FoundryVTT: GM Tips & Tricks

Originally created using FoundryVTT v.9

Start with FoundryVTT: Players View and Controls

This is a living document and will be added

Creating and Controlling Tokens

Token Creation

There’s really two ways of doing up tokens: Beforehand, during prep and In Game.

Beforehand I like finding images and using Token Stamp to create token images. I then commonly upload them to imgur.com and use the link for image and token. Just put the URL in the Selected box within the Image Browser.

In Game I’ll create tokens using Virtual Tabletop Assets – Tokenizer. You can either upload an image, or use an image URL with Tokenizer also.

Once the token is setup for an Actor I like to set a few things: Open the Actor from the Actor Directory. Click Prototype Token (if you see just Token it will only set for that one token – not all tokens moving forward).

Prototype Token

[Character]

Token Name: [Name of NPC or type of token (bats)]
Display Name: Owner Hover (so only the owner (GM) can see the tokens name)
Link Actor Data: Uncheck this if it’s a creature type that you’ll spawn multiples off
Token Disposition: Commonly set to Neutral [friend=allies; hostile=enemies]

[Image] – Including making Wildcard Images

Token Image Path: URL of tokens location, either locally or stored as image on other servers. Example: https://i.imgur.com/ma9vM22.png
Randomize Wildcard Images: [check box]

  1. All images need to be local URL’s to the Foundry Server (no https:\\)
  2. Images need to either be in a folder (will pick any image in the folder) or follow a naming convention such as Cultist_01.webp, Cultist_02.webp, etc.
  3. Token Image Path: Folders: [folder path]. e.g. image/tokens/cultists/*
    Token Image Path: Naming: [file location]. e.g. image/tokens/cultists_*
  4. Randomize Wildcard Images: [checked]

Width / Height: token size according to the map grids. [DnD5e] auto set by Actor Size category.
Size: increase the image size without effecting the token area – so the image can be larger then the space it occupies.
Mirror Image ( Horizontally/Vertically): good for re-orientating an image.
Tint Color: [I’ll over look that its spelled WRONG] I use this to differentiating tokens slightly. Great for white tokens as each is distinctly different.

[Position]

Lock Rotation: If the token is top down, leave unchecked. If a image stamp, lock the rotation to keep images from changing orientation.

[Vision]

Has Vision: Uncheck for creatures with high spawn rates and wont be doing some cat and mouse with players. Its nice to have for determining the tokens vision for targets, but can impact performance.
Dim Vision: I will commonly have this at 5 to 10 feet for creatures without Darkvision.

[Resources]

Display Bars: Owner Hover for everything, but I’ll set PC’s and their allies to Hover for convenience.
Bar 1 Attribute: attributes.hp

Drop the Entire Party on a Scene

You can drag a folder onto a scene and drop all the actors as tokens where you placed them.

Adding Hidden Tokens to a Scene

If you drag an actor onto the scene while holding ALT, they will be set to invisible automatically.

Foundry VTT Map Alignment

Foundry will align maps based on their size, which commonly makes them auto-aligned image wise, if not by grid alignment. If the image is not aligned then you may need to adjust the image, which can be accomplished within FoundryVTT.

  1. Uploaded image and set it within your scene.
    Commonly you’ll want to upload the image to a location you can find it, either within the game World you’re playing in, or perhaps anther directory. I like using image links from imgur as it reduces the amount my FVTT server has to share out.
  2. Use the Grid Configuration Tool to align the top left corner as close as you reasonably can between the map grid and FVTT grid.
    You can then scale the image up in size, and adjust the Grid Size and Offset Position as needed to closely align the image.
  3. On miss-scaled maps this will cause the bottom right corner to not be aligned between the map grid and the FVTT grid, commonly on one side over another.
  4. Calculate the change in map. You can estimate the amount of pixels an image is miss-scaled.
    Each grid will be as many pixels wide/tall as the Grid Size, you can then estimate the amount the image is out by how much distance between the map grid and the FVTT grid.
    Use this offset to calculate the change in map size that needs to be made.
  5. Remove the amount of pixels from the width (or height). Then realign and perhaps remove 3-9 more pixels.

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