Help/Thoughts on using the battlemaps to "see" encounters coming up as a GM

[BrettM]

EDIT: I added a comment below with images to hopefully further clarify my post.

Hi! I know there seems to be a influx of Roll20 converts coming to FG, so please forgive yet another Roll20 comparison :< ...

As DM, in Roll20 I could see all the NPC tokens on a battlemap, giving me a 'hint' of what was in each room, etc., as PCs explored. E.g., if they go right, there are 6 bugbears; if they go left there's a black pudding. On FG there doesn't seem to be such a 'hint' -- the NPC tokens only appear when I open the story info for that room / area, and drag the encounter onto the CT.

(Of course, reading ahead in the adventure is key -- but just because I've read ahead doesn't mean I've memorized each room, number of NPCs, etc.)

Any hints from other FG GMs for running a dungeon battlemap where I can "see ahead" to remember / remind myself what's waiting for the players, without having to add all dungeon encounters to the CT just to 'see' the NPC tokens on the battlemap? My thanks!

Brett.

[Targas]

First, it is possible to see half transparent where you placed your monster - if you prepped them in advance.
In short how it works. First create a new encounter with the monsters to bundle them together. Give it a meaningful name like 01 Goblinambush, and put a link into the story entry, as well as the player map (but don‘t accidently share all pins). Prep your map, where you want to place those monsters. Most important, put a grid on it in advance. After you did so, you can simply drag a monster from the encounter you created and put them on your map. You will notice, it will show the token on the map, you‘ll see a checkmark on the encounter you put the monster correctly on the map. Do so with the full set until you have all checkmarks. Now if you close the encounter window, you will notice all your monsters on your map are gone. What the heck... Well, when you reopen the encounter window and press the down arrow on the encounter window, to be found bottom left, here they are again . They will pop up in the combat racker as well - hidden. you can toggle visibility with the eye symbol.

You won‘t need to have all encounters open at the same time, as combat can get confusing. But you will see where the adventurers stumble upon, by having the encounter öin on the map. As long as you just open this, and don‘t press the arrow down button as well, they will not be placed in the combat tracker.

[BrettM]

Thanks Targas. Regarding this...

As long as you just open this, and don‘t press the arrow down button as well, they will not be placed in the combat tracker.

How do I see the NPC tokens without placing in the CT?

I was able to follow all of your info about -- creating encounters and placing NPC/tokens on the map, etc. I'm all good up to that point as I have the encounters build... or pre-built in some cases (I've bought Tomb of Annihilation as that is what I'm currently running). And you're right, I don't want all the encounters from Area 1 to Area 10 on the CT -- that will be confusing... but I would like a visual to see all the tokens in Area 1, 2, 3 ... etc. so I have a visual cue to what's coming up.

So your comment, "As long as you just open this, and don't press the arrow down button" seems to be the answer as I don't necessarily want them on the CT, but want to see the tokens. What is the "just open this" you're referring to? The encounter? Thanks!

[BrettM]

Hopefully these images help clarify what I'm trying to accomplish (kept small to keep reduce spoilers as much as possible for any future players)...

Here's the Player Map without any tokens:
Attachment 25023

Here's the Player Map with tokens but in order to have those tokens show up for me, the GM, to see, I had to add them to the CT. Ideally I'd like to see all NPC tokens on a map, regardless if they end up in combat, so I know what's coming if the players head in that particular direction. However other FG DMs may have a different method of "knowing what's coming" without the visual token clue -- I'm just used to that from 2.5 years on Roll20, but happy to consider other methods!
Attachment 25024

[pindercarl]

One of the key differences between Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds is that in Roll20 is sheet/token based and Fantasy Grounds is database driven. (Which is why in Roll20 you see the difficulties between folks using the Shaped 5E sheet vs. the OGL sheet, for example). In Roll20, adding a token to the map is adding the character/NPC to the map. In Fantasy Grounds, a token is just a picture unless it "goes through" the combat tracker, thus building the link between the token and the character.

You could, I suppose, drag a token from the token bag to act as a reminder to the GM as to the encounter in that location. If I really wanted a visual reminder, I might be inclined to add a bugbear token to the map (from the token bag) near the encounter shortcut and scale it up (hold the CTRL-key and then scroll wheel over the token to change the scale). Set it to always invisible through the radial-menu to make sure the players don't see it. Be sure not to overlap the token and the shortcut, as tokens take mouse priority over the shortcuts. You could then name the encounter "6 Bugbears." When you hover the mouse over the encounter shortcut, you would see the tooltip "6 Bugbears."

[Targas]

What is the "just open this" you're referring to? The encounter? Thanks!

