How to Play The One Ring Play-by-Forum/Roll 20

[Fieranor of Imladris]

INTRODUCTION
Hello, and allow me to welcome you to our forum-based game of The One Ring: Company of the Gray Wolf. Our game is designed to take us all on a journey through J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, a world he worked diligently to create from the 1950s to the late 1960s, which has been made into a series of books about Middle-earth and those who journey in it, as well as an animated movie, The Lord of the Rings, in 1978. Between 1999 and 2014, six other movies were made by Sir Peter Jackson and his co-horts for both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In 2004, an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) named Lord of the Rings Online was introduced to the world, and it is a game I play to this day. Yet to come is an Amazon-based adventure television series delving into the time between those august volumes; another MMORPG based in that same time-frame is also due within the next few years, and much more is coming for this world-wide phenomena known as Middle-earth.

Now to the nitty-gritty... everything contained in this forum thread is designed to help you understand the rules and guidelines necessary to play in our game to the best of your ability and, sometimes, to refresh your memory and/or knowledge. Some of it will seem like common sense, some of it you may well already know, while the rest of it should be new and informative. Links exist in my signature block and yours too (an example is seen at the bottom of this post), and you are welcome to click on all those links to find your character, their journal, and game rules and ideals in this thread as often as you like. Don't worry about memorizing anything on these forums, because you can always access a link to see them, again; anything you write/record in these forums will not go anywhere unless there's some manner of unrecoverable glitch, and then we'll simply drive on as much as possible.

You have chosen to come and play in our game, assuming the role of a Player-hero (PH) you believe would be fun to play. The goal of our Fellowship, consisting of new and old friends and their companion characters to yours, is to tell a collective tale of imagination within the world created by the Master of Fantasy, J.R.R. Tolkien, using the supporting companion, a role-playing game known as The One Ring. Your Player-hero, aka Character, is documented on your character record sheet, which is packed with skills, traits, and numbers outlining their abilities as they apply to our game; a link to this character sheet will be in your character’s signature block on every single post you make.

We use this forum, primarily, to play our game, writing story pieces for our characters in the game world set by the authors of The One Ring, Francesco Nepitello and Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan. Thus, not only will there be rules and guidelines for playing in the game, but also how to maximize your ability to write and play in this forum. However, there is one last piece to consider: Roll 20. This forum is wonderful for writing stories, descriptions, actions, and attempting to resolve all manner of skill tests; however, no amount of description can replace a map used in concert with tokens, for your character, for enemy characters, and for inanimate objects, so you can better see where your character fits in the world. Thus, we use Roll 20 for the graphical representation of the world while telling our story here, and the two can be used interchangeably. All of these are why this thread exists and, again, it would behoove you to read everything here, even if you've read it, before, and then come back to read again from time-to-time. We all have busy lives and more on our minds than any of us care to admit, so these rules and guidelines will remain here throughout the life of our game, in case you need them for any reason.

Definitions
Where possible I will define terms I believe you will need to know; if you see something you don't know, you MUST ask me about it, and I will define it for you and, if necessary, place the definition in THIS thread, as well. Let's start out with...

• Post: A post is a single block of text within a forum thread. Demarcations between posts will be represented, at the top of the post by either your character image or that of one of your fellow players in our game, and at the bottom of the post with a horizontal line blending into the immediate background. To write a post you may use Post Reply (roman numeral I on the image immediately below) at the top and bottom of the thread page; within a particular posting block, however, you may hit the quote button (roman numeral IV on the image immediately below), which looks like quotation marks.
  
  
  
   
  You will also notice item II, which is the page links within the forum thread, so you can go to other pages, as you feel necessary, and item III which looks like a pencil inside a box, so you can edit your own posts; you may not edit another's post.
  
  When writing a post you will have a series of 'buttons' you may use appearing above the white block where you will actually write your post. Clicking on a button will place the code within the text where you set it to be placed. Immediately below the word Forums, you will see a capital B, followed by an i and u. These are your bold, italics, and underline codes. Some important ones for beginners will be Quote on the top line and ooc on the second line. The remainder of those codes are for you to feel free to experiment with, though preferably in the Out-of-Character (OOC) thread or in your own character thread, please? Once you have a grasp of those codes, you may feel free to use them.
  
