D&D General Using the GM layer of a VTT

[TheSword]

So I had a bit of an epiphany when prepping to DM on Roll20 for an adventurer with some big dungeon areas. In the past I’ve found it hard to flip between multiple pages and location descriptions and a map, while keeping an eye on the chat boxes and results. It’s a bit of a juggling act.

So instead I’ve started adding the description text to each area on the GM layer in 16 pt font. Which because the maps I use are typically 2000 pixels on the longer dimension let’s me zoom in and everything look good. The text is easy to read and next to the location, so if players go in weird directions (which I hope they do) I don’t need to search for the room numbers.

I can put a short description in large font 56pts and the number if needed. I can also add in the DCs to find secret doors next to the doors, indicate stuck DCs or lock difficulty. Put little notes to suggest when you would start to smell the Otyugh ahead or the point at which enemies will be triggered by the PCs light. I can even zone areas for different wandering monster groups. Or limits of pursuit.

In short everything I need to run a dungeon is now on the tabletop to be defended at a glance and a zoom in if needed. The GM layer can be partially faded easily when combat starts so it’s not distracting so much from the token side of things.

In short, I’ve never really used this function except for room numbers and hidden monsters/traps. So I’m loving the impact it’s had on making DMing easier.

Anyone else use this function. GM layers are on lots of TT programs. It just happens that I use Roll20.

 

[Norton]

I ignored the GM layer for too long. It's ideal for placing foes out of sight and revealing them more or less spontaneously rather than dragging from the menu. It's also great for preventing clicking on the map and moving it when you didn't mean to then trying to slide it back to where it was. Best of all—and I'm embarrassed I didn't put this together for too long—when the map is on the GM layer you can group select! Comes in really handy when you have PCs in a boat.

 

[Shiroiken]

I don't quite use it for full descriptions, but anything notable gets put on the GM layer. For example, if light or sound is going to be noticed at a specific spot, this is an easy to see mark so I don't forget. Something I've done is to make my Area Markers into characters, putting the adventure information in the description. There's still some flipping around, but it keeps things more organized.

 

[jgsugden]

I use it a lot.

If I have a day and night version of a map, I'll place them overlapping on the map layer and then build the rest of the map (features, etc...) Once the adventure is beginning and I want to have the map go from day to night, I just send one of them from the map layer to the GM layer.

I drop notes on the GM layer to remind myself what the PCs have done and not done.

I put pictures on the GM layer that I can then show to players using the Shift Z.

I put spell effects on the GM layer so that I can drag them into position and move them to the main level.

I put terrain features that change (open and shut doors, for example) on the GM layer so that I can move them to the map level to change the map quickly. You can do a lot with this technique. I ran the House of Lament (Ravenloft) recently for players, and used this subtly to change the house when the players were not looking, removing the doors that go out of the house, changing room locations, slowly covering a floor with more and more blood splatter. You can just drag things from the images or journal onto the page, but doing it this way let me presize it and be far more subtle.

I store the druid wildshapes, the summons, etc.. on the GM layer to make it easy to just drag them into place.

I often store room desrciptions there as well, but not usually for me to read. I put them there so that I can show them to players as I read them.

 

[iserith]

I use it for marking room numbers, trap triggers, secret doors, and for keeping tokens on it that aren't immediately in the scene. Sometimes the odd note. (I mostly use handouts for all my notes and descriptions.)

 

[Lyxen]

It is very useful, so when like me you transition fo Foundry, which is much better in lots of respects but does not have a DM layer, you look everywhere to find it until you realise that all the things that you used to do there are managed in a completely different way.

 

[TheSword]

So many more cool uses for this than I had thought of. Thanks all!

 

[Rabulias]

I used the GM Layer for adventure notes, trap DCs, boundaries of sights and sounds, etc., like this for some time on Roll20. One thing to be mindful of is the layering of items there if you place enemy tokens on the GM Layer, too. Early on I would try to send monsters to the Token Layer, but the text I had written sat on top of them so I ended up sending that to the Token Layer instead! D'oh! Text objects and circles for areas tended to be large and cover a great deal of real estate, so it's an easy mistake to make. Make a habit of right-clicking GM secrets on the GM Layer and choosing "Send to Back" to be sure they don't sit on top of your monsters. Like Lyxen, I have moved to FoundryVTT, and you can place links to Journal entries on maps there.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I write some location specific notes in the GM layer on Roll20, like where various hidden (or otherwise not apparent on screen) things in the room are. We had a battlemap, for example, that had four glowing runes of power, and I put a little gm note next to each one saying what it meant in case the players examined them and did well on arcana checks (which they did). It is a tremendous tool for that sort of thing, I wouldn't want to clutter up the screen with too many general notes though.

That said, it's easy in Roll20 to just have extra blank tiles around the edges, and I should probably keep more of my notes in such places.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I suspect that every VTT handles this differently. I use FantasyGrounds but when I used Roll20 I just has the room numbers on the GM layer and all the rest of my information on another monitor window in OneNote, with encounter info hyperlinked. But that was a long time ago and I suspect Roll20 has improved somewhat since.