Background: I picked up the PHB over a year ago and realized very quickly I had missed out on something remarkable as a teenager. Eager to catch up, I spent my time reading every D&D source book I could acquire familiarizing myself with the lore of the world. Eventually I purchased both the Starter and Essential kits before I had anyone who wanted play in those settings and now, I have seven players taking their first steps into the jungles of Chult. As I lead them through Tomb of Annihilation, (despite all my own time invested into reading story and monster lore), I have probably less than 40 hours total game time experience as a dungeon master. I am a firm believer in practice makes perfect, so with time I know I will get better at running the game for my players. However, I am not satisfied with running a mediocre game until then, so I work extra hard for my players to ensure the next session is better than the last.
Problem: I host our games virtually over discord (as some players are out of state) every Sunday from 12:00 – 3:00 P.M. making use of a plethora of online resources such as roll20, donjon, the encounter builder, soundpad, and whatever else I feel is needed to ensure everyone has a good experience for each session. Adapting to the needs of my players, while trying to maintain a balance between using what I will call “addons” and what I have heard called the “theatre of the mind” - I am struggling with the improvisation of maps/distances when my players venture off into an unplanned scene. I allow my players to explore the world as I have a lot of flavorful temples, buildings, NPCs, etc., however as I plan for each session, I personally focus on the elements that will propel the story forward, while giving little time to the smaller details like the Temple of Gond. I know enough to get by, but when my player pushes deeper into the temple, I mentally feel like I hit a brick wall. I especially get flustered when my players start wanting to use their abilities with specific distances on areas, I don’t have a map for, and I don’t want to waste time “drawing” a map virtually. I was hoping some more experience DMs would have such advice and encouragement going forward with our campaign.
Hi there, I don't know if I want to call myself a vet, but I've been DMing for more than a year now and doing it entirely virtually.
My biggest suggestion would be to explore The Foundry / The Forge and see if that is something that you're able to move to. I bought The Foundry about two or three weeks ago and it takes about 1/4 of the time to set up a map than it did on Roll20. I am a huge and recent convert to The Foundry and I'm a lot less worried about my players venturing off into unexpected directions because it's a lot easier to put something together on that platform.
How much prep work is involved for map creation using these tools and are they user friendly? Some of the VTT apps I've seen seem to be very involved.
Also, I want to make mention that when I used roll20 for one of my sessions it felt more like a dungeon crawler rather than a story telling experience between my players and I. Do you have any suggestions on how to avoid that from occurring or maybe some enlightenment for me as to why my session turned out that way? For example, I had prepared a series of alleyways and sewers for my party to traverse through with an obvious path leading them to the next part of the adventure, but some of players became interested in exploring the side streets that were added as flavor to the scene. Not to discourage the players from venturing into the unknown, but as a DM do you (or anyone else following the thread) have suggestions on how to continue the story, while allowing that amount of freedom of movement?
Well, I will say that Roll20 took a lot of work to build maps. Foundry was much less time, I could do a full map with monsters, lighting and walls in an hour (and that was after only having the program for a week).
Regarding the exploration aspect, I think you always run that risk when you have a map. (I was going to write more but got caught up in something at work, can write more later)
I second the use of Foundry for a VTT. It does take a little work to get going, but once you get the hang of it, it is pretty easy to create things on the fly. I also create images with some automated effects, like snow/clouds/rain/etc. for those non-combat situations. I would imagine Roll20 can do the same, but cannot really recall.
I try to "modularize" encounters or situations that I can drop in whenever it's needed. Having prepared a few of these in advance allows for the session to flow while giving the players the sense of agency/control. I also have some generic battlemaps prepared, street/wilderness/building/etc. that can be used in a pinch, such as your going down an alley example.
I've found most players are pretty easy going with this kind of stuff, so don't beat yourself up too much. Your players are most likely just happy you're leading them on this cooperative story :)
Regarding exploration, you have a few options that come to mind.
You could always herd them back in the right direction, maybe they run into a street urchin that picks a pocket and runs off in the direction that you wanted the party to go in the first place. A clue that points them in the right direction or even use it as an opportunity to give them a side quest or an obscure shop for them to browse.
