Shapes as tokens? aka Darkness template.

Hey there. Is there any way I am missing to use drawn shapes as tokens? I am trying to create a "darkness" spell template. A 15ft globe shape I could drag onto the dynamic lighting layer from my journal, however drawn spares don't appear to be capable of being selected as tokens. Failing that, has anyone had any success with any other methods of blocking players vision within a zone? Simply dragging a black template won't do it, since they will still be able to see what's going on outside the template. Thanks for any help you can give me.

You could remove the player's access to the token (temporarily). You'd have to do all the movement, but I think that's more realistic anyway, since the character could get turned around not move in the direction s/he thinks s/he is.  When the spells goes away, just restore access to the player.

Or turn off the "Has sight" option on the token.

I've just been playing around with this in my game and I'm not sure I've understood what you are trying to do. I can draw a filled circle on my map which is solid black and place it to front and move it around the map like a token.  So, everything it passes over becomes hidden.  What it doesn't do is block.line of sight through it so someone standing on the far side is still visible, but the only way I can think that would work is if was possible to have moveable shapes that blocked dynamic lighting. This is the test I carried out. The encounter map prior to casting.  Conrad is surprised in the forest by a group of soldiers hunting him down. I have already created the 15' zone of darkness on my character sheet and selected 'To the Front' and then copied it ready for placement. Conrad casts 'Darkness', so all I did was paste the zone of darkness  onto the encounter page.  I don't know how the spell actually works in your game so I've assumed it works like Zone of Darkness in WFRP forming a dark area around the caster. Players view. Then still in players view I tested to see if I could move the zone and place it over the pursuing soldiers. The only thing I wasn't sure about was how to determine who had control of the zone. As the GM in player mode I was able to move it, but I couldn't move Conrad's token so I'm assuming that I had been selected as the player in charge of the zone.  But whether that can be changed I'm not sure. Would dynamic lighting somehow ignore this?

Didz said: Would dynamic lighting somehow ignore this? You have the essence of what I want to do, but usually when I have a template for a monster I create a character sheet and make the template the token so I can drag it from my journal in a hurry. Here's a Dragon (Dragon Golem actually). See the list of templates at the side? Breath weapons on demand! Now if I could do the same with a spherical drawn shape that I could drop into the dynamic lighting layer it would make my life a lot easier :)

Carrick the warlock is sneaking into the temple of Wakeen. Let's see what he can see with Ctrl-L. Time to ambush him with a globe of darkness! To the dynamic lighting layer. Sets up looks good. Working as intended. Even blocks vision to the other side. Now to make this effect an easily drag-able template. The shape can be selected, but can't be made a token :(

Bump.

You could just use Paint.net, Gimp, or Photoshop and make tokens, which are scaleable and use those to block out sections of the map, you would have to also put a copy on the D.L. layer to block vision beyond the area.

Tokens on the DL layer will not block light, as you have found. It's not something it is cabaple of doing.

Changing the subject slightly.  Is there an advantage to having things like templates and other gaming props and tools set up as character sheets? I've been watching Daves youtube video's on how to set up a Roll20 campaign and he suggests having a hidden page to store your tokens and templates on.  Which is what I've been doing so far.  So I have all the NPC tokens laid out on this page, plus a wide range of other tokens like smashed furniture (and now a huge blob of darkness) that are ready to be dragged or copied onto the play area whenever needed. But I do get that setting them up as actual characters in the handout list would probably make them easier to access during play.  I do worry about having to flip to my Token Page every time someone smashes another chair.

The main advantage to having them set up as default tokens on a sheet is that you can save the token with assigned bars/settings if desired which allows for quick access to pre-prepared interactive tokens. Other than that it is a matter of convenience but if it is just as quick to switch page, grab a token and paste it back on the game page the players are on then that is just as effective in my opinion. I would suggest setting up a range of rollable table tokens for things like chairs etc if you regularly update the 'look' of them by replacing the token. That way you could always have a range of options that you can access quickly without copy/paste/delete etc, a simple right-click 'choose side' will give you the choice of displaying an intact chair or a broken one etc?

So how do you simulate the Darkness spell exactly? If the party is in a long, totally dark hallway, and a drow at the far end casts Darkness on the front party member (the one carrying the torch for example), is the only way to then uncheck the "Has Sight" box on the torchbearer, and put a new dynamic lighting border between him and the party?