  Once you have completed the construction of a post, click on the Preview button below the box where you constructed it to see what the post will look like when you Submit it; understand, however, that your post is NOT submitted until you click the Submit button next to the Preview button.
  
  
  
   
  Sometimes, forums have a tendency to go haywire, especially if there's a sudden disconnect from the internet, sometimes a power surge, etc. Once you have worked hard to carefully construct a post, prior to hitting the Submit button, highlight (Ctrl+A) and copy (Ctrl+C) your post. If you hit the Submit button and your post does not appear, you can always return to the posting block, click anywhere inside the post construction area, and hit paste (Ctrl+V) to retrieve your post from the clipboard on your computer.
  
  
• Thread: The forum text you are reading, now, in this block on the web page, is known as a thread, which consists of the Original Post (OP), like the one you're reading, now, and all responses that come after it. A thread is done when the last post has been written in it.
  
  Many of the threads throughout this forum, and especially the game-relevant threads, have links to the continuation of the game, at the end of the thread. After a while, a session becomes too long and hard to find information within, and the story has to be carried to a new thread. This is, generally, only when a chapter change is needed for an adventure to continue, or as mentioned, when the session becomes too long.
  
  
• Session: For role-players a game session consists of one or more hours of game-play, where you and your friends get together on a tabletop in order to play a role-playing game. The most typical session length is 4 hours, though some role-playing sessions can last as long as 72 hours. Been there, done that, in my youth.

Now, how are Threads and Sessions reconciled? For the purposes of our game, a session should end between 10 and 15 pages worth of posts, at 15 posts per page, which gives a total maximum of 150 to 225 posts. Some sessions run longer, some shorter, but I will try to keep them from becoming too long in the proverbial tooth.

Session Experience
Definition ~ Experience Points: Like you, your Player-hero in our game has to be able to improve, through learning and growth during game-play. As YOU grow in the game, become better professed in writing, defining situations, building dialog between yourself and your fellow players, and thinking to overcome riddles, puzzles, and situations I will place you and your fellow players in, you will gain what are known as Experience Points. These are used, as a form of currency, to help improve certain portions of your character, so they may face bigger and bolder challenges in this imaginary Middle-earth. There are several types of awards of Experience Points I can give you, based on all of the things I mentioned, herein, but also your posting volume and the quality of your posts. Read on...

Each post you write in a thread may count toward Session Experience points; I count up the number of player-written role-play relevant posts (I do not typically count anything having to do with game rules or die rolls) for each character in the game at the end of a thread/session. They are totaled and each players individual number of posts go into an algorithm which calculates the total number of posts, determines maximum Session-driven XP, and then calculates, based on each individual's activities, how much total Session XP each Player earns for their Player-hero (PH). I feel I must put in three caveat's, here...

1. I do not count posts by or for volume, I count them for quality of aid in moving the story forward. For example, if you only write that your character is shining or sharpening their sword, that is NOT going to count toward Session Experience points; however, writing a non-speaking dialog demonstrating to everyone how important it is to keep the blade in top shape and that it was a family heirloom and your character becomes emotional when sharpening the blade, whether tearful with memory or prideful with duty, that takes some work to write and will count. If your Player-hero has a past and you feel it's relevant to expound upon that past in the main forum thread during play, that is something I am likely to give XP for; writing like that may also go for posts you write in your character journal. Finally, there are some stories and relevant game ideas that will go either in your personal character thread (more on this, later) or in our OOC (Out-of-Character) thread, dependent on the content I will give XP for those, as well. These are just examples of the vast amount of reasons experience may be granted.
   
   
2. Session XP is only one type of experience you may earn for your character. If you have good ideas or relevant information that you share with the Company, if you use your traits, skills, the Fellowship Pool and your Hope for good reasons, you will earn XP for specific attributes, skills, and more as the game progresses.
   