Another option is to let them explore and have the world happen around them. Maybe they lost an opportunity to get the thing in the sewer cause they spent too much time wandering around. When they realize they missed out on something, they'll be more likely to follow the bread crumbs next time.
You could also just make it very boring for them if they go off the beaten path, eventually they'll get the hint. I've broken the fourth wall for that in one instance. The went to an entirely unexpected place and when they got to the end of the street they found a blank wall with a sign on it, the sign read 'Sorry, the DM hasn't built this area yet, please come back another day.
There kind of needs to be a contract of sorts between the DM and the players. The DM creates a story for the players and the players live within that story. The players always have the chance to alter the story, but there are consequences. Sometimes those consequences for running their own story is that they miss an opportunity, a prisoner escapes, some other entity gets the magic thing and on and on. Sometimes the consequences are more real world related, such as an early end to the session. I've said this once, out of character, 'guys, here's the deal, you can go down this path, but I haven't prepped anything for it. Let's end a half hour early and I'll get something together for this path for our next session.
There is only so many contingencies that you can prepare for. Also, as you learn your players, you'll start to understand their motivations a little better. I've learned that I can't make any reference to an animal in captivity, if I do, guarantee, the rest of the session is going to be my characters trying to rescue the captive animal and free them.
I'm going to quote Pugnus wise words from the post above, "I've found most players are pretty easy going with this kind of stuff, so don't beat yourself up too much. Your players are most likely just happy you're leading them on this cooperative story :)" There is so much truth to that, players are generally so grateful that someone else is running a game, that they will cut you a lot of slack.
I'll leave you with one final story. When I first started this campaign, I had a huge long ranging arc planned out for the characters. One of the stops, very early on, involved a Kraken destroying the town that they were in, just to kind of give them a glimpse at the 20th level end game. A freaking kraken. So, ok, in my mind, a bunch of first level characters were going to run from the destruction or at worst hide and witness the destruction. . . no, no, the idiots decided that they were going to fight the freaking kraken. So, I ended the session a little early and then spent the next week figuring out how I was going to run a battle with a kraken and not do a TPK on the first level characters.
After rereading your original post, I have one more bit to add. It's always good to have a few generic battle maps prepared with grids. A generic temple, random city streets, a bog, what ever fits the general theme. You can load these up on most VTT's pretty quickly and then create the encounter, distances included, on the fly.
I second the use of Foundry for a VTT. It does take a little work to get going, but once you get the hang of it, it is pretty easy to create things on the fly. I also create images with some automated effects, like snow/clouds/rain/etc. for those non-combat situations. I would imagine Roll20 can do the same, but cannot really recall.
If I recall correctly, roll20 can be automated, but it wasn't very intuitive. I think you had to use APIs and/or other programming functions to get it work within the browser. I think I am convinced enough to pull the trigger on using Foundry as I played around with it earlier today from the players perspective and I felt like it could work for the "pre-programmed" encounters.
I try to "modularize" encounters or situations that I can drop in whenever it's needed. Having prepared a few of these in advance allows for the session to flow while giving the players the sense of agency/control. I also have some generic battlemaps prepared, street/wilderness/building/etc. that can be used in a pinch, such as your going down an alley example.
You could always herd them back in the right direction, maybe they run into a street urchin that picks a pocket and runs off in the direction that you wanted the party to go in the first place. A clue that points them in the right direction or even use it as an opportunity to give them a side quest or an obscure shop for them to browse.
Another option is to let them explore and have the world happen around them. Maybe they lost an opportunity to get the thing in the sewer cause they spent too much time wandering around. When they realize they missed out on something, they'll be more likely to follow the bread crumbs next time.
You could also just make it very boring for them if they go off the beaten path, eventually they'll get the hint. I've broken the fourth wall for that in one instance. The went to an entirely unexpected place and when they got to the end of the street they found a blank wall with a sign on it, the sign read 'Sorry, the DM hasn't built this area yet, please come back another day.
