Hello everyone! Lately a lot of people have been curious about playing some TTRPGs online, and Roll20 has been an option many looked into. A lot of the tutorials out there are very useful, but most of them will leave you vulnerable to a lot of newbie mistakes. As a huge fan of Roll20, I thought I could post a quick guide, to help newbie Roll20 GMs set up their games in a smooth and fun way! Are there things I need to pay for before starting? A free account is actually enough for pretty much all GMs, specially as you start out. The paid tiers have some great advantages, but the truth is, the free tier is already a great option to substitute (or complement) the offline alternative of pen, paper and a table. These are some of the free features that I love: • There is a nice collection of free tokens and even some maps, found within your roll20 library, right from the get go. • You can draw your maps directly on roll20, or upload your own map files. • You can use character sheets created for roll20, and a lot of them will have so many useful things automated, that rolling dice
and following the system rules becomes much easier than in offline sessions.
• You can find hundreds of songs and sound effects in the Roll20 Jukebox • Roll 20 even has a few adventure modules for free! So, no matter why you are going online, Roll20 is pretty much the cheapest way to GM that I know of. • For anyone who has already GMed offline, you will probably not have to spend a single cent to get into GMing on Roll20! • For anyone who is a complete beginner to GMing, or TTRPGs in general, you can have a lot of fun for free from the get go.
• In the end you might want to buy some rulebooks, art assets or campaign modules - some of them are really worth the money. The
roll 20 plus and pro tiers will also be an amazing addition for many GMs. But with Roll20, not even the GM has to put in heaps of
money to run some great sessions. Common pitfalls in Roll20 GMing The following are just some frequent beginner mistakes that can make your Roll20 experience unnecessarily stressful: • Not checking out the freebies out there. A lot of great resources can be found for free on the roll20 art library (as well as on
other websites).
• Setting an upcoming game time really soon, not leaving you with enough time to learn the basics of roll20 in peace. Learning how
to use roll20 can actually be fun, but make sure you have some time set aside for it.
• Trying to use all of roll 20's features from the get-go. Learn the basics, and you can already have great TTRPG sessions. Enjoy the
ride - and progress over time.
• Getting stuck on the idea that any technical problem during the session has to be fixed immediatly. See if there is a good way of
working around it.
• Forgetting to tell players that they will need a stable internet connection and a decent microphone and headphone setup for things
to run smoothly, if playing from multiple locations. Having a place where noise is not an issue is also essential.
• Messing up with time zones differences. Setting the date and time on roll20 is quite useful to be on the safe side here,
because players that have been invited to the game can always check the date and time there, which adjusts to their time zone.
• Assuming that all players you meet online are respectful, or assuming they are all horrible. If looking for an online only group,
you will need some extra patience to find good players. I would say, start with some short campaigns to get to know some good
players first.
• Getting TTRPGs confused with computer games. The line can become quite blurry on this when dealing with the possibility of using
scripts and digital content... as well as feeling the pressure from new players who pretty much only know PC games. So take some
time to think, what makes TTRPGS unique and fun? What prep work should I do before my first session? The first session of Roll20 can seem a bit daunting sometimes: there are many features you do not understand, the tutorials seem to go for hours, maybe you are even trying to play a TTRPGs with strangers the very first time... But, if you prep efficiently and set some realistic expectations you will already be within reach of some great TTRPG fun. Now let me be clear, the GM should prep their first session on Roll20. It is different from the offline experience, but it doesn't have to be a headache. Taking around 2 hours of prep time to adjust to Roll20 will make a huge difference. That means that besides the prep any GM has to do, take those 2 hours to play around in roll20.
In the end you will know the basics of Roll20, you will have a few maps ready for the session as well as couple of tokens for
your players and NPCs. I believe the following list should include all the things a roll20 GM has to learn, at the very least. Might seem like a long list, but with this knowledge you will be able to run a session pretty much like a traditional pen and paper table... and the last third of the list only matters if you are looking for players online, instead of playing with personal friends. • Start off by watching the official roll20 tutorial on youtube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ekQ3uLLqL8" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ekQ3uLLqL8</a> • no need to understand it 100%, but just use it for a quick overview. Learn by doing, and rewatch the tutorial as needed.
