How to allow players to see token bar values in tokens they don't control

For some reason I just can't get the token permissions to work so that players can see a token's bar values. In theory all I have to do is go to the token's Advanced tab and check all the See options, but I've tried this multiple times with an old token and a new token I dragged and dropped and I just can't get them to work. I've tried both with a generic token and with a token that's linked to a Journal - nope, doesn't work. Exactly what order of things do I need selected to get the bar values to appear to players? At this rate I'd have to allow players to edit and control everyone else's tokens, which is just asking for a problem.

If you can't click on a token, you can't see its values. You can only click on a token if you have control of it. The only other way to "see" the token's properties is via Macro. /w MyName @{target|Token_Name} : @{target|bar1}/@{target|bar1|max} , @{target|bar2}/@{target|bar2|max}, @{target|bar3}/@{target|bar3|max}

If you want them to see numbers in the circles they wont be able to unless they have the ability to move the token which requires assignment. If you just want them to see the bars you need to have a value in both fields for it to display. Once the bars are up all players can see them if you have the See option checked.

Saitama said: If you want them to see numbers in the circles they wont be able to unless they have the ability to move the token which requires assignment. If you just want them to see the bars you need to have a value in both fields for it to display. Once the bars are up all players can see them if you have the See option checked. ...Well that's...sad. I have a world map and a token representing the players' ship, and I was tracking the group's total supplies and gold amount via the token's bar values. Not exactly helpful to set a bar value of 380/390, change it to 370/390 and expect the players to be able to see the difference via the size of the bar. So basically I have no way to track a central amount of gold and have the players see that as an ongoing stat. I'd have to constantly type it into the text chat every single time it updates, which is tedious and no longer has the simple calculator functions the token bar values allows. I'm rather disappointed; I can understand the inability for players to not see another player's character sheet (although that also annoys me), but not even to see a token's *values?* How do players keep track of their allies stats?

Again, you can give them access to the token and that way they can see it if clicked. You do not have to give them acces to the sheet, just the token. Alternatively you can make a macro as Mark G. suggested that will display the numbers input as text in the chat window. A macro might even be the better option as you can give them descriptions. For example using the default template you decide that bar 1 is food, bar 2 is water, and bar 3 is gold. You can use something like this: &{template:default} {{name= Ship Supplies}} {{Food=@{selected|bar1}}}{{Water=@{selected|bar2}}}{{Gold=@{selected|bar3}}} That's a simple example but it will do the job, you can obviously go more complex.

Let the players control the tokens so they can see the bar values. If you don't trust your players to not modify them, keep a copy of the values in the "GM Notes (Only visible to GMs)" section of the token so you can cross-reference it if you suspect a difference. If you link the tokens and their bars to Character Journals and attributes, it will also open the possibility of Macros or Token Actions that can report the total gold of the tokens combined or anything else you might want to do with them.

Saitama said: Again, you can give them access to the token and that way they can see it if clicked. You do not have to give them acces to the sheet, just the token. Alternatively you can make a macro as Mark G. suggested that will display the numbers input as text in the chat window. A macro might even be the better option as you can give them descriptions. For example using the default template you decide that bar 1 is food, bar 2 is water, and bar 3 is gold. You can use something like this: &{template:default} {{name= Ship Supplies}} {{Food=@{selected|bar1}}}{{Water=@{selected|bar2}}}{{Gold=@{selected|bar3}}} That's a simple example but it will do the job, you can obviously go more complex. Nice! That's a pretty good workaround! Doesn't "selected" means the token needs it selected? You could make a character sheet and call it Ship instead maybe and use custom Attributes to show it. Then sync the token's bars with the custom Attributes. &{template:default} {{name= Ship Supplies}} {{Food=@{Ship|Food}}}{{Water=@{Ship|Water}}}{{Gold=@{Ship|Gold}}} There's a way to grab the max value, I think it's @{Ship|Water|max}, but I can double-check.

As an addendum to Benson's suggestion about descriptions... The token bubbles don't need to just contain numbers. You can copy/paste a block of text into a Token Bubble and use @{target|bar3} or @{selected|bar3} to retrieve it into your macro. And yes, in order to use @{selected| } you need control over the token.