There kind of needs to be a contract of sorts between the DM and the players. The DM creates a story for the players and the players live within that story. The players always have the chance to alter the story, but there are consequences. Sometimes those consequences for running their own story is that they miss an opportunity, a prisoner escapes, some other entity gets the magic thing and on and on. Sometimes the consequences are more real world related, such as an early end to the session. I've said this once, out of character, 'guys, here's the deal, you can go down this path, but I haven't prepped anything for it. Let's end a half hour early and I'll get something together for this path for our next session.
There is only so many contingencies that you can prepare for. Also, as you learn your players, you'll start to understand their motivations a little better. I've learned that I can't make any reference to an animal in captivity, if I do, guarantee, the rest of the session is going to be my characters trying to rescue the captive animal and free them.
I want to go ahead and thank you both for taking time out of your day to reply and assisting me in figuring out how to improve the quality of my games. It means a great deal to me.
I am currently processing all the information above, compiling it into my brain and notes, while formulating additional questions I haven't quite figured out how to word regarding modularizing encounters/situations, so I will get back to you both tomorrow!
Dude, just buy a membership at Dungeonfog. You can create maps on the fly extremely quick and share your screen with the players via Zoom and have their tokens present to move around and use Zoom to draw area effects. Dungeonfog comes with a ton of player made maps or you just create your maps on the fly. I put maps in Dungeonfog and then use fog of war to show where the players are and then skip through the layers on it. I have a few random encounter maps made for wilderness and I have a different map for dungeon. The area effect drawing is the best on Zoom and your players can move the area effects around on the map themselves.
Dude, just buy a membership at Dungeonfog. You can create maps on the fly extremely quick and share your screen with the players via Zoom and have their tokens present to move around and use Zoom to draw area effects. Dungeonfog comes with a ton of player made maps or you just create your maps on the fly. I put maps in Dungeonfog and then use fog of war to show where the players are and then skip through the layers on it. I have a few random encounter maps made for wilderness and I have a different map for dungeon. The area effect drawing is the best on Zoom and your players can move the area effects around on the map themselves.
As soon as I read this I got an ad for it, which actually looks better than roll20! Thanks for sharing this with me. Are you some kind of cleric for Savras?
I would advise you stop using roll20 for anything other then a map where a battle will take place. I only use battle maps, either online or in person, for actual fights, everything else I describe and explain without drawing.
I also suggest you invest in a simple white board and pen, if you need to come up with something on the fly then you can quickly sketch it out and then take a picture and post it up for the players to see. The problem with things like roll 20 etc are that they turn a roleplay game into a computer simulation. Personally I prefer using above VTT because I can quickly draw a map, scan it/take a picture, and then throw it up on above VTT in seconds and we can carry on playing.
In terms of not having all the knowledge to hand, this is your world, as long as you are keeping notes of what your saying then just make stuff up on the fly, it is amazing how easy this becomes after just a bit of practice. Alternatively ask your players to give you 5 to quickly knock something together.
But really above VTT because it is fully intergrated into DnD beyond you can run the same search and filters on the monsters as you do in DnD beyond encounter builder meaning that you can populate your map with monsters really quickly and have all the stats to hand directly ereally easily.
Dude, just buy a membership at Dungeonfog. You can create maps on the fly extremely quick and share your screen with the players via Zoom and have their tokens present to move around and use Zoom to draw area effects. Dungeonfog comes with a ton of player made maps or you just create your maps on the fly. I put maps in Dungeonfog and then use fog of war to show where the players are and then skip through the layers on it. I have a few random encounter maps made for wilderness and I have a different map for dungeon. The area effect drawing is the best on Zoom and your players can move the area effects around on the map themselves.
As soon as I read this I got an ad for it, which actually looks better than roll20! Thanks for sharing this with me. Are you some kind of cleric for Savras?
Just to clarify, Dungeonfog is great for creating maps from scratch. I have a subscription there myself.
To host a VTT for your players to log in to, you'd still need Foundry/Forge or Roll20. My information comes from a year ago but at that point, they had a very limited VTT experience, but it left a lot to be desired. The bandwidth was horrible and your players were not able to move their own tokens at that point.
If I can't find a map that fits my needs online, I would draw it in Dungeonfog then export it over to Roll20 (in the past) and will hopefully do the same for The Foundry when it becomes necessary.
