VIDEO VERSION <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2jZWfIS6IA" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2jZWfIS6IA</a> OVER VIEW First off, there are a bunch of different ways to do this and this is just one possible way. What we'll be doing is this. We'll load our map to the background layer, change to the objects and token layer above it, use the background map as a guide and create everything over the top of it, when we're done, we'll delete the map since we no longer need it, select everything we made on the object and token layer and move it all to the map layer below so it won't interfere with our gaming experience. We'll add the things the players will be interacting with, like monsters, NPCS, doors, treasure, chests, furniture, boats, etc, and lastly any useful GM information, like music reminders, charts, etc. 1. First, set some basic page settings, things like background color (green for outdoor, black for dungeon), enable the grid, and set the grid size (which is typically a 10' square unit), along with a contrasting grid line color. Don't worry about the other page settings, that's for later after we're done. I'll put that on another talk. 2. Move to the background layer. Drag and drop your map into the interface. Size the map to the grid. Hold the alt key if necessary to align the map to the grid if necessary. 3. Move to the objects and tokens layer above it. Use the map as a guide and create everything here temporarily, starting with the lower elements first (like hills, moats, floors), ending with the upper elements last (like walls and vegetation). 4. Use the shape draw tool, or the polygon tool. If you use the polygon tool, use it with the fill option off. Create the shape. Copy and size it if there are multiples of it. Then lastly select the polygon and turn the fill on by choosing a fill color. Press and hold the alt key to create circles. Right click over any item and move it to the front or back in relation to each other to get their orientation correct. 5. When finished, move to the map layer, and delete the map since it is no longer needed. Then, zoom out, click and drag to select everything on the objects and tokens layer that you made, right click over one of the selected items and move it all to the background layer. This will keep them from accidentilly being selected, and the grid will be over those items. 6. On the objects and tokens layer, position the objects your players will interact with. When you place the first token that will be duplicated throughout the composition, double click it, enable the ability for players to control it, but then disable everything else in every tab. This will allow them to move or rotate the token, but nothing else. This level of interactivity allows players to "dig through piles of bones to find the gold ring at the bottom", open doors, take lids off of barrels to reveal the snake token inside. Often times I will have layers upon layers of stuff to the point if they get to the bottom level of the box and move it, they will uncover even more things like a hole, that if they investigate they will find something else in the hole. Use your imagination, but remember, if you take your maps to this level of detail, be sure to have the player specify how may rounds/turns they will be allocating to any given activity, because people have a tendancy to get carried away, and start moving things and have hours worth of character tasks completed before their first turn is even over! Likewise, if they start touching items in a room to see what is and isn't movable, then don't hesitate to immediately specify that activity as their turn like, "so and so explores the chest". You'll get a little flack the first time around, but this approach will effectively encourage restraint on the part of the players to not go "poking around" prematurely. 7. After that, the monster tokens are added. I basically copy and paste their data sheet from their respective monster manual directly into the token GM Notes area, which is only visible to the GM. I use the bubbles with green as their life, blue as the number they need to make a successful attack roll, and red as their armour class. Be sure to disable this information inside the token from being visible by the players. I also put the treasure they have on them in the token notes, or where their treasure may be found should it be in another location. There are many free die rolling programs available, take the time to roll hit points for each creature so they are not all the same. This breaks up the monotony and keeps the players guessing. 8. Lastly, put on the GM layer in a bright color, like yellow, any helpful information, like names of sfx files to be used at certain times during the session, music file names (one for exploring and others for specific battles that may occur), or wandering monster tables (along with their token beside their table entry) . If a wandering monster comes up on a die roll, setting up your map this way will allow you to select the premade token, move it into position, copy as many as you need, click and drag to select them all and then move them to the objects and tokens layer simultaneously. To the players, they will all appear at the same time, as if jumping down on them from above! The goal of these strategies is to make the gaming experience run as quickly as possible, to not have any "dead time", by keeping yourself focused on the roll20 interface and not wasting time bouncing back and forth between screens, tabs, software or rule books. Roll20 by it's very nature is slow because of the mouse clicking that is required to get it to go, and even my sessions don't move as fast as I would like them to, but if I didn't incorporate these strategies, they would be even slower, which may not seem that way to you, but will seem that way to your players and twitch stream viewers. Regarding token selection: If you can't find what you're looking for go to google images and get it there. If you've been watching this group or looking at the ongoing session highlight video compilations, you will have noticed that I try to put as much realism into the maps as possible by using actual scans of nature. I try to stay away from the saturday morning cartoon looking graphics as much as possible. You may choose to go another way. Regarding music selection: I only choose tracks of music that add to the experience rather than detract from it. That goes for the sfx as well. I stay away from contemporary music and lean more toward the epic movie type genre for effect. Having creepy music with a girl laughing in the distant background does have a certain impact on the players, so be conscious of the choices you make and do it to a calculated effect.