Using a macro doesn't help because it only displays the information; it doesn't *change* the stat as well. I want to have the value change instantly be displayed for all players to see without them being able to change the value themselves. If macros were able to change attribute values that would totally work, but as it is I will *still* have to do 2 things every single time I update the stat: 1) change the stat, and 2) display the stat via macro. That is annoying (although the macro at least saves the time of me typing the descriptive text, I'll give it that). I want to update the stat and not have to do anything for the players to see the updated stat value. I explicitly do *not* want to give the players permissions to control the token (as stated in the thread title) because I want this functionality for monster enemies as well; I would like the players to be able to see that they've taken out X HP from one enemy, or enemy has 2 resources left. I want the players to instantly be able to see another player's HP without the controlling player having to do anything (ex: cleric can determine for themselves who has the lowest HP without having to call out 'okay who lost the most' and having to wait for an answer). Having the players be able to control every single token on the map just so I can let them see the numbers defeats the purpose of having controlling permissions in the first place.

If you were a Mentor, you could use API to get some of what you want. I think a combination of the Tokenotes (token notes?), TokenMod, and Powercards script would give you a very close approximation. Token Notes to allow players to mouse-over a token to see information, token mod to make changes to the token as part of a macro, and powercards for displaying the output of the macro neatly and concisely.

I don't know how to script it, but I know it can be done that the name of the token can be adjusted based off of a bar value (through API). I know this because I use an inventory script that does just that. You as the GM can change the bar value (for instance of Gold Pieces), and the name of the token changes to update the new value. So, then you'd just need to give players permission to see the name. Again, I know it CAN be done, but I don't know how to do it.

Gozer the Gozerian said: I don't know how to script it, but I know it can be done that the name of the token can be adjusted based off of a bar value (through API). I know this because I use an inventory script that does just that. You as the GM can change the bar value (for instance of Gold Pieces), and the name of the token changes to update the new value. So, then you'd just need to give players permission to see the name. Again, I know it CAN be done, but I don't know how to do it. Confirmed... or the manual/free solution would be to just update the name of the token yourself :)

My players can see a visual representation of a monster's remaining hit points (as well as the monster's name and any auras) without being able to control the token. It's a red bar that goes down as the creature takes more damage. This way they don't know the exact hit points but they can have some idea based on the damage they've done and how much the bar moves. I am pretty sure they can also see each other's health bars, but not exact numbers (except for the husband and wife who I gave control over each others tokens so they can cover for each other). On the advanced tab, I make sure that "See" and "Edit" are checked for everything (unless I want the monster to have a hidden aura, or name, or if I want to hide the health bar) but on the basic tab I make sure that only I as the GM can control the token. For the HP I make sure that the left and right values are both filled out, like 10 / 10 so it will display a bar. If I wanted to have a visual cue for something like mana, I could do the same thing with my 2nd bar, which is blue. When a player does damage, I just type in -5 in the red circle, hit enter, and the bar goes down. No API or macro needed. Am I misunderstanding the question? After re-reading it, it looks like maybe Toboe's problem with the bars is when using very large numbers? I would suggest you keep track of something like 375/390 by making it 37.5 / 39.0 ... in this case I think the bar will only update when the digits left of the decimal change, but it might make for a better visual representation of numbers in the hundreds. Although after testing I'm not sure it matters much, it's a percentage bar regardless. Remember that if you make any changes to token properties that are tied to character or monster sheets, you need to edit the sheet, delete the old token, and save the selected token again.

You can use @{target|bar1} as well. Kinda sucks though... since players can cheat and use it to find out the HP of any monsters they come across. I asked for a way to block that ages ago, but nothing was ever done about it.

