Roll20 Tips and Tricks

This entry may be limited in scope, but this is just a compiled list of all of the quick shortcuts and methods that make using Roll20 easier I have found over the years. Many of these are documented elsewhere, but I have found there are still many who are unaware of some of these features.

Start sorting your uploads

Roll20 now offers the ability to make folders within your Library by clicking Add, which can help sort tokens and art that are uploaded for use. This is a great tool when you need to grab a random asset last minute, but want to avoid having to type or scroll. NOTE: IF YOU HAVE ASSETS THAT ARE CURRENTLY BEING USED IN A CAMPAIGN, MOVE ITEMS AT YOUR OWN RISK! IF AN ASSET IS MOVED, IT CAN BREAK THE LINK TO ALL CAMPAIGNS AND CAUSE THE IMAGE TO VANISH UNTIL YOU REPLACE IT FROM ITS NEW LOCATION!

Grab the Roll20 Enhancement Suite

A simple browser add on which provides you with a great deal of extra options and flexibility while in a session. I suggest both GMs and players look into this as it offers data importing into your games to help provide monsters, class abilities, spells, etc. See the link below for more information. This is a must have for anyone running 5th Edition!

Roll20 Enhancement Suite

Changing Grid Size

These days Roll20 offers a very easy way to change grid size under the map options by simply inputting the square's size in pixels in a box. However, you may notice that with many maps this still leaves the grid 1 - 2 pixels off.

The easiest way to make sure you get a proper grid 100% of the time is to take the grid size you wish to you, and divide it by 70. Place the entire number (every digit) in the cell width box.

Below is a list of common cell sizes and the values you would get:

64 Pixels - 0.9142857142857143
32 Pixels - 0.4571428571428571
16 Pixels - 0.2285714285714286
8 Pixels - 0.1142857142857143

Note that the smaller the grid size, the more lines that are drawn on the screen.

Placing Dynamic Lighting and testing it 

When dealing with Dynamic Lighting and laying it out, lower your grid size to half of what your normal grid size it. From there use the Polygon/Line Tool and hold Shift when placing points at grid corners. This will give you nice clean lines, and when you are finished you can change the Grid Size back.

Beautiful

To test Dynamic Lighting, drag a token onto the playing field and give it vision and set the light source values. While the token is selected, use CTRL + L in order to see what the owner of that token can see.

Saving player tokens across maps

When you set a token on the map, you can assign an owner through the Edit pane and assign values to the various bars. As you switch maps, you probably want to keep everything associated with this token for ease of transport.

Open the player's character sheet and hit Edit, then select the token on the board with all options you wish to keep enabled and then click on Default Token. As long as the token's art stays left alone in your Roll20 library, in the future you will just need to drag and drop the token onto the playing field and it will remain consistent.

Use a spare game to store unused assets

As a game goes on in length it is possible that the GM may start to accumulate handouts, monster stat blocks, and even whole maps. Roll20 can start to bog down for the GM as more maps and sheets are visible to them, which can be avoided by making a dummy game and moving items to and from using the Transmogrifier feature. This is a great way to store unused maps, character and monster stat blocks, and handouts that you may need to call upon later. While in a game session you can move things back and forth with no need to reload Roll20, allowing for quick access if needed.