How To Add A Background In Roll20

Apr 21, 2017, 12:51 p.m.

In light of the recent demise of the Google Hangouts API, I have moved to using Roll20 in my online Fate games and I have really enjoyed the feel. I was reluctant to use it at first because it is clearly made for more elaborate game systems than Fate, merely I think I've figured out a practiced setup. Since many others are probably looking for a identify to play Fate online at present, I thought I'd share how I apply Roll20 for my Fate games. So here is a piddling tutorial.

To avert making this post any longer, I'chiliad going to presume that y'all know Roll20 already. If you don't, go create an account for free and practice the tutorial. After that, you'll exist able to discover all of the images that I reference here in this image album.

Folio Setup

The beginning step is to create and lay out your folio. Create a new page and click on the gear icon next to it. The page size I commonly use is 12x9. This allows the whole page to fit even on almost laptop screens. I also mostly disable the grid, by unchecking the "Enable" checkbox, since it isn't very useful in Fate. In the page set up screen, yous can set a background too. Since I cover the background in images, I make the background colour bright yellow so that I can hands tell if function of the page isn't covered.

Using the Layout

The transparent layout that y'all see in the image above is available in the image anthology. To utilize information technology, upload it to Roll20 and add information technology to the map layer. Then stretch information technology to about make full the play area. If you wish to use switchable backdrops (mentioned below), yous'll demand a gap between the border of the layout and the edge of the page. Information technology merely needs to be large enough so that yous can select the backdrop without selecting the layout image.

Custom Layout

If y'all wish to create a custom layout instead of using the prebuilt one, start off with the Draw Shape tool. Depict boxes with a Regular sized outline and a transparent middle. If you want to make a row of as sized boxes, make one (don't worry much virtually sizing), and then copy ctrl+c and paste ctrl+v it onto the page. And so you can drag information technology to line up with the original. Hold down the Alt key while an item is select and use the arrow keys to nudge it in a certain direction. In one case the 2 boxes are lined upwards, select one or both and repeat the process until you take the right amount of boxes. Then select all of them, and resize the group to fit the desired location.

The last step to creating the boxes is the background. In the image anthology, you'll notice an image named white60.png. This image is just a white box with an opacity at lx%. Upload the epitome and elevate it's corner to the size of whatever box you are creating a groundwork for. Brand certain you correct-click on the white box and choose "To Back" and then that the groundwork will sit behind the borders. If you want to use a different image for the box background, upload a different image and use the process above.

Groundwork

Once you have the boxes laid out, you can add a background. If you are using the semi-transparent box background similar I do, try to observe a background image that isn't too noisy. You too want this image to about 1000x800 at least in size. Y'all tin detect an prototype on google or screenshot a zoomed-in PDF. Upload the image, drag it to the correct size (you lot might accept to reposition it to get it big enough), and so right click the image and cull "To Dorsum". You can and then select it by clicking in between the boxes already in place and drag it or use alt+arrow keys to reposition it.

You tin can place multiple backgrounds this mode. Use the same process, and whenever you want to alter backgrounds, correct-click the tiptop-most paradigm and send information technology to the back.

Other Items

Other items like a logo tin can be added like any other image. You tin create your ain as well with a programme like Gimp, an open-source (free) photoshop equivalent. Editing and creating images is outside of the telescopic of this tutorial though.

Once yous create this layout once, you can utilise ctrl+a to select all items on the map layer and copy/paste it onto another folio. Unfortunately, you'll have to recreate it for each separate game you play in, but moving information technology between pages, within a game, works fine.

Tokens

I use several different tokens in my fix up, and I have included most of them in the image album for your apply. Here is a suspension down of how I utilise them:

Aspects

Aspect tokens are ready up as a card deck. Become the Drove tab of the sidebar and click the "Add" button next to the "Decks" header. Ready the deck using the values pictured to the correct. So add two identical cards, giving them the aforementioned backs equally fronts (using attribute.png), and salvage it. Back in the collections tab, click the "Evidence" button to make the deck available on the screen. To create new aspects, drag ane "carte" onto the page and double-click it. Then requite it a proper name, check the Testify Nameplate checkbox, and show the name to players in the Advanced tab of the window.

In play, I use the proper noun plate for the actual aspect text, and I use the bubbles for free invokes. Click on the chimera icon and then type a single-digit number as you hover over a colour. I use blue for PC invokes and ruddy for GM invokes. Also, if the aspect is a boost, I commonly beginning the proper noun off with "B:".

Character Tokens

For grapheme tokens, I take included meeples. If you lot aren't handy with Gimp or some other image software, those should work but fine. Although, it is nice to meet an image of your graphic symbol if can observe one.

Whatever you utilise for a token, you can link it to your grapheme sheet by double-clicking the token and so choosing your character sheet from the "Represents Character" driblet down.

I too utilize Bar 2 to track Fate Points. After you accept linked your grapheme sail, choose "current_fate_points" from the drop downward adjacent to Bar two. The left input field should autofill to whatever your current fate points are set to on your character sheet. For the right input, just enter a 3. This creates a blueish bar above your character token that adjusts depending on how many fate points you lot currently accept (out of three).

Fate Points

You may accept noticed that fate points are likewise included in the image album. Since the GM doesn't have a consistent character to track fate points on, I make some other card deck -- like the aspects deck higher up -- of red fate points for the GM. I just place them in the GM box when a new scene starts and delete them when I use them. Its a good mode for the PCs to easily see what I have.

My group currently doesn't apply the blue fate points, because we have plant it easier to track on the grapheme sheets if we update it through the blue circle on their character tokens. I take heard of others using fate points every bit cards though, then I idea I'd throw them in for expert measure.

Macros

Token Macros

Information technology is skillful to prepare some macros to make the character tokens more useful. To do this, navigate to the Collection tab again in your sidebar and click the "Add" button next to the "Macros" heading. The macro I use for Fate Accelerated is:

@{selected|token_name} is being Careful: /roll 4df+ @{selected|Conscientious}

This macro rolls 4 fate dice plus the selected token's Careful approach. This only works on tokens that you lot have permission to control and that are linked to a character sail. For Fate Core, or other approaches, merely modify each occurrence of "Careful" to employ a different skill/approach from your grapheme sheet. You can also change the first line to output different text before the scroll. Brand sure that yous check the "Show every bit token activeness?" checkbox and get in available to all players and information technology should be good to go.

Ladder Macros

Another macro that I employ is an "In Bar" macro. As the GM, I don't ever make new character sheets for each NPC. So if I desire to curlicue the dice, I would unremarkably take to do it manually. To make things quicker, I add together a macro for each pace of the ladder using this format /whorl 4df+1 and name it according to its value, "Average+ane" in this example. I don't give anyone other than the GM access to these macros and I don't brand them token deportment. Once they are saved, check the "In Bar" checkbox next to each of them and they will display as clickable buttons forth the bottom of the screen.

And so that's all I've got. Is at that place anything I missed, or anything else that could utilize some more explanation? Take you establish any other useful trips for Fate on Roll20? Let me know in the comments beneath!

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