I've been playing online a bit more frequently lately, and it's occurred to me that some players might find it useful if someone shared some tips and tricks to make working with Roll20 a little easier. So with that said, I'll run down what I know, starting with the basics, and work my way up to some more advanced stuff.
I encourage you all to create your own Roll20 "campaigns" for testing any or all of these tips; it's free, and it's always nice to see for yourself how things actually work ahead of game time.
Note: anything enclosed in quotes is just for me to denote what to enter: DO NOT INCLUDE THE QUOTES WHEN YOU USE THESE.
Chat commands:
Emotes: Starting off simple that most of you will probably be familiar with from online chat channels or MMOs, if you use the "/me" command, it will display whatever you have after the command as an action. For example, if "The Dude" were to type "/me saves the day!", it will show up in chat as "The Dude saves the day!"
Whispers: You can send private messages to specific players by using the "/w" (whisper) command; just type in "/w [name of player] [message]". If you use "gm" for the player name, it will send the message to the GM (or GMs).
Dice:
Basics
There are three ways you can roll dice in Roll20:
Dice Roller: If you click the d20 icon on the vertical toolbar on the upper-left side of the map, it will open the Dice Roller popup, which will all you to simply click on what you want to roll. The main drawback of this method is that you cannot use it with Macros (see below).
Chat commands: You can use commands like "/roll" to roll pretty much any dice expression you want; "/roll 2d6+3" will roll two six-sided dice, show you the individual die rolls, and total it all up. The main drawback of this style is that it takes up more space in the chat window than...
Inline rolling: Simply place your dice expression inside of two square brackets ("[[2d6+3}}"), and Roll20 will place the result in the line with whatever else you typed in. For example, enter "I get [[1d20+7]] to hit and deal [[2d6+3]] slashing damage" will result in something like "I get 15 to hit and deal 11 slashing damage" appearing in the chat log. The dice rolls will be highlighted to show that they are actually inline rolls, and hovering your mouse cursor over them will show you the dice expression used, as well as the individual dice rolls. This is the preferred method for using with Macros (again, see below).
Advanced Tricks Initiative: You can add a token to the initiative list with a die roll by adding "&{tracker}" to the dice expression ("[[1d20+6.06 &{tracker}]]"), which is particularly useful for Macros (below... again). Note that this adds the token you currently have selected to the list, so it won't work if you don't select a token, first. I have two tips for your initiative macros:
1. Like the example above, add your initiative modifier, divided by 100, to your roll. This way, when the GM sorts the list, it will properly break any ties that occurred. Some players will want to add it divided by 10, but that can cause problems when characters have a bonus of +10 or higher, so it's better to divide by 100.
2. Set your Macro (or Ability) as a Token Action instead of placing it in the macro quick bar. Since the Token Action bar only appears when you have a token selected, this prevents you from accidentally rolling without your token selected.
Critical threats and fumbles: By default, Roll20 will highlight any result that includes a die that rolled its maximum (such as rolling an 8 on a d8) in green, and any die that rolled minimum in red (for inline rolls, any dice expression that includes both will be highlighted in blue).
You can change this to highlight any range you want, which is helpful for expanded critical threat ranges and firearm misfire chances. You can increase the critical threat range by throwing "cs>##", where "##" is the lowest number in your threat range, after the dice (such as "1d20cs>18" for an 18-20 threat range). You expand the "critical failure" range by using "cf<##", where "##" is the highest number in the range (such as "1d20cf<3" for a 1-3 misfire chance on a firearm). You can combine these, in either order (so "1d20cs>18cf<4" and "1d20cf<4cs>18" do the same thing).
GM rolls: You can make a roll only you and the GM can see by using the "/gmroll" (also works with "/gr"). This works just like the "/roll" command, only it will be sent as a whisper to the GM.
Since you can put an inline roll in any chat message, you can send private rolls using the whisper command.
Math: You do not have to include an actual die roll in an inline roll; you can use this for doing basic math, as well. This is mostly useful when using Attributes (below), and can be used to do things like calculating DCs. As an example, last time I played my alchemist, I included the DCs of his bombs as an inline roll, so that if he increased his Intelligence by drinking his cognatogen, the save DC would automatically update.
There are also math-related functions you can use, for things like rounding, absolute values, etc; you can find them (and more) on the Roll20 wiki.
