0-second art library

Here's an idea for later: Sometimes you need to create a map on the fly. In the middle of the game, and you actually don't want it to take longer than a minute. Finding art with roll20 is fast, but when you have to slap together a map with some enemies it all adds up. 20 seconds for that tile, 20 seconds for the other one, 20 seconds for the orc... That's what the "0-second" library would be for. It would be a sub-tab on the art library tab that has a very limited, fixed amount of tiles and tokens available. It'd be limited and fixed, so it is really fast to find something, and so generic that you could use it for anything (ok, you'll have to tell your players what is what, but that's the same on a real table). Contents (a couple of sections): Section "Tiles": Grass, Shrubbery, Dirt, Stone, Wood, Street, Water, Sand; Wall, Stairs, Door, Generic Furniture, Tree Section "Fantasy": Warrior, Archer, Wizard, Crossbowman, Dwarf, Elf, Soldier, Bandit, unarmed peasant... (I'd say 12 or 16 max), and a Horse Section "Monsters": Orc, Skeleton, Zombie, Dragon... (I'd say 12 or 16 max) Section "Modern": Man, Woman, Cowboy, Gunman, Sniper, Robot, ... (again, 12 to 16), and a Car That'd be it. 4 tabs with 16 tokens. No more, no options, no dupes. Slap together an encounter with these in a minute. Won't look nice or original, but it will be fast.

One way to implement would be to allow the GM to add quick links to specific art tags in the art library for tags he creates. Thus, if I want a couple orcs on the ready, I just go search, tag, and save the tag as a favorite.

One way to implement would be to allow the GM to add quick links to specific art tags in the art library for tags he creates. Thus, if I want a couple orcs on the ready, I just go search, tag, and save the tag as a favorite. Well, you can already tag items in your art library, but the process is arcane and cumbersome. 1. You search, scroll down through the results until you find an asset you like. 2. Click on the yellow star beside the asset. 3. Click on the black star beside/above the search text box to open your art library. 4. Scroll down through your library search results until you find the item you just starred. 5. Click on "edit tags". 6. Select the bizarre search term that you stumbled across the thing using. 7. Click on the garbage icon. 8. Click to confirm deleting the rubbish tag. 9. Type your desired tags, delimited by spaces, and delimiting words with your preferred null (I use underscore). 10. Click "I'm done". Perhaps that could be streamlined somehow. I think that what Henry Loenwind is suggesting is more that the built-in library ought to contain a basic vocabulary of fundamental icons, not stylish perhaps, but clearly recognisable, easy to find, and sufficient to set a basic scene in the most popular settings: dungeon-crawl, fantasy, swashbuckler, wild west, modern civil, modern war, sci-fi.

Thanx Agemegos, nicely worded. I CAN prepare my own library of stuff. And IF I'm prepared, I can quickly throw together a scene. However, chances are that not every single GM prepares a basic set of images in advance. I usually only prepare what I expect to need. Also, I GM in a very open way. I don't restrict players, unless it's an in-game restriction. It is a very rewarding way of playing (hey, I got more adventures from something some group did than from what I could imagine on myself), but it also means, that you are never really prepared. When searching the whole library, I tend to search until I find the "perfect" image. When I only have a given set (like with my paper minis), I just take something I can work with. Big difference in time ;)