Need Help running adventure with a Rotating Map

The module my group will be going through next has a level in which there is a round, single central chamber, with 8 equally spaced doors leading to equally sized round siderooms. The thing is, there is a mechanic that causes the 'ring' of side rooms to 'rotate' around the central chamber from time to time (why isn't really important, I don't think?).  When they move, they all move together as a 'ring' of rooms.  The ring can 'shift' anywhere from one spot to the one immediately adjacent, to all the way around, or anything in between And, of course, when the rooms move, they take their contents with them, so if a PC happens to be IN one when it rotates, the PC goes with it. Tips on how to gracefully handle this in Roll20 are GREATLY appreciated!

Are the player's aware of the rotation?  There probably isn't a graceful way to handle this without an API script, which would require a Pro subscription.

They aren't aware, at first, no.  When the movement begins, steel doors slam shut over the entrance to each side room, then they move accompanied by a massive grinding noise.  The module doesn't say either way whether you can feel the movement while in the room, but I'd give them clues like "the room is shaking, your footing is unsteady' and so forth.  They'll figure it out quickly, I'd guess.

If it takes a pro sub to smoothly manage, I'll do it, but I don't know the first thing about API scripting on roll20

There are a couple of ways you could handle it, but the easiest would be to have each room mapped separately from the main room.  When they are in the main room, move them to that maps page.  If the room rotates while they are in the room, when they exit, you could put their tokens in the correct location on the main map.

Yeah.  With the API, I'd probably use the teleport script to provide the actually movement between the side rooms and main room, then use some TokenMod macros to move the destinations in the main room to account for the rotation.  That wouldn't give any visual indication that anything had changed, but moving their tokens into the "door" would put them in the new location on the main room.  I've used similar techniques for some confusing hallways.   They'd still know they came back into the room from another angle, but with a sufficient distance between the side rooms and the main room, they'd be unsure if the room they've returned to is the same room or a new one.

I would "simulate" this. Finderski's recommendation is good.  (The Aaron also came up with a cool alternative method using Teleport API script). I would usually NOT try to rotate/move so many things on a map, so many times (each time it rotates).  Instead I would recommend any method where the actual maps stay in-place but you move just the Tokens from room to room. Whether this is putting all the rooms on 1 "Page" of Roll20, separated by Fog of War or Dynamic Light walls; or putting each room on its own page like Finderski suggests. As the GM, possibly a hand-drawn piece of paper at your desk, would help to keep track of which-room is at 12 o'clock (Currently Room A, a minute ago it was room G), which room is at 3 o'clock, on the circle. I would not upgrade to PRO and try writing an API for this. If you go PRO there are a lot of existing API scripts to play-around-with before getting into making a custom API script that isn't already written by someone else.  Only take this route if you have plenty of time to develop (get developer) for your custom script. Roll20 has the Rotate feature for graphics, but that's not very practical for this application. It wouldn't move the furniture/objects/tokens/PC's. People have done rotating rooms in Roll20 before, including ones where the underlying Map is actually graphically rotated on the screen. The one example I can think of has the Central room (the hub) rotating, while the outer rooms remain stationary. This is an easier set-up because you're only trying to rotate the center tile, rather than orbiting a bunch of rooms around. Can you envision any way of having the Central room rotate instead of the outer rooms?

Here there is something in the center of the room and a visible ring on the outside, you could also create a double-layered map.  Meaning, the center with the ring as to different images.  Put them both on the map layer, and then rotate the center ring, then when the players exit the room, the center would look "off", because the orientation would be different.  Then you wouldn't even need APIs--I set up each map with the players tokens already, that way I just have to move the ribbon, then when you move the ribbon back their tokens are where they were before you moved them to the room map, but the center orientation is different.

Ultimately, the relationship of the outer ring to the center IS what changes, so effectively rotating the center chamber would work just as well.  I have no problem with that, if it makes running this easier! I know my players pretty well, and I can virtually guarantee they'll 'split' up and end up trapped in side rooms after a rotation (the doors to them can't be opened without the right key, and the door doesnt' travel with the room...) I think I'll try rotating the central room.  the map orientation will get 'wonky' for that tile, but it seems easy enough.   Anyway to force the player tokens to 'stick' to the map when I rotate it?

If you put them on the outer ring, they should stick there, since you're only rotating the inner chamber.  So, put their tokens the door on the outer ring...

Right, sure.  I guess I'm wondering about the inevitable PCs who refuse to go into the side room (out of .. *cough* caution) and are in the central chamber when I rotate it.  There are also a few 'furniture' items in the center as well, but I can merge those into the base map, so they will rotate automagically. Unless I misunderstood what you meant?

You could leave the rotating chamber stationary and rotate the rest of the map...

David T. said: You could leave the rotating chamber stationary and rotate the rest of the map... Problem seems to be that, either way, part of the map rotates, and the tokens for the people inside don't go with it when it does. So far, rotating the central chamber seems easier to pull off, since there are far fewer ancillary bits and pieces (the contents of the 8 ring rooms) to worry about.

You could put the furniture on the map layer and group them with the central chamber.  Then rotating one should, I think, rotate them all.  The character tokens may just need to be moved manually after that...

Right!  Grouping!  perfect. Handling the realignment of a few player tokens is trivial by comparison. Ok, I think I'm good! If more ideas present, I'll be glad of them, but I'll try moving forward with what I've got so far.   thanks a ton.

Grouped rotating is fairly wonky, fair warning, especially if the Grid is turned on (grid snapping). Individual objects in the group like to sometimes shift-around. It's a start but you may have to make manual adjustments by-hand after group rotating. Your earlier idea of merging most of the furniture into the map tile, is good.

I do have grid snapping turned on.  I think I can handle adjusting a few player tokens. Thanks for the warning!

Just wanting to add in - Rollable tokens! It's how the changing rooms in modules such as Tomb of Annihilation are handled in app. Make a few different versions of the rooms in rotated states and then you can make the whole map one big rollable token :)