Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Your Thoughts on LoS, Dynamic Lighting on VTTs
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="MNblockhead" data-source="post: 8176933" data-attributes="member: 6796661"><p>As a DM, I've never found it particularly difficult to move a players token if things come up. Also, at least in Foundry, it is easy enough to switch or add another player to a Token's permissions so someone can take over someone else's character for a period of time.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>For me that's a feature, not a bug. One of the great things that dynamic lighting and line of sight adds to the game is that each player's view is limited by his or her character's vision and location. It can increase a sense of anxiety or panic in a battle. It brings the ghostwise halfling's telepathic communication ability to life and makes that feature really mean something in nearly every session. If other players want to say what they see, it must mean that their characters are vocalizing this, unless they are using magic. And when they do communicate, it's kinda cool when the elf says, looks like that long passage is clear, but the deep gnome replies, "wait, I think I see something moving at the far end of the hallway" because the gnome's darkvision is superior to the elf's. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yeah, Foundry allows you to set elevation for walls, but that functionality is not yet used to deal with one tunnel going under another. Not sure if there are community mods that address this. </p><p></p><p>Another way you can handle this in Foundry is to have the characters teleport from right before the hallway dips under another to the point where it comes up on the other side of the higher-level tunnel. But that can be confusing to players, is fiddly to set up, and I don't see it as any better than to just have the wall end but explain to the players that it continues forward. </p><p></p><p>Another option is to draw the walls for both tunnels, so that you basically have a four lines where one tunnel goes below another. Then I just remove the appropriate walls based on from where they are approaching the area. If find this easy to prep and to handle in game. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I don't find this to be much of a problem. The kinds of questions that players stop asking are mostly the kinds that I'm glad I don't have to constantly answer, such as ranges, room sizes, etc. </p><p></p><p>If the map is more abstracted, they'll quickly learn that they are not really seeing the area. It is just a map. If it is a highly detailed map, they'll tend to ask a lot of questions about the things they see on the map. </p><p></p><p>My players have learned to not just rush into rooms before I describe what they see. That is a very dangerous habit to have in Rappan Athuk! But if I'm playing with new players, I can just hit the space bar to pause so that they cannot move their tokens until I describe something, look something up, or when we are on break, etc. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I can have fun with pure TotM, basic battlemap, or fully prepped maps with dynamic lighting. I find that dynamic lighting adds enough to the experience to make it worth prepping the map with walls, etc. But to each their own. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And this is why it is important to me to have manual fog of war. Some VTTs just do not have good manual FOW reveal tools, which is why I stuck with Map Tool for so long. With the Foundry Simple Fog mod, I have an excellent manual FOW tool. </p><p></p><p>Throwing up a new map in Foundry is not as convenient as Map Tool or even Fantasy Ground, but I can have a map ready in under a minute if I have the images already saved saved with game. Otherwise if a large map, it may take a bit of time to upload it. It is still far faster than drawing things out on a Chessex battlemap or setting up terrain pieces. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>For me, it is less about verisimilitude and more about automating some of the least fun mechanics for me to deal with as a DM. I like how it automatically determines what each character can see. I don't have to count squares on a map to explain whether something is in range. It makes lighting, vision, and line of sight important without adding to the information overhead the DM has to manage. I compare it to encumbrance. If we are playing pen & paper, we tend to handwave and guesstimate. I just isn't fun to track and calculate on paper (at least it isn't for us). </p><p></p><p>But with a digital character sheet, like D&D Beyond, the computer takes care of tracking weight. So you can make encumbrance matter without a lot of book keeping. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I can see where you are coming from and I've done it this way. But I really like having large rooms and caverns with monsters hiding behind architectural or natural features. That harder to do with simpler fog of war reveal, unless you are also toggling the monster tokens to invisible mode until they jump out or a character moves by them. But that seems more fiddly than just using dynamic lighting. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Same. Never felt it was lacking, but now that it is available, I'm glad to use it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MNblockhead, post: 8176933, member: 6796661"] As a DM, I've never found it particularly difficult to move a players token if things come up. Also, at least in Foundry, it is easy enough to switch or add another player to a Token's permissions so someone can take over someone else's character for a period of time. For me that's a feature, not a bug. One of the great things that dynamic lighting and line of sight adds to the game is that each player's view is limited by his or her character's vision and location. It can increase a sense of anxiety or panic in a battle. It brings the ghostwise halfling's telepathic communication ability to life and makes that feature really mean something in nearly every session. If other players want to say what they see, it must mean that their characters are vocalizing this, unless they are using magic. And when they do communicate, it's kinda cool when the elf says, looks like that long passage is clear, but the deep gnome replies, "wait, I think I see something moving at the far end of the hallway" because the gnome's darkvision is superior to the elf's. Yeah, Foundry allows you to set elevation for walls, but that functionality is not yet used to deal with one tunnel going under another. Not sure if there are community mods that address this. Another way you can handle this in Foundry is to have the characters teleport from right before the hallway dips under another to the point where it comes up on the other side of the higher-level tunnel. But that can be confusing to players, is fiddly to set up, and I don't see it as any better than to just have the wall end but explain to the players that it continues forward. Another option is to draw the walls for both tunnels, so that you basically have a four lines where one tunnel goes below another. Then I just remove the appropriate walls based on from where they are approaching the area. If find this easy to prep and to handle in game. I don't find this to be much of a problem. The kinds of questions that players stop asking are mostly the kinds that I'm glad I don't have to constantly answer, such as ranges, room sizes, etc. If the map is more abstracted, they'll quickly learn that they are not really seeing the area. It is just a map. If it is a highly detailed map, they'll tend to ask a lot of questions about the things they see on the map. My players have learned to not just rush into rooms before I describe what they see. That is a very dangerous habit to have in Rappan Athuk! But if I'm playing with new players, I can just hit the space bar to pause so that they cannot move their tokens until I describe something, look something up, or when we are on break, etc. I can have fun with pure TotM, basic battlemap, or fully prepped maps with dynamic lighting. I find that dynamic lighting adds enough to the experience to make it worth prepping the map with walls, etc. But to each their own. And this is why it is important to me to have manual fog of war. Some VTTs just do not have good manual FOW reveal tools, which is why I stuck with Map Tool for so long. With the Foundry Simple Fog mod, I have an excellent manual FOW tool. Throwing up a new map in Foundry is not as convenient as Map Tool or even Fantasy Ground, but I can have a map ready in under a minute if I have the images already saved saved with game. Otherwise if a large map, it may take a bit of time to upload it. It is still far faster than drawing things out on a Chessex battlemap or setting up terrain pieces. For me, it is less about verisimilitude and more about automating some of the least fun mechanics for me to deal with as a DM. I like how it automatically determines what each character can see. I don't have to count squares on a map to explain whether something is in range. It makes lighting, vision, and line of sight important without adding to the information overhead the DM has to manage. I compare it to encumbrance. If we are playing pen & paper, we tend to handwave and guesstimate. I just isn't fun to track and calculate on paper (at least it isn't for us). But with a digital character sheet, like D&D Beyond, the computer takes care of tracking weight. So you can make encumbrance matter without a lot of book keeping. I can see where you are coming from and I've done it this way. But I really like having large rooms and caverns with monsters hiding behind architectural or natural features. That harder to do with simpler fog of war reveal, unless you are also toggling the monster tokens to invisible mode until they jump out or a character moves by them. But that seems more fiddly than just using dynamic lighting. Same. Never felt it was lacking, but now that it is available, I'm glad to use it. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Your Thoughts on LoS, Dynamic Lighting on VTTs
Top