In regards to the questions I had loosely floating around in my mind the other night, but couldn't put into words at the time. I watched this video that addressed more or less what I was milling over internally:
Basically when I should or shouldn't use maps to track character placements etc. I agree over time I will gain more knowledge to answer this question, but part of my idea of running a campaign has always been to make the world feel real, so when magical things occur, those things also feel more magical, if that makes sense? For example, I want the commoner NPCs to feel COMMON. I want the tiefling to feel like they're a distrusted member of society, similar to how the half-orc/half-elf isn't fully accepted in either of their respective communities.
All this to say, I feel confident that I can translate this information to my players via the narration of scenes I setup, but when it comes to the verisimilitude of physical objects I think I am fretting too much about them, because I want the surrounding world to interact with my players in ways that make sense that also takes into account the built-in mechanics of how 5e works (mechanically). I hope this makes sense. Let me know if I need to further explain my thoughts here and I will take time later to revise my words.
...and what I have heard called the “theatre of the mind”
I suggest that TOTM is a bigger deal than I used to think. Maps and miniatures are important in some cases, but TOTM can work anywhere. I've run in-person games with 100% TOTM, and I've run Roll20 games with 90% TOTM. This method allows for more "Rule of Fun," where the main value of the game is how much fun they're having. If they ask for a measurement, you don't have to measure it in feet, but instead you can say, "It's about 150ft, which you think is near the edge of your range." That's much more fun than, "It's exactly 155 feet, so you can't do it." Certainly the distance/cover/line-of-sight rules are there to help, but don't let them get in the way of fun. Powerful descriptions of something are much more fun than a round token on a map, if you have to choose between the two.
It's why I said you use Zoom to share the screen. You move the tokens as the DM for the players. You can share a screen for each player so they can move their own token, but if its a large map, then you have to move the screen for each player individually and with large groups it sucks.
You use the Beyond 20 app to roll directly from the D&D Beyond character sheet to discord. The entire experience makes DM'ing very easy. If you want to bring in a custom map in a lot of VTT's you have to map the walls, well using Dungeonfog the walls are already mapped etc.
...and what I have heard called the “theatre of the mind”
I suggest that TOTM is a bigger deal than I used to think. Maps and miniatures are important in some cases, but TOTM can work anywhere. I've run in-person games with 100% TOTM, and I've run Roll20 games with 90% TOTM. This method allows for more "Rule of Fun," where the main value of the game is how much fun they're having. If they ask for a measurement, you don't have to measure it in feet, but instead you can say, "It's about 150ft, which you think is near the edge of your range." That's much more fun than, "It's exactly 155 feet, so you can't do it." Certainly the distance/cover/line-of-sight rules are there to help, but don't let them get in the way of fun. Powerful descriptions of something are much more fun than a round token on a map, if you have to choose between the two.
This is my preferred method of narration, or rather the direction I am aiming towards during a session. If I had to pick between maps or TOTM I would pick the latter, yet I have players who desire maps, which makes me concluded I haven't mastered those powerful descriptions. I love reading and story telling, which is one of the reasons why I was drawn to D&D. I believe a good way to improve this skill would be to read more, or listen to other DMs in their process. My question for you, or anyone else following along in this conversation, is do you have any good book recommendations that would help me improve my descriptions?
...do you have any good book recommendations that would help me improve my descriptions?
Yes! I recommend The Wheel of Time for two reasons:
I've been recommending this to everyone who will listen, so I don't want to break my streak now. :)
Look at the descriptions of the characters, both the main characters and the supporting cast. (Some of these get repeated a lot in the later books, as I'm sure many of you have heard.). For instance, Nynaeve always pulls her braid when she's upset. Loial has eyes as big as teacups. People from certain lands tend to shave and powder the front of their head, which can be used to identify some of them at a glance. The Aiel Maidens of the Spear use handtalk to communicate quietly, so you know who you're looking at when they do this. Aes Sedai have an ageless look to them. These books are a great example of good use of descriptive details. (Again, many would make fun of the fact that they're overused.)
If you should have a player that decides they don't want to venture, but instead explore your world - stay focus on party adventuring as DM, then every 30+ minutes go back to wandering character(s) for a minute, then back to adventuring party, repeat. That solo becomes boring, and they'll want to rejoin the party.
