Your Guide to Roll20
Updated: Jul 6, 2021
Roll20- How do I use it?
Welcome, Adventurer, to the Mages of the Mountains Roll20 Introduction and Guide! If you’ve never played with us before, you may not be familiar with our virtual tabletop program, Roll20. Roll20 does pretty much what it sounds like - it creates a virtual space where we can use maps and players can control tokens, while also storing character sheets.
For this example, I’ll be using a human fighter named Jeffery to show off how Roll20 works.
Initial Settings
When you first log onto a new Roll20, there are a few settings you’ll need to toggle. Find the settings at the Gear Icon on the right side of the screen. Once you’re on the settings page, do the following things:
1] Check the boxes to Enable and Automatically Roll 3D Dice
2] Next, scroll down to Game Settings and set Player Video/Avatar Size as Names Only
3] Near the bottom, set yourself to Broadcast Nothing and Receive Nothing (disabled)
4] Finally, hit the Reconnect button to put the changes into effect
This will cause 3D dice to be rolled on the tabletop, get rid of the squares in the bottom left of the screen, and disable Roll20’s built in chat
Controls
As a player, you’ll have access to a few tools on roll20. Here’s a brief overview of each:
Pointer: Your main tool for selecting/moving your token. You can also move your screen view by dragging with right click or by scrolling.
Paintbrush: This tool lets you draw on the tabletop to create freehand drawings, rectangles/circles, polygons, or text. You can choose colors at will
Magnifying Glass: This tool zooms your view in or out. You can also do CTRL + Scroll
Ruler: This measures distances across the table. You can right click to drop an anchor and pivot. You can also measure character movement by hitting right click while moving.
Roller: This selects dice to roll, picking a size on the left and the number on the right of the menu. You can also roll with text commands like /roll 1d20
Your Character
Whenever you’re on Roll20, you should have a token you can control representing your character. Your character may look something like this. The circles above and below Jeffery pop up when you click on him.
Hit Points are represented by the green circle/bar
-You can set your HP to a new total by typing a number into the circle, or by typing a value like ‘+5’ or ‘-3’ to alter your total by that much
Armor Class is represented by the blue circle
You can move your character by left clicking on them and dragging them around the tabletop.
While you can see other player’s tokens, you will not be able to control them or enemy tokens
Art by Roll20