The videos suggested by "Roll20" were torturous, and I almost said never mind. Wife found your videos and each was a joy to follow along. TY TY TY. 20yr returning paper & pen DM now tech savvy w/t roll20 VTT and loaded for bear, thanks to you teaching all the bells and whistles.
CrashGem Oh man. I am new to Roll20 and mainly learned by playing around with things. The entire lighting system was giving me so many headaches. The “new” system is basically unusable on Mac, but this video helped a lot for understanding the existing system. Never thought to try a negative value.
Thank you so much for putting all these videos. I saw them all and I can tell my experience with the platform is so much better. Really appreciate the effort you put on it.
I just started learning to use Roll20 as a GM. This video saved me from giving up. Roll20 wasn't remembering my token settings or values, so I thought you just had to re-enter it every time you dropped a token.. Until you explained the right way to link token and character. You have to set up your token settings how you want it, save those token settings, THEN link the token to the sheet.
This is such a comprehensive and engaging tutorial. Im very impressed and I think you should make tutorial videos for peoples products for a living. Solved all my issues and taught me more than a few things along the way. THANX!
Great videos. Really helping me move online with all of the quarantine craziness these days. Question for you on the re-registering of the tokens. Do you have to do that each time someone casts a spell like Darkvision, or is that built in in any way?
Only if you want to retain the darkvision permanently. For example if they got goggles of night. For temporary darkvision such as a spell or blessing from a twilight cleric you would just change their settings for the duration of the spell and then change it back. There is a fantastic API script for toggling sight, but API is no covered by these videos.
It's on my massive to-do list. I'm working on Foundry Migration this month, but I can't imagine leaving Roll20 behind completely. I'll need to learn new dynamic lighting as well.
It doesn't seem like there is even an option to give tokens vision in the free version since dynamic lighting is paywalled. Or am i missing something? I'm cramming before our second game. These are really helping.
Glad they are helping. It’s likely you are not seeing any lighting options because of the paywall. I definitely recommend a paid account for the DM of each group, even if the group splits the cost. But you should be able to use fog of war to hide maps if you can’t use dynamic lighting.
@@CrashGem Ok yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah I think I'm going to upgrade. It worked really well for the first game and I'm saving so much money on not going out, eating out, going to the movies, driving, dating...
@@CrashGem OMG I think you just blew my mind! Are you saying that with Dynamic Lighting you don't need fog of war? I've been wrestling with this for a while now and your dynamic lighting video was awesome.. enlightening (haha.. get it?) even!
Do you need a Plus account to link the tokens? I can't seem to link the token to a character sheet permanently. And yes, I first put the token on the map, link it to the sheet and only THEN open the character sheet and register the token with the sheet. Still, a duplication of the token creates a generic version. Also, there is no "Advanced" tap in my token like shown in the video.
Linking the tokens should not be paywalled. It is important to re-link the token(s) any time changes are made to them. A bit tedious, but just how the workflow is on this platform. On the chosen character sheet you would go to edit, default token(optional) remove the existing one and link the selected one with the latest changes you want to save. Just tested on my free account. Yea, this series is now almost a year and a half old. There have been some updates to the Roll20 interface and a big overhaul of the dynamic lighting. I really need to record a newer series to cover the updates, but schedule is currently packed.
Unfortunately this video was made back in April 2020. Roll20 has changed their dynamic lighting system since then. I'm looking at recording an updated version of the video, but it might require redoing the whole series, which would be a big undertaking.
The token for one of my players doesn't display the green hp bar above it like all of the tokens for the other players. If you select the token you see the red, green, and blue circles above it, though. I thought I set them all up the same way. Any ideas?
sounds like the settings need to be adjusted and the token needs to be re-registered to the sheet. Keep in mind there are many different token settings and that changing anything without registering the new token t the associated sheet, only solves your problem for that one instance of the token.
Nice video man, helps me a lot! I'm new to roll20 and now I'm setting up a cyberpunk2k20 session. At 11:39 in the video you simply pull the character sheet onto the table and automatically show the token attached to it, but when I try to do the same, it doesn't work. This function is some "Plus member only"? I do exactly as shown in the video :(
@@CrashGem Ok, so i found whats i'm doing wrong I was trying to drag drog on the 3 bar icon that shows once you have the mouse over the character sheet. The right way is to drag and drop the CHARACTER NAME hahaha Thanks tha help man ; )
Totally new to Roll20 and I'm running a game next week. How do I un-link my tokens? Example: I pull over two goblins but when one takes damage, they both take damage. Kind of a pain when there are 20 goblins.
