DM only aura confusion

So, I wanted to make invisible tokens which could serve as viewpoints for players.  I intended to project the map from this perspective onto a table top.  BUT, I wanted the players at the tabletop to not see this token. I just cant seem to make it work.  Here's what I've done: I made a "PlayerView" player account. I made a invisble background token and assgined PlayerView as it's controler.  I gave it sight, and it acts as a light source.  And, so I could see it, I figured using a DM only aura would work like a charm.  I left the "Player see" box on the aura unchecked. And yet... this doesn't work?!?  The player view still sees the aura. The PlayerView shouldn't see the aura.  It's a player.  So - what am I doing wrong? The rest works great.  

When you "Rejoin as Player", you will still see the GM layer and anything else only the GM can see. If you want to see only what a player sees, you need to create a free dummy account, invite that account into your game, then, log in and enter the game under that account. When creating encounters or setting up maps I will often open a second browser and log in under my dummy account, keeping both browsers open so I can monitor what my players will see as I work (Having two monitors helps, but with a single monitor you can just Alt-Tab between the two browsers). To do this, you need to either log into the dummy account under a separate browser profile, or open a different browser; I use Chrome as my default browser, but log into my dummy account with Firefox because I don't want to deal with different profiles.

I think Grimtoothy is saying he did make a Dummy Account named ‘PlayerView’.  Grimtoothy, could you post a screenshot of the token settings, and confirm that you are checking the visiblity while logged into PlayerView and not your GM account? (Make sure to show both aura settings.)

Hi Grimtoothy! "See" refers to all players. Everybody can see the aura. "Edit" means that anyone who has edit permission can see the aura. The GM can always see the aura. Any player who can control the token can see the aura. Other players cannot. This setting (See off, Edit on) is useful for players who are invisible to other players. They can see and move the token by its aura. The GM knows where they are, but the other players do not. To have an invisible, controlled token whose aura can only be seen by the GM, uncheck both boxes.

Hmm, he didn't say that he'd logged in as that account, just that he assigned control of that token to it. I may have misunderstood, assuming that Grimtoothy was using CNRL+L to check visibility. If so, I sit corrected and nevermind :) Jarren said: I think Grimtoothy is saying he did make a Dummy Account named ‘PlayerView’.  Grimtoothy, could you post a screenshot of the token settings, and confirm that you are checking the visiblity while logged into PlayerView and not your GM account? (Make sure to show both aura settings.)

To clear up some confusion,  I have two accounts.  One is for the DM.  One acts as a dummy player called PlayerView. Here is the aura settings as per your request. The other aura has no number in the radius and is set to invisible tint color. Im looking at the other computer (Player View).  But I'm taking pictures from the GM view for convivence.  But the image is the same on both views.  Except of course using the dummy player PlayerView computer I only see what the invisible - yet still has an aura - token sees.  On my GM computer, I see everything.

Grimtoothy, does "PlayerView" have control of the Character or Token? If so remove control then see if PlayerView sees the token.

I don't think that will work. The intent is to provide sight through the token, so the control needs to be there. Grimtoothy, I cannot reproduce what you are seeing with the suggested settings: I would suggest loading the campaign under both accounts simultaneously, for verification and testing. Load the player account in a private browsing window, to avoid confusing Roll20 about which window is the active game.

Gauss said: Grimtoothy, does "PlayerView" have control of the Character or Token? If so remove control then see if PlayerView sees the token. Without PlayerView dummy player having control of the visible token, there is nothing for the  PlayerView dummy character computer to see from. It has no viewpoint.  I checked that a number of times.

These... are separate computers?  Side by side.  Using different accounts. Different emails. I'm not sure how to make it LESS confusing for roll20.   keithcurtis said: I don't think that will work. The intent is to provide sight through the token, so the control needs to be there. Grimtoothy, I cannot reproduce what you are seeing with the suggested settings: I would suggest loading the campaign under both accounts simultaneously, for verification and testing. Load the player account in a private browsing window, to avoid confusing Roll20 about which window is the active game.

