Online RPG setup doesn't have to be hard!

 I live pretty far away from my friends. I've moved around a lot, so the group has become somewhat spread out over the last few years between Georgia, California, France and Switzerland. This is not a problem normally, because we can keep up with email, or discord or whatever. But playing TTRPGs with them can be a real challenge. Over the last five or so years, I've run many one-shots and three major campaigns online. It can be a real challenge to figure it out from first principles, though. 

I thought I would share what works for me to get a game running smoothly every time. It's a simple checklist that I follow to keep me on the right track.

 

Step one - Choose your inspiration!

 

There are a lot of games to choose from, and near infinite possibilities within them of what kind of game to run. Assuming you're not entirely new to RPGs, you probably already have a few favorite games you like running. I prefer fantasy RPGs. You may like Sci-Fi or Contemporary Horror. But if you're new to the digital platform RPG space, I would recommend a game and setting/adventure that already has a lot of support for Virtual Tabletops (VTTs).

 

Once you've chosen your system and scenario, then it's time to get to work. Start reading the material. Many books advise that you read the book cover to cover to get started. I don't really think that's necessary in most cases. If the book is well laid out, you really just need to read the overview, the appendices concerning the major NPCs and Factions, and then skim through the rest. Get a feel for how it progresses.

 

For example - for the game that I'm running right now, I've selected the Mega-Dungeon tour-de-force Stonehell by Michael Curtis and I am using Old-School Essentials as the ruleset. I've read the overview, the appendices, and familiarized myself with the overall flow. It's a multi-level dungeon with a rich background, many (and I do mean many - there are at least 20 in the first 5 floors) factions, and a rough ongoing story that can be integrated into each floor or ignored as the GM chooses.

 

Step Two - Set up your VTT and communication channels!

 

Time to make some choices about the technical side of things. You need a shared space of play, and you need a way to communicate with each other. There are many to choose from, but I got started with Roll20. Their marketplace has pre-written adventures and maps available for a wide swathe of the TTRPG world. Their 5e and 5.5e support is fantastic, and I particularly enjoyed the Storm King's Thunder module support. But, you may feel more comfortable with Owlbear Rodeo or Foundry or Fantasy Grounds. Lots of people have already said probably too much on how to choose which VTT is right for you, so I won't go into that now.

 

What I will say is that having a discord server for your game(s) has been a huge help to me. I always set up three channels of text and two for voice/video. The text channels are:

1. General chat for the game. This is great for during game to post side questions, chat between the pcs when someone else has the spotlight, etc. But it's also useful between sessions as a way to plan for the next session, discuss what happened last session, discuss loot distribution, or even chat about theories about the story. As a GM it's great to post pictures of monsters, handouts and the like during play.
2. Downtime Chat. Downtime is time spent outside the adventure. If the PCs are going to spend a week in town crafting items, looking for henchmen, studying a new spell, or researching in a library for example, then that all takes place in downtime. What I like to do is minimize the amount of downtime actions taken during play. So I will end a session with and tell the players that they will have whatever time period as downtime.  Then, they have the downtime chat channel in discord to discuss their actions and I can then respond when it's convenient.
3. A Setting information channel. This is where I post background information about the world. It is really useful to have this all in one place that's referenceable later. Do you have 300 words about the elf kingdom's hierarchy that the wizard has researched over two weeks of downtime? Post it in the Setting Information channel. Got the history of an artifact that a sage provides to the players which can be used to stop the dark lord from rising again? Post it in the Setting Information channel.
4. Session Voice - You need to talk to each other to play (unless you're doing play-by-post). I prefer discord's functionality over the native set up in Roll20.
5. Private voice - If a PC has their mind invaded by a psychic squid monster, you may not want the other players to overhear that. Or if someone has been possessed by a ghost, you may want to take that player to the side and explain their new personality and motivations to them. Having a private voice chat you can switch to is a really useful tool.

 

Step 3 - Build your beginning tools!

 

Now it's the nitty gritty part. You can go super minimalistic here if you want: play with just the books at your side, a blank page in roll20 to draw on, and a discord instance. But, I like to go a bit more in-depth than that. Here's what I like to have ready:

• Houserules - A handy document to give to your players and to have nearby to reference.
• Rules references - You don't have to meticulously copy out every page of the player's guides for your game of choice. In fact, if you're playing more popular modern games, you may even have access to free rules documents to add directly to your game through the VTT you selected earlier. If not, that's fine. All you really need are the PDFs for the rules you're using. Take screenshots of the most commonly referenced rules and upload them as handouts for the players.
• Monster Lists - Remember when you skimmed your chosen module or campaign document? In the VTT, build sheets for the first planned encounters and any monsters that you have on applicable random encounter tables. Give them some tokens, put them in a folder called Monsters, and you're done with them for now.
• Maps - If you have maps you've made and plan to use as a battlemap with PC tokens moving around, upload them and get the dynamic lighting ready to go. I really like what I'm doing for Stonehell, which is to simply take screenshots of the PDF's maps and upload them. No need for dynamic lighting, because I'm using theater of the mind for just about everything. I then put the planned encounters' tokens on the map in the specific rooms so I can see at a glance where everything is. If you don't have any maps, there are tons of free resources like donjon or Dyson Logos maps.

 

And that's it! Those are the basic 'must haves' in my mind for setting up and getting started in online RPGs. It's a deep pool, though, and we've only skimmed the surface. If you'd like to hear more about how I set up my online games specifically in Roll20, let me know in the comments!