Spell Effects and oddness

[Battlewear]

Good Day to all..

Ok, so I know that there have been a number of questions on how to do spell effects and things of that nature but I havent seen any posts (I will be honest, I might of missed it) for the situation I/we are having.

Let me start of by explaining the set up. First, Im new to Fantasy grounds
We are a in person group gathered around the table, we use an overhead projector putting a digital map on the table. We use encounters to determine initiative and I personally use tokens for players and monsters so that on my 2nd computer screen I can very easily see where people are vs the environment (we have a very large table/projection/etc and it can be hard to see EXACTLY where people are).
The characters and monsters while tokens are also minis, the players move the minis to where I move monster tokens and the a couple of the players have laptops and login so that they can move the player tokens.

This past week while doing a epic battle with over 40 monsters and 8 players we ran into a situation where a player wanted to drop a fireball, but to better reflect it on the map he wanted to show radius. My player was unable to do the circle. When he would click on the (The double mouse button click) nothing would happen, but I as the DM could.
How do I allow the players that ability?
I as the DM and to save time, made up very basic characters and gave them an icon. Its really so that we can put them onto the table top easy and move them around. As the DM I have my laptop and a 2nd monitor. The 2nd Monitor is mirrored to the Overhead projector and runs a 2nd instance of FG.

So that was first question..

Time for 2nd Question..
Some Oddness..
So this past weekend while playing in that epic game I had over 20 magmin and a large number or Orogs (Running the attack on Triboar from SKT).
I imported the encounter.. I placed the tokens for the attacking force on the map. When I shared the map, the tokens appeared for a brief moment and then disappeared. Thats when all insanity broke out.. So while attempting to bring them back, I somehow caused the game to DOUBLE all entries of characters in the combat tracker.. Of course I had no idea who was who because I had turned off monster numbering (Yes, thats been turned back on because I dont want to go through that pain again!, nothing like having 20 magnin on the table and then trying to click on each one to figure out if they are on the table, where they are located, etc).
Anyways, any idea while they would go invisible when I shared the map with the players? They were not set to be invisible (at the top of the encounter table I saw an eye, it was fine (even clicked it trying to fix my issue)..

[Zacchaeus]

Everyone can draw circles, arcs, squares and lines on the map by default. As you say hold both mouse buttons and drag to draw a line, hold CTRL whilst doing so to draw a circle, SHIFT for a square and ALT for an arc.

In order for players to do this of course they have to be joined to your game and you must have shared the map with them. It isn't clear from what you say above but it sounds like your players aren't actually connected to your game; thus they can't interact with FG at all.

For encounters you need to open a new encounter, add the NPCs to that encounter and then drag each NPC onto your map from the encounter. Once that's done close the encounter and the tokens will go away. When you want to present the encounter open it and click the small icon at the bottom left of the encounter sheet. This will automatically place the tokens on the map in the position that you designated and also add the NPCs to the Combat tracker. All of the NPCs will start off invisible until you make them individually or globally visible to your players.

More information on encounters here.

[Trenloe]

And more permanent pointers using the right-click menu. Using 2 buttons only keeps one pointer on the map, previous ones drawn this way are removed when another 2-mouse-button pointer is drawn. https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/...mages#Pointers

[Battlewear]

Everyone can draw circles, arcs, squares and lines on the map by default. As you say hold both mouse buttons and drag to draw a line, hold CTRL whilst doing so to draw a circle, SHIFT for a square and ALT for an arc.

In order for players to do this of course they have to be joined to your game and you must have shared the map with them. It isn't clear from what you say above but it sounds like your players aren't actually connected to your game; thus they can't interact with FG at all.

For encounters you need to open a new encounter, add the NPCs to that encounter and then drag each NPC onto your map from the encounter. Once that's done close the encounter and the tokens will go away. When you want to present the encounter open it and click the small icon at the bottom left of the encounter sheet. This will automatically place the tokens on the map in the position that you designated and also add the NPCs to the Combat tracker. All of the NPCs will start off invisible until you make them individually or globally visible to your players.

More information on encounters here.

Ok, so yes, the players are logging into the game, but thats where it is odd.. In most games the players have their player characters right? They have a specific character that they interact / control ? In my game as we have 8 players but only 2 people really logging in, the ownership of the characters is open, so Player Rob can move the Player tokens (any of them), or player Gavin can do the same. Both tried double mouse click and nothing happened. The ONLY thing I havent checked (which I just thought of) was, when they went to do that, was the initiative tracker on a monster or player? If its a Monsters turn, would it allow them to do that?

I will read that link you posted for sure Thank you.

[Skillkoil]

If they want to draw on the map they need to have a character sheet as well. That is probably what is stopping them from drawing the circle. Have them create a character sheet. (They don't need to fill it out) And just put their name on it. Then they can draw on the map with no issue using the standard right click / draw or holding ctrl or shift plus both mouse buttons.

[Battlewear]

And more permanent pointers using the right-click menu. Using 2 buttons only keeps one pointer on the map, previous ones drawn this way are removed when another 2-mouse-button pointer is drawn. https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/...mages#Pointers

Will check that out for sure!!!
Thanks Trenloe!

[Battlewear]

If they want to draw on the map they need to have a character sheet as well. That is probably what is stopping them from drawing the circle. Have them create a character sheet. (They don't need to fill it out) And just put their name on it. Then they can draw on the map with no issue using the standard right click / draw or holding ctrl or shift plus both mouse buttons.

I was wondering if that was the issue.. I created the character sheets in play currently, maybe I will have those that are coming over with laptops do that.

[Skillkoil]

I was wondering if that was the issue.. I created the character sheets in play currently, maybe I will have those that are coming over with laptops do that.

Yeah just make sure they can choose them under the PC button and they should have no issue with drawing on the map.

[Skillkoil]

One other quick tip for the encounters. If for some reason after you place all the tokens from the encounter window and then hit the down arrow to place them on the CT. If they aren't showing up on the map. (This has happened a couple times for me when I place the encounter a few days ahead and then the day of the session they don't show up.) You can just grab the red skull from the combat tracker and drag it to the map and then place the NPC's where you want.

[Battlewear]

One other quick tip for the encounters. If for some reason after you place all the tokens from the encounter window and then hit the down arrow to place them on the CT. If they aren't showing up on the map. (This has happened a couple times for me when I place the encounter a few days ahead and then the day of the session they don't show up.) You can just grab the red skull from the combat tracker and drag it to the map and then place the NPC's where you want.

Ohhh thats a great tip! I will have to keep that in mind.. Yea, it was frustrating..
Of course, when it happened I messed around with it so much that all of a sudden we had DOUBLE the number of monsters.. So then I was dropping more onto the map, ... oh yes.. Made the players lives hell.. But they still killed them off..