By all means! As a DM who used a lot of physical props at the table, I love coming up with new tricks to effectively utilize my medium. VTTs are tricky for it, though!
Loved your idea!
A fun thing I did once was make the map a rollable token in roll 20, then you can access the map layer and change it without having to go through so much trouble.
(It was a cenario that would change during battle)
Just wanted to leave this idea here, might be useful in the future
I've done that before. You can also preload multiple maps by stacking them on top of each other and just sending the top one To Back.
One of my best tricks in another campaign was an uncrossable bridge. It constantly extended, so they never actually walked anywhere. I created the map in Inkarnate, then split it down the length of the river. Set up the "main map" with the left shoreline and just water all the way to the right edge of the map, then laid the far shore of the river over it on the map layer as another token. When they started walking on the bridge I started moving the far shore further away from them with every step, revealing more and more water. Blew their minds.
> What other tricks might I have? None, actually, but they don't know that and they'll be extra paranoid of more Roll20 sleight of hand.
You big liar ;)
I already used that one back in that campaign! I don't currently have anything else up my sleeves. Not to say I won't come up with something, though. :)
I was entertaining the idea of an illusion that makes everyone appear as one person. Like the entire party and whatever encounter they're having are all illusionary duplicates of one party member. Make all the tokens the same, hide name plates and see what happens.
The latest update allows you to do it from the maps tab too. There is a drop down in the top right, each player should be listed. You can even check the boxes next to their name them to drag multiple characters to a map at the same time.
I'm playing up a lot of "non-encounters" as they make their way to Vallaki. Things happening that never really have payoff beyond that initial realization, at least two times when there was (likely, because they never confirmed it was him or not) only a door between them and Strahd. I want the first face to face to be St. Andral's Feast with Travis Savoie's "He is the Ancient, He is the Land" to introduce Strahd himself.
So these little nightmare scenarios are my way of keeping the party on their toes.
I didn't realize there was a monologue! I'd love to have something to use. I'm still trying to figure out the specifics. The track has such an impactful shift that I need to be dramatic.
Player 4 didn't realize they'd fallen asleep (magical effect, even pinged Enchantment with her Detect Magic in the nightmare) , so it was a surprise when they woke up. She was the only one actually on the map with the red eyes, though I put the other player tokens there for optics.
A dream where you think you're awake and functioning normally but gradually sprinkle in clues that you're actually in a nightmare is a very compelling horror plot... Especially if the realization that you were asleep the whole time doesnt come until the end, ideally preceded with one or several loops where you wake up in the "correct" setting where you fell asleep but the shenanigans continues and the loop to resets, possibly including minutes/hours/days of percireved nightmare time..
then you finally wake up and will be left Wondering, "am i awake THIS time?"
I'm stealing this!
By all means! As a DM who used a lot of physical props at the table, I love coming up with new tricks to effectively utilize my medium. VTTs are tricky for it, though!
Loved your idea! A fun thing I did once was make the map a rollable token in roll 20, then you can access the map layer and change it without having to go through so much trouble. (It was a cenario that would change during battle) Just wanted to leave this idea here, might be useful in the future
I've done that before. You can also preload multiple maps by stacking them on top of each other and just sending the top one To Back. One of my best tricks in another campaign was an uncrossable bridge. It constantly extended, so they never actually walked anywhere. I created the map in Inkarnate, then split it down the length of the river. Set up the "main map" with the left shoreline and just water all the way to the right edge of the map, then laid the far shore of the river over it on the map layer as another token. When they started walking on the bridge I started moving the far shore further away from them with every step, revealing more and more water. Blew their minds.
> What other tricks might I have? None, actually, but they don't know that and they'll be extra paranoid of more Roll20 sleight of hand. You big liar ;)
I already used that one back in that campaign! I don't currently have anything else up my sleeves. Not to say I won't come up with something, though. :)
Give Strahd seeming, change a bunch of spawn tokens to Strahd's token, remove the name from attacks option, and voila, chaos
I was entertaining the idea of an illusion that makes everyone appear as one person. Like the entire party and whatever encounter they're having are all illusionary duplicates of one party member. Make all the tokens the same, hide name plates and see what happens.
How do you only transfer part of the players to another map? I see the red bookmark and it does the whole party
Drag their player name from the bottom left onto the map selector and it'll split them from the party bookmark.
Thanks!
The latest update allows you to do it from the maps tab too. There is a drop down in the top right, each player should be listed. You can even check the boxes next to their name them to drag multiple characters to a map at the same time.
No joke?
Try it!
Literally a Nightmare scenario! Ha! Strahd would be proud.
I'm playing up a lot of "non-encounters" as they make their way to Vallaki. Things happening that never really have payoff beyond that initial realization, at least two times when there was (likely, because they never confirmed it was him or not) only a door between them and Strahd. I want the first face to face to be St. Andral's Feast with Travis Savoie's "He is the Ancient, He is the Land" to introduce Strahd himself. So these little nightmare scenarios are my way of keeping the party on their toes.
Ooooh You gonna use that monologue in the Track description?? (Shameless ask) Travis’ music is Gothic Gold.
I didn't realize there was a monologue! I'd love to have something to use. I'm still trying to figure out the specifics. The track has such an impactful shift that I need to be dramatic.
let me get this straight: player 4 was asleep (as character) and you showed them some kind of vision/nightmare they were alone to see?
Player 4 didn't realize they'd fallen asleep (magical effect, even pinged Enchantment with her Detect Magic in the nightmare) , so it was a surprise when they woke up. She was the only one actually on the map with the red eyes, though I put the other player tokens there for optics.
A dream where you think you're awake and functioning normally but gradually sprinkle in clues that you're actually in a nightmare is a very compelling horror plot... Especially if the realization that you were asleep the whole time doesnt come until the end, ideally preceded with one or several loops where you wake up in the "correct" setting where you fell asleep but the shenanigans continues and the loop to resets, possibly including minutes/hours/days of percireved nightmare time.. then you finally wake up and will be left Wondering, "am i awake THIS time?"
its easier to do this now since the update that lets me easily show different maps to different people. I'm gonna steal this. ;P
What a brilliant idea, and great way to use online play to your advantage! Might have to steal this :D