Hybrid Tabletop and Digital Game?

Hi guys, New here to Roll20 but have DMed games with my buddies before on tabletop. I'm not quite certain if this has been asked before, but please bear with me. I was thinking of using a sort of hybrid approach to our gaming sessions using Roll20. We play 5e but we all still like using grid maps and minis - at least for encounters or exploring dungeons. Up to this point, I've been pre-drawing all the maps before the session. At times, they go another way (as many players do!) and I have to draw a new one on the spot - breaking progression and/or immersion. Anyway, what I wanted to do was be able to use Roll20 on a laptop and project my screen onto a wall-mounted TV I have. Basically, take our maps, minis, and table stuff and digitize it. So, we'd still be all there in the room - taking notes, rolling real dice, etc. - but I would use Roll20 to move their avatars around the map. Does Roll20 offer anything like this? I haven't played a game on it yet, but from what I read everyone in the party sees what the DM wants them to see on their screens and the DMs screen sees everything. Makes sense, but in the way I would want to do this, I wouldn't want them to 'see ahead' since we'd all be in the room looking at the TV. Hopefully I've explained this right on what I want to do. Any advice or insight would be fabulous. Thanks!

Yep, easily done, you'll do two monitors. Your browser on the laptop screen will be logged into the game as a GM. On your projector display, you'll have a browser window logged into the game and clicked the "log in as player" button. Your laptop essentially becomes your GM screen.

Ok that's great. Will that one 'player' screen or login be able to accommodate 3 or 4 other players? Sorry, I haven't DMed on Roll20 before - so is it the DM that moved the avatars around?

Using this setup it would be the DM doing the moving. You could also have a separate computer doing the projection and have a mouse setup for the players to use. Vision wise, the player screen will show whatever you allow that logged in player to see with fog of war in your case.

Awesome, Scott! Thanks much!

Enjoy :)

Valente i do this, i have 4 monitors, but i project the player map onto a projector screen for the players to see, to do this, i have two google windows open, 1 regular window to log into my DM account (1 email address) and then i open another Google window but in incognito mode (Ctrl+Shift+N)  then sign into roll20 with another different email address (this will be your player view since you're joining the same game as a player) put the Player incognito window onto the screen you want the players to see, keep the DMs window on a screen you can only see... BAM....everyones having fun! Good luck! 

imgur.com/a/BUBbo Here's my hybrid setup. I went with a tv instead of projector since it looks better, imo, and I can use the tv for other things.

I also wrote an API scripto to add and remove control of various tokens and character sheets so that on each player's turn, the tv only shows what their character can see.

Great, thanks for the tips guys! SkyCaptain - that's also an awesome setup!

SkyCaptainXIII said: I also wrote an API scripto to add and remove control of various tokens and character sheets so that on each player's turn, the tv only shows what their character can see. Would you be willing to share that script? Most of my roll20 campaigns are run with a setup similar to yours and I'd love to use something like that. I imagine it makes sorting out line of sight easier without pulling out the ruler tool. I run the DM side of this from my campaign desk (I love that it is actually called that) while my wife Chromecasts the player view to the TV using a dummy account. I usually give the dummy account access to control all the characters so they end up having a sort of shared sight. Not ideal, but effectively the same as playing on an actual tabletop.

Check my profile and select threads I've created. At work and on my phone or I would link it.

Here's that script: <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/3472238/script-face2face-dynamic-lighting-helper/?pageforid=3472238#post-3472238" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/3472238/script-face2face-dynamic-lighting-helper/?pageforid=3472238#post-3472238</a>

Just a warning, the script REMOVES players from the Can be Edited & Controlled By &nbsp;part of the character sheet. I don't suggest using that script if any players access Roll20 during the game to use that character sheet. You could create a "dummy" sheet that contains just their default token with dynamic light settings on it though.

Thanks guys, these look awesome. I'm too new to understand the scripts, though. I'm sure I'll pick that up later. Question: I planned to only use my macbook for this. I have an Apple TV hooked up to my TV in the living room so I can extend my desktop to essentially have a 2nd monitor. Can I have my GM account logged into Chrome on my laptop screen and then the player 'dummy' account logged into Firefox and put the firefox browser on the TV? Would that work?

Valente said: Thanks guys, these look awesome. I'm too new to understand the scripts, though. I'm sure I'll pick that up later. Question: I planned to only use my macbook for this. I have an Apple TV hooked up to my TV in the living room so I can extend my desktop to essentially have a 2nd monitor. Can I have my GM account logged into Chrome on my laptop screen and then the player 'dummy' account logged into Firefox and put the firefox browser on the TV? Would that work? Should work fine. &nbsp;I setup 2 laptops on the dinning room table when we play. &nbsp;One for the DM and another for the players. &nbsp;We really just use roll20 in this way to show maps, handouts, images, etc. so character/token site doesn't really play a factor for us. &nbsp;Works out as a nice supplement for our real-life gaming.

Thanks, and sorry one more question: will I only need 1 dummy 'player' account logged in even though I have 4 players? Or do I need to log in a dummy account for each player and connect them to the game?

