My group and I have been playing online RPG tabletop games now for several years now following a few of the members moving out of state. At first, I hated it, I missed the in person interaction, having the attention of the players while I DM'd, being able to see their expressions and reactions fueled some incredible roleplay and drama in our games. We moved our games to Roll20, so much of the below will apply to that specific application, but honestly this advice will help with any system you are using for your games.
The move to virtual tabletop was clunky at first, but over time, I've worked to refine and become much more proficient in the use of the virtual tabletop to make our games just as good as they were in person. Here are few tips to help your games:
1) Practice and learn the system you're using. Much like the DM should know the rules of the RPG system, so should they also know the workings of the virtual tabletop application. I cannot count how many times we've had games break or pause with questions on how to make rolls or use tokens or fix the visibility. Even knowing the application well won't prevent these issues, but it will hasten the correction to get back to the game.
2) Visuals Visuals Visuals!: I can't stress this enough. Art and imagery is an important part of the game. DM's can describe items until they are blue in the face, but a simple piece of art showing the object or character says more than anything I could describe in most cases. It helps with the immersion and setting of the game you are trying to portray to players. Google is your friend here, even when comes to tokens, maps and general handouts. There are many talented individuals in our hobby who have done the hard work to illustrate, use them!
3) To piggyback on imagery for your game, sound is just as important to set the mood. My group uses Discord for our audio and I've been lucky to find several Discord apps that let you play music / sound through the voice channel. Set the mood with a dark ambience as they venture into the dungeon or play that epic battle track from Conan the Barbarian when a fight erupts. It keeps the players engaged and immersed which can be a struggle at times online.
4) Fix the player tokens. Just like in person when the players would bring a miniature to the table, make their online tokens fancy with the image they want to use along with any system settings: such as vision, aura's, quick reference information like hit points and armor class. For Roll20, all of this can be preset by the DM and saved, so once established, you never have to touch it again. Make their life easier and it will makes yours easy too.
5) Lastly, use the available resources and prebuilt modules / rules tomes. WoTC not including digital content with the purchase of the physical book is a whole other issue and a big one at that, but having the content preloaded from maps, tokens, handout, dynamic lighting; all of the heavy lifting work done for you is priceless when using a VTT. Save your prep time for what matters as a DM: making your players lives difficult haha, knowing the encounters and NPC's, not for drawing lighting on a map or custom loading monster sheets. Both Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds (especially Fantasy Grounds) have a plethora of modules and system rule books right at your fingers for purchase. Many will balk at essentially buying the book twice, if you own the physical book, but what you're really paying for is the labor to put all of that into a VTT for use, trust me it is worth it.
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