Using Roll20 to handle the "dungeon key"

Hi, I'm about to start a Roll20 campaign around a megadungeon, Ruins of Undermountain, and I'm not sure how to handle the notes, and ever changing "key" of my dungeon.

My goal is to create an open table and I intend to use The Alexandrian Tip's on Re-Running the Megadungeon and the amount of change in the dungeon key worries me if I go the traditional way (good old notebook).

I though that, may be, I could use Roll20 at my advantage to handle the ever changing dungeon key, the idea of having everything I need incorporated in the VTT pleases me, but I'm lost on the specifics of how to do just that.

So far, I was thinking of this :

• Using the Rollable Table to handle things like :
  
  • Random Encounters
  • Room content generation
  • etc
• Using the Journal, specially with the folder, to keep fully stated tokens for each monsters (I know, that's going to be a lot of work)
• Token on the map layer for any item that could be interacted with and/or light sources (going to use dynamic lights)
• Gm Layer Tokens, for monsters in the rooms, to allow me to put them in player sight after describing the room

Its for the actual description of the rooms that I'm not sure, I don't know what would be best, using GM layer Tokens for each room and use the Token Description, or use Journal's Handouts or even 'Character' to be able to create room specific Macros and even using linked token to handle the room.

What I'm afraid (if I use Journal's handouts or character) is that my Journal will become unmanageable, even with the folders.


So I'd like to know if any of you, experienced Roll20 Game Masters, have any tips or knows any hidden gems to handle my dungeon key with the Roll20 interface.

I use the GM layer for map notes. I write out my info then add a box behind it so that is stands out better.


When it's on the GM layer only you can see it, so you can have all kinds of notes. I use it for traps and DC's for locks and sometimes boxed text that I want to read to the players.

For the boxed text I came up with a neat trick. I make a token for info on the GM layer and write my descriptive text in the name of the token. I usually write it out in a text editor then paste it into the token name, because it's harder to edit it once it's in the name field. I then have a token action for the info token that sends the token name to /desc or to a whisper depending on what I need.

Here is an example



And the token actions for the point of interest are pretty simple


So I have one journal entry character sheet for all points of interest and I can use it multiple times for different descriptions without having a ton of entries. Now if I for some reason I want to whisper the description to myself without the players seeing it I just need to select a token that I control and it sends it to the GM.

I have used the same idea for treasure chests, where I put the contents in the token name and can whisper those to the rogue. Roll20 is very flexible which is what I love about the system.

Happy gaming!

Those are some great tips, Ed! I especially like the token that whispers it's description. Very nice!

Wow thank you Ed !

I wonder what would be the effect of using "Show nameplate" on your POI token, because if it shows the entirety of the text, that could be useful too.

And your macro that wispers, there's no way that it could whispers the token description I suppose ...

Because that would be so much simpler for long text and thing like that.

Some people use the nameplate of tokens as notes on the GM Layer because of the way it is bordered to have good contrast and scales with the zoom.

There isn't a way to have it whisper the description, but you could put copious text in one (or all) of the bars and reference them with @{selected|bar1}. It's not convenient to edit there, but you would give you 3 possible messages per token.

You could use them for different skill checks:

• plain looking at
• searching or find traps
• detect magic

or different levels of knowledge

• Common: You've seen statues like this before.
• Uncommon: ...but this one is made of an unusual stone for the area.
• Rare: ... because it's one of the nine deities carved for the first emperor of Klaskalain, as an opening negotiation gift after the war of Selectic Torr.

Thank you Aaron, I guess that working with the Bar, are not less convenient than working with the token name like Ed suggested.

Is there a way to get the bar max value too ? that way it would be 7 different information that could be store in a little token and usable through macros ! :D

@{selected|bar1|max}

Thx Mark !

So I now have 7 fields(name, bar1,bar2,bar3 and their maxes) to fool around with, which is great !

I seriously think that I'm going to use "information" tokens like that for all my "rooms" !

Yeah, I'm thinking this is a pretty great idea. =D With the API, there are even more ways you could extend this, I'll have to poke around in that.

Another thought for you, you can use status markers to tell you which of those you've shown to players. (Don't forget you can hover a status marker in the add/remove menu and hit a number 0-9 to put that number on it).

I do this already. I place a scroll token on the GM layer and put the room info in it. It works great and saves me from having to flip back and forth on the screen to other information. Plus I can also copy the room description into text if I need to. I had not thought about using the status makers to mark the rooms they have been in...that is a good idea Aaron.

I am glad I could help! I use the bar1-3 for my treasure chests for the unlock DC, the Disarm DC and the trap info. I do wish we could access the GM notes field, that would make some of this a bit easier.

Yeah, that's a good suggestion... =D

Oh my. This thread is getting bookmarked for later use! Ed, you're a genius! :>

I have extended Ed ideas of point of interest token macro to mix it up with the multiple field (token_name, and the 3 bars and their max values) and merge it the Roll Templates (using the default one) to create this macro, that will wisper the GM all the information contained in those field in a nice box (so easy to read).

So I let that here, for other to steal an adapt.

/w gm &{template:default} {{name=@{selected|token_name}}} {{Bar1=@{selected|bar1}}} {{Bar1 Max=@{selected|bar1|max}}} {{Bar2=@{selected|bar2}}} {{Bar2 Max=@{selected|bar2|max}}} {{Bar3=@{selected|bar3}}} {{Bar3 Max=@{selected|bar3|max}}}

I just have to finish up making my mind on which bar will hold what kind of information.

I know that the token_name will hold the "Room name" and that the "Show nameplate" will be set to true, so that way it's easy to remember which rooms are which one by just looking at the map.

I'll probably use the Bar 1 to put general description (like the one Ed used) and the Bar1 Max to hold more specific information, like things that can get perceive with a successful "Perception Check".

Bar 2 for other knowledgeable information, like Knowledge History, Arcana and what ever like that

And Bar 3 for things that could Trigger.


One final though, I think I'm going to make the POI token visible to players and create them a macro that they'll could use to "Inspect" the POI that will whisper me the information of the POI. So they will see the POI and it's name plate, and they could easily "poke" it if they want to.

That Macro would also give me their Perception score, so It will be easy to know what I can tell them and what not.

Very cool ideas Groumy. I'll have to adopt a few of those :)