# Roll20 tips
**URL:** https://cog.discourse.group/t/roll20-tips/1781
**Category:** gaming
**Created:** [April 11, 2020, 8:03pm UTC](https://cog.discourse.group/t/roll20-tips/1781 "2020-04-11T20:03:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@TechnoMistress](https://cog.discourse.group/u/TechnoMistress)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2020, 8:16pm UTC](https://cog.discourse.group/t/roll20-tips/1781/21 "2020-04-15T20:16:29Z")
> [@balance](#):
>
> Tokens for monsters might be minimal-ish.
Yup. Our DM’s been able to create new ones on the fly as needed pretty quickly.
---
### Author:  [@Woodman](https://cog.discourse.group/u/Woodman)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2020, 11:08pm UTC](https://cog.discourse.group/t/roll20-tips/1781/22 "2020-04-15T23:08:39Z")
Considering my last savage worlds game had the players get attacked with pennies it can’t be that bad.
I have piles of minis but sometimes it’s not worth the effort.
---
### Author:  [@Viking](https://cog.discourse.group/u/Viking)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2020, 1:07pm UTC](https://cog.discourse.group/t/roll20-tips/1781/23 "2020-04-17T13:07:24Z")
> [@balance](#):
>
> Are you in one of the time zones that’s pretty off from mine? (I’m in the US, Eastern Time Zone, GMT -4)
Yeah, I’m cruising at GMT+10, AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time). Which makes things a bit interesting for chatting with the State-side crew.
One thing that did work well for us in our test session was for the person drawing the map to share their screen and use Zoom’s whiteboard feature to draw the map as we explored. (And yes, it was the square-grid with 10 feet per square. 🙂 ) I’m tempted to stick with that for the moment, and experiment with Roll20 in the background.
Hmmm… I could even share the screen of my Roll20 session over Zoom - once I have all the map drawn.
Ideas, ideas and more ideas…
---
### Author:  [@balance](https://cog.discourse.group/u/balance)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2020, 3:44pm UTC](https://cog.discourse.group/t/roll20-tips/1781/24 "2020-04-17T15:44:21Z")
If you ever want to try something, hours might work out if I’m online early. During the crisis I’m usually getting my butt in gear around 8:00 AM, which is merely late at night your time (I think). If you want to join the Discord I’m on and can give you my 2 cents on stuff.
> [@Viking](#):
>
> Hmmm… I could even share the screen of my Roll20 session over Zoom - once I have all the map drawn.
That seems kind of bass-backwards, if you don’t mind me saying so. Roll20’s _good_ at being a shared ‘whiteboard’ and arguably better than Zoom for the domain-specific case of RPGs.
I think some people do use software like [OBS](https://obsproject.com) as a ‘composer’ to integrate video for streaming including Roll20 output. I _think_ on podcast I listen to ([Total Party Kill](https://www.theincomparable.com/tpk/)) does something like this: Their website shows a possible sample.I only listen to the audio version, though.
I’m guessing from AD&D and what you describe you’re running in the ‘old school’ style of the GM describing and players mapping? I feel like most use Roll20 as more of a setup where the GM sets up maps in advance and reveals as players explore.
---
### Author:  [@Viking](https://cog.discourse.group/u/Viking)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2020, 7:13am UTC](https://cog.discourse.group/t/roll20-tips/1781/25 "2020-04-19T07:13:42Z")
> [@balance](#):
>
> That seems kind of bass-backwards, if you don’t mind me saying so.
Nope, don’t mind at all. Getting all this straight within my head, and then trying to make it work with my group isn’t all that straight forward. The other problem I potentially have is the number of players allowed by a Roll20 free account - I have more players than allowed, and I don’t want to be paying up for a ‘Pro’ Roll20 account that I’m not going to get any use out of.
> [@balance](#):
>
> I’m guessing from AD&D and what you describe you’re running in the ‘old school’ style of the GM describing and players mapping?
+laugh+ Yeah, spot on. Been doing it this way since I started playing back in the 80s. My group has always been ‘old school’ about doing things. Hell, using Zoom to communicate was a quantum leap.
> [@balance](#):
>
> I feel like most use Roll20 as more of a setup where the GM sets up maps in advance and reveals as players explore.
That’s what I’d like to end up doing. It depends on how much work I want to put into building everything in Roll20 vs doing it old school. And what I have in mind is a suitably large adventure that using Roll20 vs pen-n-paper to build it works out about the same… Or at least, I think it will…
---
### Author:  [@balance](https://cog.discourse.group/u/balance)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2020, 7:27pm UTC](https://cog.discourse.group/t/roll20-tips/1781/26 "2020-05-13T19:27:56Z")
We’re having our third Roll20 session and we’re slowly getting the hang of it: I’m using maps which are _not_ designed for ‘Player use’ which is a definite minus. So I’m having to do some image editing to cover up the secret doors and ‘trap here’ marks. The plus side is the d20 variant we’re using (Dungeon Crawl Classics) is also fast-combat and relatively fine with what I think of as old-fashioned positioning. Even high-level characters don’t get a lot of really ‘finicky’ position-based stuff. So I’m only spending a little time getting the grid aligned.
One oddity of DCC is that there’s ‘0 Level play’ where players get a group of 2-4 PCs randomly generated. It’s fun in play: instead of taking out a highly customized warrior or wizard, you deal with your haberdasher who tried adventuring because they were bad at their job and maybe finds out they’re better off trying Magic for a while.
We initially did the 0 level play with a single ‘token’ because by the rules each player’s 0 levels act together (one initiative roll) but this causes issues especially if they have to break the group up. Next time (tomorrow!) we’ll try individual tokens and fudge the initiative. Maybe have each player designate a ‘captain’ for their crew. Only new players if they jump in will get level 0s at this point. (For the interested: You’ll get a crew of 0s while everyone else has slightly more capable Level 1s.)
The basic fog of war works well, and I like the features for handouts. I’m surprising everyone tomorrow (oops!) with a token pack I purchased so we don’t have to scrounge as much.
---
### Author:  [@Woodman](https://cog.discourse.group/u/Woodman)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2020, 1:40am UTC](https://cog.discourse.group/t/roll20-tips/1781/27 "2020-05-14T01:40:17Z")
It helps if you like starchy vegetables.
Kind of like potatoes, or rutabagas, or kohlrabi, maybe more radishy, but not so much.
---
### Author:  [@RoadRunner](https://cog.discourse.group/u/RoadRunner)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2020, 2:53pm UTC](https://cog.discourse.group/t/roll20-tips/1781/28 "2020-05-14T14:53:03Z")
I love me some taters!
[Previous page](https://cog.discourse.group/t/roll20-tips/1781.md?page=1)