Please figure out how to save what my players have explored

[SilentRuin]

Personally, I still want an option to completely turn off the FOW. In real life you have to remember or make a map (especially if you play in person games). I've never really liked this "photographic" memory everyone gets by default. Battle, confusion, where am I? Should be a thing. But its not. I'd like the option to not have FOW.

[fubeca150]

Personally, I still want an option to completely turn off the FOW. In real life you have to remember or make a map (especially if you play in person games). I've never really liked this "photographic" memory everyone gets by default. Battle, confusion, where am I? Should be a thing. But its not. I'd like the option to not have FOW.

Maybe I'm missing something (it's been a stressful morning) but FOW is Masking, right? Maps you create default to not having masking, and you can turn off masking for module maps on a per-map basis.

[SilentRuin]

Maybe I'm missing something (it's been a stressful morning) but FOW is Masking, right? Maps you create default to not having masking, and you can turn off masking for module maps on a per-map basis.

FOW is fog of war. Its that less bright "memory" of where characters have been but can no longer see due to LOS (or lighting).

[fubeca150]

FOW is fog of war. Its that less bright "memory" of where characters have been but can no longer see due to LOS (or lighting).

Gotcha. I wasn't consciously aware FG even had that, but now that you mention it, yes, I've seen that reset after moving players off and back on.

I can see why you'd want to be able to not have it at all, especially in cases that you want to run a map that is supposed to be confusing and not leave breadcrumbs for the players.

[Zacchaeus]

Maybe I'm missing something (it's been a stressful morning) but FOW is Masking, right? Maps you create default to not having masking, and you can turn off masking for module maps on a per-map basis.

In Unity the mask is a different (additional) thing from Fog of War. FoW is a cleared area of a map where the PC tokens have been. It shows as a lighter colour than the 'darkness' areas where the PCs haven't been. You can right click and reset the FoW on each individual token - or remove them and re-add them to remove it.

[Weissrolf]

FoW can be reset, though, so at least partially it's already possible to make PCs forget the past.

[darrenan]

@SilentRuin: Just don't share the entire map with the players at all. Extract the maps for each battle into their own image files. Only present them with these maps when the encounter occurs. Then give them a blank image where they can draw their own full maps of the location. The FGU drawing tools are probably sufficient for that approach. I think if I did that my players would riot, but ymmv. It's not perfect, but it would probably get the feeling you're looking for.

Or is what you're looking for more like line-of-sight but without the 'remembering'? I think the approach above would mostly work for that as well. Once the encounter is over, remove their tokens or unshare the map.

[Weissrolf]

Well, yes, workaround are available. A simple on/off switch would still be appreciated by SR, I guess. Just as the original poster would like FoW data to be saved with the map like everything else as a simple solution.

I had to move tokens around to rebuild FoW data several times already. Either because I removed a player from CT for missing a session or because I had to remove/readd a PC to CT to solve an issue.

[SilentRuin]

I'd prefer to keep my DM laziness in tact where I don't have to manually reset anything. I'd prefer to simply turn it on when its ok to have it and turn it off when its not. Tracking everything myself defeats my goal of just running the game - and not running the data. Prep is for data. Running the game does not need a bunch of "don't forget to do this" etc. In the end its a "want" not a "need". It would be nice to have it as an on/off map switch, but not needed. Nor is some elaborate keep all FOW for all time required in my opinion either, especially if it is non optional and impacts performance.

[Weissrolf]

This was kind of a "I want my candy, but you cannot have yours" post. :P