Reason and how to stop it:
Yes, characters will wander a bit, it will happen organically (and have every plausible scenario for this within your story), but if it's an enjoyable, tight story, they will do so within the elements of the story, for the story and not to get away from a boring DM telling a boring story.
Read at least 4 books on story structure and writing for visual media, then after, you'll be compelled to spend 100+ hours developing adventures and you won't be that DM who brings a few scraps of paper with "notes".
The 100+ hours committed to creating an awesome adventure won't protect you from bad players, disruptive players, or wandering players, but it will dramatically - dramatically - minimize the behavior. When player characters are on the edge of their seats, engaged, immersed, curious, frightened, desiring to know, needing to participate - they'll focus on the objectives, they'll see this as your narration - their story.
If you should have a player that decides they don't want to venture, but instead explore your world - stay focus on party adventuring as DM, then every 30+ minutes go back to wandering character(s) for a minute, then back to adventuring party, repeat. That solo becomes boring, and they'll want to rejoin the party.
Reason and how to stop it:
Yes, characters will wander a bit, it will happen organically (and have every plausible scenario for this within your story), but if it's an enjoyable, tight story, they will do so within the elements of the story, for the story and not to get away from a boring DM telling a boring story.
Read at least 4 books on story structure and writing for visual media, then after, you'll be compelled to spend 100+ hours developing adventures and you won't be that DM who brings a few scraps of paper with "notes".
The 100+ hours committed to creating an awesome adventure won't protect you from bad players, disruptive players, or wandering players, but it will dramatically - dramatically - minimize the behavior. When player characters are on the edge of their seats, engaged, immersed, curious, frightened, desiring to know, needing to participate - they'll focus on the objectives, they'll see this as your narration - their story.
Thank you, I really like this suggestion. As I've been prepping for the next session I was actually thinking of which scenes I should have prepared and how to modularize them in the event the players begin chasing "squirrels". For example, last session my players had awoken from an unrestful night at the Thundering Lizard and met in the lobby to discuss their plan of action for the day. Well, one of my players informed me he wasn't actually a part of this moment... Instead he was upstairs setting one of the rooms on fire, because he wasn't satisfied with the establishment. (He is playing a tiefling arcane trickster rogue modeled after Loki.) That may of been a bit off topic, but my dilemma with all my players (not just the chaotic ones) is dialoging information to them naturally (through NPCs) that help point them in the right direction. I currently use a lot of third person communication like, "The inn keeper does this..." "This NPC talks to you as if they are annoyed..." etc. with that in mind as well as what you said about story structure, do you have any books you would recommend that also might focus on how to write compelling characters and dialog?
Hello all,
Background: I picked up the PHB over a year ago and realized very quickly I had missed out on something remarkable as a teenager. Eager to catch up, I spent my time reading every D&D source book I could acquire familiarizing myself with the lore of the world. Eventually I purchased both the Starter and Essential kits before I had anyone who wanted play in those settings and now, I have seven players taking their first steps into the jungles of Chult. As I lead them through Tomb of Annihilation, (despite all my own time invested into reading story and monster lore), I have probably less than 40 hours total game time experience as a dungeon master. I am a firm believer in practice makes perfect, so with time I know I will get better at running the game for my players. However, I am not satisfied with running a mediocre game until then, so I work extra hard for my players to ensure the next session is better than the last.
Problem: I host our games virtually over discord (as some players are out of state) every Sunday from 12:00 – 3:00 P.M. making use of a plethora of online resources such as roll20, donjon, the encounter builder, soundpad, and whatever else I feel is needed to ensure everyone has a good experience for each session. Adapting to the needs of my players, while trying to maintain a balance between using what I will call “addons” and what I have heard called the “theatre of the mind” - I am struggling with the improvisation of maps/distances when my players venture off into an unplanned scene. I allow my players to explore the world as I have a lot of flavorful temples, buildings, NPCs, etc., however as I plan for each session, I personally focus on the elements that will propel the story forward, while giving little time to the smaller details like the Temple of Gond. I know enough to get by, but when my player pushes deeper into the temple, I mentally feel like I hit a brick wall. I especially get flustered when my players start wanting to use their abilities with specific distances on areas, I don’t have a map for, and I don’t want to waste time “drawing” a map virtually. I was hoping some more experience DMs would have such advice and encouragement going forward with our campaign.
