John August

John

A DM’s guide to Roll20

Geek Alert, Software, Tools

Since the start of the pandemic, our regular D&D game — which has always been in person — has shifted to online. We use Zoom to chat, and [Roll20](https://roll20.net) to simulate the tabletop.

I’m comfortable using Roll20 as a player, but when it came time to begin planning my own campaign as a DM, I was stumped. The interface is wildly confusing, and the built-in tutorials aren’t up to the task.

Craig offered to walk me through the process of setting up and running a game. We recorded the whole thing, which is [now available as five videos](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa3qqbMuNy-r-ZvH7UiX_OyW03ymY6axK).

If you’re considering DMing a game in Roll20, I strongly suggest you start here. Craig’s a good teacher.

Let’s make a Fountain block for WordPress

Geek Alert, Projects, Scrippets, Software

Way back in 2008, I [announced a plugin for WordPress](https://johnaugust.com/2008/scrippets-are-go) that made it easy to insert short bits of screenplay-like material into a blog post.

EXT. HOUSE -- DAY

Max is checking his mail when he spots neighbor FRANK crossing the street, heading his way.

Shaking his head...

MAX

I thought we talked about this, Frank.

FRANK

(drunk)

I was born naked and I’m not changing now.

I called these chunks “scrippets.” This plain-text format ultimately became [Fountain](http://fountain.io), which in turn became the basis of [Highland](http://highland2.com) and other screenwriting apps. ((One of the coders who put together the WordPress plugin was Nima Yousefi, who has now coded nearly everything we’ve made.))

The Scrippets plugin still works — you can [install it today](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-scrippets/) — but WordPress has moved on to the concept of “blocks.” These are discrete elements of a post that can do specific things. You can find blocks for [code syntax](https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/code-block/), [tables](https://wordpress.org/support/article/table-block/), and even [poetry verse](https://wpcompendium.org/create-posts/verse-block/).

There should be one for Fountain.

If you’re a WordPress coder who’d like to tackle this project, here are some thoughts to get you started.

1. Visit [Fountain.io/developer](https://fountain.io/developers) and the [GitHub](https://github.com/nyousefi/Fountain) for implementations of the parser.
2. While I’d love to support the whole Fountain spec, I’m not convinced title pages and headers/footers make sense for this use case.
3. Notes and synopses are super useful. We’ll want to style them so they’re visually distinct.
4. Forced elements are very important. Blog posts often center on weird edge cases, and international users may need to force character names like @黄.
5. Ultimately, it’ll be best if there’s one “official” Fountain block plugin, but if multiple people decide to tackle it, my team and I can help coordinate.
6. This would be presumably be GPL licensed. This is for the good of the internet, not any one company or person.

So if you feel like giving it a shot, go for it! You certainly don’t need our permission.

If you have something you’d like us to see, or a question we can answer, write ask@johnaugust.com

General meetings don’t have to be general

Film Industry, Pitch Session, Producers, Psych 101

I like this [advice from Jeff Nathanson](https://www.wga.org/news-events/news/connect/ask-a-mentor-make-your-meetings-count):

> It took me well over a decade to realize that general meetings are only general if I allowed them to be. And so, I changed my approach. I figured as long as I’m putting on a clean shirt and meeting with people who have the ability to hire me, I might as well try like hell to get a job.

> I started to prepare for every general as if it would be my last. I would tailor a short pitch for specific executives (even when I was told not to pitch an idea). I would do my research, find out what movies they had in production, what scripts they were struggling with.

> I asked questions, tried to cut through the general conversation and discuss passion projects. I asked studio executives about obscure titles they had in their library. And suddenly I started walking out with scripts under my arms, books to read, magazine articles they had optioned.

This approach makes even more sense in the age of Zoom. You need to be able to move pretty quickly from chit-chat to what you’d like to write, be it a property they control or something of your own.

This isn’t the time for a full pitch, but rather to frame an idea. “I really love heist movies. I’m working on one set on a super tanker. I’ve gone deep down the rabbit hole of research on it.”

Two transitions in a row

Formatting, QandA, Words on the page

Don Donahue writes:

> How would you format two transitions in a row?

> I’m experimenting with a transition where a drone gets shot down in Alaska. Right now I have…

CUT TO STATIC:

FADE TO BLIZZARD:

> Is this acceptable? Is there a better way to do this?

This looks awkward. It feels like there’s something omitted between the two transitions. After all, the point of a transition is that you’re transitioning *to* something. That something is missing here.

It’s important to understand that by “transition” screenwriters are really talking about two distinct things:

1. What we’re seeing on screen as we move from one **scene** to the next.
2. The handoff from one **idea** to the next.

The first kind of transition happens on the right-hand margin, uppercase, often with a colon at the end. It’s unique to screenplay grammar.

In your example, FADE TO BLIZZARD is an example of this kind of transition. It’s strictly cinematic. You’re telling us what we’d see on screen, and giving specific instructions to an imaginary editor.

The second kind of transition happens in all kinds of writing. You see it novels, plays, non-fiction and journalism. I’d argue that at least half of the craft of writing is transitioning smoothly to the next thing.

In your example, CUT TO STATIC is describing what we’re seeing and hearing, but it’s the kind of thing the characters in the scene are probably experiencing firsthand. So I’d leave it in scene description.

Obviously, I don’t know exactly what’s happening in your scene, but let’s imagine it something like this:

Malcolm leans close, pointing to a dark smudge on the screen.

MALCOLM

There! What do you think that is?

DAHLIA

A bunker? Something’s moving inside.

CLOSE ON SCREEN, a FLASH. Something flies straight for the lens. Bright. Hot.

MALCOLM (O.S.)

Shit! A rocket!

Impact! The screen cuts to STATIC.

CROSS-FADE TO BLIZZARD.

EXT. ARCTIC STATION – NIGHT

HOWLING WINDS. The domes of the compound are just barely visible. Yellow work lights wobble.

Fade? Cross-fade? Your call. To me, FADE generally implies that we’re going to black or white.

You’ll notice I put a period after BLIZZARD rather than a colon. Blizzard is the thing we’re cross-fading to, so it feels like a complete thought. I’d give it a period.

The colon makes sense when the object of the transition is in the next line, like this:

DA’VONNE

I know where he’d hide it.

CUT TO:

INT. TRUCK GARAGE – NIGHT

With flashlights, Da’Vonne and Sarah make their way amid the massive semis and trailers.

Here, the CUT TO: is doing the work of both a cinematic transition (a blunt cut to the next place) and a narrative transition (answering the question “Where does Da’Vonne think it’s hidden?”).

Uppercased transitions are a useful tool for screenwriters, particularly when they can do this double-duty. But you’ll read many screenplays that hardly use them at all, and that’s fine too. They’re never strictly necessary.