Yes, that is such a pain. Double click on a goblin mini. Using the drop down next to HP set the value to none. keep the HP numbers though. Now open the goblin character sheet. Remove the current token and register the token you just changed. Now goblins you drag into play will not have linked HP.
These videos are very useful. One thing thats not clear to me (as the DM) is what players can do vs what the DM does in character creation. It would be very useful if you put together a video aimed at players explaining how to make a character. The DM can then email the link to lpayers ahead of time explaining how to make characters.
Ah. I follow you. Sadly, unless you are running the API script welcome package, players can't even make character sheets. The DM has to make characters sheets, assign them to players, and when the sheets are filled out, set up their tokens for them. All the players can do is use charactermancer to make a character with the sheet assigned to them. But yea, a "what can I do as a player in roll20" video might be good.
You would re-register the token if you wanted it to always default to having darkvision. I will be posting a video soon explaining a simple API script that can enable quick changing of token lighting, but for now, you would need to manually change out sight/lighting on each token.
Is the advanced setting something you have to pay for? Like to add vision? It's my first time running a game for brand new players and I just want to know in case if I have to figure out the stuff manually
Re: the "green" hit points - uh, you can change the color in the game's master settings - the gear at the top of the chat window. Those are just the default colors.
I have a problem. You said that when the character sheet and token are linked, the token will be set up for anything. But when I have it saved and bring in the same token as a duplicate, the values are missing and therefore I'd have to do it over again. Any ideas on how to fix it?
I was going through the wiki and saw your video. I honestly have no idea what I did wrong. I have the tokens linked up to the character sheet for both my players and monsters. I went through both a pc and npc following your video and if I were to drag a new one from the Journal they still represent none/generic Token. Edit: Fixed my own problem LOL. Did things in the wrong order.
That last little part where you have to go back to the character sheet and say use selected token? Yea, I forgot that part and had to redo everything twice in a session and couldn't figure out why 😂
What is Human(EK) from in character creation? Is that an alternate name for human variant? I know I bought the DM bundle, but IDK what EK is coming from.
A thought on why they may have used green for HP: Many colorblind people, such as myself, perceive the color red much darker than those with color sight do. Looking at the value (lightness / darkness) of the shade of red that they used, it is dark enough that my eyes register it as being pretty much black. If it were to be used for HP and was on a dark background, the bar would be pretty much invisible to me and a lot of people with colorblindness. Additionally (and probably more likely), green is often associated with life, so that is likely why they choose for it to be used for HP. I get why you would want it to be red though. Red is associated blood, which keeps us alive. That's why it's so often used for health meters in games. You'll often see games change their health meters based on how many HP you have left; green when you are healthy and full of life, yellow when you are moderately wounded, and red when you are in heavily wounded /critical condition / bleeding out. Thank you for putting these videos out. Due to the coronavirus situation, my groups have not been able to meet to play, but we are going to play our first Roll20 session tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it, and your videos are a big help in making the software easier to learn. Keep up the awesome work!
I have a few colorblind players across my many groups, so in addition to using red, I make sure everyone knows HP on the left and AC on the right. Like most things, communication within the group is the real secret to success. Hope your first roll20 game is a big success!
@@CrashGem The session went very well! There were a few technical issues getting things started, but, once we got going, everything was smooth. We started with a bar fight, then tracked down a goblin with a bounty on his head. Lots of fun and laughs were had by all.
@@xalith good to hear! the bar fight is so iconic kobold press made it a monster. www.5esrd.com/gamemastering/monsters-foes/monsters-by-type/humanoids/bar-brawl/
So glad I found these. Excellent for new Roll20 GMs. One question, when I add GM Notes to a players TOKEN, these notes disappear when I drag the PC from the Journal to a new page/map? So I have to Copy/Paste the Token from 1 page to another in order to keep the Token GM Notes. No biggie but is there a way to have Token notes carried forward via Journal?
Alt+Double click the mini and make the notes in the GM Notes section of the actual character sheet, not the token options. If you mess a token you have to re-register the token to the associated sheet if you want to save those changes, even comments.
love it thank you soo much! i have a question if i may?, how did you get the bar and the character name big like that? mine are super small almost invisiable without background you cant read anything.