   
3. I do not expect you to be as prolific as J.R.R. Tolkien, William Shakespeare, or even your fellow authors in this game, but I do expect you to keep up, and try. You may not achieve the number of XP given for game sessions or good deeds, but you will, at least, gain a minimum amount. However, I will heavily recommend that you TRY to emulate your fellow players; if you don't know how to write, or how to describe people, things, situations, etc., THIS can be your school house so you can learn it. Ask one-another, perform research to become better, and see your ability to write improve over time.

Definition ~ Signature Block: When I tell you that all of the links you could use, whether for your own character, or for rules of the game, are in my signature block, the following highlighted area is what I mean.

 
Alright, friend, read on!!!

[Fieranor of Imladris]

HOW OFTEN YOU SHOULD POST AND OTHER POSTING GUIDELINES
The essence of this post can be summarized, as follows...

Posting cycles are 72 hours long; what this means is...

1. I, as the LoreMaster, will write a post describing a scene or place, person/people, or action being performed, to start off a thread or pick up the action where it was left off,
   
   
2. You will have up to 72 hours from my post to write a response in our forum thread in answer either to me or to a fellow player for your character, or to let all of us know, as an Out-of-Character (OOC) post, that you're still alive and with the game,
   1. Warning: If you are unwilling to determine an action or dialog for your character to give out, are unwilling to ask me or your fellow players questions about what can and could/should be done in the game, or you're just too busy, lazy, or 'meh!' to participate in OUR game, you show your willingness to accept whatever fate befalls your character. Check the game thread EVERY DAY and that won't become a problem; 72 hours is a lifetime for something like this, which takes so little time to keep up with.
3. As long as role-playing continues, I generally won't worry about the 72-hour limit. However, within 72 hours of me posting, if the story begins to become stagnant and/or no one has posted, I will write the next bit to push the story forward,
   
   
4. If no one posts during three consecutive 72-hour limit GM postings, meaning I am the only one who posts for 9 (nine) days straight, I will consider the game to be on hiatus until someone posts something for me to answer. If the game picks up from that point, then we will continue as normal; if not, (shrug).
   1. If you have an emergency come up, please let me know as soon as possible how long you think you will be out of the game. I do NOT need details, it's no one's business but your own, just how long you think you will be out, please?
      
      
   2. If you are sick, let me know. Again, I do not need details, just to know you're not going to be participating for a couple of days, and then come back and post when you're able, please?
      
      
   3. If your computer crashes, try to use a friend's computer or your cell phone or someone else's, and let me know, please?
      
      
   4. If, God forbid, you need a break from the game, let me know! You and I will devise a reason to get your Player-hero out of play and, when you're ready to return, we'll devise a way to return you to play.

This game runs on YOUR schedule, as a collective of gamers who agreed to play together to aid one-another, and me, in telling OUR story.

Now For Some Expanded Guidelines For Posting
I have been a GamesMaster (aka GM), LoreMaster (LM), Referee, Judge, or whatever you want to call it, for RPGs since 1993, and playing a decade longer than that; I consider myself to be a professional quality GM. If you need help with anything, please make sure you ask me or even your fellow players for help. As far as rolling dice for this game, I am going to trust what you post for your rolls, in whatever medium you choose to use, even your desktop as long as you don't take advantage of me or your fellow players.

Treat our game as if you had driven to a friend's house and are looking at your other friends across the tabletop; in-person, you know you have an obligation to help move the story along, and this should lead to having fun and laughing with your friends, to roll dice and take your lumps as well as your triumphs for your character. You cannot see your friends, here, cannot see one-another's die rolls, and you might chuckle to yourself, but it's not the same as a tabletop; all the same, be responsible to your friends for helping move the story along and have fun as much fun as you can doing it.

Alright, a bit more of the nitty-gritty...