Thanks for the script! &nbsp;I'll check it out. The way I do it is just a single dummy account logged in. &nbsp;I set up the character sheets so that the dummy account controls all the player tokens. Here, I've already set up all the character sheets so the player Jason M. shares control with my dummy account, Joe D. This is what the players see on the TV with another computer logged in as Joe D.: Like I mentioned earlier, they all share sight, so we do a little hand waving when it comes to what they individually see and who has darkvison, etc. They're all good role-players, so it works out. When I'm limited to running on one laptop, I use chrome with two browser windows open; one set up for my google account, then I just 'switch person' or make a new incognito window to log into roll20 with the other account.

Valente said: Thanks guys, these look awesome. I'm too new to understand the scripts, though. I'm sure I'll pick that up later. Question: I planned to only use my macbook for this. I have an Apple TV hooked up to my TV in the living room so I can extend my desktop to essentially have a 2nd monitor. Can I have my GM account logged into Chrome on my laptop screen and then the player 'dummy' account logged into Firefox and put the firefox browser on the TV? Would that work? You can even have both accounts logged in on chrome (via incognito mode or some such) or use just the one account and have two tabs/windows open with the gm account in it (one in standard gm view, the other you click on the "join as player" button under settings). Thanks, and sorry one more question: will I only need 1 dummy 'player' account logged in even though I have 4 players? Or do I need to log in a dummy account for each player and connect them to the game? As long as the dummy account (or gm in player view) has control of all the relevant characters/tokens, you only need one account. You can also acheive this by just setting all PC related things to be controlled/edited by "all". EDIT: Just remembered (thanks to a post I just saw in the bug report forum) that things like pings, ruler, etc. will not show up on the other screen if you are logged in with the same account on both screens.

Well... the script requires a Pro subscription and it only just needs one dummy account. The script removes Edit/Control on all character sheets except the one at the top of the turn order, if the token at the top is one of the character sheets listed in the script. On other turns, it returns control to all the sheets, so players can see stuff happening on npc turns and such. Otherwise they'd be staring at a black screen on npc turns.

You guys have been a great help, thanks! Can't wait to set this all up and bring my group to it!

Hi Guys, I'm going to be upgrading my Roll20 account to get dynamic lighting. It's only my GM account that needs this for the players to benefit, right? Or does each player account need to be upgraded too?

Valente said: It's only my GM account that needs this for the players to benefit, right? Correct. For more information, check out: <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Dynamic_Lighting" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Dynamic_Lighting</a>

Valente said: Hi Guys, I'm going to be upgrading my Roll20 account to get dynamic lighting. It's only my GM account that needs this for the players to benefit, right? Or does each player account need to be upgraded too? &nbsp;More accurately; the games creator &nbsp;must have the upgraded account. Just in case you're gming a game someone else setup.

Valente, I just noticed this thread and wanted to add a quick note. I had a similar question when I first started playing Roll20. Here is the thread: Roll20 Face to Face Question and Call for Suggestions You might want to skim through that to get some additional details. Specifically, I received a lot of detailed feedback from other users about the pros and cons of having the DM control what the players see or having a separate laptop over which the players have full control. Also, my original vision was that I would have a DM account and then we would have another Player account that was used on the second laptop. Within the Player account there would be one character sheet that would basically be used to allow the players to move their tokens around, manage inventory, etc. Alan H. dubbed that the "Quartermaster" character. I received some extremely valuable input that helped me to understand why it was better to create Characters in the Journal even if I did not make full-blown character sheets for each of them. I'm dredging all of this up because I know that Roll20 can be overwhelming when you are first starting out, and unfortunately that is the time that you need to set down a solid foundation because you are probably going to be playing with those characters for awhile, and the longer you play the harder it gets to make changes just due to the shear amount of data that you can generate! For instance, I have just spent a few weeks upgrading the mechanics in my campaign and that resulted in me having to add almost 30 Attributes and multiple Abilities to the almost 150 monsters and NPC's that I have active in my campaign. Thank the gods for The Aaron and the other scriptomancers who have created API scripts that enable mass updating of Journal entries! So based on that bit of information, I have one piece of advice to offer you: take the time upfront to really learn and understand the jargon surrounding the Roll20 mechanics!!! I have been using Roll20 for well over a year, and when I sat down to do my big campaign update I found that I had to relearn a bunch of terms in order to figure out how to utilize the API scripts. For instance, in my ramblings above I mentioned Character entries in the Journal versus Character Sheets. It sounds like those are similar things, but they could not be more different!!! Other terms to watch out for: Scripts versus macros Attributes versus Abilities Rollable Tables versus Card Decks (more similar than you might think!) Speaking of Rollable Tables: multi-sided tokens (really awesome when you get your head wrapped around them) Inline rolls (and the mechanics associated with them) Roll Queries (and their mechanics) I hope that you find some or all of this helpful. The good news is that the Roll20 community is awesome and they are always ready to help out with advice and suggestions whenever you might need it!

John - many thanks!

John C. said: Thank the gods for The Aaron and the other scriptomancers who have created API scripts that enable mass updating of Journal entries! ... The good news is that the Roll20 community is awesome and they are always ready to help out with advice and suggestions whenever you might need it! You're welcome John! &nbsp;Sorry I missed that comment a month ago. &nbsp;Let me know if you need any help with that conversion, I've got a few scripts you might find useful... And I second the helpful community. &nbsp;There are many people just waiting for questions to pop up so they can answer them. =D