!). The only potential fix I can come up with is twofold: First, I was thinking about having a "party" character. This is based off of the YouTube videos by David at Table Top Gaming. He suggests creating the character sheet as part of the Character entry instead of using a character sheet within the character entry. He describes how to create extremely detailed, cross-linked and annotated entries using this method. That got me to thinking that I could just create a character entry for the party and then go to the Attributes & Abilities tab and in the Attributes section create the necessary stats for each character in the party. So, for instance, say I have Bob who is a dwarf fighter and Billy who is a human thief. I might create an Attribute labeled "Bob_Initiative" and put in Bob's Initiative modifier. And then I wold create another Attribute labeled "Billy_Initiative" and enter his modifier. I could then have a single "Initiative" Ability that would generate Initiative rolls for all of the PCs based on the Attributes for each of them. So far to me this seems pretty elegant: the person who is running the Player laptop hits one Action button and generates the initiative rolls for the entire party. On the other hand that might bog down when I am trying to get a simple Saving Throw roll for one party member: I would need to have a Saving Throw Action button for each PC, and it would need to prompt for what this save is against. I'm not sure how tedious this is going to be to create and manage. The other part of my fix is that we will continue to do rolls the old fashioned way, with actual dice. Thus all of my Abilities will need to prompt the person controlling the Player laptop to input the roll for each of the PCs. This could be a hassle for that person, but once the roll has been entered the Ability macro will take care of the rest, calculating the modified initiative roll for each player and then adding that to the Turn tracker. I think it will end up being more consistent and less work for the players instead of them trying to calculate everything on the fly like we have in the past. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Any other suggestions about things I should take into account when running a face-to-face game using Roll20? I am sure there are a million things I am not thinking about or taking into account, and any input would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance! -John

You can enable the "Quartermaster" player (or however you think of them) to control multiple sheet, tokens etc. When creating a resource just set "Controlled by" to them, or "All players".

I have lots of thoughts on that, but here are a few. 1. The next major update release for Roll20, called Update of Holding, will unveil new optimizations for face-to-face gaming using Roll20. I have no doubts that the new upcoming features will aide you in multiple ways. 2. If your players have Tablets or possibly nice large Smartphones, or if they are willing to buy/bring even a fairly cheap new tablet (ala probably can be bought for $100 as even an old used iPad 2, or a newer but fairly low-end Android tablet, would probably work just fine for this)... the Update Of Holding is going to allow Players to open just a Character Sheet on a mobile device. So everyone could be sitting around the table maintaining their own sheet (and could click their own rolls off the sheet, but I understand you plan to use real dice, which is fine.) 3. If not each Player with a tablet/device.... another common idea is having a Wireless Mouse (and wireless keyboard if needed), that the Players can pass around. 4. Alternatively, I like the idea of the Party Sheet controlled by 1 person as described in the original post, but I would more commonly tend to recommend what Alan said (each PC & Token & Sheet separate as per the "usual" way, with Permissions set for the ringleader to access all the characters/tokens).

Alan: love the "Quartermaster" label for the person controlling the laptop! Also thanks for pointing out the "Controlled by" setting. I am new enough to the Roll20 system that I keep forgetting that there are some permissions layers built in. Gold: First and foremost thanks for point out the upcoming enhancements in the Update of Holding. I have been trying to focus on learning Roll20 as-is without getting too distracted with upcoming features, but it is great to know that there will be some stuff specifically for face-to-face. All of the players have access to either an iPad or an iPad Mini, so the Character Sheet only interface will be fantastic! I was hesitant to set them up with the actual game engine on the mobile device because that could definitely become distracting, but each one being able to see and interact with the character sheet will be fantastic! I have access to wireless keyboards, and I even have one of the crazy Gyration wireless mice that can be used while held in the air, so that might be a good option for them to pass around and at least point at things if not actually move tokens. I might wait until we have a few sessions under our belts before I pull that trick from my sleeve! Even with the Update of Holding Mobile Character Sheet coming down the pike I might still try out the Quartermaster character sheet just to see how it works. I'm still on the fence about that. Thanks guys for the info!

For me the best thing about face to face gaming is the real life element of die rolling etc... your best bet for macros in this instance would be to write some for each eventuality (i have over 200 in my campaign currently... but i'm OCD!); attack, damage, initiative, saves, skill checks using the @{selected} or @{target} prefix, that way the 'quartermaster' could be in charge of keeping the character sheets updated and ensuring the correct token is selected/targeted... the clever bit is that you could write all the modifiers into the macro but not define the roll at all using roll20, instead you would have ?{Roll?|0} as part of each macro, that way your players can roll physical dice and the quartermaster just input their roll result as part of each macro and the system does the rest of the calculations for you, simple gaming with a truly interactive element... ... and no arguments about the quartermaster somehow deliberately 'rolling' a 1 for so-and-so's reflex save vs dragon breath! I may be crazy... but it could just work! Hell you wouldn't even need the quartermaster for this as you could have 2 versions of the campaign open, 1 on your screen as GM and 1 on the projector as a player (although i love the idea of someone doing the player related admin... if only my condition would allow it lol) Either way you go, please let us know how it works as i'm sure this could be used by others with similar dilemmas :) Oh, and welcome to roll20!

