Lockdown Games

Since the whole country is in lockdown at least until Tuesday, and Auckland probably for at least a bit longer than that, we are switching our games to online until it is safe for us to meet in person again.

To do this, we will be using a few different bits of technology. To start, you’ll need a laptop or a desktop machine with a microphone and a speaker. You can still participate in games with just an iPad, but the experience can be frustrating and you won’t be able to do some things, so we don’t recommend this unless you don’t have another option.

Step one!

Download discord and create an account.

Once you have done that, send me a friend request (I can email, text, or messenger this to you once you are ready).

Then I will send you an invite to join our private server. After you have joined the server, and I have confirmed that I know who you are, I will set permissions in discord so that you can see the content of our server and have permission to post.

Take a look at the #help-files channel for tips, or continue following along here.

Next, you’ll need to go to dndbeyond.com and create an account.

Once you’ve got an account, we can send you a link to your character sheet so that you can claim it.

Then, make sure you are using chrome as your browser, and install Beyond 20.

This plugin allows you to use your dndbeyond character sheet with roll20, and while it might seem like a lot of steps to get started, this truly gives us the best experience of playing the game and communicating seamlessly. We’ve trialled a lot of different methods, and this definitely is the best we’ve found so far.

Join up with a roll20 tutorial (one is scheduled for Saturday afternoon, contact us for a link), and we can make sure you are comfortable with roll20 before Sunday.

Then, on game day, make sure you are logged in to discord, and in the voice chat for your team a few minutes before game time. You’ll also need to be logged in to roll20, and dndbeyond with your character sheet open.

And for those who are a bit extra – find online, or make your own character art, and go to Token Stamp to make your own custom character token to represent you during the game. Upload the token to your game chat well before the game in order to give your DM time to upload it and get it ready for use on the day.