1. Each of us has a signature block, which shows up at the bottom of each of our posts; mine will be different from yours and each of your fellow players. Mine will have a LOT of links to important information concerning game rules and things you should know for yourself, to help you along in our game. If you don't see that block, similar to the pic at the bottom of the first post in this thread, you need to let me know and I'll fix it.
   
   
2. There is no particular style of writing, no secret codes, or anything like that for writing in our story, though the consistent use of either first OR third person is requested, as mixing those styles tends to be confusing. Tools ARE available on these forums for posting Out-of-Character messages, changing fonts, sizes, and colors to represent different modes of speaking, and you are welcome to set those up for yourself through the 'buttons' available when you open an editing window to write a new post.
   1. If your character is talking to one or more other characters, please use " and " (opening and closing quotation marks) to express your dialog.
      
      
   2. If your character is thinking, but not speaking, please use ' and ' (opening and closing apostrophe's) to express your thought. You are welcome to post thoughts, so others might also think about them and, perhaps, suggest something you have not, necessarily, thought of.
      
      
   3. If you are having your character perform an action, write a description or story-piece for their character without enclosing it in anything.
      
      
   4. Finally, if you are posing a question to me, copying a die roll, or anything else that does not involve the previous three styles of writing, please use the OOC button to enclose it.
3. From time-to-time I may ask you to clarify some things you write, so I can ensure the right atmosphere is being used for the game, your intentions for your character are clear, and so I understand what you write to have the same meaning with which you wrote it.
   
   
4. Check these forums EVERY SINGLE DAY, please? The email notification system of most forums sucks badly, and this one is definitely the worst of them. No one has fixed it in twenty years of modifications, repairs, and development on these forums, and I have no reason to believe there ever will be a fix. So, check EVERY DAY, please?

Thank you.

How to Back Time Up in Our Game
There will be instances where you are away from your computer while a rapid grouping of posts are taking place, or you're sick or on leave from the game, etc. When you're finally able to get back on with the game, how do you handle such a happenstance? How do you catch up?

Begin by quoting the first post you missed and wished to answer, answer it, then go back and find the next post you wished to answer, answer it, and so on. If you remember, or can find the latest day and/or time in the game world, you're welcome to list that in your post with some extra formatting so it will stand out. If you have another means of expressing that you need to back the game up a bit, to answer it, feel free to use an Out-of-Character (OOC) bit in your post for it. Getting caught up in the game is not that tough a thing to do and, should you need help writing the post, let me know what you want to write, you and I can get it in order, and then you can post it.

[Fieranor of Imladris]

FORUM FORMATTING AIDS
As has already been described, above, you are NOT required to put formatting into posts, except where you intend to ensure people understand what it is you're going on about. Still, using the minimum's -for thoughts, dialog, actions and descriptions, and Out-of-Character (OOC)- mentioned in the previous post will go a long way toward keeping our game more productive and less confusing. However, if you want to do more, read on in this post.

Thank you.

Proper Use of Tags & Punctuation
Consider this to be something of a primer in BBCode, aka Forum Code; in the following examples, I will place spaces between beginning [ and ending ] brackets, also known as tags, for examples of various codes only. When you actually write BBCode, you cannot have spaces between those brackets, just {bracket}code{bracket}. Likewise, all ending code has a forward slash, / , in front of the closing tag, as in the following example...

Code: Select all

[size=150]Text between the tags[/size] ← This tag makes your text appear larger.

All of the codes you presently have available to you have buttons to them above the full text-editing box, so all you need to do is press the button, and your opening and closing tags will be placed in-line for you. Simply enter what you intend to write between these codes and, when you submit your post, your intended formatting will be intact.

When you write your posts, you may also combine actions, questions, and tags going to multiple players and/or the GM, and you can edit older posts with new text, rather than clutter up the forum threads with things that could have been combined in a single post.

