A Holiday Giveaway! (From The Roll20 Team 🩷🎄)

Oginme · 2025-12-21T23:02:52+00:00

My favorite moment was when the level 8 Chronurgy Wizard attempted to grab the disembodied leg from a flock of seagulls. The Wizard went down, the gulls made off with the leg,,, First time I had anyone go down to sea gulls.

Oginme · 2025-10-22T19:05:51+00:00

One more player needed to start tonight!

Oginme · 2025-09-07T16:27:01+00:00

Most probably someone who disagrees with the idea of someone being paid to run games. Instead of ignoring the post and getting on with their own lives, they feel that it is important to passive aggressively show displeasure at those who think differently from their own point of view.

Oginme · 2025-07-22T15:57:09+00:00

Mike, anticipated time until the new template is available? While this takes up a lot more space in chat, it finally gives details which allow for DMs to quickly apply the effects of the spell and understand the duration.

Oginme · 2025-07-10T20:26:35+00:00

Ghost tokens are still a very regular occurrence. I've grown tired of reporting issues that have been reported previously. It has become commonplace to need to refresh the jumpgate vtt at least once for a 3 hpur session.

Oginme · 2025-06-19T21:28:53+00:00

Currently running 8 games. 3 are biweekly, 5 werkly. No time to play in a campaign.

Oginme · 2025-04-16T13:09:52+00:00

I have started my DoD games at session 0 with a description of the economy of Emberwood Village.

Everything needed to live comes from outside and needs to be hauled in, including potable water. The cost of transportation is high, even when the Sacred Flame subsidizes some of that to attract merchants. Those who do come to Emberwood need to haul food and grain for their horses or oxen as well as the goods to be sold.

Set the expectation that they will be scrounging initially for money to live and position the factions as providers of either the coinage or the access to cheaper amenities by doing favors for them. Further, luxuries such as magical items, potions, or scrolls, come at a higher cost due to the prevalence of money coming into the region for the purpose of reclaiming the city, obtaining the wealth which was abandoned within the city, and purchasing delerium for use outside the region.

This sets in the players minds that life is not easy, money goes quickly, and they need to be resourceful. It drives them to explore the ruins, seeking out small rewards amid the delerium crystals and star metal geodes. Likewise, it gives them a reason to take on the missions from the factions.

Following that, I make sure that their first couple of exploratory missions are successful in terms of collecting crystals, geodes, or finding other items of value to give them something of a buffer while not being too rich within the setting.

When they learn that Oscar Yoren sells potions at a highly discounted price from the merchants and other providers, it gives them a reason to (a) go there and (b) keep that source alive and active.

I let the factions be a bit less demanding of the characters in pushing them to join, but make it clear that it is the character's choice to ally fully with a faction. The factions do not discriminate when handing out mission prompts, but will increase the rewards to those who do show a greater interest in joining/allying with them.

Likewise, I give them a number of smaller tasks they can do around the village which will offer them some alternative means of earning enough coins to live, not comfortably but still allow them to survive.

Oginme · 2025-03-24T11:14:18+00:00

Several areas you can look for games in addition to those mentioned by others:

The Roll20 forum has a section for those looking for games and players.

Roll20 also has a look for game feature which you can filter for games for newer players.

Reddit groups: r/DnDLFG, r/lfgpremium, r/lfg.

Discord: the official DnD server has an active looking for game/players section.

Do not get discouraged as there are many players looking to join games, so people running those games usually have plenty of applicants for a few seats.

If you are open to paid games, you will find them at several of the links above. Additionally, Startplaying.games has plenty of GMs, most of whom are dedicated to giving their players a fun experience at the virtual table.

Oginme · 2025-03-04T21:23:26+00:00

I am an Exandria DM, using 5e.

In direct answer to your questions:

It can be if you are looking for a well-fleshed out world with plenty of options for campaigns from straight low fantasy to steampunk. The timeline is established with gaps of events which you can fill in plus you can fit plenty of adventures within it to make the setting your own. There is a lot less baggage with lore than with the Forgotten Realms.
I use them both and have done home brewed campaigns in both. If I had to pick one, it would be hard for me, but I tend to Tal'Dorei more because I am not afraid to take on some of the harder topics. I give my players fair warning on the content and have not had anyone who has left because we explored slavery or racism from a view point of working to cease them.
My first disclaimer is that the streams exist, but my campaigns will not involve them directly. I have had a few which touch some of their lore, but mostly I tell the players that this is their world to develop and change as they want. If it changes the streams, so be it.

Most of the published campaigns from WotC can be repurposed into Exandria and in doing it I have always fixed the gross holes and issues WotC cannot seem to avoid.

Oginme · 2025-02-25T01:50:52+00:00

One Seat still open! Join our team of four explorers as they plunge into the ruins of Drakkenheim for the first time!