Macros:
Basics
Macros are, in essence, a pre-set series of chat messages and command that you can use on the fly to speed up your game. Common uses are to automate attacks (including damage rolls), saving throws, or skill checks, or even just a wall of text to remind people how one of your abilities works. Basically, anything you know you might have to do more than once, you might consider setting up a macro to take care of it.
Configuring Macros
You can create Macros under the "My Settings" tab (click the gear icon above the chat window). The very top of the tab will be the "Macros" section. You can create new macros by clicking the "+ Add" button to the right of the "Macros" header, and you can edit existing macros by clicking the name of the macro in the list. From the "Edit Macro" popup, you simply give it a name (any spaces will automatically be replaced by dashes), and enter the commands you want the macro to perform in the "Actions" section.
Using Macros
There are four ways of triggering macros:
Settings tab icon:[b] Next to each Macro on the "My Settings" tab is a d20 icon. Clicking it will use the Macro.
[b]Chat command: Type a hashtag (#) followed by the macro name ("#dagger") in the chat window. Bonus points: you can use this in a macro to have your macro use a macro, so you can macro while you macro!
Macro Quick Bar: Turn the Macro Quick bar on by click the checkbox next to "Show macro quick bar?" under the list of your macros, and then add the macro to the bar by checking the "In Bar" box to the right of the macro in the list. From there, just click the corresponding button at the bottom of the map any time you want to use the macro.
Token Actions: You can set a macro as a Token Action by checking the "Show as Token Action?" box in the Edit Macro popup. This is similar to the Macro Quick bar, except that it appears at the top of the map screen, and only if you have a token selected. This is useful for macros that need a token to be selected, such as an initiative macro.
Characters
A "Character" in Roll20 is basically an entry in the Journal (accessed by click the icon that looks like a stack of papers at the top of the chat window) that represents exactly that: a character. Only a GM can create a Character, but once created, they can assign them to players to be able to use and edit, and can by viewed and edited by click on their name in the Journal tab. You can use characters for several things.
Impersonating:
At the bottom of the chat window, next to the "Send" button, you may have noticed an "As:" drop-down window. This will list your display name (set in the "My Settings" tab), as well as any Character assigned to you. Any chat message you send will be displayed as being from that name.
For example, if a player playing a Vigilante known as "Lamont Cranston" in his social identity, and "The Shadow" in his vigilante identity, has both a "Lamont Cranston" and a "The Shadow" Character assigned to him, he can send messages as either "Lamont Cranston" or "The Shadow" (or as his display name).
Abilities:
Abilities are just Macros that are part of the Character, and can be viewed or edited under the "Attributes & Abilities" tab of the Character popup. You can use them as a GM or player to create attack or saving throw macros associated with specific creatures or PCs. Any Ability assigned to the Macro Quick bar will always show up in the bar, but Abilities assigned as Token Actions will only show up when tokens representing that Character are selected. If your Token Action Abilities aren't showing up when you select your token, ask your GM to ensure that your token is set to represent your Character.
A key difference to using Abilities as opposed to Macros: first, you use Abilities by using a percent sign (%) instead of a hashtag, and second, unless you are using an Ability from within another Ability, you need to specify the Character name, in the format of "%{Character Name|Ability Name}". If you were using an Ability from with another Ability on the same Character, you could use "%{Ability Name}", instead.
Attributes:
This is where the REAL magic happens!
Attributes are variables assigned to a Character, that you can then use as part of your Macros or Abilities. You can set them in the same "Attributes & Abilities" tab where you configure your Abilities. Once set, you can access them similarly to access Abilities: in the format of "@{Character Name|Attribute Name}" (or "%{Attribute Name}" from an Ability on the same Character). In addition, Attributes themselves can be set to pull from other Attributes, allowing you to do things like calculate an ability modifier from an ability score.
For example, if you wanted to make an attack roll for a ranged attack, you could set an Attribute named "bab", and another named "DEX-mod", and set your attack Ability to roll "[[1d20 + @{bab} + @{DEX-mod}]]". If you later had something like cat's grace cast on you, you could edit your "DEX-mod" Attribute accordingly, and all of your Abilities and Macros that use it will use the new value, without having to be edited individually.
Character Sheets:
This is the single best feature of Characters, when it comes to setting up new Characters.