Italics: [ i ] and [ /i ] - This is a good example of italicized text

Bold: [ b ] and [ /b] - This is a good example of bold text

Underline: [ u ] and [ /u ] - This is a good example of underlined text

You may combine codes as well, simply by lining the codes up behind one another as such: [ u ][ b ][ i ]your text[ /i ][ /b ][ /u ] = This is a good example of these tags lined up together. If you use multiple tags, the first opening tag you use has to be the last closing tag, or the forum will, in all likelihood, close your formatting at the point of your improperly ordered tag, but will not eliminate the closing tag that was out of place. This is a sign that you should go back and edit your post, rearrange your closing tags opposite of your opening tags, and submit again.

Quotes: [ quote ] - This will simply give you a quote box. [ quote="name" ] will allow you to place any text you want, though it is better to use the name of the poster whom you are quoting. For example...

[ quote="name" ] will allow you to place any text you want, though it is better to use the name of the poster whom you are quoting.

^^^That is a good example of quoting. You may quote as many people as you see fit, and answer them individually by moving your cursor around between the quotes, in a single post.

If you wish to quote someone immediately into your own post, use the button that has a quotation mark, " , in the middle of the box. When you're actually in the editing window for your post, you may still quote someone out of their post or use the quote button to write your own.

If you have already quoted and answered a fellow player, but you wish to address another, you could always place a [ center ]_______________[ /center], hit return to go to the next line, and then scroll down and quote the next player's text you wish to answer. Ensure your cursor placement is where you want to place the new quote, or you may end up messing up other text you've already placed in your post.

Many of these are also available as both opening and closing tags in buttons immediately above the posting window. Experiment with these, and with colors, and with Smilies, etc., to become comfortable with using them.

Out-of-Character: Jason M., aka Ltan Honorsmitter, developed tags for being able to speak out of character in threads as far back as 2003; thank you, Jason. If you are not using the [ ooc ]What out of character thing do you want to say?[ /ooc ] tags, then you are considered to be speaking or acting in-character.

Out-of-Character

This is a good example of how to use the out-of-character tags

You may also use the [ ooc= ] [ /ooc ] tags, like quotes, to address a specific out-of-character action, question, or request. You do not need to use opening and closing quotation marks if you wish to give a title to your out-of-character post.

You do NOT have to use forum code to make things happen if you don't want to, though it will aid in distinguishing, especially for me, the importance of some of the things you want to say for your character, as thoughts, actions, and speech for them. However, if you need a good reference page for forum code, to find out more tags for images, text colors, text size, etc., click on the BBCode next to your text entry box in the posting page, and a new window will be opened to display the various code types you are allowed to use in your posts; you will not lose any work you've done in your current post if you pop open this new window by right-clicking with your mouse and click Open in New Tab/ Window. To return to your work, simply close the BBCode reference window; if you have this open in a new tab, instead of a new window, close only the tab, not the window, or you will lose anything you were working on in alternate windows.

" ": Remember to use beginning/opening and ending/closing quotes when you are saying something through your character, and it's meant for all characters in your immediate vicinity to hear.

If you are speaking specifically to someone, you may use - Whispers to Questioning Character Name: "I thought you said this room was safe?"

~OR~

To Responding Character Name: "I thought it was. Famous last words, huh?"
^^^This is not whispering quietly, but rather speaking in a normal volume and tone, unlike the first entry in which the player has remarked that the character IS whispering. Remember, however, that even though you may be whispering, it may still be very loud in the type of space your character is in; regardless, if you're looking to speak quietly in those spaces, you will need to explain that you are whispering or, otherwise, speaking with low volume.

~OR~

Shouts to(or at) Requesting Character Name: "Throw me the rope!"

You do NOT have to use Whispers or To or Shouts if you are speaking in general, to no one in specific. It's up to you how specific you choose to be for your character, but if you do not use these specific tags and quotes to help you tell your story, what you say will, most likely, be misinterpreted, especially by the GM.

Thinking to Themselves: If your character is thinking, if you're making a note for yourself to read about and remember later, for yourself, please feel free to put that in ' ', which are normally considered thinking or silent talking quotes (opening and closing apostrophe's). Having your character think something to themselves can become an important story element because, unless your character has an unnatural poker face all the time, when they think something their facial expression will most likely change, and other characters may be able to notice the change and comment, to help you get your character's thought(s) out, hence moving the game forward.