Apologies, yes with ...this... I was referring to the pin on the map which is a link to the encounter containing all monsters. On the right hand side of the encounter window there is a small symbol, which should open the monster stats, or sometimes a picture which can be placed in the ‚other‘ tab.

I guess every GM might have a different approach. I never put pins on a player map myself (because I accidently shared all pins of a players map once containing encounter pins), but have two maps. One for the players and one for the GM. The GM one is not just keyed, but depicts traps, secret doors, includes story pins for each room, as well as a nearby encounter pin, or image pins to nearby maps (e.g. stair up/down), so I don‘t have to search through lots of stuff.

In the story I separate the link to the GM and the player map by at least one empty line (because once I accidently shared the GM map, by clicking on the wrong link just pixels apart).

The GM map can be fairly low size, like 400x600 pixels. The player map is at least 50 pixel each square. With the Illwinter mapping program, it‘s now 64pixels each square. I run the player map as png through some paint program to compress it to jpg. The best ever doing a better compression than Photoshop and others is funny enough the previous competition Ulead Photo Impact, but that‘s just a side note. My player maps just contain high resolution pictures of less than 1 MB. I make the choice based on quality, even if some say keep sizes low. I never had problems so far, and mind you my biggest map with 250 linked pins I created for the sword coast was 5.5kx6k in size.
As I say everyone is doing it different. I hope I could help. Happy GMing...

[BrettM]

Thanks pindercarl & Targas. I’m starting to understand the difference between Roll20 and FG on this. I didn’t expect FG to work exactly like Roll20... in the fact the reason for the move to FG is I feel it has more to offer than Roll20, so I’m trying to take my Roll20 methods and ‘convert’ them best to how FG works.

It may be interesting to see different ways various DMs run their FG games. It seems some have both the DM and Player map open at the same time. Others just the player map, etc.

Everyone will run it differently... I’m finding my way to which method works best for me. Thanks again!

[Valyar]

The right way to run your game during combat and get all the benefits of the automation is characters to combat tracker and from combat tracker to the map.

[shadzar]

It may be interesting to see different ways various DMs run their FG games. It seems some have both the DM and Player map open at the same time. Others just the player map, etc.

There is about 30 people that stream FG on Twitch, and i am unsure how many use Youtube.

If you have Twitch and Wish to find out more about this live where you can see things and answers to questions like this live in FG when you ask, FGC and Rob2e present a show on Rob2e's channel called "All Things Fantasy Grounds" (not affiliated with SmiteWorks, though Rob is a SmiteWorks employee. He does this on the side not as part of customer service or social media personnel.)

The show is on Sunday's 6pm Pacific timezone. They are off this week, but you cans ee pasts shows on Rob2e youtube.

Recent discussion was even had about the Waterdeep: Dragon Heist maps SNAFU, and how the Dyson Logos maps, good as always, were probably better suited for DM maps with keys rather than play maps, thus why FG include the converted to full color, by Zacc, maps as a module (exclusive to FG) when you purchase it on FG.

Though a bunch of people wish that FG and other VTTs would include both a DM map keyed and an unkeyed player map for use. You can't always tell with the pins what something is without bringing up 30 windows, as opposed to looking at a keyed DM map and bringing up the reference manual to just look and see what things are on that map before play to be ready to use the pins and story entries and links and other windows DURING pay.

You can always take a map and copy it to make your own notes and NOT share it with the players so you have your DM map for anything though. though i think it is said best to do the multiple layers extension for that type of "marked maps" to have like a GM layer from roll20 in FG to allow yo to see things without showing them to players.

[GavinRuneblade]

Thanks pindercarl & Targas. I’m starting to understand the difference between Roll20 and FG on this. I didn’t expect FG to work exactly like Roll20... in the fact the reason for the move to FG is I feel it has more to offer than Roll20, so I’m trying to take my Roll20 methods and ‘convert’ them best to how FG works.

It may be interesting to see different ways various DMs run their FG games. It seems some have both the DM and Player map open at the same time. Others just the player map, etc.

Everyone will run it differently... I’m finding my way to which method works best for me. Thanks again!

If I'm running/adapting a published adventure, then during prep time, I add every encounter to the area map and look at it with ALL the NPCs laid out just to get an idea of the area.

During play, I activate encounters a step or two ahead of the players so I can have NPCs flee in logical directions, call for help, bring in reinforcements, etc with an emphasis on "logical". Don't want an orc fleeing down a hallway toward undead he should know are there, unless he's really that panicked and desperate.

For my homemade stuff I have a similar solution to Targas above where I make a small, low-rez map for myself and put notes on it rather than full encounters etc. and keep it up during play. Unlike Targas I do put pins on all my PC maps.