Love your videos. But 1 idea I hope you use..... Any chance you can start linking your other videos? I watch one and you say in a previous video I showed X -- but how the heck do you find that video? I've been bouncing around like a fool.
The videos suggested by "Roll20" were torturous, and I almost said never mind. Wife found your videos and each was a joy to follow along. TY TY TY. 20yr returning paper & pen DM now tech savvy w/t roll20 VTT and loaded for bear, thanks to you teaching all the bells and whistles.
Dim light was such a tricky thing to set up. Cheers!
Hope this made things easier. Yea the whole negative value in the second text field was a mystery to me for YEARS.
CrashGem Oh man. I am new to Roll20 and mainly learned by playing around with things. The entire lighting system was giving me so many headaches. The “new” system is basically unusable on Mac, but this video helped a lot for understanding the existing system. Never thought to try a negative value.
Thank you so much for putting all these videos. I saw them all and I can tell my experience with the platform is so much better. Really appreciate the effort you put on it.
You're very welcome!
Came here to say the same... :)
Really enjoying this series. Definitely a life saver.
Happy to help!
I just started learning to use Roll20 as a GM. This video saved me from giving up. Roll20 wasn't remembering my token settings or values, so I thought you just had to re-enter it every time you dropped a token.. Until you explained the right way to link token and character. You have to set up your token settings how you want it, save those token settings, THEN link the token to the sheet.
It's something that even now I still forget to do sometimes after I make changes to a token.
This is such a comprehensive and engaging tutorial. Im very impressed and I think you should make tutorial videos for peoples products for a living. Solved all my issues and taught me more than a few things along the way. THANX!
Excellent! Glad it was helpful. I enjoy teaching, hoping to have more time for tutorial making eventually.
Ugh. So simple to link the token. I was editing the HP and AC every time we moved to a new page. Thanks, man!
Glad it helped!
Great videos. Really helping me move online with all of the quarantine craziness these days. Question for you on the re-registering of the tokens. Do you have to do that each time someone casts a spell like Darkvision, or is that built in in any way?
Only if you want to retain the darkvision permanently. For example if they got goggles of night. For temporary darkvision such as a spell or blessing from a twilight cleric you would just change their settings for the duration of the spell and then change it back. There is a fantastic API script for toggling sight, but API is no covered by these videos.
Definitely helpful to know that I can alt double click a monster and their sheet will pull up!
Yea when I first learned that shortcut it was a huge quality of life upgrade.
I would have saved some hours if I had watched this video before. Great material! Please do an update on dynamic lighting!
It's on my massive to-do list. I'm working on Foundry Migration this month, but I can't imagine leaving Roll20 behind completely. I'll need to learn new dynamic lighting as well.
@@CrashGem Take your time, no problem, of course. Again, congratulations on the series.
Has roll20 had an update that removes the advanced options from the tokens? or is it a premium thing?
Advanced tab has been removed. It's been a year since this series was created, looks like it's time to record a new one.
I guess we just have to go without vision for our characters for now :(
It doesn't seem like there is even an option to give tokens vision in the free version since dynamic lighting is paywalled. Or am i missing something? I'm cramming before our second game. These are really helping.
Glad they are helping. It’s likely you are not seeing any lighting options because of the paywall. I definitely recommend a paid account for the DM of each group, even if the group splits the cost. But you should be able to use fog of war to hide maps if you can’t use dynamic lighting.
@@CrashGem Ok yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah I think I'm going to upgrade. It worked really well for the first game and I'm saving so much money on not going out, eating out, going to the movies, driving, dating...
Welcome to the pandemic. Now that you are learning roll20 it’s all Dungeons & Dragons all the time.
@@CrashGem Great videos by the way, thanks.
@@CrashGem OMG I think you just blew my mind! Are you saying that with Dynamic Lighting you don't need fog of war? I've been wrestling with this for a while now and your dynamic lighting video was awesome.. enlightening (haha.. get it?) even!
Do you need a Plus account to link the tokens? I can't seem to link the token to a character sheet permanently. And yes, I first put the token on the map, link it to the sheet and only THEN open the character sheet and register the token with the sheet. Still, a duplication of the token creates a generic version. Also, there is no "Advanced" tap in my token like shown in the video.