Character Sheets are essentially pre-defined sets of Attributes and Macros, laid out like a real-life character sheet, allowing you to quickly and easily set up a Character's ability scores, set their saving throw bonuses, and even create attack macros. The Character Sheet even provides buttons for you to click on to quickly roll things (you'll see those little d20 icons all over; click any of them). If you want to use any of the Attributes they set, just hover your mouse cursor over them, and the tooltip will tell you their names (in fact, the "bab" and "DEX-mod" Attributes I mention in my Attribute example are actual Attributes provided by the "Pathfinder" Character Sheet).
The Character Sheet used is a per-campaign setting that the GM must set on the Campaign Settings page; if you do not see a "Character Sheet" tab inside your Character, that means the GM has not set one. Even in campaigns that are set with a Character Sheet format, they are entirely optional. Even if your GM doesn't want to use Character Sheets themselves, you can ask them to set it, and it won't interfere with anything they've set up.
Personally, I prefer the "Pathfinder" Character Sheet, but there are others available to choose from, including a "Pathfinder (simplified)".
Protip: You can drag-and-drop any of the roll icons from the Character Sheet into your Macro Quick bar (not your Token Action bar), but only if the Character popup isn't in a separate window, and you can't drag rolls from any "repeatable" section (anything you click an "Add" button to create).
Character Vault:
This is a feature only available if either you or the GM involved is a subscriber, but if you play the same character in multiple Roll20 games and this feature is available, USE IT USE IT USE IT!
In a nutshell, you can import any Character assigned to you in any campaign created by a Roll20 subscriber into your "Vault", and then export that Character into any other game you've joined where the GM is a subscriber. If you are a Roll20 subscriber, you can import/export characters from ANY game you've joined!
You access your Character Vault from the Roll20 homepage, under the "Tools" drop-down menu. From there, it's pretty self-explanatory. Click the "+ Import Existing Character" to import a Character from an existing game, or click "Export to Game" next to one of the Characters in your Vault to move them into a new game.
Any Attributes and Abilities that are a part of that Character will transfer over, but Character Sheet formats won't; the savvy amongst you will recognize that that's because Character Sheets are a per-campaign setting. Using this will obviously allow you to move a character from game to game, with minimal updating needed. Imagine: not having to set up your attack macros every time you join a new PFS game!
Heck, if you're a subscriber yourself, you could even create a "campaign" consisting of nothing but your own PFS characters, then transfer them over to any Roll20 tables you might play.
Two things to note:
1. GMs must enable character importing under the campaign settings page to allow you to do this; non-subscribers should still be able to enable this, but in that case only players who are subscribers will be able to import.
2. Imported Characters will not be assigned to any player, even if they were in the campaign they came from; make sure to ask the GM to assign the Character after you import it.
Templates
This is the feature that prompted me to write this post in the first place. Templates are essentially special formats (usually tables) you can use to make your Macros more readable. The Template formats available are determined by the Character Sheet the campaign uses (which can cause minor problems for Characters imported from campaigns that used a different Character Sheet, as the Template formats you used in your Abilities might not be available), but there is a "default" Template that is available for all campaigns. I'll go over the basic formatting needed to use a Template, and then go over some specifics of the "default" template, and some of the Templates provided by the "Pathfinder" Character Sheet.
Template Formatting:
First thing first: the ENTIRE Template must be on ONE line (not counting word-wrap)! If you put any part of it on a new line, Roll20 won't consider that part of the Template, and won't be displayed as part of that table.
First, you have to declare what Template format you're using, like this: "&{template:template name}"; so if you want to use the "default" template, that would be "&{template:default}".
Second, you can set any "property" like so: "{{property name:property value}}". A common property that all Template formats use is "name", which will display it's value in the header of the table. Usually, any unrecognised properties will be added as a row on the table, with the property name on the left, and the property value on the right.
That's it; all there is to setting up a Template is to declare the Template format you're using, and then define any properties you want.
Default Template:
The Default Template (template name: "default") is very basic, and has no properties that are handled in any special way, except for the "name" property, as pointed out above. That said, the default template is available in EVERY campaign, regardless of what Character Sheet is used, or even if one is used at all, so you can always rely on it being available. The header will have a purple background, and each row will alternate between a gray and a white background.
"Pathfinder" Templates
These templates are only available as part of the "Pathfinder" Character Sheet. Each will have a header with a black background, and each row will alternate between a gray and a white background.
