HYPERBOREA / Roll20 Online Gaming Tools

**Posted by Chainsaw** 7/15/2018 5:14 pm

Please share your Roll20 experiences, advice and tips here, my friends. I plan to restart my online game, but this time using Roll20 (paired with Discord for audio) rather than G+. Based on what I have seen and heard, Roll20 seems like it could be a great resource to connect folks who may not live within convenient driving distance. Any feedback from your experiences would be a great help to the AS&SH community.

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 7/15/2018 11:33 pm

Someone has created a Hyperborea character sheet that is in the official repo.

You can set you campaign to use it. Under Settings -> Game Settings.

Look for Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea.

I think I dumped most of my tips and tricks in one of the other Roll20 threads.

**Posted by Chainsaw** 7/16/2018 7:00 pm

gizmomathboy wrote:
Someone has created a Hyperborea character sheet that is in the official repo.

Pretty sure that was under_score. Apparently the only way to get AS&SH added to the drop down menu is by reaching a critical mass of users of the AS&SN character sheet. So, assuming that is true, anyone with the expertise to help make it as good as possible should do so.

gizmomathboy wrote:
You can set you campaign to use it. Under Settings -> Game Settings.

Look for Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea.

Thanks!

gizmomathboy wrote:
I think I dumped most of my tips and tricks in one of the other Roll20 threads.

I'll have to hunt those down so we can consolidate all of the info in one spot.

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 7/16/2018 7:24 pm

Hmm, I did a quick search and it seems I didn't post the stuff here but over at the Alehouse.

http://knights-n-knaves.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10240

I'll have to ponder about what to add to it since I've changed how I do things a tiny bit and of course learned to do some stuff as well.

I'll also take a quick look into the roll20 forums to see if there is anything of value to be had there or not.

**Posted by Chainsaw** 7/16/2018 8:11 pm

Thanks for the link!

I'm not really in need of super fancy results, to be honest. Our group made do with G+'s crappy doodle pad for a long time - simply moving to a whiteboard *grid* that didn't lag and randomly break would be a major upgrade. I can draw rough maps fast enough that it doesn't bog down the game, so that's not really a concern either.

Uploading professional maps and doing fog of war seems tempting, but then again, a lot of maps have data on them, like room numbers, pictures and notes. I would have to prep them and I'm not sure it's worth the time just for a fog of war effect (even if it's cool). Once I learn the tools better, maybe that will change. We'll see!

**Posted by Jimm.Iblis** 7/16/2018 8:25 pm

Underscore did in fact construct the AS+SH sheet. I played for a bit in his Roll20 game and man I wish that hadn't ended. If you have become an oiled machine running tabletop Chains, it is a whole new environment in Roll20! Like you, we use Discord for Audio and pass on video. At first, I thought this would be a bigger deal than it was, but you get to know player's voices pretty well. Video just causes too much lag, unfortunately; but props to Discord, their recent upgrades make the voices loud and crystal clear. I've been listening to podcasts of Critical Roll to absorb how their very gifted referee uses voices and tone to grab attention and control the pace.
I don't use a battlemap except for rare set piece encounters and "boss fights" where terrain is an issue. You need to set those up ahead of time though; and if you're sandboxing it, might not get to use it for what you made it for. As most combat is "theater of the mind" (still hate that pretentious storygame phrase grr), the best use for player tokens is to keep a visual reminder who's present (you can even line them up to their player avatars!), who's carrying light, and track things like marching order. The other good use of the tabletop is die rolls, and definitely try to use dynamic dice if your machine can handle it.
Another useful feature is that the referee and players need not be on the same "page" as the referee in respect to the program. When exploring, I keep the player view on a page that's just a parchment background. They can use the drawing tools to map on it. If they need more space or another page, its easy to just duplicate or enlarge it for them. My own view is on my own notes and stuff. I try to resist looking at what they are drawing on the map because I'm tempted to kibitz.
Last suggestion I can offer is to set up an organized journal for your players with all the charts and rules you think they'll have questions about. If you do that right, you can train them to use it to look things up for themselves rather than ask you. It is hard enough to keep engagement in the game world while you are online so anything to minimize shop-talk is your friend. Also use the journal for in-game handouts. I don't often struggle for words, but you know what they say about pictures. I like to collect pics of landscapes, caverns, old forts... Anything in the environment you want to show, that is so especially complex where words won't do, you can put in the journal, hide, and reveal as needed.

