How does everone handle encounters with mundane "enemies"?

How does everyone handle the NON-major beings that are encountered? Do you make a journal entry for everything? I had a great campaign manager for my 3.5 tabletop games (DM Genie, for anybody here that still remembers that) that I could use to input entire campaigns. It also worked great for character generation/progression tracking. You could make encounters, similar to the rooms listed in modules populate the encounter with creatures – either standard or specific “named” creatures. I took the time to equip the “monsters” with the appropriate weapons and attacks and I’d use the program to handle all of the non-player rolls (including player searches and secret saving throws vs. poison, etc.). If I were adding stuff from my list of OGL and custom-made races, I could simply put a “1” following the name/description and add as many as I wanted to the encounter. The program would increment and identify each one differently, so you’d have Skeleton 1, Skeleton 2, Skeleton 3… During play, you could quick start combat between the PCs and the encounter creatures, which would automatically generate initiative for everyone (I’d let the character shake their own and substitute in their rolls). A quick click to reorder based on initiative, and I could handle the entire combat on one screen. Initially, I was still using that program in conjunction with Roll20, since I had put in so much work on inputting different campaigns, already (a good portion of Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, for example). Experience has shown that it slows down the play having to switch between screens, so I’ve decided to put in the effort to get as much in the Roll20 experience, as possible. To this end, I’m trying to have all of the different encounters pre-populated with every enemy, not just the major named ones and handling as much of the combat on screen as possible. The Pathfinder/3.5 character sheet API script helped immensely, as does having a macro button on the screen to roll an attack ability for the selected icon. So... I’ve been putting in a bunch of goblins or orcs or zombies into the Journal so I could quickly make their attacks/saves/etc. I make one journal entry “Skeleton Master” and then tag it with “Skeleton” and “Master”. When I’m populating a map, I’ll duplicate the master entry and rename it with something like “Skeleton 1”, delete the “Master” tag and then tag it with “E4InYourCloset” so I can quickly search the Journal entries for encounter E4. Then I have to duplicate that entry and have to rename each and every one of them with Skeleton 1, Skeleton 2, ...(an auto-sequencer would work great here!!!). Then, I’m having to duplicate the icons and link each of those to the journal entries. Is there a better way? How does everyone else handle the mundane creatures and their attacks/saves/initiative?

1) Create a template. Include all the basic attributes for the creatures that you want to include (HP, Saves, Initiative, Spot, Listen, etc). 2) Duplicate the template and fill out for a specific creature (lets use Skeleton). 3) Create a token and link it to the Skeleton character sheet. Link HP to the desired bar and then UNLINK HP from the desired bar. Save the token. 4) Edit the character sheet and set the token as default Next, using the new Rugged Reroll stuff coming out on December 16th you can do universal GM macros. "Universal Macros" are Macros (rather than Abilities) that you can access from any token as Token Actions. 1) Here is an example for a fort save macro: @{selected|token_name} Fort save: [[ 1d20 +@{selected|Fort} ]] 2) Here is an example for an intiative check: [[ 1d20 +@{selected|Initiative} &{tracker} ]] Make sure you checkmark the Token Action box. Regarding auto-rename, I think there is an API script for that. In short, you should only have to create one Skeleton Character sheet. If you need help with this let me know.

I'm not a guru at this and people will probably have much better answers but something that jumps out at me is all the extra work you're doing. Whats so special about skeleton 2 that it has to be renamed, retagged, etc...all just for that encounter? Aren't they mundane because they aren't special? If he's not that special, you can just skip all that. Have a default token setup with the status bars setup the way you like and drag and drop from the journal. Each skeleton will be named "Skeleton" but have their own status for HP bars. You keep track of them visually since they are all on the map. This is how my GM is handling it and we the players can follow combat just fine without knowing THAT skeleton is 1 and THAT ONE is Skeleton 2. He also like to show us the HP bars which quickly helps us differentiate between the one that's wounded and all the others. If they are special then it depends on how you use them. I'd probably shove ALL the variable functions and macros and stats into one journal entry and rename the icon when I drop it onto the map, flip the hp bar from attribute HP1 to HP3 (or HPboss or however you name them) and change the icons title bar real quick to reflect that. Then I can reference the macro BossSkeletonAttack or just SkeletonAttack depending on what was appropriate. I hope this helps, if not I'm sure Gauss or someone will show up soon to break it down even better.

haha, I should have refreshed before posting.

I suppose numbering them was mostly for initiative and editing purposes. In really large, hairy battles, it can get easy to forget which skeleton was attacking first, which one hasn't attacked yet, etc. I guess Journal editing can be done by shift- double-clicking (something VERY useful I just found out a bit ago).

