Linkable Buttons

I am pretty new to Roll20 and the virtual tabletop scene altogether.  One thing that I think would be really awesome is if there were buttons that could be added to the GM layer that upon clicking could either link to handouts or run a macro.  I know not everyone uses API scripts but I do and I use the Audio Master script which is fantastic, however it would be even better if there were buttons that I could place and click on to trigger sounds from my Jukebox.  For instance if there is a pit trap in a hallway that my players trigger.  Instead of going to my jukebox tab and selecting the right clip, I could just click on the linkable button that I placed in my GM layer right above the trap.  This would allow me to surprise them with sounds as well as descriptions.

One thing you can do is set abilities as token actions for the token in question. When you select the token on the GM layer, the token actions will appear in the top-left corner for you to click. Abilities function almost identically to a macro.

You could also accomplish this by adding links to the GM Notes section of tokens. These links can open up the handouts for you and even send messages (API commands/macros) to the chat.

Brian, that's true, but if I go that route my playable area gets very cluttered.  I'm already trying to combine macros to reduce space, but doing that is cumbersome as well. Kyle, this a good idea, however if I am following along a module, it would be a lot easier to click on a button that is located in the room to see the description instead of scrolling around the journal, trying to find the right one.  If there was a button that would link a handout or journal entry I wouldn't have to waste time trying to find the correct room number, I would just click the button and it would be there.

Here's what I mean by linking handouts through a token. In this token I had a number of api commands that would move this token around the map on a patrol route. When I needed it to stop moving for combat, I simply pushed the patrol stop button. I added a link to a handout to here to show that this same method can be used for that on a token. For a handout you simply put [Handout Name] and click save. This will create a link to the handout within the token. For a macro, you put the text (similar to what you would type into the chat window) in the url for the link. For example in the stop button I would normally type  !sgpatrol --off  but for the url link I had to add / to the front of it to tell roll20 that it is meant for the chat window and each space had to be encoded with %20 similar to how it would appear in the url of your browser. This method is not pretty and your suggestion is certainly still useful, but this is how I have managed to get around it for the time being.

Daniel C. said: Brian, that's true, but if I go that route my playable area gets very cluttered.  I'm already trying to combine macros to reduce space, but doing that is cumbersome as well. Not sure what you mean? Token actions don't display unless you select the appropriate token. Unless you're creating macros  as token actions, which apply to every single token. But I'm suggesting you create abilities  as token actions, which only appear for a token linked to the particular character.

There are a lot of suggestions for this, but scattered throughout the ideas forum. It's unfortunate that the votes are scattered among these instead of consolidated. I wonder if there's a way to do that.