I explicitly want the players to see the token bar values . I also explicitly do not want to give players controlling permissions over the token just to see the bar values. Another value I want them to see is total amount of gold the group possesses; obviously as the campaign continues they will acquire more gold and thus a percentage bar is useless (since the overall total will keep increasing). Values I want to track and have the players be able to see the actual number: number of supplies they have left. Depending on their group size they may consume more or less in a length of time, meaning I cannot just scale the value to 0.1x of its actual value; it must be the actual value itself. total amount of gold the group has. Since there's no "limit" on how much gold the group can possess, I cannot represent this as a percentage value. I do not want to give the players control over the token just to let them see how much gold they have - especially with the amount of gold we're talking about, someone could just change it slightly and I may not notice; likewise with the amount of supplies left (on the ship scale we're talking about) the amount of damage the players have applied to a monster. ("omg we hit that thing for 350HP and it's still alive???" - that way the players don't have to continually remember over the rounds how much damage they've done to a monster) I surmised that this would be possible via API, but API can do nearly anything. :P

Assuming HP is bar1... make this a macro. /w **HP:** @{target|bar1} / @{target|bar1|max}

As I mentioned earlier already, Toboe L. said: Using a macro doesn't help because it only displays the information; it doesn't *change* the stat as well. I want to have the value change instantly be displayed for all players to see without them being able to change the value themselves. If macros were able to change attribute values that would totally work, but as it is I will *still* have to do 2 things every single time I update the stat: 1) change the stat, and 2) display the stat via macro. That is annoying (although the macro at least saves the time of me typing the descriptive text, I'll give it that). I want to update the stat and not have to do anything for the players to see the updated stat value. I explicitly do *not* want to give the players permissions to control the token (as stated in the thread title) because I want this functionality for monster enemies as well; I would like the players to be able to see that they've taken out X HP from one enemy, or enemy has 2 resources left. I want the players to instantly be able to see another player's HP without the controlling player having to do anything (ex: cleric can determine for themselves who has the lowest HP without having to call out 'okay who lost the most' and having to wait for an answer). Having the players be able to control every single token on the map just so I can let them see the numbers defeats the purpose of having controlling permissions in the first place.

We're now at a stall point. Without upgrading to a Mentor level subscription you can't have any of what you want, you can only have compromises that require your players to click buttons to review information. If this compromise will not work for you, then this conversation is at an end until such a time as you've upgraded your subscription. In a few months, when your account reaches its 1 year mark, or when/if you upgrade your account, you can write up a post in the Suggestions forum asking for a toggle to allow players to see values of bars on tokens.

Even with API, it sounds rather resource-intensive (Tokenotes/Token notes, TokenMod, and Powercards). Some of my players do not have very powerful computers and if I have to load up several scripts to do the 1 thing I want that's not very cost-effective to me right now. Roll20 already is a little bit laggy for us, but usable; I'm rather hesitant to put anything on top of the current resource load we have. Perhaps later I can justify the subscription cost (I'd love it if it were a one time payment), but not now.

A few of the things you mention would work well with bars. Monster HP, Player HP, Monster resources remaining that sort of stuff is what the bars are there for. The other stuff you mention I would say is normally done in a handout. You can let the players see it and can edit it easily, but it is not the one button solution you're looking for. To be honest I'm not sure that there is a one button answer to what you seek, not with basic roll20. Maybe you could consider keeping the harder to track stuff in a google doc or something? That way you can give the players access to see and not edit, it will look nice and structured and all you have to do is keep it in an open tab or something for easy access and instant updating.

Saitama said: To be honest I'm not sure that there is a one button answer to what you seek, not with basic roll20. Maybe you could consider keeping the harder to track stuff in a google doc or something? That way you can give the players access to see and not edit, it will look nice and structured and all you have to do is keep it in an open tab or something for easy access and instant updating. Using a google doc was my backup plan, in case I wasn't able to do everything in roll20. We already do use googleDocs to record info, but with so many things to track I sometimes forget to update values across multiple tabs, especially the duplicate info between roll20 and the googleDoc. I was hoping to move everything to roll20 so we wouldn't need as many tabs open. Looks like I just need a better memory! :P Thanks everyone who pointed out various options on using roll20 better! I'll definitely be using that macro option (saves me a little bit of time typing the descriptive text). I'll have to figure out the scale of the bars, especially with the gold total.