Common Properties:
The following are properties common to all "Pathfinder" Templates. The colons are not part of the property names.
character_name: Optional; if used, will place the property before the name property in the header (displayed like "character_name : name").
character_id: Doubly optional, only use if you also use the character_name property: turns the character_name into a link to a Character page. Set this to the character_id Attribute of the appropriate character, or don't use it at all.
Unrecognised properties will be displayed on their own row, in the format of "Property name: property vaule".
Generic:
Other than the black header background and the properties common to all "Pathfinder" Templates, this isn't any different from the Default Template; template name "pf_generic".
Attack:
The Attack template (template name: "pf_attack") has a few specially handled properties that make it particularly awesome for all of your attack macros.
attack: This property should be your attack roll; don't forget to set your critical threat range (see Macros), because it's going to come into play!
damage: Obviously this will be the attack's non-critical damage, and will be displayed indented from the "attack" property.
crit_confirm: This is your critical hit confirmation roll; it will also be displayed indented from the attack roll, but will only be displayed if the attack roll is a critical threat! crit_damage: This is the additional damage done on a critical hit; add it to the base damage to get the full damage on a crit. Like crit_confirm, it will only appear if you score a critical threat.
description: This will be displayed as a line without any prefix at the bottom of the template, taking up the whole row by itself.
Finally, if you place additional properties, named after the first four properties above, but with a number from 2 to 8 at the end, they will add additional attacks to the Template; use these if you want a one-button full-attack macro (or just put them all on separate Templates in the same Macro, or have one Macro call Macros with each attack).
Defense:
Intended for saving throws; very basic, template name "pf_defense".
Save: The saving throw roll goes here.
Final Tips & Tricks
Here's a few final things:
1. You can set a token's bars to represent Attributes on the Character they represent. For example, you could set Bar 1 to represent the "HP" Attribute, which I find especially useful to sync the HP bars between my Vigilante's social and vigilante identity tokens.
2. In a Macro or Ability, you can access the selected token as if it were a character named "selected"; amongst other things, it has a "token_name" "Attribute" that returns the name of the token. I use this with my Vigilante to have the name of the token selected show up in my Templates, even though they're coming from Abilities on the same Character. You can also access any Attributes of the Character that token represents via the "selected" name.
3. You can find the Roll20 wiki here.
If anyone else has any tips or tricks they want to share, feel free to comment below!
It has been (correctly) pointed out that in the first inline roll example, I accidentally closed the roll with curly braces ("[[2d6+3}}") instead of the square braces it should use ("[[2d6+3]]").
New tip! If you want your macro to ask for things to add, you can use what's called a "roll query". For example, if you want your macro to ask if you should add the bonus from Point-Blank Shot, you could format something like this: "I get [[1d20 +5 +?{Point-Blank Shot}]] and [[1d8 + 3 + ?{Point-Blank Shot}]] damage". In this instance, since both queries are named the same thing, it will only ask once, and use the answer in both places it's used.
You can also specify a default value, like this: "?{Point-Blank Shot|1}".
Thanks very much for that guide; as someone who's just getting back into GMing over Roll20 (and hasn't spent much time dabbling with macros) it's very helpful.
Using this information plus a sample macro from the wiki, I made the following generic GM initiative macro, for when you just want to input the initiative bonus manually:
/emas @{selected|token_name} rolls a [[1d20+(?{modifier|0})*1.01&{tracker}]] for initiative!
I named it 'gminit' and made sure the 'Show as Token Action?' box was ticked. It seems to be working fine after a little testing.
Any other sample macros gratefully received!
Mike Kimmel
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
This is great. Thank you! I've played with a few friends on roll20, and we always lose a lot of time fiddling with the program and trying to figure out how to do things. A handy reference like this will save us a lot of time.
Using this information plus a sample macro from the wiki, I made the following generic GM initiative macro, for when you just want to input the initiative bonus manually:
/emas @{selected|token_name} rolls a [[1d20+(?{modifier|0})*1.01&{tracker}]] for initiative!
I named it 'gminit' and made sure the 'Show as Token Action?' box was ticked. It seems to be working fine after a little testing.
As a hardcore fan of Character Sheets and templates, I find myself compelled to suggest this:
First, you can access the Attributes created by Character Sheets, and they all have the same names, making them ideal for this kind of macro. The "Pathfinder" sheet includes an "init" Attribute, which appears on the "Core" tab of the sheet. Set that up for each of the NPCs (only need one sheet for multiple identical creatures), then try this macro for your token action:
That's basically an edited version of the macro the Init button in the character sheet uses.
