Advice For A New To Roll20 GM Who Has Only Done Theater Of The Mind?

I have GM'd off and on for years and been a player even longer in various systems.  I have been hoping to get into GM'ing on roll20 for a while and have players interested in it (really they were the ones that pointed me here), however my issue comes from the fact I have only played or GM'd theater of the mind style.  The resources I have looked at all make assumptions about things I don't seem to know so what is the best resource for a beginner that is such a beginner that the idea of layers and macros are only vague concepts from legend. I am sure this is a common (well maybe not) question but any help is appreciated, Thanks!

For theater of the mind play you don't really need much. You can ignore macros and all that stuff for now. Roll20 for you should basically just be character sheets, rolling, and maybe handouts if you want to show images. So just focus on those things. If you're looking to move to a more battlemap focused game, then you can move on to learning about the tabletop. A good place to start is roll20's tutorial videos, the first one is here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BGGr97qJdY" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BGGr97qJdY</a> Make yourself a game and experiment a little, it's the best way to learn.

Hi NoFx, totally agree with Spren's comments.&nbsp; The cool thing with roll20 is that you can start with just a simple game using only voice/video/chat and expand as needed.&nbsp; Want to make some rolls?&nbsp; Use the dice roller (include some optional 3d dice...) or type a simple roll in the chat window ie "/r 1d20".&nbsp; &nbsp;Want to show some images to the players or play a little ambient music for atmosphere?&nbsp; Roll20 can do that.&nbsp; Need a map, tokens, text handout, character sheet, etc.&nbsp; Lot's of options on roll20.&nbsp; Cheers

Oh I do love theater of the mind and will hopefully use roll 20 for that in the future.&nbsp; My focus is and what the players I play with would like is more battle map hands on focused and thank you Spren for that video I will check it out and Vince I very much appreciate all that roll20 can do and am looking forward to it the high hurdle for me at the moment is the how to do thinks.&nbsp; Thank you for the comments.&nbsp;

There's this tip from the Stupid Tricks thread:&nbsp; Quick and Dirty Slide Show and Image Display Basically, keep images of locations sized down and hidden by regular fog of war. Use Shift-Z to reveal them to players so they have something to look at and set the tone during theater of the mind stretches.

I'd start by pulling the group together to roll up characters and do the simplest sort of scenario (a fight breaks out in a tavern!). This will give all of you a chance to learn where the essential Roll20 buttons are, and you will get the basics down for running through an encounter as the GM (processing turns, rolling monsters, using the chat, etc). If you can figure out how to play through an encounter, you will know all you need to get going-- then level up your Roll20 knowledge as you go. You can grab an image of a map online, or simply draw it on the table top. Then afterwards, your group can talk through stuff.

Just had to post since you're a NoFx fan lol. Really, just play. Pick it up as you go. If your players are used to ToM, they will be too caught up learning/loving the character sheets. Gives you plenty of time to settle in. Just get what you need for each night, and learn from there. Learning to resize maps perfectly can be a pain, but roll20 makes it so much easier to do than other vtts I've used over the years . At some point check out the macro pages and dice formula. That will help you automate a ton of stuff in the end. Can do stuff like make a button to list all the loot off a token, and roll variables like go when you do. Once you've got a few sessions under your belt, and have gotten the hang of things, consider subscribing. Not a requirement, but you get some nice QoL improvements. You'll eat up the free space quickly if you upload a lot of maps/portraits.

Dip your toes in slowly and acclimate first. Run T.O.M., introduce a couple of pictures, drop a crude drawing of a scene. Slowly add in the heavy duty VTT as you go along. It was a different site when I started, but I was totally flummoxed by the handful of bells and whistles 7 years ago. Now you have a full orchestra, if you try to go all in full potato, you will get frustrated, overwhelmed and probably take up something simple, like quantum physics. Look at You Tube videos by Nick Olivio, &amp; Grason Jobsent, many of them are more advanced than you need to get, but they are both easy enough to understand. Read the Forums! &nbsp;Like everything else in the world they are mostly filler, but there are some great ideas in here from time to time. Ask questions! &nbsp;There are stupid questions, and even stupider answers, but it is the best way to solve an issue. People on the forums compete to answer questions.