On Showing Players Pictures

Currently the process I use to quickly show the players a picture goes like this: 1) Select the Characters and Handouts sidebar. 2) Open the Handout that contains the picture I want to show. 3) Click the Edit button. 4) Select the Visible To All Players option. 5) Close the Edit window 6) Click on the Show To All Players button. Now clearly, I could have previously edited the Handout to be visible to all players before the game began, but frequently I like to surprise my players with an encounter that I would just as soon not have them stumble across while checking their Handouts. So is this is or am I missing something? I would love to be able to just click the Show To All Players button and have it override the previous visibility permits and just show the image with several fewer clicks.

I just load all my pictures on the gm layer then just change their layer to map when I want to show it to everyone. If it is only for a couple or one of the players, I use the handouts.

I do the same, GM layer then flip to map layer to show.. Or another way, Expand your Page size to more squares than needed for your maps (make buffer areas around the edges for the Pictures, maybe 50x50 squares, or 120x120 whatever you need). Keep the picture sections hidden under Fog Of War. When ready, Reveal the Fog covering that picture & shift-Ping as GM to force everyone's focus to view the pic. either way the idea is throw the pictures down on the tabletop if you don't want to use the Handouts features for it

Mandella said: So is this is or am I missing something? I would love to be able to just click the Show To All Players button and have it override the previous visibility permits and just show the image with several fewer clicks. That might not be a good idea. I might specifally select 3 of 5 players and want the thing have to pop up for them. Or just a single player for that matter. Let's assume you have 100 handouts, adding one new one and then tell him "Go look for the one named "Terrible Beast in the Wood" that's what you just saw" is a lot more annoying than clicking the Show button and say "That's what you see" However, there should be a way for this. a) Make a separate button "Show to ALL players" - there should be a confirmation window if All Players aren't yet on the visible list. b) More easy maybe: If the "Show to Players" button is pressed and the Visible To list is empty, a popup shows "Handout is not visible to any players. Add all players to the list and show? Yes/No"

I have used the handouts method and the map method. what's neat is for handouts i can show dwarven characters the translation of a map, and the non dwarven players the dwarven script, untranslated.

Thanks all. I don't like the map level method since I tend to run less "theater of the mind" and more "here is your map," but I do see the advantages of using the map layer method and might adapt that. I hope we get something more like Quatar's suggestion in the future though. At this point, I might just stick with the "old fashioned" system we have been using -- Dropbox and dedicated folders. One shared to group, and then individual folders shared to specific players. I just keep my master RPG folder open on screen, and drag images to the players' folders as needed.