Thanks in advance!
Hi there, I don't know if I want to call myself a vet, but I've been DMing for more than a year now and doing it entirely virtually.
My biggest suggestion would be to explore The Foundry / The Forge and see if that is something that you're able to move to. I bought The Foundry about two or three weeks ago and it takes about 1/4 of the time to set up a map than it did on Roll20. I am a huge and recent convert to The Foundry and I'm a lot less worried about my players venturing off into unexpected directions because it's a lot easier to put something together on that platform.
How much prep work is involved for map creation using these tools and are they user friendly? Some of the VTT apps I've seen seem to be very involved.
Also, I want to make mention that when I used roll20 for one of my sessions it felt more like a dungeon crawler rather than a story telling experience between my players and I. Do you have any suggestions on how to avoid that from occurring or maybe some enlightenment for me as to why my session turned out that way? For example, I had prepared a series of alleyways and sewers for my party to traverse through with an obvious path leading them to the next part of the adventure, but some of players became interested in exploring the side streets that were added as flavor to the scene. Not to discourage the players from venturing into the unknown, but as a DM do you (or anyone else following the thread) have suggestions on how to continue the story, while allowing that amount of freedom of movement?
Well, I will say that Roll20 took a lot of work to build maps. Foundry was much less time, I could do a full map with monsters, lighting and walls in an hour (and that was after only having the program for a week).
Regarding the exploration aspect, I think you always run that risk when you have a map. (I was going to write more but got caught up in something at work, can write more later)
I second the use of Foundry for a VTT. It does take a little work to get going, but once you get the hang of it, it is pretty easy to create things on the fly. I also create images with some automated effects, like snow/clouds/rain/etc. for those non-combat situations. I would imagine Roll20 can do the same, but cannot really recall.
I try to "modularize" encounters or situations that I can drop in whenever it's needed. Having prepared a few of these in advance allows for the session to flow while giving the players the sense of agency/control. I also have some generic battlemaps prepared, street/wilderness/building/etc. that can be used in a pinch, such as your going down an alley example.
I've found most players are pretty easy going with this kind of stuff, so don't beat yourself up too much. Your players are most likely just happy you're leading them on this cooperative story :)
Sorry, back . . .
Regarding exploration, you have a few options that come to mind.
You could always herd them back in the right direction, maybe they run into a street urchin that picks a pocket and runs off in the direction that you wanted the party to go in the first place. A clue that points them in the right direction or even use it as an opportunity to give them a side quest or an obscure shop for them to browse.
Another option is to let them explore and have the world happen around them. Maybe they lost an opportunity to get the thing in the sewer cause they spent too much time wandering around. When they realize they missed out on something, they'll be more likely to follow the bread crumbs next time.
You could also just make it very boring for them if they go off the beaten path, eventually they'll get the hint. I've broken the fourth wall for that in one instance. The went to an entirely unexpected place and when they got to the end of the street they found a blank wall with a sign on it, the sign read 'Sorry, the DM hasn't built this area yet, please come back another day.
There kind of needs to be a contract of sorts between the DM and the players. The DM creates a story for the players and the players live within that story. The players always have the chance to alter the story, but there are consequences. Sometimes those consequences for running their own story is that they miss an opportunity, a prisoner escapes, some other entity gets the magic thing and on and on. Sometimes the consequences are more real world related, such as an early end to the session. I've said this once, out of character, 'guys, here's the deal, you can go down this path, but I haven't prepped anything for it. Let's end a half hour early and I'll get something together for this path for our next session.
There is only so many contingencies that you can prepare for. Also, as you learn your players, you'll start to understand their motivations a little better. I've learned that I can't make any reference to an animal in captivity, if I do, guarantee, the rest of the session is going to be my characters trying to rescue the captive animal and free them.
