Character Token Setup in Roll20
Roll20 is a very popular virtual tabletop role-playing platform that is straightforward to use. However, this simplicity means it has limited controls for complex interactions, such as character tokens made from irregular-shaped artwork. By default, Roll20 assumes that character and monster tokens all fit within a single map grid square. This works well for common disc-shaped token art, but it can be challenging with dynamic token character art, which is often oddly shaped. This tutorial aims to help you utilise Studio WyldFurr’s character and monster token art assets as character tokens by showing you how to adjust Roll20’s token settings.
Setting up a Character Token
Most people approach the task of setting up a character or monster’s token art by opening the entity’s character sheet. This works when you’re using a simple square image that depicts a circular disc, since those pieces of artwork do not need to be set up. But we want to use the irregularly shaped artwork commonly found in Studio WyldFurr’s token packs that can be found in the Roll20 Marketplace.
We still need to have the character sheet for our entity in the campaign world, but we will not set up the token via the character sheet. Instead, we begin by selecting the artwork we want to use for our character entity and plonk it onto a map where we can configure it. The character sheet will be needed at the end of the set up proccess when we allocate the configured token to the character.
For this example, we are going to set up an Orc Peasant using an image from Studio WyldFurr’s Orc Horde token pack.
Step One – Select Artwork
Browse through Roll20’s Art Library and locate the character artwork you wish to use. For our example, we are going to use:
- Bruin Orc Peasant: bruin-orc-peasant-0000.png
Drag and drop the image from the Art Browser onto an adventure map to see how Roll20 displays the image. By default, Roll20 will squish and stretch the image to fit the size of a map grid square.
Step Two – Set Artwork Size
We downloaded all of the tokens from the package so that we can look at the details of each image file. By inspecting that particular image file, we can see the image is 152 pixels wide by 132 pixels tall. We need to tell Roll20 to use those pixel sizes when it tries to display the image; Roll20 will default to squishing or stretching the image into a single map grid square.
To tell Roll20 what size the token artwork should be, right-click on the token that you placed upon the map canvas. A pop-up menu should appear; from that menu, you need to click on:
Advanced Transform, doing so will display a sub-menu.
From the sub-menu you need to click on, Set Dimensions.
A small panel titled “Set Dimensions” will appear. In this box, enter the pixel size of the token artwork you wish to use for your character or monster.
Once entered, click on the set button at the bottom of the panel to apply the pixel dimensions.
Your image should suddenly resize itself and cease being squished to fit a single map grid square.
Optional Setting – Disable Grid Snap
It can be useful to disable the grid snapping for odd-sized character and monster tokens. To do so, right-click on the character token to display the pop-up menu, then click on Advanced Transform to display the sub-menu. In the sub-menu, click on Disable Grid Snapping.
With grid snapping turned off, you can freely move the character token around without it snapping to the edge of a map grid square (which might look a little odd).
Step Three – Allocate Token to a Character
Now that you have told Roll20 what size your token artwork should be displayed at, you need to allocate it to a character or monster entity. Doing so is quite easy – at this point, I assume you already have a character sheet for the entity setup in your campaign. If you don’t, it’s best to create it now before proceeding further.
To allocate the token to an entity (monster or character), you will need to select the token and then click on the gear icon that appears at the bottom left of the selected token. Clicking on the gear icon will display the Token Settings Panel.
There are a large number of various display settings that can be edited in the Token Settings panel, but for our immediate purpose, we are only concerned with two settings.
- Represents Character – This drop-down menu provides you with a list of current character entities in your campaign. From the drop-down list, select the character or monster you want the selected token to represent. Note: The list will only display characters currently in your campaign. This is why you need to have your character data sheet set up before you begin.
- Update Default Token – This is a blue button that, when clicked, will allocate the currently selected token and apply it as the default token for the character. Once applied, whenever you drag and drop the character onto a map, it will use the currently selected token as its default token.
Now that you have configured your token art, and allocated it to a character, you are all set to enjoy roleplaying with Studio WyldFurr’s character tokens!