Linking the tokens should not be paywalled. It is important to re-link the token(s) any time changes are made to them. A bit tedious, but just how the workflow is on this platform. On the chosen character sheet you would go to edit, default token(optional) remove the existing one and link the selected one with the latest changes you want to save. Just tested on my free account.
Yea, this series is now almost a year and a half old. There have been some updates to the Roll20 interface and a big overhaul of the dynamic lighting. I really need to record a newer series to cover the updates, but schedule is currently packed.
why don't I see advanced features when editing a token?
is it because I don't have premium?
My tokens say Token settings at the top and have Details and GM notes but no advanced option when double clicking.
Sadly, these tutorials are starting to age out. Many menu changes have been implemented
I can't get to the Edit token screen, I just get to a screen which says Token Settings, yet is not the same window.
yeah same and i cant change the lighting stuff either
Unfortunately this video was made back in April 2020. Roll20 has changed their dynamic lighting system since then. I'm looking at recording an updated version of the video, but it might require redoing the whole series, which would be a big undertaking.
The token for one of my players doesn't display the green hp bar above it like all of the tokens for the other players. If you select the token you see the red, green, and blue circles above it, though. I thought I set them all up the same way. Any ideas?
sounds like the settings need to be adjusted and the token needs to be re-registered to the sheet. Keep in mind there are many different token settings and that changing anything without registering the new token t the associated sheet, only solves your problem for that one instance of the token.
Nice video man, helps me a lot!
I'm new to roll20 and now I'm setting up a cyberpunk2k20 session. At 11:39 in the video you simply pull the character sheet onto the table and automatically show the token attached to it, but when I try to do the same, it doesn't work.
This function is some "Plus member only"? I do exactly as shown in the video :(
once registered, the token should spawn whenever you drag it to the table. I don't believe it is a paid feature to do so.
@@CrashGem Ok, so i found whats i'm doing wrong
I was trying to drag drog on the 3 bar icon that shows once you have the mouse over the character sheet.
The right way is to drag and drop the CHARACTER NAME hahaha
Thanks tha help man ; )
@@gabrielaraujo890 glad you got it sorted out.
Totally new to Roll20 and I'm running a game next week. How do I un-link my tokens? Example: I pull over two goblins but when one takes damage, they both take damage. Kind of a pain when there are 20 goblins.
Yes, that is such a pain. Double click on a goblin mini. Using the drop down next to HP set the value to none. keep the HP numbers though. Now open the goblin character sheet. Remove the current token and register the token you just changed. Now goblins you drag into play will not have linked HP.
Great teacher, thanks for taking the time to do this.
Happy to help!
These videos are very useful. One thing thats not clear to me (as the DM) is what players can do vs what the DM does in character creation. It would be very useful if you put together a video aimed at players explaining how to make a character. The DM can then email the link to lpayers ahead of time explaining how to make characters.
for example, do players or DMs register their tokens. Does the player or DM have access to the vision/light configurations
Ah. I follow you. Sadly, unless you are running the API script welcome package, players can't even make character sheets. The DM has to make characters sheets, assign them to players, and when the sheets are filled out, set up their tokens for them. All the players can do is use charactermancer to make a character with the sheet assigned to them.
But yea, a "what can I do as a player in roll20" video might be good.
Is there a way to have all tokens display health by default
There used to be, not sure what it is nowadays, but you can adjust token defaults under roll20 world settings.
This series is amazing
Glad you are finding it helpful!
i dont know if its only for me or maybe roll20 just removed it but there isnt any advanced option now for the tokens...
That makes sense. This series is over 2 years old now. I keep meaning to re-record it, but I have so many other projects going on.
So would you have to reregister a token if casting darkvision spell?
You would re-register the token if you wanted it to always default to having darkvision. I will be posting a video soon explaining a simple API script that can enable quick changing of token lighting, but for now, you would need to manually change out sight/lighting on each token.
@@CrashGem picked up pro version. Eagerly awaiting your upload.
Is the advanced setting something you have to pay for? Like to add vision? It's my first time running a game for brand new players and I just want to know in case if I have to figure out the stuff manually
Honestly unsure anymore. These videos are now 3 years only and I stopped using Roll20 about 2 years ago. (I',m on FVTT now)
Re: the "green" hit points - uh, you can change the color in the game's master settings - the gear at the top of the chat window. Those are just the default colors.
