combat tracker in players' hands

[greowhiste]

Is there a way to put the combat tracker visible and editable for the players? or just an uneditable list so they can see the layout?

In my old tabletop games I would always have a player keep track as it was one less detail for me, the DM, and made game flow a LOT faster.

Thanks for any help!
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[richvalle]

Somewhere there is a thead with the changes you need to make to make it visable to the players. I think it is in the armory or workshop areas.

The Savage Worlds ruleset does this by default. Well, its visable not sure if players can change it.

What parts do you want them to change? Init order, HP's?

rv

[greowhiste]

You know, yeah, like inish order. When a player lays a spell or ability (I have a bard, so she sings like every battle and when she casts, there is a three round leftover) I'd like it if they could themselves be responsible for setting the timer. If anyone knows where that thread is that you speak of, that'd be helpful. I'll take a search through.

I was also thinking we could use the Name in the combat trackers as a quick way to "tag" our tokens. For flying, and what notable afflictions they might have. Like, "Warrior, +30', Blind" That way the chars can easily reference it, instead of asking every round or whatever, and when its released its not another thing that I have to do...

Thing is, my players get a little...idle. So giving them something apart of the game would I think help a little. Engage. You know?

[richvalle]

Yep. Its a good idea. I never thought about changing the names in the combat tracker to show status. I tend to not let the players know what is happening until they would know (i.e. they don't know a creature is blind until it is the creatures turn and it becomes apparent) but its a good idea to change it once they do know.

For flying I took one of the generic squares (the blue-ish cloudy looking one) and made a bunch that have '10', '20','30', ect on them so we can mark hight.

For spell durations I make the players keep track however they want too. Some use notes in FG and some use pen and paper at their desk. At our level (just made 14th) there are way too many spells and effects going off for me to track. Plus, as you say, it keeps them enaged. :)

I used to open up an extra image window and drop in all the characters portraits and let them arange them in init order so they can see who goes where but I've fallen out of the habit lately.

rv

[Griogre]

However the window with token order might a good thing to have you players to instead of or until you change your tracker. You could also have the players use the little letter tokens to represent spells in the same window but drag and dropping the spell name/effect on them. They could even right numbers next to the tokens or put a D out there next to each effect and put a tooltip on the D with the duration.

I agree that it is in good to keep your players busy and engaged in the game. I found in my face to face games one of the best reason to have a mapboard where the players could build the surroundings as they moved their figures was it just kept everyone busy and interested. They also got to be very fast doing it, so fast that the guy who was keeping doing the actual map was sometimes slower.

[greowhiste]

The window thing is a pretty good idea, thanks. Though I feel like there is already a mechanism for counting down durations or afflictions...the combat tracker. I also feel like I would be willing to sacrifice the few details they would find out to keep them playing with it. Using the tooltips and different letter tokens is a good idea, but that would kind require building a new "lexicon". It's sort of something the CT already does and I feel like I don't have enough time to really enjoy the CT enough...I'm much more concerned about focusing on all the stuff going on during the combat (strategies, maneuvers, etc.). Maybe I'm myself a little overwhelmed too, but I was hoping there was a basically simple way to make the players see and edit the combat tracker.

[Griogre]

In some ways the combat tracker has gotten to be *too* good. It's so good I will spend game time setting it up now when before I would not. So now I sometimes have several minutes of "dead" time setting it up.

I guess the way I look at it is it is worth it to me in some fights - yet I still run fights where I don't bother to input monsters on the tracker because they the monsters don't last long enough to justify the time to drag all of them on the tracker and then find the right monster that the character just hit on the tracker - so I just drag one on for initiative.

I guess what I trying to say is the CT can be a two edged sword. Despite all its cool features if it is slowing your game down it is not helpful. I don't know what level you group is, but my experience is I don't bother tracking anything on the tracker unless its duration is rounds per level or less. To me the best thing about the tracker aside from auto sorting initiative is the ability to throw to hit and damage dice as well as saves from it into the chat box.

I encourage you to make the tracker visible to the players if you want but I suspect you may find their fiddling on the CT will slow your game down. I have to say that other than looking at the monster and other characters wounds, as a player, I would not want the tracker taking up space on my FG desktop.

[greowhiste]

Great insight Griogre. I think it might be worth a try however. I think one of my players' main gripes is that they feel lost or like there is dead time. It would give them something to do, at the very least something to look at. You guys know how to do it? Better yet, is it possible to turn it on and turn it off for specific characters who may not want it taking up real estate?

Thanks for all the feedback!

[richvalle]

However the window with token order might a good thing to have you players to instead of or until you change your tracker. You could also have the players use the little letter tokens to represent spells in the same window but drag and dropping the spell name/effect on them. They could even right numbers next to the tokens or put a D out there next to each effect and put a tooltip on the D with the duration.

Wow... that is an interesting idea. I wonder if I can create tokens for most the common spells and pre-name them. Then put them where the players can find them and they and drag and drop to their hearts content.

I LIKE this idea... though it may end up being something we do for a few sessions and then drop it due to the extra work.

Thanks Griogre!

rv

[Griogre]

Man that post was full of typo's, funny how I didn't see them until you quoted me. :p I hear you on the extra work, but many players would do all the work if you just open the Map for them.

[Xorn]

One thing to note on the combat tracker and multiple combatants. My players click on the one they are attacking as they do so--making it very easy to see which entry it is on the combat tracker.

I really like the idea of a separate "buff window" for the players to track their own info in. Cool idea. Griogre I need to just connect to one of your games and observe sometime. Have a feeling I'd learn a lot of kick *** tricks.

Matter of fact--what are the chances of that?

[Moon Wizard]

FYI, I made a version of the d20 ruleset with a client-side combat tracker. It only shows a subset of the information, NPCs can be toggled in the client display, and is controlled solely by the DM.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7779

Cheers,
JPG

[Griogre]

One thing to note on the combat tracker and multiple combatants. My players click on the one they are attacking as they do so--making it very easy to see which entry it is on the combat tracker.

I really like the idea of a separate "buff window" for the players to track their own info in. Cool idea. Griogre I need to just connect to one of your games and observe sometime. Have a feeling I'd learn a lot of kick *** tricks.

Matter of fact--what are the chances of that?
You could probably sit in on a game, but I'll warn you that I try different things with different groups and I'm a minimalist at heart. My experience is that some groups like certain things while others don't. I really am thinking about doing the Combat window with spells thing for my 11th level group though it would probably benefit my 9th level group more but I don't really see the 9th level guys being that interested. Could be wrong though.

[Xorn]

I'd just really like to see a game looking in; one of my favorite things to do used to be to go down to the hobby room where everyone would meet for D&D nights and just watch them play, picked up a lot of DMing tricks that I probably wouldn't have thought of otherwise.

I've just noticed that I find myself really picking up a lot of great tips from you here on the forums, and now I'm just curious to see what else I could learn that I'm not even thinking to ask. (My players LOVE the leaving the map masked and tracing over it, by the way! Though that did draw some Chasing Amy quotes, heh.)

Anyway, I'll send you a PM about game times I might sit in on sometime.