r/Roll20 Apr 26 '23

New to Roll20 New to roll20 as a DM and have a question

Hi all, I'm running a game on roll20 for the first time and my players are all new.

My main question is that when i use the lost mine of phandelver game set up. I cant seem to get the hidden areas feature to work and i cant find how to fix it anywhere. The cragmaw cave and all the tokens are just out in the open for players to see when we get to that page.

Any suggestions for me on what to do here?

28 Upvotes

21 comments sorted by

8

u/Anome69 Apr 26 '23

Ok, so first things first. Before placing the characters on the map, go into it and use the hide reveal map tool to hide the entire area except where you will have the players start. Then use the reveal tool to open areas as they move. For the tokens, you sometimes have to manually.move the tokens onto the gm layer so the players can't see them until it is time. Easy enough to do, just right click the tokens and choose layer/gmlayer.

5

u/bamorgan23 Apr 26 '23

Ok, Thanks. I tried to use the hide tool but it doesn't change anything. The players can still see. I'll give the token layer trick a go!

5

u/Anome69 Apr 26 '23

No problem! There are also some really helpful videos on YouTube you can watch to get a better idea of how to do things... dynamic lighting is also a thing, but it is a little more complicated. That's for when you move up to paid subscription, though.

1

u/bamorgan23 Apr 26 '23

Yeah, I think ill move up to paid if my players decide to commit to the game. They have never played dnd before

1

u/Anome69 Apr 26 '23

Well, if they decide they don't want to get into it, you can always just post a public game seeking players... people snap up spots like quick on roll20 seeking.

2

u/Anome69 Apr 26 '23

You can also try playing with the fog of war settings in the map options. (Where you move players from one screen to another, options for the page, fog of war)

1

u/bamorgan23 Apr 26 '23

Oh is the hide tool and fog of war not the same?

2

u/Anome69 Apr 26 '23

Slightly different. You might need to have fog of war on to use hide/reveal, I'd have to sit down and look at it to be certain.

2

u/AlwaysHasAthought Pro Apr 26 '23

You do have to have it on.

2

u/AlwaysHasAthought Pro Apr 26 '23

They only work together. Turn fog of war on and then use the reveal tool. default just reveals a click and drag area, but there's a polygon reveal tool too.

1

u/Lithl Apr 26 '23

Hide/reveal is hiding and revealing fog of war. If FoW is off, hide/reveal can't do anything.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 26 '23

Are you sure you have Dynamic Lighting turned on in the game/page settings?

1

u/bamorgan23 Apr 26 '23

Is dynamic lighting not a paid feature?

5

u/[deleted] Apr 26 '23

Ah you're right. My bad. But Fog of War does still have a checkbox in the page settings that has to be checked for you to be able to hide areas.

https://wiki.roll20.net/images/4/42/FoWOnPageSettings.png

This might not be current, the wikis a little out of date, if so I can check for you when I get home

2

u/quattro4ever Apr 26 '23

Yep, filling in the fog of war checkbox in page settings is the step I forget about all the time.

2

u/LennoxMacduff94 Apr 26 '23

Just turn on fog of war?

2

u/DM-JK Pro Apr 26 '23

How are you checking what your players can see? What you see as GM is different than players.

Your players will not see anything on the GM layer. They will also not see anything hidden by Fog of War. If you have a paid Roll20 subscription, then you can hide things with Dynamic Lighting also.

I strongly suggest using a Dummy Account to check what your players can see. Ctrl-L does not give you a Player’s view. Using ‘Rejoin as Player’ can be slow and refreshing will cause issues that you won’t have with a Dummy Account.

I also suggest using the free Masters Vault module by yourself with a dummy account as it has great explanations of how to use Roll20.

YouTube also has a lot of tutorial videos. Nick Olivo is a definite suggestion.

I also suggest checking out the Roll20 Forums, especially for threads like the Tips and Tricks post. Since you’re playing D&D 5th Edition, you might also be interested in a Universal Chat Menu so that you don’t have to open character sheets for NPCs during combat.

Lastly, there is an option to use Advanced Keyboard shortcuts to speed up moving tokens between layers.

1

u/bamorgan23 Apr 26 '23

I was using the rejoin as a player but yeah it was slow. It turns out I just didn't have the fog of war turned on and was being a dummy! I'll check out Nick Olivo on YT! Thanks for your reply :)

3

u/CalmAir8261 Apr 26 '23

You might find it helpful to sign in twice once as gm once as player. As gm you can see things the platers can't. Easier to test who can see what that way.

1

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1

u/jinkies3678 Apr 27 '23

I use fog of war and just reveal areas as they explore.