How do GMs deal with invisibility on Roll20?

I have found a few threads expressing the desire to be able to represent invisibility to the players but doesn't look like it's going to happen any time soon. So how do people deal with this? So far I've tried asking the non-perceivers to look away while I reveal the tokens to the players that can see through invisibility, and then hide them again. And I've tried just leaving them visible to all but telling the non-perceivers that they don't necessarily represent the current position of the invisible mobs. Neither seems satisfactory.  Anyone have other methods?

There really isn't a good way to do this, that I know of. Most people do as you said, either show those who can see and rely on their memory, or telling those who can't see to pretend. I tend to move invisible critters (not players) to the GM layer, and use the ping tool when someone is able to perceive the critter. A method I've seen discussed, but haven't yet used myself, is the introduction of a transparent token, .png style, with no visible pixels. This token could be made visible to the GM by not-allowing such things as the name or bars to be visible to the players; the GM would see its name, the players would see nothing at all. Additionally, if you then give a player the ability to control (but not edit) this token, they can find it by the trial-and-error method of selection; once they've done so, clicking it makes it 'visible', at least enough to know its location and move it around. I'm really hoping one of my players casts invisibility soon, so I can try this! -Phnord the Unsightly (wait, that means invisible, right?)

Phnord Prephect said: A method I've seen discussed, but haven't yet used myself, is the introduction of a transparent token, .png style, with no visible pixels. This token could be made visible to the GM by not-allowing such things as the name or bars to be visible to the players; the GM would see its name, the players would see nothing at all. Additionally, if you then give a player the ability to control (but not edit) this token, they can find it by the trial-and-error method of selection; once they've done so, clicking it makes it 'visible', at least enough to know its location and move it around. I'm really hoping one of my players casts invisibility soon, so I can try this! If you give a token's aura Edit permission but not See permission on the token's Advanced tab, only players with control of the token can see the aura. If the token graphic is a transparent PNG, nobody can see the graphic, but the GM and any players with control of the token can see the aura. A 0ft square aura will exactly fill a token's size. (A 0ft circular aura will have the edge of the circle touching the sides of the token.) This lets you avoid hunting for the invisible token (for you or  the player! ~_^)

If you're willing to upgrade to a Pro membership, the Bump script is literally tailor-made for this exact situation.  It is easy to use and should be a part of any GMs toolkit.  :)

Brian said: Phnord Prephect said: A method I've seen discussed, but haven't yet used myself, is the introduction of a transparent token, .png style, with no visible pixels. This token could be made visible to the GM by not-allowing such things as the name or bars to be visible to the players; the GM would see its name, the players would see nothing at all. Additionally, if you then give a player the ability to control (but not edit) this token, they can find it by the trial-and-error method of selection; once they've done so, clicking it makes it 'visible', at least enough to know its location and move it around. I'm really hoping one of my players casts invisibility soon, so I can try this! If you give a token's aura Edit permission but not See permission on the token's Advanced tab, only players with control of the token can see the aura. If the token graphic is a transparent PNG, nobody can see the graphic, but the GM and any players with control of the token can see the aura. A 0ft square aura will exactly fill a token's size. (A 0ft circular aura will have the edge of the circle touching the sides of the token.) This lets you avoid hunting for the invisible token (for you or  the player! ~_^) I will give this a go thanks, and cross my fingers that this will be player-specific visibility will be implemented in the future!

Would a token tint work the same as the aura in this case? I haven't played with it yet so I was curious to see if anyone has.

You might also use a Rollable token so it's easy to reveal if the invisibility drops. 

Andrew R. said: You might also use a Rollable token so it's easy to reveal if the invisibility drops.  Ooh!  That's brilliant!

Pat S. said: Would a token tint work the same as the aura in this case? I haven't played with it yet so I was curious to see if anyone has. No, tinting a transparent token doesn't make it visible.

Andrew R. said: You might also use a Rollable token so it's easy to reveal if the invisibility drops.  Wait, now this is making too much sense. So as a matter of course & practice, GMs could make ALL tokens (who could ever become Invisible'd) into Rollable Tokens with one side being a transparent PNG (and making sure it has an Aura to help locate it when invis).

Gold said: Andrew R. said: You might also use a Rollable token so it's easy to reveal if the invisibility drops.  Wait, now this is making too much sense. So as a matter of course & practice, GMs could make ALL tokens (who could ever become Invisible'd) into Rollable Tokens with one side being a transparent PNG (and making sure it has an Aura to help locate it when invis). But surely this just negates having to move tokens between layers, which is already a fairly trivial task. There's not workaround for toggling individual player's viewing capabilities. My group is on the last chapter of Rise of the Runelords and there are a lot of bad guys who have invisibility, while 2 players have True Seeing capabilities. It's hard to represent that at the moment.  

Lesson 1 Do not make the first entry in your Rollable table the Invisible image.  If you do this, when you click on the Token button, you cannot see the token it creates on the map. Experimental Success I have a Pixie token with a Yellow aura that I can make Visible or Invisible. I created a 200x200 Transparent.png with Adobe Pixlr Editor online and uploaded it to my Art Library. Tagged it "Invisible".

It's a shame it's so much work to set up rollable tables for each and every token. Wish there was an easier way to manage token images on the tokens themselves. 

My group is on the last chapter of Rise of the Runelords and there are a lot of bad guys who have invisibility, while 2 players have True Seeing capabilities. It's hard to represent that at the moment.   If I were you, I'd simply trust the players who have True Seeing and add them to the list of people who can Edit the tokens with the Invisibility setup. That way they'll see the same things you do for those tokens, but the other players will see nothing. 

SkyCaptainXIII said: It's a shame it's so much work to set up rollable tables for each and every token. Wish there was an easier way to manage token images on the tokens themselves.  I'm lucky, because there's only 3 monsters in the 13th Age bestiaries with Invisibility (except Demons) so far. I can setup the Rollable table while I'm setting up the Journal entry and making the MOOK token. Ogre Mage Ogre Lightning Mage Pixie Warrior

Andrew R. said: My group is on the last chapter of Rise of the Runelords and there are a lot of bad guys who have invisibility, while 2 players have True Seeing capabilities. It's hard to represent that at the moment.   If I were you, I'd simply trust the players who have True Seeing and add them to the list of people who can Edit the tokens with the Invisibility setup. That way they'll see the same things you do for those tokens, but the other players will see nothing.  Anyone know if a script could add in a token visibility option, like the auras, name and bars?

Yes, TokenMod can do all that easily.