Tokens

[ryntak4536]

I am really confused about tokens. How do I turn a picture (like a jpg) into a token?

[Griogre]

There are three things you need to know about tokens.

1) Tokens live on the GM's computer. Tokens on the player's computer are normally not accessible (there may be some exceptions for tokens kept in certain types of modules).

2) You want all your tokens in the same scale. Despite the improvements in the latest release it's still a hassle to constantly change the scale of individual tokens. The actual scale is not that important just that all your tokens use the same one.

3) Once you have your tokens scaled appropriately put you pngs or jpg images in either the tokens\host or tokens\shared folder. The GM is the only one who sees tokens placed in the host folder. This is used for monster tokens and other tokens you don't want the players to know about ahead of time. Tokens placed in the shared folder are seen and can be placed by either the GM or player. You can find the tokens folder by pressing the start button -> All Programs -> Fantasy Grounds II -> Data Application Folder. This will pop a window that will show a list of folders including the tokens folder.

Note - because tokens come from the GM it is rather pointless for someone with only the lite or unregistered versions of FG to bother with tokens.

Note 2 - Tokens and portraits are different things in FG and should not be confused with each other.

[Fot5]

I've also found it easier to have character portraits and tokens of the same size. That way, you don't have to change the size of portraits to allow them to serve as tokens. However, this may be an unnecessary step on my part.

Also, don't forget to scale non-medium sized creatures to different sized tokens. For example, a large creature's token should be twice as large as a medium. I've found it easier to put small creatures at about 75% the size of a medium to make them easier to see on the map (e.g., I have all of my mediums at 72 pixels, larges at 144, and smalls at 54). This is a good size to allow PC tokens to double as portraits.

One final thing, I've found it easiest to change sizes of pictures and add borders in Photoshop. You can automate many of the tasks if you know how to use "actions" (macros). I've written actions to resize a picture to 72x72, add a semi-transparent overlay as a border, and save as a .png file. If you don't have Photoshop, a very nice piece of freeware is called the Token Tool (https://www.rptools.net/index.php?pa...oads#TokenTool).

Here's an example of my tokens (a giant cat).

Attachment 1539

[jbear]

Another question about tokens:

Why are the tokens disappearing from the NPC entries I am making? I type in a new NPC and drag a token into the slot. I then drag the NPC into a combat encounter entry. Then the next time I log into my campaign they have all disappeared.

This even happened to the tokens that I had dragged from the combat encounter onto the combat tracker and from there to the map (which I had to leave midcombat). When I came back in the next time. Poof! All gone.

Is there some important step that i'm missing out?

[Stitched]

Have you exported the adventure / module with the tokens used when you built it? That could be it.

[jbear]

No, not yet.

I'm kind of inputting the adventure and playing it as DM and PCs so I can get a feel for the adventure and master FG, finding all the little bits that I can't resolve myself and sorting those issues out one by one (by asking here on the boards).

If what you say is so then I guess tokens are kind of the last thing you should do before exporting unless you are going to input it all and then export in one session. Is that the case?

[Stitched]

I think the tokens should only be assigned in your Encounters and not in your Personalities/NPC listings. I could be wrong of course but it appears to save my token choices; assuming you don't change the name of the tokens or move them into another directory, etc.

No, not yet.

I'm kind of inputting the adventure and playing it as DM and PCs so I can get a feel for the adventure and master FG, finding all the little bits that I can't resolve myself and sorting those issues out one by one (by asking here on the boards).

If what you say is so then I guess tokens are kind of the last thing you should do before exporting unless you are going to input it all and then export in one session. Is that the case?

[Griogre]

No, not yet.

I'm kind of inputting the adventure and playing it as DM and PCs so I can get a feel for the adventure and master FG, finding all the little bits that I can't resolve myself and sorting those issues out one by one (by asking here on the boards).

If what you say is so then I guess tokens are kind of the last thing you should do before exporting unless you are going to input it all and then export in one session. Is that the case?

That assumes you want to contain you tokens in your module. You might not want to. I don't personally put tokens in modules unless I'm making one for sale because I don't like duplicate images everywhere. Self contained modules should have the tokens included though. You can put the token on the personality list or on the Encounter listing. It has the same effect assuming you drag the "tokened" personality onto the encounter. Probably it's better to put them on the personality list because it's a bit less work if you use the monster in more than one encounter because you'll only have to attached the token once.