@Gauss - I was going to ask for clarification, but I think I answered my own question while I was thinking about it. HP's are taken from the original character sheet to get the total/max when dragged out from the Journal to the map, then unlinked so they don't update the Journal (thereby damaging/healing each and every skeleton token at once), right?

Tinker said: I'm not a guru at this and people will probably have much better answers but something that jumps out at me is all the extra work you're doing. Whats so special about skeleton 2 that it has to be renamed, retagged, etc...all just for that encounter? Aren't they mundane because they aren't special? I do this so I know which of the 12 skeletons the player is attacking. In MapTool there was an option to have a 2 or 3 digit random unique-ish number autogenerated when copying tokens. That would be nice to have here in Roll20, but this thread now has me thinking about an API script where you select your 'MASTER" token, run the script, passing in a quantity, and it makes that many with numbered ids appended... I use the @{target|token_name} in my macros so the players just click their target and the chat line just tells me. I don't have to ask, they don't have to tell, it's all recorded in the chat archive without having to specifically type in "I attack the skeleton to my left." or me having to make notes somewhere. I always post "After action" reports on the forum and I like to use the chat history along with screenshots to make a semi-prose story-ish version of the combat. We do play-by-post, but use Roll20 when we have a need for combat. Now, my next thing is to make an API that reminds me to take a screenshot of the map after each round. I often forget during the heat of combat!

Timm, that is correct. You can either link/delink the HP bar before making that token the Default token OR you can delink the HP bar when you drag the character sheet (default token) to the table. I suggest the former (delink when setting up the default token). If you need me to come show you let me know. I would check with the API forum regarding auto-numbering tokens.

Sounds like DM's Familiar . Awesome program if I do say so myself :) The first question would be maybe - why not keep using that program? Use Roll20 for the map and tokens. Keep initiative, secret player rolls, monster attack & damage rolls, etc. in DM's Familar. After all, you're at the computer already.

When I ran Pathfinder and used MapTool, I found that I wasn't completely happy with anyone's PF framework. They were good, but required a lot of effort to get everything "just so". I tried writing my own, but that's when I REALLY appreciated how much time and effort had been invested into the existing frameworks over there. So, what I ended up doing is dropping back to what Roll20 was originally supposed to be (no not educational software, not that far back) Just a VTT. That's it. I used the very competent and capable Tactical Console that existed in Hero Lab, the software I was using to store everyone's master copy of their character anyway. I just used MapTool to draw the map, keep track of tokens, and roll dice. I recently jumped over here to Roll20 because the API gives capabilities that MapTool just cannot have in its current state. Also, Roll20's lighting, and line of site are now just as good. So far the only things I really miss are Fog of War, and being able to draw a map. Well... to size and color macro buttons also, but that's not as important to me as the other two. Anyway, the point is, like Paladintodd said, there are other options out there to keep track of all the fiddly bits of combat. Just to keep your options open.

@Paladin and Lifer - I've found it to be cumbersome to keep flipping back and forth between the programs. I'd be rolling initiative for the foes in DMGenie, players rolling their own in Roll20 and having to switch back to the get the players' rolls (or have them call them out) so I can update the combat tracker in DMGenie so I know whose attack is next; switching to Roll20 to move the tokens during their movement and swtiching back to DMGenie to do the foes' attacks, then entering the damage that the players do the the monsters in both programs (so they can see how hurt their foes are), etc. I plan on continuing to use DMGenie, but in a more limited fashion for my "hybrid" games. It's great for keeping track of character progression (and making sure the leveling process is done correctly) and awarding experience points for the encounter (though I tend to award ad hoc points pretty generously, too), and having my descriptive text at the ready for each room. It's also nice for generating and tracking conditions from spells, environment, etc. - Oh, my! That evil cleric has cast Bane on you! (Damn! What are the effects for that and how long do they last again? Hold on while I look that up... When does your Mage Armor expire again?) It'd be different if it were a strictly online game - I would use my workstation with multiple monitors and be able to quickly keep tabs on what's going on in both programs. At this point, though, I've got one or two remote players and one or two that are in-person depending on what week it is, so I use one of my laptops as the GM and another laptop to log in a different user and use Google Chromecast to cast the Roll20 map of the players' view to the big screen TV. I've learned the hard way not to just log in as myself then use the Re-Join as Player option. Don't want whispers to the GM showing up on the big screen TV for everyone to see. Ooops! Having to switch between laptops to move the view for my local players and then Alt-Tabbing between programs on the GM laptop is slowing down the game too much. I think handling the combat with a minimum of overhead administration will make the game more enjoyable for everyone. Thus, my plan to do try and do the "action" on one screen as much as possible.

Thanks Gauss, Life just got a whole lot easier (and my Journal cleaner)