Simple Macro Creation

This guide is for those who aren’t familiar with roll20 macros. I’ve listed some examples of macros I generally use, and instructions on how to create them.

I commonly use macros for rolling:

Initiative

Weapon rolls and damage

Spells

Skills

Saving throws

## MAKING MACROS

1. Open the campaign page and enter the game.
2. In the upper right hand corner of the screen is a gear icon called "settings". Select that icon.
3. At the top of the sub menu it says "Macros" and to the right of that, a button called "+ Add".
4. A new macro entry will populate with a 20 sided dice icon named "Untitled" and a check box named "In Bar" . At the same time, a new screen will pop up over the map entitled "Edit Macro"
5. Name: the first box is where you enter the name of the macro.
6. Actions: the larger box beneath that is where you enter the macro equations and text.
7. Test Macro: hit this button to actually use the macro to see if your equation works. It will automatically roll up on the chat screen.
8. Show as Token Action: select this button if you want your macro buttons to show up everytime you select your character token, otherwise, you can select the "In Bar" box from step 4 and your macro buttons will show up along the bottom of your screen.

## Saving Throw/ Skill Macros

The easiest macros to make are for saving throws and skills. Lets say you wanted to make a macro for the Perception skill. Your rogue has a +7 bonus to perception.

All dice rolls lines in the macros begin with a backslash and the word "roll" like this : **/roll**

Then you will leave a space and specify the dice you want rolled. For a skill check, its a 20 sided dice, so you would enter "d20"

Any skill modifiers would be added to the d20. In this case, its "+7"

The basic macro equation for rolling your rogue's perception skill check would be this:

***/roll d20+7***

If you hit that macro button, it would show up in the chat bar as the following:

***rolling d20+7***

***(15)+7***

***=23***

The 15 in parenthesis is the random number generated by rolling the d20. The final line is the sum of that number plus the modifier which is 7.

You can further simplify the equation by abbreviating the **/roll** to **/r**

That equation would then look like this **/r d20+7,**

You can further simplify this by replacing the **/r** or **/roll** part with brackets, like this: [[d20+7]]

With brackets, the chat box would show up with this : 23 if we got the same random number as the example shown above. If you mouse over that number in the chat box, it would show the equation and math it rolled, but otherwise, you would just get the number.

Finally, you can add flavor text. If you want the macro to use your name, use **/me**. That will replace the /me with whatever name you are currently using for chat.

If i wanted to signify that the number i was rolling was my rogue's perception check, I might write the macro like this:

***/me has a quick look around. [[d20+7]] perception***

If I used that macro, it would come up this way in the chat bar:

***Dag has a quick look around. 23 perception***

Now let’s say you wanted to make an attack macro with your dagger. My melee modifier is 4, and my dagger does d4 damage plus 2 for my strength modifier. I would write the attack equation like this:

***/roll d20+4***

And then the damage equation like this:

***/roll d4+2***

Or i could combine everything with flavor text to look like this:

***/me quickly shanks the enemy. [[d20+4]] vs AC for [[d4+2]] slashing damage.***

In the chat bar, it would show up something like this:

***Dag quickly shanks the enemy. 19 vs AC for 3 slashing damage.***

Lets say I wanted to make a macro for my fireball spell as a 6th level wizard. That fireball would do 1d6 per my caster level of fire damage, and i could write that as either d6+d6+d6+d6+d6+d6, or simply 6d6. I would make a macro like this:

***/me summons the power of fire and launches a fireball at the enemy forces. [[6d6]] fire damage. reflex DC 15 for half damage.***