Allow players to see the history of the rooms in which they have already been?

Hi all, I've been using Roll 20 for the last 6 months or so and I have to say that it is wonderful. I've gotten my old D&D group from college together and we're still getting used to the differences of not having to draw on the wet erase map. So, I generally make pretty labyrinthine dungeons. Lots of choices, and letting the PCs wander. (Think Undermountain, but just not *quite* so large a scale.) We are using Fog of War so that if someone accidentally moves past a wall, they won't see anything that they shouldn't,and dynamic lighting because it kicks ass in ways unfathomable in the wet erase board world. So, the big problem is that the characters want to be able to see where they have already been. We are getting bogged down in the "Hey, we should have gone through the second door three rooms ago." "Which room was that?" So, I was wondering if there is a way to make it such that the current room that the PCs are in has dynamic lighting,but that the previous rooms stay visible for reference? The only thing that I can come up with is to turn off dynamic lighting altogether, and just use fog of war (which will let everyone see everything in the past). I just really hate to use that, because then if 1 person has 120' darkvision, then I have to reveal 120' to everyone, even if the rest of the party is just using a torch. Yeah, we could role play it, like back in the old days, but I'm hoping that the tools can cover this for me. Thanks so much in advance!

You can also drop light sources in the rooms they have been in.

Woul the draw tool stay visible if the players left the area and no light token was left behind? T

OldSchoolChris said: Woul the draw tool stay visible if the players left the area and no light token was left behind? T Drawings & Everything won't show after you leave the room (in Dynamic light + Fog method) unless you "drop a light" as Gauss suggested. An often-recommended technique for "dropping a light" is either, Put a torch (normal light radius) in the rooms they've been, or there's a setting you can change to a negative-number to make it a more evenly-distributed lightsource (think Moonlight or just overall light instead of a point source of light).

(Edit: I see Gold just ninja'd my own reply, but I'll post it in-full anyway) I too love the Dynamic Lighting and Line of Sight features in Roll20 and make full use of them in my own games. OldSchoolChris said: Woul the draw tool stay visible if the players left the area and no light token was left behind? T I tried that out just now and it did not work. As soon as you break line of sight with the space where the drawing is, it disappears as well. Gauss said: You can also drop light sources in the rooms they have been in. That will work as long as the GM gives control of the light source to the players and clicks the "Has Sight" check block on the light source icon. Personally, if the players want to record where they've already been, then I would simply tell them to sketch out their own map on paper as they go along. That's what I do in my own Roll20 campaigns. That method worked great for the decades that RPGs existed before VTTs came along and I see no reason to stop using it now. The way I see it, I've already got enough to do in just running the game without having to also stop and create a string of light sources for players who could otherwise just map things out for themselves. But then, my Roll20 campaigns definitely have an "old school" vibe which may not suit everyone's tastes.

Hmm... I've tried leaving a light behind, checking emits light (adding 100 just as a test), checking "All players see light", and "Has Sight'. Additionally, I gave Controlled by to "all Players". However, when I click on one of the characters and hit control L (to let me see what they are seeing), I can't see anything else. I'm thinking that that the problem is that the character isn't in the previous room, so their line of sight is cut off. Is there something I'm missing? Is control L doing what I'm assuming its doing? (I'm hoping to see what the person at the keyboard is seeing, as opposed to what the actual character is seeing. Does Roll 20 make a distinction?) Again, thanks so much for the discussion. Brett - I am considering telling the PCs to take notes, but I'm hoping that there is a more elegant solution. :-)

Sounds like you're doing everything right, it should work... does the character icon you're using for the test have those same features turned on? "Has Sight", etc.

Hi guys, I just had one of my players log on and it appears that the solution works on their end. I guess that when I select a character and press control+L, I just do see what that character can see, as opposed to what the player controlling the character sees. Regardless, I'll plan to use this from now on. Thanks everyone!

Correct, Control+L sees what that token sees, not what the player can see via all tokens.

Then it would be handy to have a hotkey to see as players, or to have a player vision mode without having to re-join as a player. Like maptool's control+shift+p or something.

You can switch to player mode to see as if a player. I use two tabs, one as GM one as player mode to confirm things like that.

isnt there a toggle in the page settings that says "enforce line of sight" ? i think if that is checked, the player would not be able to see torches in rooms they are no longer in. i use that to block vision of campfires in the cave dungeon i am doing now. i think the DM would need to turn that off.

Jasen , if the torch is controlled by the player(s) and has "has sight" checkmarked then it will work without disabling "enforce line of sight".

I think that is what their memory is for, if I walk into the next room and close the door, I have to go back in to see if the sofa changed the channel on the TV. I advise players to either have a rough map or a set of rudders to remember their way out of an area. But don't leave the remote on the sofa...