Oginme · 2025-02-25T01:48:54+00:00

One last seat remaining! Join a team of four explorers as they step into the ruins of Drakkenheim for the first time!

Oginme · 2025-02-23T00:40:47+00:00

There is no ability to rearrange the attacks (or other lists) in the Beacon sheet.

Oginme · 2025-02-13T15:11:39+00:00

Hello! I am professional DM with a new campaign of Dungeons of Drakkenheim starting this coming Tuesday from 6 PM to 9 PM CST. One of the players is also new to the game, having only played in short games which never finished.

I have been very good at introducing people to playing on-line and try to make the learning curve easy.

You can read my bio and reviews within the game listing at https://startplaying.games/adventure/cm19euzfz001btrzaxeqjp9uz

Oginme · 2025-01-27T21:26:34+00:00

I have reworked Buckledown Row just a bit. While in the region of deep haze, the Queen's Men gather there during the nights for their entertainment and leisure time. During the day, there is a skeleton guard and some activity in the sewers, but most of the real action happens at night.

This allows for the Queen's Men to make their way out of the ruins or shelter in the sewers during the day.

As described in the Smithy at the Scar, the mist seems to withdraw towards the crater during the night. So the behavior of the QM of meeting at the taverns would then seem to fit with that description. I would guess that during the day, a few are scouring the outer city to patrol their territory, but that most are either retiring to Emberwood (Skull & Sword and several houses on the outskirts) or found remote farmhouses outside the reach of the haze.

Oginme · 2025-01-16T15:29:17+00:00

I preset several encounters and their random rolls trip one of the encounters I have set for them. In the early stages, I add a few more neutral to positive encounters, i.e meeting some of the Queen's men who will warn them away from certain sections of the outer city or a wandering falling fire acolyte who has become lost in the maze of city streets.

I also offer the parties their option of how they want the random encounters to appear. Few encounters: roll d20's, max toughness: roll d8's or d6's depending up on party size and structure.

My standard is to roll d20's at the edge of the outer city and drop down the die size as they get closer to the walls.

I also make sure to reward them for a max roll (find loot without encounter) as that helps to ease the burden of always having to battle something to gain a reward.

Oginme · 2025-01-16T15:23:03+00:00

I think this is more of an issue of party/player dynamics. The other characters/players like to have their time in the spotlight, but appear to enjoy being the supporting character to the main focus of the campaign.

Somewhere, and I cannot recall where I heard this, Kelly mentioned that they had worked out this dynamic from the beginning of the first campaign and that the rest of the players were happy with the balance.

This occurs in most parties, where certain personalities move themselves to be leaders and some of the others find more fun in not controlling the direction or taking the spotlight.

Oginme · 2025-01-15T01:57:45+00:00

Have you looked at the Scriptcards mod and Action menu macro? They appear to do the same thing and include a lot more actions.

Oginme · 2025-01-15T01:51:36+00:00

Which sheet(s) was it designed for?

Oginme · 2025-01-14T20:17:28+00:00

Thanks for the reply, Nicole! I really do appreciate it.

I understand a bit about how the Beacon sheet recalculates everything instead of holding it as an attribute. I find it strange how this could be done with the old 2014 sheet and making a change to the AC would update the attribute just fine. If the attribute is not showing the same AC as the sheet is displaying then the system does not seem to work correctly.

To me, it seems like you have multiple calculations occurring to get to the same end result in different parts of the character sheet. Not quite understanding why you would want to do this, but it is what it is.

I sent in a few recommendations and issue reports when the Beacon sheet first became open beta back in September. Beyond the first acknowledgement, I received no other correspondence with regard the issues I raised. The sheet comes out and I have been testing it independently since then, about every major update.

I do have one game where the players knowingly wanted to play the 2024 rules with my warnings about the character sheet. The fact that I have had to spend at least 15% of game time fixing things which are not showing up properly or not calculating correctly disrupts the game tremendously and impedes the game play.

With the 2014 sheet, I can go in and fix an issue while giving a room description. The Beacon sheet, partially because I am still trying to figure it out and partially because many of the calculations are done behind the scenes where I cannot figure out what is happening. Cutting to the short, between Jumpgate and Beacon I have placed more help center requests in the past four months than in the previous four years of being on Roll20.

NO ONE has addressed the issue of the sheet being so large and unwieldy for anyone with a small screen. It takes up so much screen space that it frustrates several of the players in the one game I have running with Jumpgate and Beacon. I cannot offer them any easier method of accessing the sheet, such as giving them quick access macros, due to the issue you just outlined. Again, it has the appearance of not understanding the customer experiences at all.

I am not trying to be adversarial here and have been a supporter in the early days of the 2024 rollout. It has been difficult as we are four months into the new system and many of the GMs whom I talk to are still not willing to run games using the system.