[Fieranor of Imladris]

SPECIAL CHARACTERS, FREQUENTLY USED NAMES and SYMBOLS
Alright, because of Harald's excellent work in making it so I can type characters through using the Alt key and the numbers on my number key pad, I'm putting a little table up, here, for our use, with the most common accents that will be used throughout our gaming in The One Ring, and all are welcome to use them, of course. These are provided to help you out if you have a desire to use any of these accents, only. Later in this post are some of the names and links that will frequently be used in our game, as well, which you should be able to copy directly into posts.

IT IS NOT A REQUIREMENT TO USE THESE ACCENTS!!!

To use these, please make sure your NumLock light is lit up, hold down your ALT key and type the number beneath the accented letter you need on your Number Keypad, not on the keys above the letters on your keyboard.

Commonly Used Accents - Upper Case

Á	É	Í	Ó	Ú	Ý
0193	0201	0205	0211	0218	0221

 
Commonly Used Accents - Lower Case

á	é	í	ó	ú	ý
0225	0233	0237	0243	0250	0253

 
Creature and Exotic Accents - Upper Case

Â	Ê	Î	Ô	Û
0194	0202	0206	0212	0219

 
Creature and Exotic Accents - Lower Case

â	ê	î	ô	û
0226	0234	0238	0244	0251

 
Note: These do not work in Microsoft Word 2016 nor, I suspect, in any prior version. Also, you can still highlight, copy and paste these at your leisure.

The following are provided for those of you who may not be terribly savvy at using the special symbols, below, or characters, above.
 
Accented Names
Dáin Ironfoot – King of Erebor and the Dwarven people
Dúnedain
Éadnes Andwiltan – Peter’s character
Éored – A “unit” of Cavalry in Rohan
Éothéod – Horse-people (from T.A. 1854 – 2510, when Eorl took them South)
Glóin – the Statesman
Glóin – Father of Glóin and Óin
Khuzdûl – Secret language of the Dwarves
Lóthlorien – Lórien – The Golden Wood
Nazgûl
Númenóreans – The Long-lived of Númenor
Óin – the Healer
Rhûn – A land to the East of Mirkwood and South of the Iron Hills
Shathûr – Frerin’s Raven
Shughûth – Balin’s Raven
Thráin – Father of Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thrór
 
Special Symbols
(Tengwar Rune)

(Gandalf Rune)

(Eye of Sauron)

(None of these symbols can be copied directly; copy the link inside the code-block, instead, and paste it into your post.)

Code: Select all

[img]http://www.wolvesau.net/oneringrpg/images/Rune_Tengwar.png[/img]

[img]http://www.wolvesau.net/oneringrpg/images/Rune_Gandalf.png[/img]

[img]http://www.wolvesau.net/oneringrpg/images/Rune_Sauron.png[/img]

[Fieranor of Imladris]

USING ROLL 20 FOR MOVEMENT AND POSITION
The greater portion of our game will take place in these forums; this is where the best and most-expansive story-telling can take place, where expressions and descriptions of people, places, things, and actions are better fleshed-out. That being said, a web-based virtual tabletop (VTT) program called Roll 20 may also be used, from time-to-time during action situations; tokens (the graphical representation of your Player-hero) are used to represent position, movement, and action on the map in relation to your Player-hero's token, and to aid me in determining to-hit numbers for you to roll to see if your character hits an opponent or is, otherwise, successful in an action, or not. Roll 20 is designed around the idea of participating in a group, as if you were all at a table in-game, by using video and audio which allows players to see and hear one-another. Fortunately, you can also use it to log into the game at when you're able, move your token, use the map and other tokens to help define what action(s) your character might be able to take to help the Company, and make die rolls I can later look at to aid in determining success, failure, and consequences.