**Posted by Jimm.Iblis** 7/16/2018 8:43 pm

Real talk: need any players?? I have a wide-open schedule.

**Posted by Chainsaw** 7/17/2018 5:09 am

Very helpful, Jimm! Appreciate your taking the time to write up your thoughts.

Let me get back to you on joining. Right now we have enough, but once I learn the system better, I may feel comfortable adding more (or starting a second group). Thanks!

**Posted by BlackKnight** 7/17/2018 9:32 am

Jimm.Iblis wrote:
Real talk: need any players?? I have a wide-open schedule.

Looking for a game myself, Jeff and the other KONTs (Knights of Next Tuesday) are just a bit to far from my house/work to get there any more...

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 7/17/2018 12:50 pm

I put my maps in the GM layer and then draw on top of them in the token/object layer. Mostly so I don't have to file off room numbers and such, no go through the pain of having stuff like secret doors and the like be in the gm layer and then expose them. It's kinda somewhere between what you are doing Chainsaw and the fog of war and having the map in the map layer.

I'm a very lazy man at heart so I try not to make too much work for myself.

**Posted by under_score** 7/20/2018 6:55 pm

I've kind of ducked out of the forums lately. Life's been pretty busy with a job change and cramming to finish my MBA. Seeing the last couple updates on the Beasts and Cannibals kickstarter has me excited to return to AS&SH though.
Anyone using the AS&SH character sheet on Roll20, it's a long way from perfect, but probably better than using a pdf for online play. If you find something that bugs you about it, let me know and I'll try to get it fixed as soon as I can.
I have a Roll20 AS&SH game that has a lot of stuff built in it. All the character classes tables, equipment tables, a bunch of monsters and spells, and a dozen or so macros setup. If you're planning to run a game on Roll20 and would like to copy my resources, let me know and I'll setup a time to transfer them to you. I'd love to see more AS&SH played on Roll20, so anything I can do to help get that going.

**Posted by Chainsaw** 7/21/2018 7:03 am

Thanks under_score. I will definitely lean on your expertise at first and then others can lean on us both. Force multipliers!

**Posted by WebwayDrifter** 9/12/2018 10:33 pm

under_score wrote:
I've kind of ducked out of the forums lately. Life's been pretty busy with a job change and cramming to finish my MBA. Seeing the last couple updates on the Beasts and Cannibals kickstarter has me excited to return to AS&SH though.
Anyone using the AS&SH character sheet on Roll20, it's a long way from perfect, but probably better than using a pdf for online play. If you find something that bugs you about it, let me know and I'll try to get it fixed as soon as I can.
I have a Roll20 AS&SH game that has a lot of stuff built in it. All the character classes tables, equipment tables, a bunch of monsters and spells, and a dozen or so macros setup. If you're planning to run a game on Roll20 and would like to copy my resources, let me know and I'll setup a time to transfer them to you. I'd love to see more AS&SH played on Roll20, so anything I can do to help get that going.

Hope that MBA finished up strong!! Best of luck if you're still working on it!

This has been awesome for our group by the way!! Much appreciated for putting this character sheet on there as we just merged into Roll20 as a few players have left town or otherwise wanted to stay involved. It's been great as I have a tv now setup in our game space where I can stream the 'players' screen on the tv with a table view webcam, while still having the dm view on my laptop (also with a separate webcam). Luckily my laptop/internet are beefy enough to handle streaming both. DM on Chrome and Player screen on Firefox at the same time Audio with a omni directional mic around for the table to output, and the tv audio speakers for remote sound coming in (which conveniently doesn't echo). I would LOVE to get some of your other Roll20 content if possible.

The only items we noticed on the character sheet as of yet, would be to put dice roll icons next to each saving throw, not just the main saving throw heading, so that if you roll a 'death' save, it takes into account any mods, etc.