I'm going to endorse having one character journal per character, even if you end up not using tablets for character sheets. In the long run, having each character as its own collection of token-actions will be MUCH simpler during gameplay; I think it'll also make between-sessions character upkeep easier. I am, and I'm sure others will be, perfectly happy to help with advice/howtos when you start setting up your characters.

Ziechael said: Hell you wouldn't even need the quartermaster for this as you could have 2 versions of the campaign open, 1 on your screen as GM and 1 on the projector as a player (although i love the idea of someone doing the player related admin... if only my condition would allow it lol) I'm looking forward to getting away from having to manipulate their view of the map. After three years of "Scroll us up…", "Now scroll right…", "No, MY right!", I am more than willing to hand that baton off to their Quartermaster so that person can deal with it! This is even more true now that we will be doing stat tracking, die rolls, etc. There is enough to do as a GM, managing my side of the game. It will be good to hand their tasks off to them to manage. Ziechael said: Either way you go, please let us know how it works as i'm sure this could be used by others with similar dilemmas :) Oh, and welcome to roll20! I will, and thanks! GenKitty said: I'm going to endorse having one character journal per character, even if you end up not using tablets for character sheets. In the long run, having each character as its own collection of token-actions will be MUCH simpler during gameplay; I think it'll also make between-sessions character upkeep easier. I am, and I'm sure others will be, perfectly happy to help with advice/howtos when you start setting up your characters. Thinking this over I am seeing the wisdom of actual character sheets for each PC, and your point about token-actions really helped open my eyes! With my "Party" character idea the token actions would be a mish-mash of actions for each of the PCs. This way the actions will be more targeted. Also, and even more important, I forgot that if I do not attach the token to a character sheet then the status bars become much less interactive and useful. The QM (ha! look at that! We now have a GM running the game and a QM running the player portion of the game!) would have to manually enter the starting max values as well as keeping them up to date. Also, if I remember the mechanics of this correctly, the QM could accidentally increase a value in one of the stats past the actual maximum if they enter a value incorrectly. So, in summary, I think all of these responses have helped me modify my original plans as follows: I'm doing away with the "Party" character sheet and creating individual character sheets for each PC. Each character sheet will be attached to a token (thus allowing me to tie status bars to Attributes and create more specific token actions for each PC). During gameplay I am going to instruct the QM to focus only on keeping the important stats up-to-date for each PC (such as HP) and not worry about extraneous info (i.e., arrows used, spells cast, etc.). Keeping up with the extraneous info will be the responsibility of each of the other players. Initially they will have to keep track of things the old fashioned way with pencil and paper. However, once the Update of Holding moves from dev into production, the other players will be able to use tablets to better track the changes to their characters. That will really make the QM's job much easier! Going back to what Ziechael said above, I am going to write A LOT of macros (I'm somewhat OCD myself!) and use the tricks that he pointed out to let the QM input the actual physical dice roll. I'll also leverage the "selected" and "targeted" parameters to make it easier on the QM. In closing, let me say to GenKitty and everyone else: I will almost certainly run into roadblocks when creating all of these character sheets and macros, so I am sure that I will be taking you up on your offer of advice! (Especially since our first play session is a week and a day away! A lot to do between now and then…) Thanks everyone for all of the great advice! -John

Quick query: What system will you be using for your next campaign?