• Make sure you can do the very basics: • Create a new game, exit the game and join it again in the roll20 website. • Access your roll20 free art library and add some tokens to your game. • Select a token and adjust their position, size and rotation. • Add a status marker to a token, set up a token bar, name the token and show its nameplate. • Learn to use the 3 basic game layers: GM layer, object layer and map layer. • Adjust your zoom, learn how to pan around in your map, how to use the measuring tool. • Create a new page and switch between different pages.
• Add music that plays when you open up a new map.
• Learn how to do dice rolls within roll20, specially dice rolls in the chat can be super useful - for ex: /r 2d6+3
• Create a second roll20 account just the way you created your first account. Let's call this second account a test account,
it will allow you to learn about how your players experience roll20. • I suggest having two internet browsers open, chrome and firefox for example, and login in your GM account in one browser and this
test account in the other browser. • Get the join link from your game's "join game page". [Invite Players > Share Link] • Add your second account to the game by using the join link. • Launch the game with both accounts. • Learn how to give a player permission to move a token. • Learn how to change the page a player sees. • Compare the way you see maps to the way players see them. • Learn to add npc tokens and GM notes to your maps, and make sure the players only see them if you want them to.
• Learn how to control how much of the map your players see (I suggest just uploading an image of a black square to roll20 and
use it as a cover)
• Lastly, if you are planning on playing online and with some players you do not know, make your game visible to others.
• Learn how to create a 'Looking for Players' listing from your game's "join game page" [looking for players > create listing]
• Do not forget to set the number of players you are looking for.
• Do not forget to set the date and time of the upcoming session. ["join game page" > next game will be... > date+time > save]
• The listing only becomes active once there are both open player slots available in your game, and a session date and time has
been set.
• Players will then be able to post on your "looking for players" page. You can invite players directly from their posts in
this page.
• You will get notifications on the roll20 website when players post, but you will have to refresh the roll20 page every now and
then to see if you got new player posts.
• chatting with players before the session is pretty cumbersome when using Roll20's DM system. My suggestion is to set up a discord
chat and talk through there. Please note: sharing discord links is not allowed on a "looking for players" page. When players show
interest, just DM them your discord info. With this your prep should be pretty solid. I am assuming you are leaving some more advanced aspects for later on - I suggest you actually start this way, keep it simple, because many tools available in roll20 are just too confusing to use for absolute beginners. Keep it as similar to the offline experience for now, and after a while you can look into some of the amazing (and more advanced) features. Just remember: Players that are good sports will be ok with you not using some of the built-in features at roll20 :) For later Once you get used to the roll20 basics, you will still have some amazing tools to explore! I thought I would mention them here too, sort of a road map of what benefits most roll20 users will enjoy a lot: • Character Sheets within roll20: while using character sheets in paper form might be closer to the pen and paper experience, you
should probably not wait too long to explore the character sheets available within roll20. They automate a lot of work and you
can open all of them very quickly during your sessions. Setting them up correctly can be a bit of a challenge for newbies though,
so I did not include them in the roll20 basics.
• Macros: Great for calculations or texts you want to output repeatedly during your sessions, like initiative rolls or actions from
homebrewed content. For those who start creating a lot of macros, be sure to look into the "macro char sheets" trick found at
<a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/5899495/stupid-roll20-tricks-and-some-clever-ones/?pageforid=7605679#post-7605679" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/5899495/stupid-roll20-tricks-and-some-clever-ones/?pageforid=7605679#post-7605679</a>
• Character Vault (fully unlocked with plus tier): allows you to transfer character sheets between different campaigns, even
allowing you to receive roll20 character sheets that your players have created for your campaign.
• Dynamic Lighting (requires plus tier): adds Fog of War to your game, - which simplifies gradual revealing of the map quite a lot - as
well as simulating walls and light sources, a simulation that greatly increases the sense of exploration.
• API Scripts (requires pro tier): for those who feel like they want to customize even further what roll20 can do,
a multitude of scripting tools allow the GM to implement things as varied as automatic status management, flickering lights, tokens
that move by themselves, etc etc. A huge collection of API scripts created by other roll20 users can be used, which means you do
not even need to know how to code to use these advanced customizations. That's it! Hope you found something valuable here, good luck on your Roll20 GM adventure! All the best, gui8312
