The GM layer is useful
in that you can drop plain text directly onto you map and you can see it
always, the players cant. Just be careful when you drop something from
the GM layer to the token layer, you do not want your text to appear on
screen, saying kill Fred here if he is not paying attention again. I
tend to go overboard and create a character sheet for every npc &
mook type complete with tokens. /w gm is a handy tool if a specific npc has an ability or
something that you might want to be reminded about. I have started
creating an info macro for every npc and mook, just so I do not gorget
that creature xyz has resistance to bludgeoning weapons and immunity to
piercing for example. The chat does get very busy and messy but the
players do not see it and each creature has one. They target the
kobold, hit info and you have everything, oh sorry you meant the kobold
shaman, select token and hit info and you have it all. the trick is
keeping it organized and in the same format. So as an example in Lost mines I use the OGL character sheets. For
the evil wizard I will create a character sheet and add
the stats and spells and tick the NPC button. Then I create an ability
for him called "Info" and stick this in the script: /w gm
&{template:default} {{name=@{npcd_name} @{npcd_type} }} {{Armor
Class= @{npc_acbase} }} {{Senses=@{npcd_senses} }}
{{Languages=@{npcd_languages} }}{{Spelcasting=mage is a 4th level
spellcaster and knows spells as listed on the character sheet}} The only other ability he will have is an attack and the rest is his spells as on the character sheet, yes I add them there. Now
if we look at a young green dragon for example, I will drag the young green
dragon from the compendium onto the character sheet, (it turns yellow
before you drop it) and then hit the NPC button (or the other way round,
I can not recall.) Anyway, my info macro will be something like this: /w
gm &{template:default} {{name=@{npcd_name} @{npcd_type} }} {{Armor
Class= @{npc_acbase} }} {{Senses=@{npcd_senses} }}
{{Languages=@{npcd_languages} }}{{ Damage Immunities = Poison }}{{
Condition Immunities = Poisoned }}{{ Amphibious=The dragon can breathe
air and water }}{{Multiattack=The dragon makes three attacks: one with
its bite and two with its claws.}}{{Poison Breath (recharge 5 / 6)=The
dragon exhales poisonous gas in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that
area must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw, taking 42 (12d6)
poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful
one.}} The other macro abilities on this token are bite attack, claw, breath and breath recharge. In
the above macro you can see that everything up to Languages is the same
after that, it is just a listing of all the pertinent details regarding
that creature. No need to go read up again if you have all this as a
macro on the token. You can call it 100 times and the players will not
know. You can add as many things to this as you want by doing
{{something = the text you want to show}} So both of these are
fairly similar and they do take a bit of time to build but once you have
them, you can drop them anywhere you need them. You will not need to
look up a Young green dragon again as you have done all the work already
and do not even need to read up on their resistances again. As for the
named NPC's, I have sheets for them also and drop them in a folder
under monsters and split them up by class (tags work). In 4 months
time, you might need a an NPC caster so you pull out good old evil
wizard, play him and a good character and you are done. the PC's will
probably have forgotten about him by then. If he becomes a recurring
villain in your campaign, level him up, add a couple hit points, a few
spells, save as a new NPC and you are done. The old one can become a
generic npc when you need him again. Maps: Even if the
module does not have an encounter in the town, have a page that you can
call up. Also have an inn handy. Do not bother populating it with too much, have a few handy tokes that you have tagged as favorite and you can quickly add them, Not too much but have
something, just in case. Theater of the mind works but some players do
not want that and you are after all telling a story together. My
goal is that once we sit and start playing, I will not need to have the
module on hand, not that that has ever happened, because you know ....
PC's ....