I'm going to quote Pugnus wise words from the post above, "I've found most players are pretty easy going with this kind of stuff, so don't beat yourself up too much. Your players are most likely just happy you're leading them on this cooperative story :)" There is so much truth to that, players are generally so grateful that someone else is running a game, that they will cut you a lot of slack.
I'll leave you with one final story. When I first started this campaign, I had a huge long ranging arc planned out for the characters. One of the stops, very early on, involved a Kraken destroying the town that they were in, just to kind of give them a glimpse at the 20th level end game. A freaking kraken. So, ok, in my mind, a bunch of first level characters were going to run from the destruction or at worst hide and witness the destruction. . . no, no, the idiots decided that they were going to fight the freaking kraken. So, I ended the session a little early and then spent the next week figuring out how I was going to run a battle with a kraken and not do a TPK on the first level characters.
After rereading your original post, I have one more bit to add. It's always good to have a few generic battle maps prepared with grids. A generic temple, random city streets, a bog, what ever fits the general theme. You can load these up on most VTT's pretty quickly and then create the encounter, distances included, on the fly.
If I recall correctly, roll20 can be automated, but it wasn't very intuitive. I think you had to use APIs and/or other programming functions to get it work within the browser. I think I am convinced enough to pull the trigger on using Foundry as I played around with it earlier today from the players perspective and I felt like it could work for the "pre-programmed" encounters.
I want to go ahead and thank you both for taking time out of your day to reply and assisting me in figuring out how to improve the quality of my games. It means a great deal to me.
I am currently processing all the information above, compiling it into my brain and notes, while formulating additional questions I haven't quite figured out how to word regarding modularizing encounters/situations, so I will get back to you both tomorrow!
Thank you again.
Dude, just buy a membership at Dungeonfog. You can create maps on the fly extremely quick and share your screen with the players via Zoom and have their tokens present to move around and use Zoom to draw area effects. Dungeonfog comes with a ton of player made maps or you just create your maps on the fly. I put maps in Dungeonfog and then use fog of war to show where the players are and then skip through the layers on it. I have a few random encounter maps made for wilderness and I have a different map for dungeon. The area effect drawing is the best on Zoom and your players can move the area effects around on the map themselves.
As soon as I read this I got an ad for it, which actually looks better than roll20! Thanks for sharing this with me. Are you some kind of cleric for Savras?
I would advise you stop using roll20 for anything other then a map where a battle will take place. I only use battle maps, either online or in person, for actual fights, everything else I describe and explain without drawing.
I also suggest you invest in a simple white board and pen, if you need to come up with something on the fly then you can quickly sketch it out and then take a picture and post it up for the players to see. The problem with things like roll 20 etc are that they turn a roleplay game into a computer simulation. Personally I prefer using above VTT because I can quickly draw a map, scan it/take a picture, and then throw it up on above VTT in seconds and we can carry on playing.
In terms of not having all the knowledge to hand, this is your world, as long as you are keeping notes of what your saying then just make stuff up on the fly, it is amazing how easy this becomes after just a bit of practice. Alternatively ask your players to give you 5 to quickly knock something together.
But really above VTT because it is fully intergrated into DnD beyond you can run the same search and filters on the monsters as you do in DnD beyond encounter builder meaning that you can populate your map with monsters really quickly and have all the stats to hand directly ereally easily.
Just to clarify, Dungeonfog is great for creating maps from scratch. I have a subscription there myself.
To host a VTT for your players to log in to, you'd still need Foundry/Forge or Roll20. My information comes from a year ago but at that point, they had a very limited VTT experience, but it left a lot to be desired. The bandwidth was horrible and your players were not able to move their own tokens at that point.
If I can't find a map that fits my needs online, I would draw it in Dungeonfog then export it over to Roll20 (in the past) and will hopefully do the same for The Foundry when it becomes necessary.
In regards to the questions I had loosely floating around in my mind the other night, but couldn't put into words at the time. I watched this video that addressed more or less what I was milling over internally:
Basically when I should or shouldn't use maps to track character placements etc. I agree over time I will gain more knowledge to answer this question, but part of my idea of running a campaign has always been to make the world feel real, so when magical things occur, those things also feel more magical, if that makes sense? For example, I want the commoner NPCs to feel COMMON. I want the tiefling to feel like they're a distrusted member of society, similar to how the half-orc/half-elf isn't fully accepted in either of their respective communities.
