BEHIND THE DM SCREEN TALK 150808 - Quick and Dirty DMing on Roll20 NEWS! There is a new post in the DM101 forum, where you can download my 'Encounter Action' deck of cards here... <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/2277668/dm-actio" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/2277668/dm-actio</a>... If you've been watching these sessions, you will have noticed a considerable amount of graphic arts work using image manipulation and paint programs, but just because you might not have that software, or know how to use them doesn't mean you can't use roll20, and that is the focus of tonight's class...quick and dirty roll20 gaming with minimal set-up. Prior to every session, these are the things I do. There really aren't any short cuts, they just have to be done. I have them in three sections pre-session, session and post-session. PRE-SESSION 1. Module preparation. Identify where the players are, the most logical next activity/activities that may occur (battle resolution, encountering a point of interest, a trap, another encounter, a role-playing situation in talking to and possibly gathering information from an NPC, etc). This pre-session prep work will help you to be aware of the things that you will be required to know in advance, so that game time is not stalled "looking it up". In other words, don't wing it! Be organized. There's nothing more enjoyment killing than delays. You'll notice even here on roll20 that I verbalize what I'm doing so that the players understand that I am working, doing my job, rather than having prolonged periods of silence that often times can be disconcerting and annyoing, with them wondering what's going on. As long as you remain transparent in your activities, they will not become restless and distracted. If necessary, ask the group leader to lead a discussion on a subject that you want to be thought out loud, while you work. This will aid the group in their present situation, to "talk it out", work out any logistical flaws in their 'plan of attack', and as a result be more prepared for what you are doing behind the scenes. Ultimately, this helps to move the session along and bridge portions that may otherwise have been 'dead zones'. By keeping the discussions game related, it keeps the group focused on their task at hand, and effectively sidelines any possibility for non-game related discussions, which, even though may be interesting, doesn't help move the session forward in a productive way. 2. Roll20 preparation. Open up roll20, and if you're using a map, re-familiarize yourself with your map, specifically where the player tokens are, where your tokens are, double check and make sure that they are on the correct layer (soon to be made visible to the players, but presently invisible on the GM layer, or currently visible on the tokens layer). If you're using dynamic lighting, be sure that the page and tokens are set up correctly, double check each player token one-by-one. For those settings, and how to do that, look at last weeks talk transcription in the DM101 forum on dynamic lighting, which you can find here. <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/2256383/150801-b" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/2256383/150801-b</a>... Re-familiarize yourself with any supplementary elements like new in-game handouts that might be added to the players journal and then shown to the players, as well as any potential music and sound effects. These are the settings for creating a new handout. In the player's journal is visible for all players, edited by you the DM, with an image uploaded. Should you forget to put it in the player's journal, when you go to try and use the upper right corner 'show to players' button, it will ask you if you want to do that. Just click the show to everyone blue button in the requester to continue. Just remind your players that they can click the image (shown with the magnifying glass below) in the handout and it will zoom in on the image, otherwise it might be too small to read as it is. As i mentioned before, I try to have one looped music file for exploring and one for any battle situation. Since I've taken the time to search and select those files, I ensure that those are appropriate for the current area in the campaign. I try to mix it up as much as possible so that it doesn't seem to be the same files for every area. The sound cloud is limited, so the players will hear the same track again at some point, but as long as it's not session after session, they won't complain too much. As you add your audio, organize it by renaming it, immediately after adding it. I put the word 'music' in front of music tracks, followed by the type of music 'ambient' or 'combat'. Beyond that, I'll add some descriptive words like 'eerie' or 'ominous' or 'hopeful', etc. This helps me to very quickly find what I'm looking for in the list because all the music files will then be alphbetized and under the letter 'M' and the additional verbiage ensures that I'm choosing the right music for the right time, saving me time from having to preview all the music tracks. The same goes for sound effects, if it's a scream, put the word 'scream' first, if it's a fire, put the word 'fire' first. When you need it fast, by taking the time to do this, they will be instantly available. If you have enough selections for the entire map, another way is to temporarily number your tracks for whatever room number they are for. That way all the audio for any given area are all together. Of course, when you're done, just rename the files and remove the numbers, and you're ready to go for the next time, should they be needed in a