TIL
I have a problem. You said that when the character sheet and token are linked, the token will be set up for anything. But when I have it saved and bring in the same token as a duplicate, the values are missing and therefore I'd have to do it over again. Any ideas on how to fix it?
Sounds like you need to re-register the token after making the changes you want.
I was going through the wiki and saw your video. I honestly have no idea what I did wrong. I have the tokens linked up to the character sheet for both my players and monsters. I went through both a pc and npc following your video and if I were to drag a new one from the Journal they still represent none/generic Token.
Edit: Fixed my own problem LOL. Did things in the wrong order.
Glad you found the solution.
Awesome videos! Sub!! I like your mini token border designs. Where can I get them or make them?
It's a PSD template i created. You can download it here: bit.ly/tokentemplate
Hi, question: am I required to use tokens and such if I'm only doing 'theatre of the mind'?
Great series btw
It's a nice quality of life to be able to double click a picture of your character or npc and have the sheet open, but not required for TotM.
Looks like the "advanced tab" are not available for me
Advanced tab has been removed. It's been a year since this series was created, looks like it's time to record a new one.
@@CrashGem would be cool. The info vids from the offical roll20 yt are so bad it is hard to explain in words.
@CrashGem is there an alternative way to add vision by any chance?
I´m using Beyond20, is there something I should be aware of?
I don't know, I don't use Beyond20.
That last little part where you have to go back to the character sheet and say use selected token? Yea, I forgot that part and had to redo everything twice in a session and couldn't figure out why 😂
What is Human(EK) from in character creation? Is that an alternate name for human variant? I know I bought the DM bundle, but IDK what EK is coming from.
I believe EK is Essential Kit.
A thought on why they may have used green for HP: Many colorblind people, such as myself, perceive the color red much darker than those with color sight do. Looking at the value (lightness / darkness) of the shade of red that they used, it is dark enough that my eyes register it as being pretty much black. If it were to be used for HP and was on a dark background, the bar would be pretty much invisible to me and a lot of people with colorblindness.
Additionally (and probably more likely), green is often associated with life, so that is likely why they choose for it to be used for HP. I get why you would want it to be red though. Red is associated blood, which keeps us alive. That's why it's so often used for health meters in games. You'll often see games change their health meters based on how many HP you have left; green when you are healthy and full of life, yellow when you are moderately wounded, and red when you are in heavily wounded /critical condition / bleeding out.
Thank you for putting these videos out. Due to the coronavirus situation, my groups have not been able to meet to play, but we are going to play our first Roll20 session tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it, and your videos are a big help in making the software easier to learn. Keep up the awesome work!
I have a few colorblind players across my many groups, so in addition to using red, I make sure everyone knows HP on the left and AC on the right. Like most things, communication within the group is the real secret to success. Hope your first roll20 game is a big success!
@@CrashGem The session went very well! There were a few technical issues getting things started, but, once we got going, everything was smooth. We started with a bar fight, then tracked down a goblin with a bounty on his head. Lots of fun and laughs were had by all.
@@xalith good to hear! the bar fight is so iconic kobold press made it a monster. www.5esrd.com/gamemastering/monsters-foes/monsters-by-type/humanoids/bar-brawl/
So glad I found these. Excellent for new Roll20 GMs. One question, when I add GM Notes to a players TOKEN, these notes disappear when I drag the PC from the Journal to a new page/map? So I have to Copy/Paste the Token from 1 page to another in order to keep the Token GM Notes. No biggie but is there a way to have Token notes carried forward via Journal?
Alt+Double click the mini and make the notes in the GM Notes section of the actual character sheet, not the token options. If you mess a token you have to re-register the token to the associated sheet if you want to save those changes, even comments.
love it thank you soo much! i have a question if i may?, how did you get the bar and the character name big like that? mine are super small almost invisiable without background you cant read anything.
I believe my chrome browser is zoomed in for the video.
omg i needed this so much!
I am glad you found it!
Love your videos. But 1 idea I hope you use..... Any chance you can start linking your other videos? I watch one and you say in a previous video I showed X -- but how the heck do you find that video? I've been bouncing around like a fool.
The playlist is linked in the description! You can also find it here: bit.ly/roll20tips
Why did they do everything so complicated !?
No idea, but it was one of the hardest things for me to learn and remember about Roll20.
Everyone is here complimenting your series and I’m just here saying that the character in the thimbnails look hot a f
It's true. No shame.