All this to say, I feel confident that I can translate this information to my players via the narration of scenes I setup, but when it comes to the verisimilitude of physical objects I think I am fretting too much about them, because I want the surrounding world to interact with my players in ways that make sense that also takes into account the built-in mechanics of how 5e works (mechanically). I hope this makes sense. Let me know if I need to further explain my thoughts here and I will take time later to revise my words.
There's still a lot to be said for a white board, some markers, and some magnets. That's what I've been using in my online campaign.
"World's okayest Dungeon Master"
I suggest that TOTM is a bigger deal than I used to think. Maps and miniatures are important in some cases, but TOTM can work anywhere. I've run in-person games with 100% TOTM, and I've run Roll20 games with 90% TOTM. This method allows for more "Rule of Fun," where the main value of the game is how much fun they're having. If they ask for a measurement, you don't have to measure it in feet, but instead you can say, "It's about 150ft, which you think is near the edge of your range." That's much more fun than, "It's exactly 155 feet, so you can't do it." Certainly the distance/cover/line-of-sight rules are there to help, but don't let them get in the way of fun. Powerful descriptions of something are much more fun than a round token on a map, if you have to choose between the two.
It's why I said you use Zoom to share the screen. You move the tokens as the DM for the players. You can share a screen for each player so they can move their own token, but if its a large map, then you have to move the screen for each player individually and with large groups it sucks.
You use the Beyond 20 app to roll directly from the D&D Beyond character sheet to discord. The entire experience makes DM'ing very easy. If you want to bring in a custom map in a lot of VTT's you have to map the walls, well using Dungeonfog the walls are already mapped etc.
This is my preferred method of narration, or rather the direction I am aiming towards during a session. If I had to pick between maps or TOTM I would pick the latter, yet I have players who desire maps, which makes me concluded I haven't mastered those powerful descriptions. I love reading and story telling, which is one of the reasons why I was drawn to D&D. I believe a good way to improve this skill would be to read more, or listen to other DMs in their process. My question for you, or anyone else following along in this conversation, is do you have any good book recommendations that would help me improve my descriptions?
Yes! I recommend The Wheel of Time for two reasons:
Suggestion:
If you should have a player that decides they don't want to venture, but instead explore your world - stay focus on party adventuring as DM, then every 30+ minutes go back to wandering character(s) for a minute, then back to adventuring party, repeat. That solo becomes boring, and they'll want to rejoin the party.
Reason and how to stop it:
Yes, characters will wander a bit, it will happen organically (and have every plausible scenario for this within your story), but if it's an enjoyable, tight story, they will do so within the elements of the story, for the story and not to get away from a boring DM telling a boring story.
Read at least 4 books on story structure and writing for visual media, then after, you'll be compelled to spend 100+ hours developing adventures and you won't be that DM who brings a few scraps of paper with "notes".
The 100+ hours committed to creating an awesome adventure won't protect you from bad players, disruptive players, or wandering players, but it will dramatically - dramatically - minimize the behavior. When player characters are on the edge of their seats, engaged, immersed, curious, frightened, desiring to know, needing to participate - they'll focus on the objectives, they'll see this as your narration - their story.
Thank you, I really like this suggestion. As I've been prepping for the next session I was actually thinking of which scenes I should have prepared and how to modularize them in the event the players begin chasing "squirrels". For example, last session my players had awoken from an unrestful night at the Thundering Lizard and met in the lobby to discuss their plan of action for the day. Well, one of my players informed me he wasn't actually a part of this moment... Instead he was upstairs setting one of the rooms on fire, because he wasn't satisfied with the establishment. (He is playing a tiefling arcane trickster rogue modeled after Loki.) That may of been a bit off topic, but my dilemma with all my players (not just the chaotic ones) is dialoging information to them naturally (through NPCs) that help point them in the right direction. I currently use a lot of third person communication like, "The inn keeper does this..." "This NPC talks to you as if they are annoyed..." etc. with that in mind as well as what you said about story structure, do you have any books you would recommend that also might focus on how to write compelling characters and dialog?