different place. Preview the track and set the volume to barely audible. We don't want the music to be over powering, just in the background. Be sure to either turn on or off the loop function. I typically only loop my music and not my sound effects. Nothings more annying than having a door open sound repeat more than once before you intercept it and stop it from looping! Layer your audio. You're not limited to playing just one track at a time. Combine your selections for even more depth! Here are some composers that I use, just to name a few, not in any particular order. Be sure to check them out, support them financially when possible. Some of it is just fantastic. steven gutheinz (traversing, neighbors, a candle), Esalarc, Kevin McLeod, Josh McIntosh Cruz, melodiousshark2, Tobias Partario Bacchus, Kelly Andrew, jackrain, emiel, lonemusic, moses wilks, blockhead, hikou senshi, echo1338, grungust, dannyBstyle, mombassa. Just remember to turn off all your active audio files when the campaign situation passes, or you go on break. Nothing's more annyoing that coming into a session and the audio from last session is still playing and audible ! For full immersion for your players, ask them to help you get your audio levels set right, by turning up their roll20 audio volume settings, and then having you adjust them on your end. This way, the best roll20 experience can be had by all players, and they put a level of trust into you that you will make the right audio volume settings. Otherwise what's the point of going to the trouble to do all of this, if the players are just going to turn it off and severely limit the enjoyment level of your sessions. Your selections define you as a DM, when you take the time to go to that level of detail. 4. Material preparation. On the PC, I open up any additional materials that I will be using for the session, which may be graphic images of the map area, the adobe acrobat .pdf file of the module, any rules books like the DMG, PHB, monster manual, or key word searchable software like Core Rules that has all of that, any additional tabs in the Google Chrome browser for other websites needed for reference like purple worm or the twitch stream to verify that it is working correctly, the skype audio program, any additional die rollers, stat sheets for any NPCs or monsters, wandering monster tables, and any thing else you might need, have it all open and ready to go at a moments notice. SESSION Here is an 'old school' example of playing without having to do any graphic arts work. [show default roll20 map...see photo above. It looks like a basic sheet of graph paper] [descibe what the players see and ask a player to be official group map maker and draw on the screen]. This is a communal white board. Everyone can draw on it. You don't even have to use tokens. Just have your players write on the map where they are. You can draw where monsters and things are. Use the arrow to move previously drawn items to their new place. Simple! There you go, that's all you have to do. Most important session activity for the DM is to create fun. Making each session enjoyable for the players, in turn makes it enjoyable for yourself. Keep a DM session log and post it for player evaluation after every session. it serves as a record and memory reinforcement to what the characters individually did, which then helps you to determine XP amount afterwards (rather than taking time to do it during a session) as well as the passage of time. You don't have to write a novel, all that is necessary is a quick blurb as to who did what and the result of that action, like so-and-so opened the door releasing the poison gas for X amount HP of damage, knocking them unconscious. Be quick about it, make it brief and to the point, and most importantly be specific, use numerical data when necessary. You've seen my posts. I also include memorized spells, which keeps everyone honest and encourages the players to put their thinking caps on when choosing the only spells that are available to their characters during a particular 24 hour game time period. It discourages needless meta-gaming. As far as rules are concerned, playing with experienced people is a tremendous benefit, especially when delegating a rules search verification, on their off turn, they can provide you with a book and page number when necessary. Often times, when more than one player concurs with regard to a ruling question, chances are it will refresh your memory as to how it is described by the applicable rule book for correct implementation. This also helps to diminish the time lost by the player that tries to force your hand, by suggesting a different interpretation or the misapplication of rule sets from an entirely different game system. The players understand that the DM has their hands full of things to do during a session, so don't be afraid to delegate a task to someone else. This is good management and speeds things up. POST-SESSION Post your log, use the post area as a 'between session' discussion forum for the players to talk about what to do next. Leverage the post forum area to your advantage and try to take care of as much non-game essential activities outside of game time as possible. You won't be able to do everything that you'd like to do, but it does help to a certain degree. A perfect example was the Hommlet portion of this campaign, just recently, which took an hour or so before we were able to get into the actual play. Twitch viewers returned afterwards, because those types of basic housekeeping activities really isn't of much interest for the casual observer, hence the importance of the log post and subsequent forum usage.
