Building Xyntillan on Roll20 - tables, dynamic lighting and maps

The kind of message you don’t want as you start to run a game

Last night was the fortnightly session for my Achtung! Cthulhu campaign, run on Roll20 for two sessions now that Role has dropped AV support. I was really looking forward to the session, especially as the game Trail of Cthulhu session for Eternal Lies was cancelled the day before before because the GM was unwell. I’d used the time I got back to do some proper preparation, rereading the scenario and the core rules to try and make things as slick as possible. I connected to the game in good time, and then - after about ten minutes when we were waiting for one of the players to arrive - the error message above popped up. I reconnected AV, relaunched the browser and fiddled until I realised that it was an issue with VirginMedia’s fibre connected, not Roll20, not Firefox, and not my WiFi mesh. To say I was disappointed was an understatement. I ended up having an earlier bed than planned.

I got woken up by the better half being restless around 4am, and by 5am I realised I wasn’t going to get any more sleep. The internet connection was back, so I put on the All About Eve Fairy Light Night gig recordings and reconnected to Roll20 to start on the next map section.

I had some issues getting the grid right. The pixel size written on the map didn’t match the reality of the file and it was a struggle to align the grid. Eventually, I used the size marked on the map and the option key to move the map to align to the grid; I’d forgotten that you can precise locate a map item or token with  that key press as a modifier. I need to remember to do that next map (part of the reason I’m writing this entry). In honesty, the instructions for using the map with Roll20 were good, it was just the final alignment that was tricky.

Working in the mapping layer

I started to add in the dynamic lighting. You do this by drawing on the mapping layer. You add walls/windows and one way fittings in by drawing them on. You can snap to the grid where it aligns by shift clicking, but it’s a little annoying when you do it free style (having to go off the grid intersections). The mouse pointer changes to a pen, and the line node is drawn below and to the left of the pen nib. I’d prefer a crosshair there as used in a lot of graphic programs, as it’s a bit hit and miss in getting an exact position. This also saw me adding some torches (for light from fireplaces) as light sources on the lighting layer, and some doors. The doors are easy to do, but the big round nodes at the ends make it hard to be precise. I’ll need to do some testing to make sure they’re right in the future.

 

Building a table

I also started to build out a table; this was pretty simple. A point to note was that you can account for items  which have more than one entry on a table (for example, rolling 1&2 on a dice gets the same result) by adjusting the weighting. The principle should be the same for a multi-dice table, you’ll just need to work out how they weight against each other (for example, a roll of 7 on 2d6 would have a weighting of 6, whereas a roll on 12 or 2 would have a weighting of 1).

Overall, I’m enjoying learning this in a bit more depth. Most of the games I’ve run before on Roll20 have been pretty much using as built material with the odd simple map or NPC and token added.  I’ve still got a fair bit to do before I can open this game up for play.

18 January 2024