Name display changing location in text chat when using macros

This is kind of hard to describe, and it took a long time to figure out exactly what is happening, but here it goes: When I or my players use a macro, the first time it is used their name displays on the first line of the macro and has the line break above it to divide it from the last comment or macro as it should.  But when I use that macro again it displays the name on the second  line of the macro, putting the first line of the macro above the line break and it looks like it is part of the previous comment or macro or roll.  The third time it is used it displays the name and line break on the third line of the macro, putting the first two lines with the previous comment. This continues for repeated use of the macro cycling name placement in chat through every line in the macro.  This has cause a lot of confusion when it comes to knowing what roll goes with what ability, questions about if it double rolled because it is grouped in two comments, and who actually did what. It seems to me that the name should be displayed on the first line of the macro every time to separate it from the previous rolls and comments. Is there any way to ensure this? Thanks!

Actually the player name appears every 5 lines, I believe. It's likely your macro length is outputting multiple lines (4, maybe?), and causing it to stagger through the output. You can avoid this issue by putting your macro in a rolltemplate, so that every macro is treated as a single line. What does your macro normally look like? We can rewrite it for you.

I've got a bunch of custom macros made by my players and I for a custom Pokemon game. We will be needing to make more as the game progresses, and it I have been having the players learn to write them for themselves. I did bold some text so it is visually easier to see where one starts and another begins. The macros generally look like this: **WaterPulse:** Physical Water Attack (Water Type Focus) Requirement: Water Effect: 2 Damage. You may spend 1PP to Confuse the hit Pokemon. /roll 2d6+@{Special Attack} I am not familiar with a rolltemplate, but if it would treat it all as one line that sounds helpful! My only hesitation is if it is easy enough for a player to put together themselves on the fly?

It should be easy enough yet. The default template is available to all sheets, so thats the one to use. Here's the above written as a template: &{template:default} {{name=**WaterPulse:** Physical Water Attack (Water Type Focus)}} {{Requirement= Water}} {{Effect=2 Damage. You may spend 1PP to Confuse the hit Pokemon.}} {{Roll=[[2d6+@{Special Attack}]] }} Here's what that looks like (with a couple of variants following): Notice no interruption by the name of the player. To make your own templates, its easy enough. It has these elements: always start with this: &{template:default} then to show a title:   {{name= WHATEVER YOU WANT AS TITLE GOES HERE }}  Then everything after that os the in following format: {{left column = right column}} Basically you have the outer brackets {{ }}, and inside the brackets the = sign is a divider. Anything left of it appears in the left column, anything after the equals goes in the right column. The final element: if you want to make a roll, you need to enclose it in double square brackets: [[ ]]. These are inline roll brackets, and roll the dice in place, without showing the dice in chat. You can see the actual roll by hovering your mouse over the result, which looks like this: The last one in the image above was this: &{template:default} {{name=**WaterPulse** }} {{Detail=Physical Water Attack}} {{Focus= Water Type Focus}} {{Requirement= Water}} {{Damage=2 Damage.}} {{Effect=Confuse the hit Pokemon for 1 PP.}} {{Roll=[[2d6+?{Special Attack|7}]] }} I used a query for the roll, because I dont have the attribute on a sheet. So its pretty easy to make and modify templates. They follow very simple rules.

Okay cool, thanks, that's a bit more text but not too complicated and the result is super clean. Is there a way to show the dice for the roll? Part of the game mechanics rely on both the numbers on the dice and the total after adding a modifier.

There is a slightly hacky way to show the dice. Note you can hover over the result to see the dice. But here's a trick to show them all: &{template:default} {{name=**WaterPulse:** Physical Water Attack (Water Type Focus)}} {{Requirement= Water}} {{Effect=2 Damage. You may spend 1PP to Confuse the hit Pokemon.}} [[ [[1d6]] + [[1d6]] + [[@{Special Attack}]] ]] {{Roll=[[0]] + [[1]] + [[2]] = [[3]]}} That looks like this: The second version uses the following code &{template:default} {{name=**WaterPulse:** Physical Water Attack (Water Type Focus)}} {{Requirement= Water}} {{Effect=2 Damage. You may spend 1PP to Confuse the hit Pokemon.}} [[ [[1d6]] + [[1d6]] + [[?{Special Attack}]] ]] {{Roll=$[[0]] + $[[1]]}} {{Skill=$[[2]]}} {{Total = $[[3]]}} This technique isnt as clean as the previous template. You need to put the inline roll outside the {{ }} sections, so it doesnt get displayed. You then must wrap each part that you want to show within its own inline roll brackets. Then you can show them wherever you want in the template using the $[[ number ]] syntax. The first roll, starting from inside the brackets is numbered o, the second is numebered 1, and so on. The inline roll brackets containing the whole roll is the last number.

Awesome, that second one looks exactly like the output I want, thank you so much! I'll have to think about converting everything, it would take some time and I would probably not be able to push off as much of the work onto the players as I have been.... Thanks for all the options!

You're welcome! If the abilities are mostly like the above, you can just give them a template, like &{template:default} {{name=DISPLAY TITLE HERE}} {{Requirement= REQUIREMENT}} {{Effect=EFFECT}} [[ [[1d6]] + [[1d6]] + [[@{ATTRIBUTE NAME}]] ]] {{Roll=$[[0]] + $[[1]]}} {{Skill=$[[2]]}} {{Total = $[[3]]}} and then just tell them to change the things in upper case.