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Roll20.net is probably the largest Virtual Table Top (VTT) platform for pen & paper role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons or Das Schwarze Auge. There you can play online with friends from all over the world and experience adventures together. Unfortunately, Roll20 is sometimes designed in an unintuitive way and can be overwhelming, especially for new players who already have a lot to learn about the game rules. Therefore, we have summarized everything important for you in this Roll20 tutorial so that you can focus entirely on the game!
Roll20 Account
First, you naturally need an account on Roll.net. Creating one is free and works like most websites, by creating your email and an account name and confirming them.
After you’ve created an account, you can subscribe to unlock some additional features. But this is absolutely not necessary in the beginning! Even if you want to run a game yourself, you don’t need these features, but they are very nice to have. Especially the larger amount of storage space that the Plus subscription offers is useful if you want to use many large maps. Additionally, Dynamic Lighting is very good for conveying the atmosphere of a scene well online.
Besides subscriptions, you also have the option to buy books. These include both rulebooks and pre-made adventures. The rulebooks unlock additional options during character creation, which we’ll get to shortly. They can also be shared by the game master with the group to give everyone access to the same options (called Compendium Sharing). The adventures should only be bought by Dungeon Masters and are therefore probably not relevant for you at first.
Creating a Roll20 Character
I’m assuming here that you already have a group whose game you’ve joined. If you don’t have a group yet, you can learn here how to find a role-playing group.
The Dungeon Master must create a character sheet for you in the Journal and make it visible and editable for you. Then you’ll find it through the menu at the top of the chat in the so-called Journal (marked in red in the image). Now it depends on which ruleset you’re playing. I’ll show the steps for creating a character for Dungeons and Dragons (5e) here. The process runs similarly with other rulesets though.
Dungeons and Dragons Character in Roll20
If you don’t have a character yet, you can be guided through the process via the “Use the Charactermancer” button. Here you’ll be helped step by step to calculate all values for your character and then your character sheet will be automatically filled with them. You can also change these values at any time afterwards, so don’t worry if you click something wrong. The problem with this method is that character options are very limited if you haven’t bought the rulebooks.
Alternatively, you can create a character elsewhere, for example on paper or at dndbeyond.com and then simply transfer it to the character sheet using the “Edit sheet directly” function. You can also search for items and spells via the “Compendium” tab next to the Journal and insert them into your character sheet by drag-and-drop. Here too, you’ll only see options from books you’ve purchased (except Basic Rules).
If you’ve already created your character at dndbeyond, you can also use beyond20 to make it easy for yourself!
In the upper right corner of the window for your character sheet, you’ll find an “Edit” button. This opens another window where you can further customize your character. Here you have the option to add a token that can represent your character later in combat. You can also upload an avatar that shows your character large. Additionally, you can change your character’s name here and add a description that other players can see.
If you want to take some time, you can also take a closer look at the Token Properties. These allow you, for example, to display a health bar or an aura around your character. But this isn’t necessary to play!
Important Tools for Playing on Roll20
Here you’ll find the tools you’ll be using all the time. A brief explanation of the various functions you’ll find on the left edge of your screen:
| Brush | Options for drawing and creating shapes. Often helpful for quick illustrations or markings. |
| Magnifying Glass | Changing the zoom. |
| Ruler | Measuring distances by holding the left mouse button. The distance per square can be changed in the Page Toolbar. |
| D20 | Mouseover for quick roll menu |
| Question Mark | Additional help |
Roll20 Chat Functions
Here you can chat about the game or also enter special code to roll dice. Here are the most important chat functions:
| Rolling dice | "/roll 1d20" |
If you want to roll specific dice that aren’t found in the tools or want to add bonuses directly, you can do it this way. |
| Roll dice only for the DM | "/gmroll 1d20" |
With this command, only the DM sees what you roll. |
| Inline rolls | "I deal [[1d12+5]] damage with my sword!" |
This way only the result is shown and can be used well in a description. |
| Write only to a specific person | "/w Paul what is your plan?" |
This way your message is only seen by the person whose name you mention. After /w, a dropdown menu with a player list should also open. |
There are many more chat functions with which you can modify or edit your messages even more. You can find these here, but they’re not necessary to play.
Image sources: Screenshots from Roll20.net