We will NOT use Roll 20 for most of our game, only for parts that do not require a great deal of story-telling, but do require the graphical interface. However, if you move your token, roll your dice to overcome a feat, or anything else, please place at least an OOC (Out-of-Character) post in the main game thread on this forum site allowing me to know you have done that, along with any In-Character story you may desire to add to your action(s) from Roll 20. I am going to trust you with movement and die rolls, but will ask you to not take advantage of the fact this cat will be away, please?

Parts about using Roll 20 will be spread throughout this thread, dependent on what is being addressed in that post; I have attempted to make all of them as concise as possible. For this post, we will talk about the basics of Roll 20 and how it can be used for movement of your character's token. No movement rules exist in The One Ring RPG, and so I have adapted based on my not-inconsiderable knowledge of game systems to develop an adequate movement system. If you have any questions, please make certain you ask them in this thread.

The Roll 20 Vertical GUI Bar
When you load up Roll 20 and log into our game, the most prominent thing you should see is the vertical bar of buttons toward the upper-left of the Graphical User Interface. This post will familiarize you with moving your tokens in Roll 20, including measuring distances for movement and combat. Thanks goes to Alex T., who helped me straighten out my knowledge of Roll 20. Here find an outline of the buttons on that vertical bar...

From top-to-bottom, as you set your mouse cursor over the top of each...
Select: In general, this will allow you to select and move your character or another token on the map that you have permission to move. There are two options, here...

• Select/Move ~ You must have this selected in order to be able to click on and move any tokens; left-click and drag the token to move it. If you are moving your own token around, the map will update once you have completed your move; I have it set this way so those without robust enough computers will not be bogged down by game updates coming from Roll 20. Also, many of the other actions you can take in Roll 20, especially for what you can type in chat -such as die rolls- cannot be done unless you have clicked on your character token, first.
   

  Nice guide Loremaster. As a long term user of Roll20 I'll try to add useful advanced commands as I think of them, I hope that is ok!
  
  Pro-tip number 1: When 'carrying' (ie clicked and dragging) your token you can press the spacebar to activate the ruler, you can then press the space bar additional times to plot a route if your journey takes you round corners etc.
  
  Pro-tip number 2: When rolling dice you can encapsulate the 'math' in [[ ]] to create an inline roll. This can be embedded in text to reduce clutter and add definition, eg: /me makes a Hunting check: [[1d12 + 3d6]]

   
• Pan View ~ This allows you to move the map around, when selected. Again, you simply left-click and drag; once you release the left mouse button, the map stops moving, though you can click and drag it, again, if necessary.

Shapes: You can draw shapes on the map with this, selecting from the following...

• Draw Shape ~ Use the new box that shows up at the top-right corner of this vertical selection menu, select the color you wish to use for the line (the left-hand box at the top-left), the fill color (the right-hand box), and the line thickness (the drop-down to the right of this new block). If you just left-click and drag, you'll get a rectangle when you release the mouse button; holding alt while you're drawing will get you an ellipse which, of course, means you can form a circle if you need to. If you want to make a real square, hold the shift key and let go of the left mouse-button.
   
• Free-hand ~ You will be able to draw a free-hand enclosure. If you finish what you're drawing around, and you wish to close the shape, right-click with the mouse or hit the ESC key, and this closes the shape for you.
   
• Polygon/Line ~ You are able to select several points, almost like the free-hand tool, though you need to left-click each point as you're drawing along. Hold the shift key to snap-to-grid, CTRL+Z to undo the last point, and right-click or hit ESC to close the Polygon.

Zoom: Just like it sounds, but this menu item is difficult to use. If you hold down the alt-key, you may use your mouse wheel to zoom out, by rolling the wheel back, or in if you roll the wheel forward. If you click on the zoom menu item, a drop-down menu will appear. If you move your mouse over the percentage you wish to select, your drop-down will disappear, being useless. However, if you click the box at the top of the menu, you can then type the percentage you wish to see, but only in increments of 10; be careful to examine what you enter, as you may enter 20, and get 200%, instead.

