So... our table has to go virtual due to a pesky pandemic. Have any of you used this site? Any quick hacks or tips specific to Hell's Rebels? They don't seem to have any of the character art or maps in the marketplace. I own digital copies though.
I've been running the game remotely.
It takes some work setting it up, but Roll20 can handle character sheets, maps, die rolling, pretty much everything. It even can handle video and audio, though with a larger number of people using Roll20 these days you might consider Discord for that part of it instead.
The chat bar lets you do text-based roleplay, descriptions, and the like. So you could even forgo audio and the like. Roll20 also includes the ability to have sound effects if you really felt like going full out, but you probably want to start slower seeing you've not used it before.
What I truly recommend is using the tutorial to learn things and then play around with it. The site is very versatile and while you might need to do a bit of setup ahead of time, Roll20 can handle things quite well.
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What I do for maps is take the Interactive Map (without the measurement squares) and do a screen shot. I edit the screen shot using MS Paint, upload the map, and then load the map and adjust it to fit the map grid. I also do the same for monster icons and player icons.
What I do for maps is take the Interactive Map (without the measurement squares) and do a screen shot. I edit the screen shot using MS Paint, upload the map, and then load the map and adjust it to fit the map grid. I also do the same for monster icons and player icons.
Two questions:
What do you do in MS Paint with them?
How do you do the map upload?
Fortunately, the first encounter will be on the easiest to design: First Warden level.
Then, we have a complicated ones: the series of Castle Kintargo battles I had planned OR the ambush in the Lucky Bones.
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I do have some tips for running and building games in Roll20. Not sure if it would be specific to Hell's Rebels but I'll hash them out here (sorry if this is a bit much for what you were looking for).
1.) Making Maps: As Tangent said you can take the maps from the Interactive PDF. I use the 'Take a Snapshot' function under the edit drop down. I then put that image into a free image software called GIMP and turn it into a png file and drag it onto the map layer of Roll20.
- A bit extra here but if you want to increase the quality of the maps you copy over in this way (As the resolution can be hurt quite a bit) go to
Edit < Preferences < General
Click 'Use Fixed Resolution for Snapshot tool images:' and you can set the pixels per inch up to 300.
Note, however, that Roll20 won't update maps that are more than 10MB in size. I've had to chop them in half carefully before and add them in seperately.
2.) Resizing maps can be a little difficult. To get it CLOSE to its original size you can right click the image in its layer on Roll20 and there will be a drop down for 'Advanced'. If you go to that drop down you can go to Align to Grid and it will have you draw a three by three box on the map to reflect a three by three section and it will resize the sheet accordingly.
3.) For tokens I tend to do google searches that reflect something about the character token I'm trying to make, find an image that fits (you can get lucky sometimes and images for creatures or NPCs from your path are somewhere in a Google Image Search), and then drop that image into GIMP. I follow this process using drop downs:
a. Ellipse Select Tool on left top row (making sure that the Fixed Aspect Ratio option is clicked below) and then select then drag a circle over the portrait.
b. Image > Crop to Selection
c. Layer > Transparency > Add Alpha Channel
d. Select > Invert
e. Edit > Clear
f. File > Export As
- In the Export As I turn it into a png file and then save it and put it onto the gm or object layer of the roll20 sheet.
If you don't feel like getting into that there are a ton of token creator tools that will pop up in a google search.
I was going to run Hell's Rebels at one point. I wish I still had some of those maps and tokens I could potentially share.
I found a much easier way to get the maps to align without doing the three-by-three method.
I count the number of squares on the map, both horizontally and vertically. I then set the map dimensions to be the same size, and resize the map accordingly. In doing so, the squares line up remarkably well. (I also use the cut-and-paste function to ensure the map is the same size as the grid in that case to make things easier.)
As for using MS Paint to edit these, I just use Save As and choose to save as a PNG file, and the crop function to eliminate unnecessary elements of the map.
I'm afraid I can't offer assistance with files or anything though as I'm a lot further back in the AP than you are.
Good fortune!
I used lots of screenshots using a shipping tool for maps
I also made tokens using a token maker. I should have them all still for book 4...
They don’t all line up exactly. And when one square is 10 feet it can be a little tricky . But still works well