Grimtoothy said: Gauss said: Grimtoothy, does "PlayerView" have control of the Character or Token? If so remove control then see if PlayerView sees the token. Without PlayerView dummy player having control of the visible token, there is nothing for the  PlayerView dummy character computer to see from. It has no viewpoint.  I checked that a number of times. Give PlayerView a different token to control and see from. If I understand right the test is to see if players that do not control the token can see the aura. Giving PlayerView control of that token defeats that purpose. 

Hi there!  Grimtoothy here on the other account. This is the player account on the other computer. Heres the view from that computer.

Grimtoothy said: These... are separate computers?  Side by side.  Using different accounts. Different emails. I'm not sure how to make it LESS confusing for roll20.   That's fine. We need to say and ask these things because we are not standing next to you, and need to make sure we are all understanding the situation in the same way. Separate computers is an even better solution. Given your screen shots and your description of your testing, I am at a loss to explain why this is not working. The only advice I have is to carefully double-check each step. Something is obviously going awry. Hmmm... An (unlikely) possibility: Has the player account been mistakenly promoted to GM?

Another possibility: Overlapping tokens? Is there a second token with different settings underneath the first? Can the player move the view token?

Could you post the settings for the token with the aura? without cropping those settings please?

I do not see any technical problem here: - PlayerView has control over the "invisible" token, so... it is perfectly normal that this account see the token aura right? - the GM see the aura because well... it is the GM. - if a 3rd account who does not have the control of the invisible token, see the aura... that would be a problem. Did I miss something?

Let's suppose this other token(TEST) is assigned to PlayerView and is given sight.   And let's turn off the aura on the current invisible token. II haven't tested it - but -  Now the PlayerView has a viewpoint from Test  So the battlemap is seen from the TEST token. Great!  That player ( and hence all the players looking at this projection on the table) can now see the map from that perspective. And the invisible token, without the aura, now cannot be seen by anyone.  Not even the GM without me clicking around to find it.  Not super - I suppose I can figure out where it is eventually. And the TEST token is visible.  Thats exactly the difficulty. Gauss said: Grimtoothy said: Gauss said: Grimtoothy, does "PlayerView" have control of the Character or Token? If so remove control then see if PlayerView sees the token. Without PlayerView dummy player having control of the visible token, there is nothing for the  PlayerView dummy character computer to see from. It has no viewpoint.  I checked that a number of times. Give PlayerView a different token to control and see from. If I understand right the test is to see if players that do not control the token can see the aura. Giving PlayerView control of that token defeats that purpose. 

I thought the same thing.  But it's hasn't been promoted. I'm really at a loss trying to figure this one out. keithcurtis said: Grimtoothy said: These... are separate computers?  Side by side.  Using different accounts. Different emails. I'm not sure how to make it LESS confusing for roll20.   That's fine. We need to say and ask these things because we are not standing next to you, and need to make sure we are all understanding the situation in the same way. Separate computers is an even better solution. Given your screen shots and your description of your testing, I am at a loss to explain why this is not working. The only advice I have is to carefully double-check each step. Something is obviously going awry. Hmmm... An (unlikely) possibility: Has the player account been mistakenly promoted to GM?

keithcurtis said: Another possibility: Overlapping tokens? Is there a second token with different settings underneath the first? Can the player move the view token? I could move the token about on PlayerVIew computer.  And it cannot access anyother tokens. Only one token there.

HA! Solved it. The character in the journal is set up correctly.  But when I dragged it over to the map, IT CHECKED THE EDIT BOX for both auras.  It must of been a saved state at some time.  And I was only changing the status on the character sheet.  Which is why the token instance never changed. I've gone to the invisible-token-in-map instance, made the corrections, and now the token vanishes on the player computer BUT I can still see it and the aura on the GM screen.  After an "Update Default token" click, now I can drag the Invisible token from the Journal and everything is correct. Thanks everyone!

Many people get tripped up by forgetting that edits to a token on the VTT do not propagate back to the default token, which is basically a save and then read-only sort of an arrangement.