Bonus Tip: If you stack the inline rolls like that, it'll resolve the inner one first, so the innards won't be visible when you mouse-over the outer inline result; for example, a character with a +8 init bonus would see "1d20 + 8.08", instead of "1d20 + (1.01 * 8)".
Bonus Tip 2: Click on any roll button on a Character Sheet, then click in the chat box (the part where you type) and press the up arrow on your keyboard; what you should see come up is the macro the Character Sheet just used.
a good tactic (as GM) is to whisper yourself relevant info in the macro, such as the save DC and the results of any variables (like number of rounds for effects)
/em the creature fires a stream of acid
Touch AC [[ 1d20+6 ]] + fort save
/w gm DC [[ 18 ]] or blinded for [[ 1d4 ]] rounds
if you're a player - you can whisper the GM the results of your stabilisation checks in secret
/w gm stabilization [[ 1d20 + ?{con modifier} - ?{negative HP total} ]] vs DC [[10]]
/w gm stabilization [[ 1d20 + ?{con modifier} - ?{negative HP total} ]] vs DC [[10]]
Ignoring the obvious opportunity to use the Con mod from a character sheet, you can access the bars on the selected token like you would Attributes. For example, if you store your HP in bar 1, you could use this:
/w gm stabilization [[ 1d20 + @{selected|CON-mod} + @{selected|bar1} ]] vs DC [[10]]
Note that I added bar 1 because negative numbers, yo.
I didn't use the con mod from the character sheet because 90% of my players dont use the character sheets and they dont always use bars for HP either
I mainly posted that to show people how to access those bars via macros, although I have yet to play in a game where tracking your HP via one of those bars wasn't mandatory...
On the topic of using those bars, keep in mind that you have three of them, so you can use the other two for tracking other resources, but you can also use them for tracking temporary bonuses. You could use one for bonuses to attack and one for damage, then have all your attack macros automatically add them in.
Seems a little tacky to suggest this of my own thread, but if the Grand Lodge Online Play forums are intended to provide these kind of tutorials (as the Welcome thread indicates), should a thread teaching people how to use what is probably the most popular VTT site out there at the moment be considered for being stickied? Seems like the kind of thing that should be in easy view for newbies, to me.
If, instead of having a text field to type into, you want to have a drop-down list, you can! Just separate each option with a vertical bar ("|"); whichever option you put in first will be the default.
But what if you want that drop-down list to have the options be text, but use a number in the macro? Just separate them with a comma!
Example:
?{Point-Blank Shot|Yes,1|No,0}
This will give you a drop-down list with "Yes" and "No" as options, with "Yes" as the default; if you choose "Yes", it'll be the same as if you entered "1", and if you choose "No", it'll be the same as entering "0".
Here's an example of what you could use a custom Attribute for: Power Attack!
As we all know, the penalty for Power Attack starts at -1, and increases by 1 for every 4 points of Base Attack Bonus.
Let's also assume you're using the Pathfinder character sheet, and you've filled it out enough that it has your BAB in there.
Create a custom Attribute by opening your Character from the Journal (protip: holding Shift and double-clicking a token will open the Character that token represents), going to the "Attributes & Abilities" tab, and clicking the "+ Add" button just to the right of "Attributes"; new Attributes will be on the bottom of the list.
Name the Attribute "power-attack", and for it's "current" value, enter this:
[[1 + floor(@{bab}/4)]]
What that will do is take your BAB, divide it by four, round down, and add one; this will get you the penalty you get for using Power Attack with your Base Attack Bonus. You can use this for damage, too; just multiply it by 2 for a weapon wielded one-handed, 3 for a weapon wielded two-handed, or 1 for an off-hand or secondary natural weapon.
An example of using this with a roll query (one-handed weapon):
Attack roll: [[ 1d20 + 5 - ?{Power Attack|No,0|Yes,@{power-attack}} ]]
Damage roll: [[ 1d8 + 4 + 2*?{Power Attack|No,0|Yes,@{power-attack}} ]]
EDIT: It occurs to me you could also put the whole damn roll query in the Attribute, too, if you wanted your macros to be a little cleaner.
"power-attack" Attribute: ?{Power Attack|No,0|Yes,[[1 + floor(@{bab}/4)]]}
Attack roll: [[ 1d20 + 5 - @{power-attack} ]]
Damage roll: [[ 1d8 + 4 + 2*@{power-attack} ]]
