I gathered a few campaigns and maps for playing DnD, but i need a tool to display the maps effectively. I would like to play with my friends through using discord but how will i display the maps in a way that is gridded out and manouverable or even combine jpeg files into one large map and have it gridded out and stuff. Roll20 does'nt let me upload my files for some reason. Am i on the right track with using Roll20 combined with discord?(so i can see the people i play with and play background music through a bot)
So Quintessence: Should i just use Roll20 or is there a good map tool for pen and paper maps?
Well, it's still in beta currently, but I'd highly recommend TaleSpire once it goes into Early Access sometime in the next few months. It's how we've been playing since the plague hit the world. We run Discord and those who aren't in the beta watch a stream from one of the players while I run GM mode separately.
Your uploads, last I recall with Roll20, can't exceed 5 MB, so if they're large files, you'll probably have to chop them up and reassemble them. That info may not be valid any longer, as it's been about a year and a half since last I logged in there.
Talespire looks really cool and more detailed than other programs i`ve seen! But i dont know if its not a bit too detailed for my humble dm beginnings...
Using roll20, as long as you have your maps in jpg format you'll probably come in under the 5mb limit. It's a bit complicated to align the maps to the grid in roll20, but there are plenty of guides out there on how to do it. Alternately, I really enjoy Dungeondraft for making battlemaps and it allows exporting with a specific grid / pixel ratio so you can match it up exactly with your preferred virtual tabletop.
Talespire looks really cool and more detailed than other programs i`ve seen! But i dont know if its not a bit too detailed for my humble dm beginnings...
It may be at first, but there's a dedicated community on Discord and at least two websites full of maps and modular prebuilds that are as easy as copy/paste into the program and you're all set.
https://owlbear.rodeo is an amazing free tool that lets you share maps, let's everyone move tokens (or not depending on how you set it up).
^ This. I started DMing in November over Discord and owlbear rodeo has been a godsend. It’s browser based and no sign up is required. The ability for players to move themselves helps keep the game moving. If you use chrome (I don’t) you can share audio too. Absolutely brilliant tool.
With the blank terrain maps and some clever scatter terrain, or just using the drawing tool, I can pull together some credible random encounter maps pretty quickly. Just as good as when I played in person on a battlemap with dry erase markers.
The sharing of audio was killer. I have detailed playlists and it has been a pain trying to share over Zoom. This gave the players the ability to adjust the volume of the music to their liking.
I'm also experimenting with non-map images, so when the PCs find a note, I can display the note on owlbear.rodeo so each player can zoom in and read it the way they want instead of doing it through a zoom screen share.
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Hey Guys.
I gathered a few campaigns and maps for playing DnD, but i need a tool to display the maps effectively. I would like to play with my friends through using discord but how will i display the maps in a way that is gridded out and manouverable or even combine jpeg files into one large map and have it gridded out and stuff. Roll20 does'nt let me upload my files for some reason. Am i on the right track with using Roll20 combined with discord?(so i can see the people i play with and play background music through a bot)
So Quintessence: Should i just use Roll20 or is there a good map tool for pen and paper maps?
thank you in advance :)
Well, it's still in beta currently, but I'd highly recommend TaleSpire once it goes into Early Access sometime in the next few months. It's how we've been playing since the plague hit the world. We run Discord and those who aren't in the beta watch a stream from one of the players while I run GM mode separately.
Your uploads, last I recall with Roll20, can't exceed 5 MB, so if they're large files, you'll probably have to chop them up and reassemble them. That info may not be valid any longer, as it's been about a year and a half since last I logged in there.
Talespire looks really cool and more detailed than other programs i`ve seen! But i dont know if its not a bit too detailed for my humble dm beginnings...
https://owlbear.rodeo is an amazing free tool that lets you share maps, let's everyone move tokens (or not depending on how you set it up).
Using roll20, as long as you have your maps in jpg format you'll probably come in under the 5mb limit. It's a bit complicated to align the maps to the grid in roll20, but there are plenty of guides out there on how to do it. Alternately, I really enjoy Dungeondraft for making battlemaps and it allows exporting with a specific grid / pixel ratio so you can match it up exactly with your preferred virtual tabletop.
It may be at first, but there's a dedicated community on Discord and at least two websites full of maps and modular prebuilds that are as easy as copy/paste into the program and you're all set.
^ This. I started DMing in November over Discord and owlbear rodeo has been a godsend. It’s browser based and no sign up is required. The ability for players to move themselves helps keep the game moving. If you use chrome (I don’t) you can share audio too. Absolutely brilliant tool.
With the blank terrain maps and some clever scatter terrain, or just using the drawing tool, I can pull together some credible random encounter maps pretty quickly. Just as good as when I played in person on a battlemap with dry erase markers.
The sharing of audio was killer. I have detailed playlists and it has been a pain trying to share over Zoom. This gave the players the ability to adjust the volume of the music to their liking.
I'm also experimenting with non-map images, so when the PCs find a note, I can display the note on owlbear.rodeo so each player can zoom in and read it the way they want instead of doing it through a zoom screen share.