Hide PCs from players view

[Graylock]

Hey all. I'm just wondering if there's a way to hide a PC from all the player's view. I create powerful NPCs as PCs in my games but I don't want my players to see names, levels, etc. in the PC window when they load their characters. Is there anyway to block or hide info on these special DM's PCs? Thanks

[Zacchaeus]

Yes, start up a second instance of Fantasy Grounds and join your game. Then select all of the PCs that you don't want your players to see. This will set the owner of the characters as you so the players won't see them at the start up screen.

To start a second instance of FG find the .exe file and right click on it and run it from there.

[Trenloe]

"Join Game" with a server address of localhost in your second instance of FG.

[Phystus]

You'll also need a different name than you're using as the GM. Something like "The Shadow" might have a nice ring to it! :bandit:

~P

[Zacchaeus]

You'll also need a different name than you're using as the GM. Something like "The Shadow" might have a nice ring to it! :bandit:

~P

I don't think that's right. As soon as you select a character or characters they will be assigned to whatever name the person selecting the character(s) is. So if I grab a character as Zacchaeus and then one of my players called Bob joins then he isn't going to see the character that I've grabbed. It's just the same for any player joining the game; they'll only see characters that they have created or picked from the PC tab.

As DM of course you can see all of the characters in the PC tab, including any that belong to you as DM.

[Graylock]

That certainly sounds like a good enough solution. However, I'm running FG on a Mac through wineskin and it seems I cannot run a second instance of FG. Tried launching it from several locations but no go. :-(

[damned]

I don't think that's right.

It is right. All objects are owned by someone so each session needs a unique user(owner)name. Players may not use the same name as the GM or each other.


That certainly sounds like a good enough solution. However, I'm running FG on a Mac through wineskin and it seems I cannot run a second instance of FG. Tried launching it from several locations but no go. :-(

Unfortunately you will need to install a second wineskin (or Steam install) to do it exactly this way on a mac.
You might borrow another friendly GM to logon and grab all your NPCs for you...
You can even make a couple of spares and have them get owned too and flesh them out when you need them.

[Zacchaeus]

It is right. All objects are owned by someone so each session needs a unique user(owner)name. Players may not use the same name as the GM or each other.

In trying to understand this (since I've logged in as Zacchaeus a hundred times through localhost) it got me thinking; well how does FG know that I'm Zacchaeus when I start up a campaign as DM and I decided it wasn't prescient enough to know that so there had to be some other explanation and so that is why after using FG for way more than a year I see FOR THE FIRST TIME that you can set a Username when you create a new campaign. Since I've never ever done that ever it defaults me to DM :)

So that was what I learned today. Thanks Damned :)

[Trenloe]

Added new extension: GM PC Ownership: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?28728-GM-PC-Ownership-Extension

Allows the GM to take ownership of PC records, thus hiding the PC from the players in the Character Selection screen. Handy when the GM builds detailed NPCs using the PC sheet. This replaces the need for the GM to separately login as a player and take ownership of a PC record.

[Zacchaeus]

And once again Trenloe comes up with the goods. Jolly well done.

[kylania]

Fantastic work Trenloe!

[Nylanfs]

Oooo, purddy

[Varsuuk]

Very very awesome utility.

[BlueFlameMage]

What about the character import function? I've seen Some Players import characters I've built in other campaigns or even the current one. Either accidentally or on purpose. Just curious about blocking imports.

[Zacchaeus]

What about the character import function? I've seen Some Players import characters I've built in other campaigns or even the current one. Either accidentally or on purpose. Just curious about blocking imports.
This post is seven years old and relates to FG Classic. Is your question related to Classic? If you are seeing an issue with Unity can you please start a new post in the House of Healing with details sufficient to reproduce the issue.

If you are asking a general question about importing characters then as far as I’m aware you can only import characters that you have owned from any campaign that you have played them in.