I was actually shocked that this was on there when we started gearing up for this, but it's been awesome. The roll20 video, while small, is large enough on my tv, and can just get the idea of the player that's remoting in, depending on their webcam, but the lag isn't there as the resolution on roll20, and the web browser compression seems to handle it great! I'll definitely try out discord for audio for fun, but the roll20 audio has been pretty surprisingly stable as well, all while on wireless actually.

**Posted by under_score** 9/13/2018 8:15 pm

Hey Drifer, thanks for the kind wishes. Still working on the MBA - graduating in the spring, but I feel like I'm over the hard part.

It's great to hear other people are using the Roll20 sheet. The individual saving throw button has been suggested before and would be an easy fix, I just need to set aside a couple hours to get it done.
If you want to look at the other AS&SH content I've got, send me your email and I'll add you to a copy of the game I made for Chains and you can check it out.

**Posted by Chainsaw** 9/25/2018 8:38 pm

So, I have been messing around with Roll20 for a few hours over the past few days and I'm reasonably impressed with what it offers. Should be pretty good for what I have in mind for my game. With some context, I'm also better to appreciate the comments below - which make a ton of sense now. I'm not sure if I'll draw via overlay or make the players do it on their map, likely a mix depending on the situation. Thanks again everyone, especially under_score, who very patiently walked me through some of the basics (and I mean basics, like barely one step above "How do I turn on this computer again?).

Jimm.Iblis wrote:
Another useful feature is that the referee and players need not be on the same "page" as the referee in respect to the program. When exploring, I keep the player view on a page that's just a parchment background. They can use the drawing tools to map on it. If they need more space or another page, its easy to just duplicate or enlarge it for them. My own view is on my own notes and stuff. I try to resist looking at what they are drawing on the map because I'm tempted to kibitz.

Jimm.Iblis wrote:
Also use the journal for in-game handouts. I don't often struggle for words, but you know what they say about pictures. I like to collect pics of landscapes, caverns, old forts... Anything in the environment you want to show, that is so especially complex where words won't do, you can put in the journal, hide, and reveal as needed.

gizmomathboy wrote:
I put my maps in the GM layer and then draw on top of them in the token/object layer. Mostly so I don't have to file off room numbers and such, no go through the pain of having stuff like secret doors and the like be in the gm layer and then expose them. It's kinda somewhere between what you are doing Chainsaw and the fog of war and having the map in the map layer.

**Posted by Brock Savage** 9/26/2018 1:13 am

under_score wrote:
If you're planning to run a game on Roll20 and would like to copy my resources, let me know and I'll setup a time to transfer them to you. I'd love to see more AS&SH played on Roll20, so anything I can do to help get that going.

You are doing God's work, good sir. Thanks again for the calendar spreadsheet.

**Posted by under_score** 9/26/2018 7:40 pm

Happy to help.
Chains asked about a scaled version of the Hyperborea map. This is the highest quality that I could come up with within the 10MB filesize limit for Roll20: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZwPYTqshRw0k_JGcebyibgXeU8id0j42

**Posted by Chainsaw** 9/26/2018 8:48 pm

under_score wrote:
Chains asked about a scaled version of the Hyperborea map. This is the highest quality that I could come up with within the 10MB filesize limit for Roll20: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZwPYTqshRw0k_JGcebyibgXeU8id0j42

This one loads into Roll20 really well and works great as a full-world map (thanks again!). For color regional close-ups, like the one I'm doing of Xambaala to complement the black/white hex map, I literally took a picture of the real life color map with my iPhone X and uploaded that pic (3.2MB). I could zoom in surprisingly close with zero distortions or pixellation.

**Posted by Chainsaw** 10/04/2018 8:13 pm

Is there a way to put two tokens size by side in the same square? I'm kind of lazy and would rather use ten-foot squares that match my map than use five-foot squares and convert the whole time. I'm hoping this is an easy setting adjustment?

**Posted by under_score** 10/04/2018 8:21 pm

Not if you have the grid turned on. The grid will automatically size your tokens to the grid square, so multiple tokens in one square will stack rather than sit side by side.