D&D options during quarantine - advice needed.

[DarcyFinn]

Hi all,

My regular group won't be meeting up in person for a bit due to C19 quarantine and health risks. But we have decided that we should try to find alternative ways to play to keep moral high while things are tough.

We are currently playing through Curse of Strahd, and have never played online before.
I am the DM and my party had just reached the amber temple, which is a pretty elaborate map.
Also to add, although I use standard maps for this module I don't often use the advised encounters.

What would people advise as potential online playing options. We really only need a map and the ability to move virtual tokens around. So:

A. Is Roll20 the best way to go - they have a CoS bundle. But does anyone know if I can hide parts of the map from the party, or add in custom tokens to the pregen map? Does Roll20 take a significant amount of learning just to use the map feature. I have tried to make my own maps but it just takes SO much time.

B. Something other than Roll20? We only really need a mapping feature that we can all use.

C. Get better at theater of the mind?

Sorry it's a bit if a muddled message. But any advice or suggestions would be massively appreciated. We really want to keep spirits up during a stressful time.

[JNAProductions]

I've used Google Sheets as a way to make maps. It takes some doing, but I found it easier than Roll20.

Hope you find a good solution! Good luck!

[Man_Over_Game]

Roll20 does have a steep difficulty curve, but it does include almost everything you can think of, including creating tag-based music playlists (search for "ambient" and "creepy"), having unique vision per player, and moving item cards from DM to Player resources.

However, you'll need to take a full-time class to utilize it to its full potential. Some DMs actually get paid to run decent campaigns by their players. But as long as you're only interested in the basics, you can learn what you need to know in about 2-4 hours of study and practice.

[Lyracian]

I play a lot on Roll20. Basic free subscription you can blank out bits of the map. Payed sub has dynamic lighting so you get to reveal as people move. We always use discord for voice so Roll20 is mostly map and dice roller. You can load tokens.

You can scan your own maps and upload them.

For my table top game we use DND Beyond for all the character sheets. With the 50% off PHB in the essentials kit almost everyone has that.

[Bobthewizard]

My child just played on Skype with their friends. It wasn't perfect, but they seemed to have fun and it was easy to set up. Everyone did their own rolls on their honor. It's probably best for friends who have been playing together in person for a while.

They play theater of the mind. JNAP's google sheets maps are easy to make and adjust and would make a good addition to Skype.

[Tawmis]

Discord is another option.

You can create separate text channels, have a voice channel. You can copy and paste directly (including images) into Discord (without the need to save it first).

So for example if you only want to show a part of the map - crop that area in say, PAINT, copy it - then simply paste it into the Discord channel.

Also if someone is talking, and shouldn't be - you can mute them (and they have to unmute themselves). This is handy when someone is just talking to their spouse about dinner, and unintentionally talking too loud and disrupting the game - a quick mute allows you as the DM to continue. Discord even has the option for PUSH TO TALK, which is also handy.

If you as the DM need to send direct messages, you can DM someone in Discord, like telling the Rogue they found, "325 gold and two rubies in the chest" before the rest of the party notices.

We're in the same boat - tonight we're doing a "one shot" with new characters to see how it works (so it won't impact our actual game in case it goes south).

[Daphne]

Discord is another option.

You can create separate text channels, have a voice channel. You can copy and paste directly (including images) into Discord (without the need to save it first).

DM can also share his screen if needed.

[Laserlight]

My son is literally 10,000 miles away, so he's been GMing a solo game with me using Discord. My first group session with me as DM will be Wednesday, although that should be mostly RP, no combat map needed.

[SirGraystone]

Fantasy Grounds is another option. You can add your own map or buy the CoS adventure for it. You can also add your own token and a lot more.

[Sigreid]

I use Fantasy Grounds, but this sounds like a temprary thiing. Before FG what we did was we found a dice roller online that we could all see (rollz.org which is temporarily down, but I'm sure there's others) and used discord to talk to each other. Worked fine.

Edit: If your group is not full of a bunch of cheating cheaters that cheat all the time, everyone can just roll their dice and say what they got.

[Reynaerde]

I've used Google Sheets as a way to make maps. It takes some doing, but I found it easier than Roll20.

Hope you find a good solution! Good luck!Can you maybe say a bit more on this? Because that sounds useful!

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Because of distance I play with discord and roll20 almost always (ones in half a year we can meet for a live game).

If you have problems with roll20 you can always position your camera above your physical map and everyone will roll at home with their dice(need to have trust in your players for this).
Just move their characters where they tell you when it is needed.

[Man_Over_Game]

Can you maybe say a bit more on this? Because that sounds useful!

Google sheets shows edits from other users in real-time.

Resize all of the columns and rows to form your cells into squares, become savvy with Border-creation shortcuts, align all of your cells to be vertically and horizontally centered, use different symbols for each character, and Cut-Paste when a creature moves from one place to another.

You can have it so that players move their own characters around the board, and it'll highlight those changes, in the player's Google name, to make it easier to track what's going on (although it could be easier for just the DM to control all movement in some situations).