Your Rules on Player Token Movement

[Tooting Dog]

With theater of the mind players are not freely running around on a map and all over an instance. With a table-top game, too, they do not zip their figurine all over the table map. But at the computer where they do not have to get up to grab a figurine, the players are at the keyboard and tend to move their tokens all around a room. With this, a player/s may have moved their token over a hidden trap, or moved into position where a hidden monster will come out of hiding, etc. I am new to playing FGU and is there some sort of decorum on this? How do you handle this? Is there some rule to stop at the door after you open it but before entering to listen to the DM's description, or place them on token-lock, or what? Thanks in advance!

[Zacchaeus]

I use token lock. But my players have also been playing for 30 years so they don’t zoom all over the map because they are aware that doing so might well end in a split party just at the point they meet a dragon.
You always have the option of moving a token back to where the trap they stood on was.

[esmdev]

My group has been using token lock since we switched to Unity. It works really well, especially with LoS and dynamic lighting. The player plots their course on the battle map, if they pass over a trap I can decline the move, move their token to the trap and do what must be done to the poor unfortunate soul (unless he makes his perception at which I just point out the trap).

The key is you approve or disapprove all player moves before the token moves so they don't run all over the map.

[DM_BK]

I think token locking takes too much time and effort for the GM to continuously approve every move. Really slows things down.

In the case of traps I use a "fuzzy" placement of the traps, if the players walked near a trap they were unaware of, then they hit it and I move them back to that location. Traps they are aware of I assume they walk around them if its a question at all.

Its quick and easy and keeps the game moving at a much speeder pace but to each their own.

[Tooting Dog]

Are you guys using token lock even before combat?

I am thinking of maybe making a rule that if they say they are opening a door, they have to stay in-place and let me read the description before they start running around inside the room and at that point I enable token lock so I can see one-by-one where everyone is going. The traps thing was just one example. Basically I have more windows up than them and I'm reading the adventure and descriptions and am not really watching the room with great intent while I begin to describe the room and/or set it up.

[LordEntrails]

I don't ever use token lock. The only time I had players moving tokens all over the map was when LOS first came out and I setup a map for them to play with and to learn how it worked.

Half of my players are over 40 and have played for decades, two of them are teenagers. Maybe its just the tone myself and some of the players have set, that immaturity in the characters is fine, but in the players its not tolerated that have led us to never have an issue. For me its just a matter of respect, to the GM and to the other players. I do tell the players when they should be moving in tactical/round based movement or if they are in free movement.

I also never hesitate to tell them they need to move back, or to move them back myself to a spot of interest. They also know that if they move their tokens too far ahead and trigger an encounter, combat starts where they are. Even if some of the party is three rooms back or 300 feet away. But I make sure I never do anything maliciously, or to teach them a lesson. Its just realistic cause and effect, consequences for actions. We all just have come to an implicit agreement that for everyone's most enjoyment, there are social norms or play that we all need to adhere to.

But, if you need to have a session 0 or an out of character discussion, do it. You should never fear addressing an issue that hinders the fun of everyone at the table. Just always remember its about enhancing fun for everyone, not about what anyone is doing 'wrong'.

[Zacchaeus]

Are you guys using token lock even before combat?

Yes, I have token lock on always.

But you have to find your own happy medium and what works for you and for your group. Each group is different with different styles and different maturity levels and a myriad of other differences. So what works for me will not necessarily work for you. Experiment with the options and see where it takes you.

[damned]

I dont use token lock.
When a player or two decide they really must go move their token into the next room I have them roll initiative and remind them how bad an idea it is to split the party.

[Tooting Dog]

Good stuff, all! I probably should have rather originally asked what is the most accepted etiquette for player movement. My group is all older people: we were just a bunch of friends who in a world of COVID decided to try this D&D online experience. As this group, we have two whole games in FGU under our belt.

The players have no clue what my DM screen looks like and what I am setting up. We are all on laptops and so I'm on a small crowded screen. I think there is a natural propensity with a computer to freely move your token around. If this was theater of the mind, that is more easily handled and even table-top is way more manageable because players are less prone to stand there at the table moving their token around like a 4-yr old with a Hot Wheels car. But sitting alone at a computer not realizing how it impacts the DM, they are checking things out and moving around like kids in a brand new home you are moving into. I think I will lock the doors and ask them to tell me when they want to go into the room whereupon I unlock it and also then set token lock and then I can read them the details of the room and set things up if I've not had a chance to be one step ahead of them, and then approve moves. Time will probably teach the best method for us, but I was hoping to find a short-cut by asking on here and I did get some good ideas.

[LordEntrails]

Make sure you give, or have given, them a chance to play around and learn. You can screen share via Discord or similar and put them all on a map with doors, LOS and enemy tokens. Let them play with moving things around. Then can flip to your shared screen and see what it looks like for you. It's probably just curiosity and learning. Once they learn they will be more interested in playing and things will probably be fine.