So I'm going to start by saying I'm not using Roll20 for what it was designed for.
I'm fortunate enough that every 2 weeks or so my friends and i can sit at a table and play together in the same room, we draw maps on the grid and move miniatures around the board. We have no remote users. However we've come to find Roll20 as indispensable to our experience.
Showing the exploration map on a big screen TV.
My setup:
In the 2 houses we play at, we have a TV screen close at hand which can be seen by everyone. As DM I use 2 devices, a cheap windows tablet and an android phone. The Tablet has the "GM view". The phone is connected to the TV (via Chromcast) and shows the "Player view". I control both (at least until i can get a cheap android tablet, then I can had it the player view device over to the players)
We use this exclusively for exploration mapping (any mapping outside of combat). The players love it.
On the large screen, I can show their location, zoom in, zoom out, occlude unseen locations, flip between maps relatively easily etc. When we enter combat, we get out the dry erase markers and miniatures because my players prefer it.
The players get to see the lovely WotC (or other) map artwork instead of either just room and corridor descriptions or via my terrible grade 2 level drawing skills on graph paper (or a second dry erase sheet, which gets cumbersome with limited table space)
I really just wanted to point out that Roll20 has uses to those of us fortunate enough to be in the same room together. It could be another angle to market to.
PROS
Nicer looking and easier to use exploration maps
Can switch between maps easily (even town/overland maps) without having to hunt through my notes, or a book (as long as you've imported them first, of course).
CONS
<Caveat> Despite mucking around with it, I'm still a Roll20 Newbie and have not explored many of the features as well as I could have.
Not a suitable set up for every home (the third house we play at doesnt have a suitably positioned TV)
More expensive than a marker and paper (although the only thing i bought specifically for this set up was the Chromecast), and needing 2 devices (GM and player)
Never a huge fan of the navigation and zoom on tablets/phones. Keep going to pinch zoom but remember to have to use the slider. I could be missing something, of course :)
Extra set up and break down time (esp when Chromecast is being difficult)
The monthly subscription (to use on tablets/phones) is not too expensive, but the frugal side of me knows we are only using 10% of the features. However the smart side of me is happy to pay because of the impact it has on the game.
Things that would make this way of using it even better
Initiative counter unlinked to icons. since we don't use icons at all, a simple initiate counter shown on the screen would be great. Save names of players, allow us to add monster names on the fly.
Pinch zoom
An easier "Monster Portraits" method. I currently store monster portraits in a folder (the monster library) and just open them up from that and leave the "feature Monster" showing on the screen during a combat as I've found it a little cumbersome to do the same thing in Roll20.
I'm not so much using Roll20 wrong as I am using it differently. I recently asked my players if they would like to get rid of any of the features I've added to the game (initiative tents, spell and magic item cards, drama cards, options crit rules etc, it got a bit cumbersome :)) but they were most adamant that the TV mapping stay. A win for Roll20.
If you do get to play around a table, I recommend giving it a try.
I'm fortunate enough that every 2 weeks or so my friends and i can sit at a table and play together in the same room, we draw maps on the grid and move miniatures around the board. We have no remote users. However we've come to find Roll20 as indispensable to our experience.
Showing the exploration map on a big screen TV.
My setup:
In the 2 houses we play at, we have a TV screen close at hand which can be seen by everyone. As DM I use 2 devices, a cheap windows tablet and an android phone. The Tablet has the "GM view". The phone is connected to the TV (via Chromcast) and shows the "Player view". I control both (at least until i can get a cheap android tablet, then I can had it the player view device over to the players)
We use this exclusively for exploration mapping (any mapping outside of combat). The players love it.
On the large screen, I can show their location, zoom in, zoom out, occlude unseen locations, flip between maps relatively easily etc. When we enter combat, we get out the dry erase markers and miniatures because my players prefer it.
The players get to see the lovely WotC (or other) map artwork instead of either just room and corridor descriptions or via my terrible grade 2 level drawing skills on graph paper (or a second dry erase sheet, which gets cumbersome with limited table space)
I really just wanted to point out that Roll20 has uses to those of us fortunate enough to be in the same room together. It could be another angle to market to.
PROS
Nicer looking and easier to use exploration maps
Can switch between maps easily (even town/overland maps) without having to hunt through my notes, or a book (as long as you've imported them first, of course).
CONS
<Caveat> Despite mucking around with it, I'm still a Roll20 Newbie and have not explored many of the features as well as I could have.
Not a suitable set up for every home (the third house we play at doesnt have a suitably positioned TV)
More expensive than a marker and paper (although the only thing i bought specifically for this set up was the Chromecast), and needing 2 devices (GM and player)
Never a huge fan of the navigation and zoom on tablets/phones. Keep going to pinch zoom but remember to have to use the slider. I could be missing something, of course :)
Extra set up and break down time (esp when Chromecast is being difficult)
The monthly subscription (to use on tablets/phones) is not too expensive, but the frugal side of me knows we are only using 10% of the features. However the smart side of me is happy to pay because of the impact it has on the game.
Things that would make this way of using it even better
Initiative counter unlinked to icons. since we don't use icons at all, a simple initiate counter shown on the screen would be great. Save names of players, allow us to add monster names on the fly.
Pinch zoom
An easier "Monster Portraits" method. I currently store monster portraits in a folder (the monster library) and just open them up from that and leave the "feature Monster" showing on the screen during a combat as I've found it a little cumbersome to do the same thing in Roll20.
I'm not so much using Roll20 wrong as I am using it differently. I recently asked my players if they would like to get rid of any of the features I've added to the game (initiative tents, spell and magic item cards, drama cards, options crit rules etc, it got a bit cumbersome :)) but they were most adamant that the TV mapping stay. A win for Roll20.
If you do get to play around a table, I recommend giving it a try.