Regardless of the system you use, scripts WILL make your life easier. With that in mind, here are some of my workhorse scripts that I use in my campaigns. (Some material shamelessly copied from the wiki) To edit your campaign scripts, click on the "API Scripts" link on the Campaign Details page for your campaign (the same place where options such as the "Chat Log" and "Copy/Extend Campaign" are located). You will be presented with a page with several features: A list of tabs along the top. Your campaign can have multiple scripts for ease of organization. Note that all scripts will still run in the same context, meaning that you shouldn't have multiple scripts trying to overwrite the same values at the same time or you could get unintended results. A script code editor. You can use this editor or edit your scripts in an external editor of choice and then paste them in here. Along the bottom is an "API Console" To add a script to your campaign, click on 'New Script', give the script a distinctive name, and then paste the script into the editor below and click 'save script'. You should get, at a minimum, "Restarting sandbox due to script changes..." in the API output console below. If you get any errors, try re-saving the script. If that doesn't fix the errors, go to the forum thread and post the error message there and ask for help. Most of the script writers will be glad to walk you through fixing issues, or may even offer to come look in person if you make him/her a temporary GM. Scripts are in a transition phase; the devs are slowly working on an easier way to find and install scripts. Until then, the best way to look for scripts is to read through the API forum. The API Repository is a new thing, and is another (and someday the suggested) way to find scripts. If you get a script from the repository and need help with it, if there's no contact info listed you can start a new thread in the API forum asking for help with it. First, a list of the scripts I use and why: <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/920764/script-is" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/920764/script-is</a>... The Aaron's IsGM script. This is a helper script used in the majority of The Aaron's scripts. (Will be deprecated come the Update of Holding sometime this spring) <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1066916/script-g" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1066916/script-g</a>... The Aaron's Group Initiative script. Select a bunch of tokens, press a macro button, and BAM they're all added to the init table with their own rolled inits. I consider this a must have . <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1257490/script-t" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1257490/script-t</a>... The Aaron's Token Mod script. This thing allows you to modify the properties of a token from chat or via macros. Turn token names on and off? Move tokens to and from the GM Layer? Show/hide healthbars? Adjust healthbars? Set status icons? Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes; all this and more can be done via this script. Another must have . <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1463736/script-p" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1463736/script-p</a>... HoneyBadger's PowerCards script. This is what I usually use for formatting my macros. I like it because not only does it make the macro output more attractive, it uses a smaller font than chat does so does tend to shrink amount of space used for showing macro results. I hope you find this list helpful. There are a lot of scripts out there, I've only scratched the surface. ^_^ Once I know what system you're using, I can suggest other scripts.

GenKitty said: Quick query: What system will you be using for your next campaign? D&D 2e, but to add some flavor we are working in some of the Player's Options rules, specifically the expanded Skills and Traits system as well as the Combat & Tactics system that uses 5 "Initiative Phases" (Very Fast, Fast, Average, Slow & Very Slow) to break up the Combat Round. I included that level of detail because it will be very relevant to the macros that I decide to use. For instance, the Group Initiative script you mention in your second post is exactly the sort of thing I am looking for, but I will need to do some tweaking so that Weapon Speed is taken into account as well as the PC's standard Initiative Modifier(s). Also, just because I am a serious glutton for punishment, this means that I can't use any of the "stock" character sheets unless I modify them.

Ah. I haven't touched 2e in 15 years, so I'm not going to be able to suggest any more scripts. I'm sure others will wander by and chime in. On the bright side, the initiative script is easily edited!

Two things: First, I think you have inadvertently helped me to clarify some of the jargon used by the Roll20 community which was causing me some confusion. Specifically, I have been having trouble differentiating between the usage of "macros" and "scripts". I thought they might be interchangeable, but your post helped me to understand that "scripts" = "API Scripts" and therefore "macros" = "Abilities" in the character journal. Thanks for that! Second, speaking of API scripts. I have been lurking on the forums, and one of the topics that I see on occasion concerns the functionality of the API scripts and their apparent reliance on the various server environments. I started to get a little worried about relying too heavily on the API scripts due to the possibility of them not working correctly while in the middle of a game. Is this a valid concern? Are macros (as I defined them above) more resilient because of their inclusion in the core system? Have you had issues with this while running sessions in the past? Thanks, -John

Re: Macros: A macro at its heart is simply a series of commands pre-packaged so they can be fired off with the click of a button or a typed command in chat. They can be attached to a character as an 'ability' or unattached and made via the macro side-bar. Regardless of how they're made, they can be shown as token-actions or be placed in the macro hot-bar. If you want, I can PM you some of my Macro Making tutorials I've written up. They're not glossy and polished enough for the wiki, alas. :&gt; Macros will 'work' 99.99% of the time, in that they will attempt to carry out whatever commands you have packaged up -- but the commands themselves may error, usually because of a typo in the macro, an error in the script itself, or the API environment having issues. The rare rare times when macros won't work for a different reason will be the same time as your character sheet roll buttons won't work, because of a transient issue behind the scenes on the server end. Re: Script stability: Yes, some of us have had issues where a script just mysteriously does not work. No error messages, nothing useful for diagnosing, it may fail until restarted or it may mysteriously resume working on its own. I haven't run my game since christmas, but the 5e game I am in where we use a single script has had a lot of issues in the past weeks. I am not the GM, so I can only go by what the GM says, which makes diagnosing the issue a more massive headache. In that game I have alternate macros for times when the script doesn't want to work. And it is immensely frustrating, and I feel embarrassed in front of the GM because I'm the one asking him to use the script in question, and he's been reluctant to try other scripts because of this. Does this mean you should avoid scripts? No . I don't know how many games are using scripts, but I've only seen a handful of people reporting issues. It's like refusing to drive a car because some people crash. What it does mean is that you go slowly, picking a script or two at a time to integrate, you look for scripts with active maintainers (like The Aaron or Honeybadger), and you have fallback options for when a script doesn't work. So manually number tokens if the token numbering script fails, or have alternate macros if Powercards is being stupid, or manually edit the token if that script fails. (Edited to add Token Numbering Script, by The Aaron: <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1273423/script-tokennamenumber-automatic-numbering-of-qualifying-tokens#post-1273423" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1273423/script-tokennamenumber-automatic-numbering-of-qualifying-tokens#post-1273423</a> )

