GM-Only Turn Tracker

Is there a way for the GM to use the turn tracker, but to not make it visible to the players? I would like to use the tool, but prefer initiative order to remain a surprise (and re-roll each turn). I considered having an alternate player token on the GM layer, and reference those for rolling initiative so while the tracker would be visible, you couldn't see the tokesn & initiative values, but then I'd need to double up (or at least N+1) for each NPC or NPC type as well. Has anyone done something like this?

Honestly, if you're wanting to do that either keep a notepad or pen&paper handy as the easiest solutions.

I might be wrong and I am at work so I cant check but if the tokens are on the gm layer they will only show on the tracker for you.

Luke, you're correct.  However, this means that the tokens (player or NPCs) can't be seen on the map by the players.  That was why I was thinking of having an additional GM layer token tor represent each player, and then one GM layer token for each NPC grouping.  Seems like it would work, but also seems like a lot of *extra* work.

Denathil "The Mutt" Verasi said: Honestly, if you're wanting to do that either keep a notepad or pen&paper handy as the easiest solutions. Well, we could always just play tabletop games on an actual table as well by that logic. Having players not know whats coming next is why these games are so fun. 

In addition to having the tokens on the GM-Layer, you could also roll the initiative on a different page from the players. I've noticed that if you have initiative rolled and then change pages, the players can't see their own tokens on the tracker anymore.

For completeness, I want to point out that this is something that could be handled by the API, and wouldn't be a terribly difficult task.

One of these days, someone's going to ask for a solution to world hunger or the common cold... The Aaron: "You could do that, but I have a script for that if you want to use the API..."

Thanks, Billy. I hadn't notice that. I'll play around with it.  Aaron, is there a way to script on an event to affect the visibility of the tracker, or are you thinking of building something entirely separate? 

Off the top of my head, there are a few options: 1) on add to turn tracker, replace with invisible markers on the GM layer that follow the regular tokens, like how Bump works, but in reverse. That lets only the GMs see them on the turn order, but the highlight still works. (Could use the same image too, except for some current limits on the API's use of market place images.). You might want some sort of custom announce for turns, and if you use TurnMarker, it would follow on the GM layer and you'd need to hack it to show on the object layer instead. GroupInitiative's reroll would work great as is.  2) Ignore the existing turn order and write something wholly in the API, with output in the chat (or possibly in a handout). Probably no benefit to doing this out side of absolute control over how it operates. 

Thanks, Aaron.  If all I got out of this was having Bump pointed out to me, it's a big win.  That's awesome, and should be in the API script index. Looking at Bump and TurnMarker I think I can crib enough to get what I need.  Worst case, I can put something together from whole cloth as I don't really need to use the turn management functionality. 

No problem, post in the API forum if you need help or feel free to PM me if you'd rather! You can find the latest versions of all my Roll20 scripts in my git repo:&nbsp; <a href="https://github.com/shdwjk/Roll20API" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/shdwjk/Roll20API</a> Also you can get them and others in the official repo:&nbsp; <a href="https://github.com/Roll20/roll20-api-scripts" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/Roll20/roll20-api-scripts</a> Finally, I have a few as yet un-migrated scripts in my gist: <a href="https://gist.github.com/shdwjk" rel="nofollow">https://gist.github.com/shdwjk</a> Happy rolling!