Ruler/Scale: This is a very useful tool, and may be used in two ways to obtain distance measures to either move your character, to determine distance from your character to your target, or other uses I’ve yet to think of. Once you select the ruler, you can go to any square on the board, left-click and drag, and an arrow will appear with a measurement at the tip. When you drag out the arrow, regardless of the direction you go, a total measurement will appear; on releasing the left mouse-button, the arrow and the number disappear. If you hold the Alt-key while holding the left mouse button down and dragging, the arrow does not snap-to-grid.

Dice: The D20 icon in the block second from the bottom is, typically, for bringing up and using the Dice dialog box. For our game, however, I have set up a series of macro’s, -they look like buttons near the top-left of your screen- to allow you to roll more easily. See this post for how we roll dice in our game.
 
?: The Question Mark on the bottom of the vertical button list allows you to view Help Documentation so you can read about anything I may have missed, here, or that you're curious about. You also have the Shortcuts Reference, which allows you to press a certain number of buttons on your keyboard, holding the first and pressing the second, to accomplish what you may not be able to do with your mouse. Finally, you have the ability to Report a Bug; this will open the support forum for Roll 20 and, if you have an issue I cannot help you with, you can get an answer from one of the Roll 20 team, or highly experienced Roll 20 players who've run into the problem you're having before, and have a fix for it.

Moving Your Token(s)
Youtube: Movement and Measuring in Roll 20
 
The average Human being can move 2.75 - 3.25 miles per hour (4.5 – 5.33 kilometers per hour) at a decent walk, or 40 - 48 feet per ten-seconds. When operating under duress, such as in combat, your movement value is clipped as you concentrate on performing complex movements to stay alive. If you're gifted athletically, have had combat training, or if you're injured, carrying too many items or even a heavy and/or awkward weapon, armor, and shield, what you can do in combat will be modified.

We will use two types of movement in Roll 20, non-combat and combat; non-combat has no real movement limitations or time scale, while combat movement does. In-combat movement uses a formula to determine how quick your Player-hero is in any given round, as follows...
 

1. Your PHs basic APs will be (2x Valor + Athletics + Battle skills), but then we subtract from the chart, below, because of Encumbrance...
    
2. Those using Stealth during combat will replace Valor with Wisdom and use Stealth rather than Battle with it. If you want to be stealthy, you cannot carry a crap-ton of equipment with you.

 

BODY	ENCUMBRANCE 5 - 11	12 - 18	19 - 25	26 - 32	33 - 40
2 - 4	-3	-5	-7	-10	-12
5 - 7	-1	-3	-4	-5	-6
8 - 10	-0	-2	-2	-3	-4
11 - 12	-0	-1	-2	-2	-3

 
Minimum APs of 4.

At the beginning of a combat, you are considered to be dropping excess non-combat weight; however, if you're in a running fight, the total of all gear carried is seen on the chart and provides the penalty to APs, instead.

i.e. - Your character has a Valor score of 2, Athletics of 3 and Battle of 3. (2x Valor + Athletics + Battle skills) gets you 4 + 3 + 3, or a total 10 Action Points. Next, we have to figure out your AP modifier based on your character's Body score cross-referencing the total Encumbrance value of the War Gear you're carrying; let's say you have a Body of 5 and are carrying 19 Encumbrance of War Gear. This gives a penalty of -4 which, when subtracted from the 10 leaves 6 APs for you to use with your character each round.

No one may ever go below four (4) Action Points, unless your character is ridiculously loaded down and is unable to drop it quickly enough to participate in the first round, or more of combat and APs renew at the beginning of each round.

For sake of movement, spending 1 AP allows your character to traverse up to five (5) feet horizontally, up to two (2) feet vertically, or up to three (3) combined horizontal and vertical movement. A successful check of Athletics MAY allow you to traverse farther vertically. You may spend more than one AP on movement in any round, up to the maximum allowed for your character race, as shown here...
 

DWARVES & HOBBITS	ELVES	HUMANS
15' (6 APs)	25' (10 APs)	20' (8 APs)

 
If you are uncertain about whether a movement or action/attack can be performed, please ask?