I want to start using Roll20, but I hesitate with concerns about prep time. Is the set up a pain and about how long does it typically take you before a nights game?
It depends what you want to do with it. If you don't want/need maps you can use it as a shared dice-roller and use it to easily show handouts and such.
I do maps and tokens for dungeon-crawling, so depending on what I'm prepping, it can take a bit more time.
One simple way to do it if you don't need tactical combat is to make a page with a nice evocative background image for each location your players might visit.
I should really make up a tutorial for how I use it.
Roll20 is awesome because: 1. It scales to your needs. At its simplest it is a shared whiteboard with a shared dice roller. Think of it as a virtual piece of graph paper and pencils and bag of dice. You can add in maps that you drag and drop from any JPEG of PNG type file, tokens to represent characters, macros, dynamic lighting, etc. But you don't have to, which is the best part of these features! 2. It is web-based, which minimizes connection/version/general IT connectivity issues. Once you have the link it is just always there and stays that way indefinitely. No having to save a file to come back to the game next week, just click the link. 3. It is integrated with Hangouts so you can see all of your friends faces when you drop that Dragon token on the board!
Where did it all go wrong, Casey? I can’t pinpoint it, but it was already too late when they remade 3:10 to Yuma and took a movie that was mostly two men talking about morality in a hotel room and put in a Gatling gun.
This is my gaming circle minus my ACKS players. I am such an asshole. Since they're in the big city now, the players really wanted to know if there were any magic weapons for sale. ACKS ain't 3e or 4e though. There is exactly one magic weapon for sale. I rolled randomly to see what it was and... ...it's a cursed -2 sword. So I told the players there's a weapons dealer/fence who's looking to get rid of a magic sword he's gotten ahold of...cheap. Only 6,000gp when usually a +1 item would be 10,000gp. So far they are not suspicious. They're going to be so pissed at me. I can barely contain my excitement.
+10 for using Morgan. :)
ReplyDeleteBill Willingham is one of my favorites. She was a henchie in the party for a bit.
ReplyDeleteYou're doing stuff in roll20, Casey? No mas irc?
ReplyDeleteI do all my gaming in roll20 these days.
ReplyDeleteIn-person gaming is a special treat.
ReplyDeleteI want to start using Roll20, but I hesitate with concerns about prep time. Is the set up a pain and about how long does it typically take you before a nights game?
ReplyDeleteIt depends what you want to do with it. If you don't want/need maps you can use it as a shared dice-roller and use it to easily show handouts and such.
ReplyDeleteI do maps and tokens for dungeon-crawling, so depending on what I'm prepping, it can take a bit more time.
One simple way to do it if you don't need tactical combat is to make a page with a nice evocative background image for each location your players might visit.
I should really make up a tutorial for how I use it.
Roll20 is awesome because:
ReplyDelete1. It scales to your needs. At its simplest it is a shared whiteboard with a shared dice roller. Think of it as a virtual piece of graph paper and pencils and bag of dice. You can add in maps that you drag and drop from any JPEG of PNG type file, tokens to represent characters, macros, dynamic lighting, etc. But you don't have to, which is the best part of these features!
2. It is web-based, which minimizes connection/version/general IT connectivity issues. Once you have the link it is just always there and stays that way indefinitely. No having to save a file to come back to the game next week, just click the link.
3. It is integrated with Hangouts so you can see all of your friends faces when you drop that Dragon token on the board!