1. Maps Ideally, your map should have two components: A background and items-that-might-be-interacted-with. The background should contain the vast majority of the information; for example, the walls, floor, and major items in a room. The items, such as a book on a desktop or a pillow on the bed, or weaponry the players might find, or doors (if desired), or anything the players might likely move or otherwise alter, should be items added through Roll20. For the background, GIMP is your friend. It's a free image editor with lots of power, and you'll want it for the next step anyway. Find maps online or make your own, then modify them as needed using GIMP. Save 'em as a .jpg and import them to Roll20, putting them on the map layer of your campaign. PNGs are not recommended, I think because of the filesize or something. I like to leave the grid off my maps, using only the Roll20 system; if your map has its own grid, aligning it to the R20 system takes only a few minutes. Then, add decoration... little fidly bits and things. If the map has a table, you might put plates and dishes and stuff on it. This can be done by using Roll20's internal search system, or this can be supplemented by adding things from your own image library, importing them to your Roll20's storage. PNGs are best for this, because of the transparent background capability. Avoid using too many of them, as Roll20 has to load them each up individually every time this map is loaded; this can slow down switching maps. A combination of the two will let you make just about any map you want, limited only by your imagination and the resources you can find. 2. $10 For a full membership (Mentor level) you get: 20x as much storage for the aforementioned stuff The Transmogrifier, which is nice because it's the only way to transfer maps from one campaign to another Dynamic lighting, which is nice sometimes but I don't personally use it And a token pack, which doesn't really have any map-making tokens on it As well as a bunch of other neat stuff You can purchase tilesets without a membership, or find them online. 3. Dynamic Lighting I don't use it much, but it's not that difficult to figure out. 4. Tokens Can be complex; start with the basics then work up Journal entries for them, and make sure to Link them properly . I don't understand what you mean when you say it's not letting you make tokens... anything you place on the token layer automatically becomes a token. 5. Other advice Lots and lots of it, but I'll leave that for others for now. -Phnord
