I’ve been running online D&D 5e campaigns using a few simple tools. Or maybe I mean I’ve been using a few online tools in a simple manner. I recently shared my process for setting up a campaign with another GM and having to spell it out encouraged me to write it down and share it here.
I use Discord for voice chat during the game and as text chat in- and out-of-game, Owlbear Rodeo for maps and initiative tracking, and D&D Beyond for character sheets and in-game rolls. I pay for all three, but I think they all have free tiers that you can use. There are many other options out there, but these tools work for me.
- First I create an identifier for the campaign - I mainly play published adventures so usually this is an abbreviation of the adventure name followed by the date it started. For example, ROTF-20230201 would be the identifier for a Rime of the Frostmaiden campaing started on the first of Feb last year. I create a folder on my machine named this where I can put anything I find that might be useful.
- Now I create a D&D Beyond campaign and make sure I put the identifier somewhere in the title. I create a dummy GM character that I add to the campaign. This lets me make dice rolls as that character and have them show up in the game log.
- Next up is making an Owlbear room for the campaign, Again I include the identifier somewhere in the title. I spend way too long choosing a background image that I know my players will rarely see… Finally I make sure that I’ve locked off most of the Owlbear tools for players - they should be able to move their own tokens, measure and use the pointer.
- Now to Discord. I have a single Discord server for all my campaigns. First I create a role for that server named after the identifier. I can assign users this role to give them access to the campaign specific category and channels I’m going to create.
- I create one private category for the campaign with a name that’s meaningful for the players and again including the campaign identifier in the title. I set it so that it’s private and grant access to the campaign-tagged role I made earlier. I create four text channels under that category #game-log, #admin, #game-play and one #voice channel.
- In the admin channel I post this and pin it:
“Welcome - feel free to introduce yourselves here. When you’ve made a character on D&D Beyond, please add it to the campaign here: [link to campaign set up above]
Owlbear Rodeo room - please don’t join until 10mins before session to avoid spoilers as I do last minute set-up! [link to owlbear rodeo set up above]” - My Discord server has one public channel - naturally it’s called #the-tavern - I send players an invite link to this channel and when they turn up, I assign them the campaign role and say something like:
“Hi Chris! Thanks for joining. You should have permissions to see the Rime of the Frostmaiden channels. Links for campaign in the #admin channel there. Great to see you here!”
And there we go. Another campaign ready to go. It takes me ten minutes or so to get a new campaign set up. As a checklist:
- Create campaign identifier
- Make folder for campaign on file system
- Create D&D Beyond campaign and add dummy GM
- Create new room for campaign in Owlbear
- Set default player permissions in Owlbear
- Create Discord role for campaign
- Create private category for campaign
- Add standard channels to that category
- Post and pin #admin welcome message with links to campaign and Owlbear
- Invite players to #the-tavern
I’m sure there are a few steps I have forgotten, but I’ll add them in next time I make a new campaign. Hope this is helpful, let me know your process. Next post I’ll share how I get these tools set up before a session.