A 5E Starter Adventure by James Introcaso

Chapter 1: Introduction to Roll20 and RPGs

You and some friends are in for a great time. If you’re already familiar with 5th Edition
and Roll20, feel free to skip ahead to the Adventure Overview section of this chapter. If
you’re new to 5th Edition, Roll20, or role-playing games in general, then you’ll want to read
everything before you dive head first into the adventure.

What is a tabletop role-playing game?

A tabletop role-playing game brings a bunch of friends together around a table, be it real
or virtual, to create a story. In 5th Edition (and many similar role-playing games) most
of the players play-act as fantastic heroes called player characters, or PCs, for short.
Each player decides their individual PC’s attitude, backstory, appearance, and actions.
These heroes live in a world full of dangerous beasts like giant spiders, skeletons, and
dragons. They find gold and magic items of great power in vast treasure hoards. Most
importantly these heroes drive the story by making choices. The world they live in reacts to
those choices. A big part of the game takes place in your imaginations, but you will need
character sheets, dice, a few handouts, maps, and tokens. If you’re reading this, then you
already have all of those items loaded into Roll20 and you’re ready to play The Master’s
Vault.
One player, called the game master or GM, decides how the story world, or setting,
changes because of the actions of the PCs. The GM does not play a PC, but does control
everything else in the world. The monsters, the people the PCs meet along the way (often
called non-player characters or NPCs), and the environment are all controlled by the
GM.
When a player wants their character to do something, they describe the PC’s action to
the GM and then the GM decides the consequences of the action. For instance a player
might describe a wizard PC illuminating a dark underground cavern with a light spell. The
GM would then describe what the player can now see in the cave.
Players will have their characters attempt actions with questionable outcomes, and
that’s where the dice and 5th Edition rules come in. If a player wants their character to
scramble up the side of a cliff to get away from murderous goblins, that player will roll
dice to make an ability check to see if they can climb the cliff. Based on the difficulty of
the task, the character’s ability to climb, and a roll of the dice, the GM then determines if
the character is able to climb up the cliff, or is left clawing at rocks while goblins close in.
This PDF will teach you the basics of the rules for 5th Edition and how to play the
game using Roll20. If you want to learn more about the game after you play through The
Master’s Vault, you can explore the 5th Edition Roll20 Compendium or the game’s free
Basic Rules to find more monsters, character classes, races, magic items, and rules for
diseases, madness, poison, and more. If you want to learn more about Roll20 capabilities,
check out the free Roll20 tutorial after you complete this adventure.

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Getting Started in Roll20

To begin playing The Master’s Vault in Roll20, open your Roll20 account at roll20.net, click
on the GAMES tab in the top menu bar, then select MY GAMES from the pull-down menu
that appears. On the MY GAMES screen select the adventure The Master’s Vault.
Once you’re on The Master’s Vault page, click the purple INVITE
PLAYERS button. Enter the email address of the people you want to invite
to the game. The Master’s Vault supports play for up to seven people,
including you. The other players should accept the invitation to the game
and follow the instructions to create a free Roll20 account if they haven’t already.
If you are not going to be the GM, hover your cursor over the player icon of the person
you want to be the GM after that person has accepted your invitation to the game. The
player’s icon should appear beneath the INVITE PLAYERS button after joining. Click
PROMOTE TO GM.
Once all the players have accepted the invitation to your game,
launch the virtual table for The Master’s Vault by clicking the pink
JOIN GAME button and asking everyone else to do the same in their
accounts.
If you are not the GM, but you started the game on Roll20, you will have to rejoin the
game as a player. To do this, simply click on the on the MENU on the right side of the
screen. This symbol represents Roll20’s MY SETTINGS window. Scroll to the bottom of
the settings menu and click the gray RE-JOIN AS PLAYER button.
Once the table launches, you are ready to play! If you want to learn more about
Roll20’s display, keep reading, but if you want to get right to playing, skip ahead to Pick
Characters.

Roll20’s Display
The first screen you should see in Roll20 should look like this for players:

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Roll20 is updated in real time. Players can see anything the GM drops, draws, or adds
to the table as soon as it’s there.
Roll20 has three main features. The TOOLBAR on the left side of the screen, the MENU
on the right hand side of the screen, and the TABLE, which takes up most of the screen

The Toolbar
The players and the GM all have the following tools on the TOOLBAR on the left side of the
screen:
SELECT/MOVE and PAN VIEW

DRAW. The DRAW tool is actually three separate tools that allow
you to draw directly onto the table in the following ways: FREEHAND,
POLYGON/LINE, DRAW SHAPE, and TEXT.

ZOOM. The ZOOM tool lets you instantly get closer or further from the
table in 10% increments. For finer control, use the ZOOM SLIDER on the
right side of the screen next to the MENU.

RULER. The RULER tool is a quick way to measure on the table. It is set
to scale with the map you’re viewing.

DICE ROLLER

HELP & DOCS, SHORTCUTS REFERENCE, and REPORT A BUG

GMs have the following extra tools on their TOOLBAR:

LAYER SELECTION. The LAYER SELECTION tool allows you to move

between the MAP & BACKGROUND layer, OBJECTS & TOKENS layer,
and the GM INFO OVERLAY layer. If you have a PLUS or PRO Roll20
account, you should also be able to select the DYNAMIC LIGHTING
layer.

