Evening all. Someone asked how we play our games online, so I thought I'd make a short
guide (hooray for self-explanatory titles).
1. Open a Room on Roll20
Make a free account at
https://app.roll20.net/home/ and choose to Create a New Campaign. Leave all the setting blank, add a name and then Create.
2. Create Maps
There are dozens of ways to create maps for your virtual table, but one of the quickest and easiest is to use Wizardawn's random creator. Go to
http://www.wizardawn.com/rpg/tool_acity.php and hit create (leaving the width and height at 1) to generate a ruined cityscape.
You may get one with few buildings in it, so keep going until you're happy.
Once you're happy with a map, save it using the button below it and then open it up in photoshop or similar. Choose a colour (we use this dull orange, nothing too garish or distracting) and fill in all the buildings so they're easily identifiable. You can also colour the trees green and the smaller "rubble" blocks a darker grey. When you're done, save it as a low quality .jpg.
3. Move Your Maps to Roll20
Click on Page Toolbar in the top right corner, then Create New Page. Mouse over your new map and click the Page Settings gear that appears on the left hand side.
Make sure everything is set up like so; Page Size is 48x48, Scale is 1 = 1 (the actual unit doesn't matter), Grid is disabled, and your diagonal measurements are set to "Euclidean". You can also rename your maps by clicking on the "Untitled" at the bottom.
Click on your map, then then choose the background layer from the menu on the left. When you're on the Map & Background layer, simply drag and drop your coloured map onto the board, then stretch it to cover the entire map. When you're done, use the menu on the left to choose the Objects & Tokens; your map is ready to play!
4. Add Tokens
There are a couple of ways to do this, but my preferred way is to make a new map and to leave the settings as they are, so you have a square grid enabled and sized at 1 unit. Then, open photoshop or any image editor and create a square canvas (I use 125x125), then copy a suitable image in and save it as a .jpg.
When you're done, just drag and drop them onto the gridded map and have them snap to one of the squares; this will make them 70x70px, the exact scale of a regular Mordheim base! Large creatures should snap to a 2x2 grid, and cavalry/dogs etc to a 1x2 grid. Nameplates can be added by clicking on the token then clicking on the gear in the lower left.
Once you've stored all your images on this map, you can easily access them to to copy them over to new maps. Roll20 will save all tokens in this way, so it really speeds things up if you are playing several games. Now the last thing to do is create movement tokens, like that 6" Movement on to the right of the skaven.
Just create a new 1x1 gridded token with a suitable movement image on it, and click on the gear as with naming your other tokens. Make sure you have things set up as above. I like the green/yellow aura colours, but you can use whatever. Once you've made the movement tokens, right click them and choose To Back, so your character tokens are put to the front automatically.
Note: These movement tokens aren't necessary if you're happy with the Roll20 measuring tool, but I think they make things easier.5. The Rules
* Make sure you and your opponent agree on what are buildings, what is difficult terrain and what provides cover/total obstruction from shooting etc.
* Decide on how you'll track knocked down/stunned/hidden etc. If you click on a token and then on the spyglass-like circle next to the gear in the lower left, you'll be able to add coloured dots to each token. Personally I prefer a blue dot to denote hidden, green to denote carrying a shard (when applicable), orange for KD and purple for stunned, but honestly it doesn't matter.
* As a rule, all buildings on the map:
- Are assumed to be 3" high
- Are climbable to the roof/high ground from anywhere in the building.
-- Note: The normal climbing rules still apply. You are required to roll initiative to climb, and you must be touching whatever you want to climb at the beginning of your movement phase.
- Can be seen *into*, but not seen *through*, unless otherwise noted, but grant cover to occupants.
- May be entered from any side.
6. Have Fun!
And that's it, you're ready for international Mordheim any time, anywhere!
If you have any questions, please ask them; I'm not used to making guides so this is a little ghetto, but I'm happy to help if you need me.
Enjoy!
Subject: Online Campaigns: A Short Guide 
Thu 27 Nov 2014 - 23:58
