Why "share" tokens?

[seycyrus]

Or, in other words, why bother putting tokens in the "shared" folder rather than "host"? Once I place tokens on a map, the players can move them around and use them ...

Is it just so that players can play around with them, go through a bunch that the GM has, to decide which they would like to use for their personal token?

Any advantages in loading times either way?

[Griogre]

The advantage of shared tokens is the *players* can place them and move them around without the GM having to place them. So it can save the GM time. Obviously, this can be a disadvantage depending on your players.

I personally don't put tokens in shared for PC tokens like you suggest, since I just use the same graphics as their portraits (I don't use top down tokens). But for people who do that would work. I actually keep a small amount of utility tokens in shared for my players. Horses, Mules, AoE tokens, Party, Colored Beads, Walls, summoned animals for the druid and door tokens. It depends on the game you are running and the style of game how useful shared tokens are.

In my Undermountain game where I am making them draw the map themselves as they explore, the wall tokens have been useful since they can put them on the map when they hear the dimensions of the room and halls. Most of the time I don't make the players do that, though so then the wall tokens are pretty useless in other games.

There is a hit to loading shared tokens since everything in shared tokens is transferred to the player's when they connect to the server for the first time. The tokens are then cached on the client so it is a one time transfer, but it is up front. Still, you don't want to put anything in shared you don't think you will need. With host tokens they are transferred when they are placed.

[Nickademus]

I had a GM that put campsite tokens (campfire, tents, wagons, etc.) in the shared so that when we camped for the night we could set up where everything was while the GM prepared the night encounter or the next day. Shared tokens are good for things like that which the players have control over, and it takes some of the burden off of the GM.

[Blacky]

Since FG doesn't handle text label on maps, it's also useful to allow player to put “notes” on a map.