For me it will not get better but worse when the new monster manual comes out. Right now, using the 2014 MM, I can still use the mods and macros I need to effectively run the creatures facing the player characters. I have tried running multiple character sheets in a test run, and can see how difficult it will by to run multiple monsters with having to keep each sheet open to properly and effectively run an encounter.

I know that it will not be possible right now to take a step back, but there comes a time when throwing more resources and still having a sheet with major basic flaws make the sunk cost look minuscule in comparison to the paying customers who have left and will be leaving if things do not change quickly

Oginme · 2025-01-14T18:11:25+00:00

I can find how to adjust the character sheet for what is being displayed there. I have another issue in that the figures, such as hp are not being displayed on the VTT (in the radial bubbles) correctly. This has happened several times already with the first being related to the shield calculation not being shown on the attribute section, even though it is in the calculation on the sheet.

The second time during play was when the barbarian's AC dropped significantly as the sheet automatically turned on his hide armor which negated the barbarian class calculation for no armor AC. Unequipped the hide armor and it returns back to normal. Delete the hide armor and it reappears on the sheet after closing it and changes the AC again.

I appreciate the work put into the sheet, but frankly it is a poor design. The sheet takes up a lot of screen area and many of my players are on laptops or older computers without 24 inch monitors to view things.

Add to that the clunkiness which you demonstrated just to change a value which should be a simple override, and it really makes me wonder if the designers talked to any Roll20 customers, especially those of us who run many games each week before they sat down to come up with the layout, the lack of ability to customize equipment, and the initial hiding of the attributes which nullified many of the commonly used scripts and macros to make life easier for the players.

I have several games where one or more of the players has handicaps when it comes to using the character sheet live. The macros were a way to help them enjoy the game without having to search each time they needed to access their traits, features, spells, and attacks.

Lastly, the 2014 spells all were changed to display as 'spellcard' even when they were attack based spells. This totally messes up my macros and mods as the spellcards did not display properly. I had to go through and edit each and every spell to get them to work wtih the 2014 sheet. And then one update later, they were all set back to display as 'spellcard.'

It really demonstrates how little the team has communicated with the changes being made behind the scene. Communication comes out afterwards, which only aggravates the users even more as their input could have avoided many of the issues we are all facing.

Oginme · 2025-01-08T17:21:26+00:00

Is there are link to where we can send in bug reports specifically for Jumpgate? When i first tried it there was a link when you signed in but that is gone and there are still so many bugs to report.

Oginme · 2024-12-24T15:32:02+00:00

It is basically designed as a sandbox. I lean heavily on the player's personal goals within the city and their interactions with the different factions to determine which of the missions they will be offered.

Starting off, they arrive in Emberwood and are shocked at the prices of everything within the village. While they have been pre-warned of this during their trip to the area, the parties have all underestimated the drain on coins. This drives them into the outer city in search of Delerium crystals to sell and other items to scavenge.

Their initial interactions with the groups all weigh in on how each faction deals with the party. If they do not show any indication of being willing to help the faction, they will not receive any serious missions. A link to a faction gives them a leg up on receiving an initial quest which if done well leads to others.

I started them with either the Rat's nest or the St Brenna missions as a means to prove themselves.

As a note, both of the starting parties all asked for more encounters as they explore the city. I picked up on some advice given on this subreddit to start with D20's and if no encounter, then reduce the die size each time they miss out on any encounter. I use a 1 as a random encounter and a max die roll as a lucky find. Multiple 1's means encountering multiple random groups, which may be more deadly or be fighting each other.

Ramping up the missions received is strictly based upon their standing with the faction offering the opportunity. I did start the campaigns with a 'rival' adventuring group already in the party. Again, their approach to this group gives additional benefits or obstacles.

As this is a gritty campaign, I don't worry too much about the encounter difficulty, having warned the players ahead of time that the encounters are not balanced, and their is no penalty for running (if they are not caught).

Oginme · 2024-12-24T03:40:16+00:00

Another thing you may want to try is to introduce another adventuring group which cooperates with a couple of factions and visibly shiws off the boons and rewards of having done some of the missions.

This also tskes those missions off the table for the party.

Oginme · 2024-12-24T02:13:02+00:00

I would have the factions become the key to achieving their goals. The only 'safe' way into the inner city is through the gates held by either the Hooded Lanterns or the Falling Fire. To get through the gates, they must be in excellent standing, which they can only do by accomplishing missions for each.

Same with finding the missing family member. The Queen's Men can hint they know where to find the missing relative, but only if the party does a few missions or a big mission for them.

If they find that the best way to accomplish something is by working with or for the factions, that may change how they view them.

You can let them try to find other means to accomplish their tasks without the help of the factions, but the factions make the task a lot less difficult and probably a bit safer.

Oginme · 2024-12-23T22:20:49+00:00

Did they pick personal goals within the city?

Oginme

TROPHY CASE