Beginner level questions for someone who's been using roll 20 for a few months and still doesn't get it

Hi everybody I've got a couple of questions which I'm sure you've all heard a million times. Now while I'll admit I found some answers to them they have been explained in ways that I just don't understand and I was wondering if anyone could water it down or link some tutorials on the questions that I'm asking for. Before anyone asks yes I've looked up and down the forums And while the answers are there, I think, i just don't understand a lot of the technical jargon or how things are put. I'll start out by saying that I run a Stargate campaign. Yes the new one that just came out and I absolutely love it. If you're a sci-fi fan I recommend you pick it up. That being said a lot of my questions are going to revolve around that type of game and not so much dungeons and dragons, however it is a fifth edition type game.  1. Map alignment - I'm having a really hard time aligning maps. I'm not too sure if it's the type of map that I'm picking for the adventures or maybe I'm just doing something wrong. It's the standard 5-ft square per space (although in the game it's 2m But my players really don't like that so we stick with 5 ft). Does anybody out there have any easy ways to align maps or have maps that would fit a sci-fi present day type of campaign that easily align to the grid? Normally I would just try and make it a drawing however then I come up to the second problem.. 2. Dynamic lighting lags While haracters move - granted my computer is a little old but I should have more than enough DDR3 memory to have everything work smoothly. That being said it's the only time it lags for me and my players. To be fair I'm more interested in using "fog of war" then anything else But with the way things are I can't. To add 1 + 2 here, I've heard if you use the maps as drawings it has a harder time to load. Just looking for some confirmation on that or a way to make it lag less. 3. 3d dice - besides using a "rollable token" Is there a way to make or have custom 3D dice.. easily? 4. I know you could add decks in the game but can you add critical fails and critical hit decks? Can you make your own the same way you can make the tokens? 5. Does anyone recommend any YouTubers or people on twitch that run their game through roll 20 that have a really good system set up? I started watching "Taking 20" But a lot of his videos are old. Was looking for somebody a little bit more up on things within the past year.  6. Atte weather effects worth it? What add-on packs do you guys think are worth it for your players? 7. Any must have macros? 8. Any easy ways to make compendiums for easy access to NPCs? In Stargate there are very few NPCs that are considered enemies so it'll be easy but I was just looking for an easy way rather than going through line by line. Thanks for any help anyone could give me! I'm really excited to keep using roll 20 but anything that would make my life easier and better for my players is something I have to have.

I'll take a stab at a few of these. 1.&nbsp; I have never used the map alignment tool, but there is one that can get you close.&nbsp; If you know the number of grid units the map has, you can right click on the image, go through the advanced option to "set dimensions", change pixels to units, and set your dimensions there.&nbsp; Of the map doesn't have full grid units at the edges, or some sort of border, then that won't work for you.&nbsp; My main method of aligning maps (that I didn't create myself) can be found here: <a href="https://help.roll20.net/hc/en-us/articles/360039243994-Aligning-Maps#another-method-for-aligning-maps-with-baked-in-grids-0-7" rel="nofollow">https://help.roll20.net/hc/en-us/articles/360039243994-Aligning-Maps#another-method-for-aligning-maps-with-baked-in-grids-0-7</a> Scroll to the top of that article for info on the align to grid tool. 2.&nbsp; You might want to look over hints on overall performance.&nbsp; The wiki has a couple articles related to that: <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Optimizing_Roll20_Performance" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Optimizing_Roll20_Performance</a> <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Best_Practices_for_Files_on_Roll20" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Best_Practices_for_Files_on_Roll20</a> 3. Not that I am aware of. 4. I haven't messed with decks at all, but since there are pre-made critical hit/fail decks available for sale on the marketplace, you definitely should be able to make your own. 5.&nbsp; If you hover over the big Community header, one of the options is the blog.&nbsp; I know there are some youtube games put forward there.&nbsp; I don't watch others play, so I have no idea what kind of setup they use, but they will be current/recent. 6.&nbsp; Depending on how #2 goes, you may want to avoid any large animations for sake of performance. 7.&nbsp; Those are totally dependent on game system, so maybe someone else that plays that game will chime in. 8.&nbsp; That sounds like the sort of npc that I use handouts for...&nbsp; You can create a handout for an npc, have their portrait for the image, put any public info on them in the part of the handout the players can see, keep your hidden notes in the GM section, and even allow players to edit the handout if you want them to be able to update their knowledge/interactions with that npc.&nbsp; If you build up a large cast of npcs, then you can create an index handout. You can do this for npcs, rules, items, whatever.&nbsp; Then, you can archive everything that has a link on your handout to reduce the clutter in the journal.&nbsp; Everything that is archived is still loaded with the game and can be pulled up by clicking on the link in your index.&nbsp; Linking is pretty simple.&nbsp; If you have "Shady Steve" on a handout, then you would put [Shady Steve] on the index, and when you save the index, it becomes a link.&nbsp; Be sure to avoid creating 2 handouts with an identical title though.&nbsp; You can get pretty extensive with this sort of handout setup.&nbsp; Handouts are the original compendium on Roll20.&nbsp; You can set up an entire game system in a base game that you never run.&nbsp; Simply copy the base game any time you want to start something new.&nbsp; An example index from one of my games:

This is a very old video , but the map alignment advice and technique are still great, and pretty close to the exact techniques I use with a "found" &nbsp;map.

Thanks guys! I'll look into both of these

Hmm, no games, no hours, and only&nbsp; those 2 posts.&nbsp; I hope we're not just interacting with a bot.&nbsp; lol

You're definitely not dealing with a bit, although I'm sure a bot may say that. I guess I have 2 accounts and didn't know it. I'm still pretty new to all of this. Thanks for the help that was posted.