Dynamic Darkness??

I know that this might seem a little counter intuitive, but I'm trying to replicate a spell effect on the map and having issues. is there anyway, using dynamic lighting/FoW to replicate a darkness (character sight completely obscured) or a "fog cloud" effect which drops visibility while in said fog to a dynamic level? I have a few ideas for brute forcing it, but not sure which tact I should take... Am I going to have to have my map to dynamic lighting, set player's personal light to the short distance he can easily see, drop LoS areas that encompass the area of fog, and set the lights outside the fog to be blocked from player sight if they are in the fog? Is there an easier way to do this?

You could always just draw a filled-in drawing shape, obscuring the view of what's beneath it. or drag a picture in for something more picturesque.

I thought of that, but it obscures me from seeing where all my obstacles when I'm on the map layer and need to move the enemies about on field of battle.

Interestingly Emily, Riley just posted about a new feature on dev. Tokens with 'Have Sight' enabled are now drawn above the fog of war. So once it goes live you could use it for this purpose. A bit clumsy but workable. I need to check to see if light sources goes beyond it.

Well, to give a more concise example of my problem, I'm using Roll20 to host a Pirate Campaign. There is a ship to ship combat where an allied spell caster casts multiple Fog Clouds to blanket the enemy ship. Fog Could's description is as follows: A bank of fog billows out from the point you designate. The fog obscures all sight, including darkvision , beyond 5 feet. A creature within 5 feet has concealment (attacks have a 20% miss chance). Creatures farther away have total concealment (50% miss chance, and the attacker can't use sight to locate the target). A moderate wind (11+ mph) disperses the fog in 4 rounds; a strong wind (21+ mph) disperses the fog in 1 round. The spell does not function underwater. So I need to have my players able to see 5ft and no more, while inside the confines of the spell(s), but give clear visibility outside of the effected area. Right now I have the map set with Dynamic Lighting with a single shape outlining the entire effected area. I have the Casting NPC set as a light source with a radius high enough to fill the map. I have my Players set with their "light source" to 5ft (best way I've been able to work vision, have not fully tested all the ins and outs of Rugged Reroll, which is why I asked the question) so that when they cross the line their vision is correct. I need to be able to move the enemies around, guide the players on where they can move, and generally have full visibility for me and total black out for my players. Fog of War and Dynamic lighting had not been working well for me set up wise. unless I'm being a complete blonde Which is entirely possible.

I set it to 5ft, because they can target by sight the squares surrounding their own. that way I don't give locations away if I ping the map where one can see, that another is not supposed to. Edit:When I can corral my guinea pig, I'll try the 0ft radius and see how that goes. Thank you all for the suggestions, and I'll use your suggestion, Riley, for any other persistent spell effects that I come across in game.

This is definitely something you could use the API to simulate. You would just have to check after a token moves to see if it overlaps with a fog token and adjust the dynamic lighting on the token based on that movement.

Fussing with API is a little beyond me since I'm a supporter, but it's good to have this collaboration of ideas for anyone else who might be having similar questions to my own.

No point in fussing with any of that. Just create a .png with the right size based on the spell, and make it the top layer on token. If you need a hand, PM me. Edit: Also, Kristin's idea works best for the spell you're describing if it's not like a deeper darkness spell that would totally obscure all vision.