I strongly recommend making the wiki help pages your new bedtime reading for the next week, i went from GM (Gibbering Maniac) to GM (Games Master-of-the-Universe) just by using the wiki to enhance my understanding of the jargon if nothing else ;) Another thing to note before you get building your campaign in earnest is that macros and abilities, while essentially the same, have very different and specific uses. Macros can be set as token actions or to your macro bar (see the wiki for more details) and you can set which players will be able to 'see/use' them, however if set as a token action they will be available for ALL tokens. Abilities are character and therefore token specific so if you set them as a token action they will be available only when using that token. Therefore it makes sense to have general, regular use, macros set as token actions (save throws, spot/search checks, attacks depending on how you want to set them up) but keep the character specific stuff as an ability on the character sheet, you can still set them as token actions but they can be much more character oriented (bardic knowledge check, even favourite spells). Also on the wiki are some system specific guides, there isn't one for your system but looking at the others can help clarify some of the macro behaviour (check out the 3.5 one, that guy REALLY knows his stuff... that being said, my macros are probably ugly ugly things to anyone with real know how ;) ). In terms of API, mentor level is only $10 a month... some people pay this willingly (I do, its awesome, nuff said) and some people ask their players to pay a sub to help out, 6 players at $1.50 a month gives you the reduced price of $1 to pay... well worth it since the players in your campaign benefit from your mentorship while in your campaign and can reap all the benefits of the API and dynamic lighting etc. As for scripts themselves, the choice is astounding and if there is something you need that doesn't exist, just ask... someone (probably TheAaron will build it for you... just... for... fun!). I personally run a 3.5 campaign and use the following: isGM (help a lot of other scripts run smooth) Aaron's torch script Matt's door script HB's Power Cards 2 (freaking awesome for making the special attacks and spells look sweeeet) Aaron's turn marker Blood and honour (make dem bleeeeed) I also run John C's graphic inventory script in a separate campaign for my players to have a truly interactive inventory (warning, takes a LOT of work... but is awesome). ^and those are just the ones that have made the cut so far, i'm always on the look out for more. As GenKitty says sometimes scripts do strange things, either from user error or server issues but having your script page open on another tab and occasionally 'saving' and therefore refreshing your scripts usually solves the problem for me, a small price for the increased experience with your VTT. Ok, i'm done with the hard sell, you seem committed enough already. If you'd like to look at any of my campaigns (still developing but can show some tricks of the trade) just ask i'll invite you in for a look.

Sorry I dropped off for awhile - I actually had to do real work instead of preparing for my campaign. Go figure! Anyway, I want to yet again thank you both for all of the info and suggestions. I am finally getting my head wrapped around the difference between macros, token actions and their relation to each other and to the API scripts. Speaking of API scripts, you two have convinced me that I need to bite the bullet and take advantage of the awesome capabilities that they enable for the game. On the other hand, I should also remember one of the main rules in computing: redundancy! I will keep my eye out for ways to cover my bases with standard macros and token actions or doing things by hand if one (or all!) of the API scripts stops functioning as expected. My priority now is to go through the lists of scripts that both of you supplied and test each of them out to see how they work. Depending on the complexity I will pick a handful to work into the game. I only have a week, so I am going to have to be realistic in the amount of things I can accomplish in that time. (But I will be coming back to that graphic inventory script! I was looking over the post in the API Forum and OMG! That is awesome!) BTW Ziechael, I am already at the Mentor level. When I first found the site and looked at the pricing and benefits I just jumped straight to the Mentor level. Like you said, for everything that you get it is a no-brainer! OK, I am off to play with dynamic lighting, doors and torches... -John

Just blew my mind... noticed your name for the first time and thought 'hang on, i've just recommended a script to someone who wrote the script' however it turns out there is more than 1 John C in the world... who'da thunk it!? Also, just edited my list... the doors script i use is Matt's not your namesakes, sorry Matt! If you need any help with any of the scripts i run just give me PM shout, happy to help trouble shoot as some of them can be a bit tricky on the set up front. Likewise if you wanna check out a working example of the inventory script i can send you a link to mine, its a LOT of work but you get out of it whatever you put in to be honest. Have fun playing :)