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FOG OF WAR. The FOG OF WAR tools allow a map with FOG OF WAR
functionality turned on to REVEAL AREAS, POLYGON REVEAL, HIDE
AREAS, and RESET FOG.

TURN TRACKER

Only GMs with PRO Roll20 accounts have access to the following tool:

EFFECTS TOOL

The Menu
The players and the GM all have the following windows on the MENU on the right side of
the screen.
CHAT. The CHAT window allows you to type public and private messages to
your fellow players and see the results of dice rolls. You can:
• Send a public message. To type a message to everyone simply enter your
message into the white text box at the bottom of the screen and click the SEND
button.
• Send a private message. To type a
private message to just one other player
begin your message with the command
“/w” and then follow the command with
the player’s name or the name of their
character, and then type your message as
normal. e.g. If you wanted to ask Nolan,
playing the character Barath, what AC
means you could type, “/w Nolan What
does AC mean?” or “/w Barath What does
AC mean?”
• Roll dice. The results of any dice rolls
appear in the CHAT window. You can also
roll dice in a message with the command,
“/r” followed by the die or dice you want to
roll with modifiers applied. e.g. Typing “/r
1d20+5” will roll a 20-sided die and add 5 to
the result and typing “/r 2d6-1” will roll two
6-sided dice and subtract 1 from the result.
There are lots of other dice commands
that you can type in Roll20. You can find a
list of these commands in the Roll20 Dice
Reference.

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JOURNAL. The JOURNAL window

allows you to look at PLAYER
CHARACTERS, NPCs, and
HANDOUTS. In this window players
can:
• Drag your character’s TOKEN onto
the TABLE. To drag your character’s
TOKEN onto the table from the JOURNAL
window, simply click and drag your
character’s name from the window onto
the table and the PC’s TOKEN should
appear.
• Access your CHARACTER SHEET.
Players can see their character’s
CHARACTER SHEET in the JOURNAL
window.
• The GM can access MONSTER CHARACTER SHEETS. Like PCs, all of the
monsters found in The Master’s Vault have their own CHARACTER SHEETS. Only the
GM can see and interact with these sheets.
• Access HANDOUTS. HANDOUTS are documents the GM is meant to reveal to the
players during play.

COMPENDIUM. The
COMPENDIUM window allows you
to search for descriptions of rules,
monsters, items, spells, and more.

JUKEBOX. The JUKEBOX window

allows GMs to search for and play
music and create playlists that
everyone signed into the table can hear.

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DECKS & TABLES. The Master’s

Vault does not require the use of
these features, but if you’re curious
about this check out the free Roll20
tutorial.

MY SETTINGS. The MY
SETTINGS window allows you
to change many of the display
settings, enable 3D dice, change
your voice and video settings, and exit the
game.

Only GMs have the following window in their MENU:

ART LIBRARY. The ART

LIBRARY window allows the
GM to search Roll20’s massive
library of free art for tokens, maps,
portraits, and more. All of the art required
for The Master’s Vault is already loaded
into the table, so you probably won’t need
this feature, but you will once you begin
creating your own adventures.

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The Table
The TABLE takes up most of Roll20’s interface. This is where players and GMs alike can
see TOKENS, MAPS, and more. The table is broken into layers.
• The OBJECTS & TOKENS LAYER is the top layer of Roll20’s TABLE. Both players
and GMs can drawn and see everything on the OBJECTS & TOKENS LAYER. The GM
can manipulate any TOKEN and the players can manipulate any TOKEN assigned to
them. This is where TOKENS that represent PCs, NPCs, monsters, and some objects are
manipulated.
• The MAP & BACKGROUND LAYER is the bottom layer of Roll20’s TABLE. GMs can
see and manipulate this layer while players can only see it. The GM can manipulate
elements of a MAP, just like TOKENS.
• The GM INFO OVERLAY LAYER is a special layer of the TABLE that can only be
seen and manipulated by GMs. Hidden creature and object TOKENS can be placed
here without the players knowing it. If you add a TOKEN on the GM INFO OVERLAY
LAYER to the TURN TRACKER, only you will be able to see it in the TURN TRACKER.
The players won’t know it’s there until you move the TOKEN to another layer.
• DYNAMIC LIGHTING LAYER: If you have a Roll20 Plus or Pro account, you have
access to this special layer of the TABLE. Here you can use the DRAW tool to create
obstacles for light, movement, and sight. If you have a Plus or Pro account, the
DYNAMIC LIGHTING in The Master’s Vault is already set up for you. To learn more
about DYNAMIC LIGHTING checkout the Roll20 Wiki.

GMs Only: The Page Toolbar

The PAGE TOOLBAR is a special part of the Roll20 table available only to GMs. To access
the PAGE TOOLBAR click the SYMBOL in the top right of the TABLE.

When you open the PAGE TOOLBAR all of the PAGES for The Master’s Vault will appear.
PAGES are the images and maps you can bring up on the TABLE. To bring up a new PAGE
on the TABLE simply click the PAGE you want and it will appear in the TABLE. Note the
red PLAYERS BANNER. As the GM you can bring up a PAGE and have the players on a
different PAGE, to give yourself time to prepare before they see the PAGE you’re on. When
you’re ready to reveal a PAGE to the players, click and drag the PLAYERS BANNER to
the PAGE you want the PLAYERS to see and interact with. To learn more about the PAGE
TOOLBAR give the Roll20 Tutorial a try.