Yet another newbie question

Is there a way to include line of sight, but have areas that the party has already cleared out/visited stay visible? I am using a couple of really extensive maps, and they keep getting lost due to the limited amount of the dungeon they can see at any one time. I am sure there is an easy answer to this, but I have not been able to find it anywhere.

Nope, but also consider that this is more realistic unless they are actively mapping as they move.

+1 what Honey Badger says... Require your players do old school pencil-and-paper mapping as they go along if they don't want to get lost. There's a reason why suggested lists of adventuring equipment for sale in most RPGs will include mundane items like pen, ink and paper. If the characters have it in their inventory then the players can create a map as they explore. And the map doesn't have to be anything fancy, it can be just a sketch with lines representing hallways and then circles or squares representing rooms. The added bonus is the players can make notes on the map to remind them of details they've learned. When we used to play tabletop RPGs using vinyl battlemats, I as the DM would draw out the dungeon as the players went along. When the battlemat filled up, I would wipe it clean and start fresh. If they players didn't have their own paper copy of the map already drawn out to record where they had been, they were out of luck.

I use fog and as they move through, erase the fog.

The other solution would be to use a clear png token add a light source to it and drop it in the rooms the players go through. Above is a clear token.

Well, if he's got LOS enforced, they still won't be able to see the light source once they go around a corner. I suppose if you dropped a light source, then gave all the players control of it (like with a character) then they could continue to see areas they've already explored and moved beyond, even with LOS enforced. But that seems like a lot of extra trouble for the already-busy GM, when instead he could just tell the players they need to create a hand-drawn map as they explore.

When I was a subscriber, I would dynamic light each room individually then just remove that particular room lines. It added to prep time but it allowed rooms to be seen after they got cleared.

Fog of War, revealing where they have already been and then turn Dynamic Lighting off. If you get to a place where you want Dynamic Lighting - a battle - then turn it back on for the battle. Turn it off when they want to see the map again. Making the players draw a map sounds incredibly boring especially since there's a much easier way to do it.

Brett E. said: Well, if he's got LOS enforced, they still won't be able to see the light source once they go around a corner. I suppose if you dropped a light source, then gave all the players control of it (like with a character) then they could continue to see areas they've already explored and moved beyond, even with LOS enforced. But that seems like a lot of extra trouble for the already-busy GM, when instead he could just tell the players they need to create a hand-drawn map as they explore. You just set up a character journal for the clear light token, you only have to set it up once. Then just drag and drop as they move through the rooms, it is pretty fast and easy.

Paladintodd said: Fog of War, revealing where they have already been and then turn Dynamic Lighting off. If you get to a place where you want Dynamic Lighting - a battle - then turn it back on for the battle. Turn it off when they want to see the map again. Making the players draw a map sounds incredibly boring especially since there's a much easier way to do it. If they don't want to draw a map, that's on them. It's been a staple of rpg's since they started.

{in an old voice} Before we had these new fancy doodads called internet and roll20, we had to draw on paper or vinyl mats up a hill from the beginning to end of a session no matter how deep the kobolds got or how hard the orcs rained down on us and we loved it. Boring, humph. You don't know what boring is until the GM spends 15 minutes looking for a working dry erase marker then draw out the beginning of the map so that one of us could take out our graph paper to make a copy of what is being drawn. Now I do hope everyone takes what I said with a sense of humor. PaladinTodd has a good idea for when you use a map, you just use FoW but have everything set up for dynamic lighting when a battle happens. Sounds a lot better for prep work than what I was doing.

John R. said: You just set up a character journal for the clear light token, you only have to set it up once. Then just drag and drop as they move through the rooms, it is pretty fast and easy. Yeah, true, good point.... Still though, my inclination would be to simply tell the players to sketch it out on their own if they want to record where they've been. I always felt that LOS was a major feature that MapTools had which Roll20 lacked. But now that Roll20 has LOS, I'm not going to start implementing work-arounds for it. But that's neither here nor there, it sounds like your solution would give the OP the answer he's looking for.

John R. said: You just set up a character journal for the clear light token, you only have to set it up once. Then just drag and drop as they move through the rooms, it is pretty fast and easy. Yep - this is what we do when it's warranted. Just make sure control is set to "All Players" and that "has sight" is checked. Originally it was how we implemented the effect for the Clairvoyance spell or potion, but it evolved into laying the tokens like a trail of breadcrumbs if the PCs have a map (or are explicitly mapping). NPC tokens - in the event bad guys are sneaking up or circling back around - can hang out on the GMs layer until they are heard or seen.

Dave D. said: Originally it was how we implemented the effect for the Clairvoyance spell or potion, Cool idea, my group isn't high enough level yet to have access to that sort of thing but that's a good way of handling it.