Token Improvements

I would like to see a bit more customization in some of the options brought up during a token's selection. Some games like Savage Worlds, classic Deadlands, World of Darkness, etc have conditions, wounds, etc that use a sliding scale that can't really fit into a number. It's easy to track hit points, sure, but when health is represented by different body parts or a row of boxes that have three different levels of damage it gets a little more complicated. On a cosmetic note, being able to pick how many fields are above the token, what symbols show up next to those fields, or what colors those symbols are -- it'd all be pretty handy. I know this is probably fine detail stuff in the face of a beta with bigger things to worry about, but I felt like I should at least put it out there.

The thing is that that is heading us towards wanting to support something like the damage system in FATE ("Spirit of the Century") in which each character has two stress tracks (three in "Diaspora") each five to eight boxes long, and it matters not just how many boxes are checked, but which ones. Besides which most characters can take one each mild, moderate, and severe consequence each of Social and Physical (plus Financial in "Diaspora"), except for the ones who can have two minor for one or more tracks. Those consequences can be *named*. And in some Fate builds there is a three-box track before each level of Consequence. You just can't fit all of that onto a token, nor can Roll20 reasonably support all of the hundreds of hit-point/fatigue/stun/stress/wound/bleeding systems dreamed up by game designers. In a system-agnostic tool you just have to use scratch paper sometimes. It's not necessary or even possible to get all the game mechanics into Roll20. If it doesn't have be to shared, it doesn't have to be on the table.

I been thinking about the choices for symbols and colors when you edit the token... like the green, red and blue dots etc. It would be nice to choose or edit these icons in a setting function for the campaign. So if i wanted to replace the green circle icon with say my own poison icon, i could. It would also be great if the colored dot was displayed on both the token and the "turn box" for quick and easy reference. So if i wanted to make sure to apply that poison at rounds end, the turn box is my reminder as im constantly looking at it. The only work around i have come up with for the moment is a "Status Icon Legend" where ill have a graphic up for the players to indicate what each color status means...saves a lot of "what does the blue dot mean again?" type questions. Ive also imported my own "status tokens" and placed them under player icons, this works just as well.

In a system-agnostic tool you just have to use scratch paper sometimes. It's not necessary or even possible to get all the game mechanics into Roll20. If it doesn't have to shared, it doesn't have to be on the table. I just really appreciate seeing someone say this. Because it's true. Half the guys in the developer sessions use scratch paper. Because we like using scratch paper. And we're playing vanilla games where we could easily try to shoehorn some of the stuff into the system. Anywho, thanks for makin' me smile. Back to logging all the things that SHOULDN'T need to be on paper... :)