Newish DM wanting to talk to other DMs

Title says it all. I want to get to know more about how to improve my DMing for my games. I would also love to see how others setup / create their games.

Hi Broodlord,  I run some Old School Essential games, would be glad to share, I don't have a ton of experience, but might learn a few things from each other. 

Biggest tip I can give is to prep the hell out of everything, don't delete anything keep it and store them in sessions.  I store all of my done up maps in a map session, all my npcs are stored in another, all my monsters are stored in another, and before you ask well why not just drag out from compendium.....half my monsters have alot of token actions and other stuff on them that I don't want to have to remake.  Like the beholder scripts I run, and the mephit variant ability script.  Also api's are like ingredients to a meal, you need to put in alot of work to get them to where you need them to be, even the simplest ones required alot of creativity and setup.  

This is a great subject. Just remember to keep it Roll20 focussed. With that out of the way, my biggest advice is that if you have a technical issue (DL not working right, macro gone awry, Vidchat conked out), don't be afraid to fall back to simple solutions. DL not working right? Switch it off and go to regular bulletproof Fog of War and keep playing. Macro gone awry? Don't worry about it. Use the dice roller and keep playing. VidChat conked out? Use Discord, or Skype or Zoom or anything and keep playing . You can work out technical problems outside of play time. If it takes more than two minutes to fix, abandon it, keep playing and figure out what went wrong after the game.

keithcurtis said: This is a great subject. Just remember to keep it Roll20 focussed. With that out of the way, my biggest advice is that if you have a technical issue (DL not working right, macro gone awry, Vidchat conked out), don't be afraid to fall back to simple solutions. DL not working right? Switch it off and go to regular bulletproof Fog of War and keep playing. Macro gone awry? Don't worry about it. Use the dice roller and keep playing. VidChat conked out? Use Discord, or Skype or Zoom or anything and keep playing . You can work out technical problems outside of play time. If it takes more than two minutes to fix, abandon it, keep playing and figure out what went wrong after the game. In my games I have an elevator music like track that plays for about 2 minutes, and if I deem it necessary to fix something like a sheet or macro or something, I will tell the players theres a quickie break and run the music and mute myself for a few while I try to Macguyver things right.  If its still a no go after my elevator music track ends, I just fallback to conventional ways.   

DM Eddie said: In my games I have an elevator music like track that plays for about 2 minutes, and if I deem it necessary to fix something like a sheet or macro or something, I will tell the players theres a quickie break and run the music and mute myself for a few while I try to Macguyver things right.  If its still a no go after my elevator music track ends, I just fallback to conventional ways.    Excellent Tip!!!

While DM'ing on Roll20, take note of the kinds of things that seem to drag things down or require repetition. Those little tasks might not be annoying to you and your players at the start, but after you log a few hundred hours, they become pain points. Consider the various API's that are available. They're free to use if you have a Pro account, a lot of very smart people have put a good amount of time and creativity into them. Almost all of them make your life and your player's lives easier, and some add more fun to the experience. I try and remove as much Roll20 friction as possible, so that while I'm running a session, my players and I aren't struggling with stuff that pulls us out of immersion. Oh... and turn on and learn the advanced keyboard shortcuts. Makes things go muuuuch faster in terms of switching between layers and tools. API's that I currently use: Roll20 Audio Master TokenMod Torch Token Lock AutoPing HitDice Concentration Tongues NPC Damage Listener GM Sheet Teleport API Heartbeat DoorKnocker Act Bump Ping Me RestInStyle MarkTurnStartLocation Hands Up Conditions Check out Nick Olivo's videos on YouTube. Lots of great Roll20 tips there, and he's really good at explaining stuff. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/NicholasOlivo/videos" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/user/NicholasOlivo/videos</a>