Couple of Questions from a MapTools user RPTools?

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hopperking
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Couple of Questions from a MapTools user RPTools?

Post by hopperking »

Hello,

I'm quite new to Roll20, but previously ran my Rise of the Runelords campaign on Maptools on a television, played in the same room around a table. Due to players moving, we decided to move to Roll20 and play remotely. The good news is I have most of my digital content created in Maptools, and just need to "migrate" it over.

However, I have a few questions based on how I'm used to things working, or what my expectations may be, and not having a deep understanding of Roll20 just yet. So I have a few questions I was hoping could be simple enough to answer. I'm not trying to compare or contrast the tools, I'm just looking to mimic what I am used to.

Is there a way to hide the initiative tracker from the players, or only allow them to see PC's? I've read that I can hide the names of NPCs, and move tokens to the GM layer to somewhat accomplish this. In our at the table games with Maptool, they just didn't see the initiative tracker, and I handled letting them know when it was there turn, and allowed them to hold actions, etc. I just adjusted the turn tracker.
Is there a way to get tooltips / popups when I select a token in anyway to reveal the notes, without having to edit / double click the object? Examples are the DM notes / objects. In Maptool, I can click on the object, and a frame appears with public notes and DM notes which I can easily read. Other examples are locations the PC's know about. I have tooltips available for them to read whenever they want. I'm thinking handouts have something like this, but I don't know if I can link them to objects on the map to easily pop them up.

In this example, when I the DM click the Sandpoint Cathedral Label, I can see all of the text below and the image. When the players click the same label, they only see the image and the top portion of the text.
Token Images vs. Portraits. In Maptool, you have the token image, and the Portrait of the character it represents. I think to use a face image on my tokens, by players can hover over an NPC and see the full image of it to get a really good idea of what it looks like. This is almost the same thing as I mentioned above, in that in Maptools it's built into the tooltip in the lower left corner. For NPCs and PCs this can also include quick stats, which I get I can use with the 3 bubbles.

In this example, when the players hover over Ameiku's Token, they see her full portrait in the lower left. When I as the DM hover over her, I see her stats as well, which are convenient for quick reference.

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aliasmask
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Re: Couple of Questions from a MapTools user RPTools?

Post by aliasmask »

Sound like you're asking if Roll20 has these similar features. I haven't played it in around 4 years(?), but from what I recall it's purely character sheet oriented. I'm sure you can hide the NPCs or possibly even the initiative tracker in Roll20. MT allows just hidden NPCs. MT has a Handout option in the context menu when that token has an image in the "handout" field in the config. The other stuff, I'm don't know if Roll20 has. I would try their forums.

I've been playing with MapTool for about the last 14 years for its capabilities over any competitor whether that be in convenience or simplicity I find it to be the best platform for me. Imo, Foundry has an incredible Pathfinder 2 environment and character sheet but as with everything, there is a learning curve for the GM. I've been playing with that for the last 8 months, but I'm back here now with MapTool creating my own content and environment for my players because it's much more pliable (if you know what you're doing) for my house rules and whatnot.

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