Character List: Controlling One or More Characters

Character List

Open

When you join a campaign, a list of active characters is shown above the chat box on the left side of the Fantasy Grounds Unity window and show any claimed characters.

Open

No Characters Claimed

When you join a campaign for the first time and have yet to create or claim a character, a placeholder box will appear with your FG username in it (as shown above).

The Character Selection box should also open allowing you to peruse and select one or more characters to control. You will need to select which uncontrolled characters you wish to control as GMs cannot assign characters to Players.

If there are no characters in the Character Selection window, you can either use the Character Wizard* button or click on the green and white + button in the lower-right corner of the window to edit an empty character sheet.

*The Character Wizard is mainly for D&D 5e at the moment. Other rulesets may be added in the future.

Previously Claimed Characters

As a player, you should see any characters that were previously added to the Party Sheet by the GM, as well as a placeholder. When you select a character from the Character Selection window to control, it will show as Active (no longer grayed out) in the Character Bar.

When selecting a character, it will also immediately show their character sheet and close the Character Selection window.

Once selected and Active, that character will no longer show in the Character Selection window unless released by the Player or the GM.

You can select multiple characters from the Character Selection window by reopening it and selecting another character. It will then be added to the Active characters in the Character Bar at the top.

Player and GM Actions

Below are the options available for Players and GMs when interacting with characters.

Player Actions

• View a Character: Click on the character portrait (with a single active PC), or double-click on the character portrait (with multiple active PCs) to view Character Sheet for that character.

• Release a Character: Right-click on an active character portrait to bring up the radial menu and select Release. The character will be removed from the active character list until it is re-activated. The character will be available for another player to select. Releasing a character will also remove it from the players local cache so do not do this with a character you are playing long-term. Once released, the character will show in the Character Selection window again, ready to be selected by you or another player.

• Toggle AFK: Right-click on an active character portrait to bring up the radial menu and select Toggle AFK. An icon will be placed on the portrait to indicate that the player is AFK (Away From Keyboard). The AFK icon will automatically toggle off once the user types in the chat window.

• Set Color: Right-click on an active character portrait to bring up the radial menu and select Set Color. This will bring up the Active Color window showing the color selected to denote your character in pointers, spell radius, etc.

  You can learn more about in the Characters and Pointer Colors article.
  Link: https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGCP/pages/2167406621/Characters+and+Pointer+Color#Active-Character-Colors

• Activate a Character: If two or more characters are owned and active at the same time, click on the character portrait of the character you wish to interact with. The active character will be used when chatting, and is denoted by a bold name in the character list. The active characters dice color will be used for all rolls, pointers, etc. made while that character is active.

GM Actions

• View a Character: Clicking on the character portrait will bring up that character’s sheet.

• Kick a Player: Right-click on any character portrait owned by the player, and select Kick. The player will be disconnected from the session, and all characters activated by the player will be released and denoted as inactive.

• Ring Player Bell: Right-click on any character portrait owned by the player, and select Ring Bell. The default OS sound will be played on the player's machine as an audible notification.

• Whisper to a Player: Right-click on any character portrait owned by the player you wish to send a secret text message to and click Whisper. This will issue the whisper command in the chat box [ /w ] along with that player’s name, and will place the cursor immediately after the name. Anything typed until you press Enter will go only to that player and will not show in the general text window for all other players.

Toggle Active Characters

By default, Fantasy Grounds Unity now shows all prior characters used in the campaign (added to the Party Sheet by your GM) in a moveable row in the top-left corner of the desktop. The GM can toggle it to show only Active Characters (those claimed by a player or the GM), or all characters. The default is All, but you can click on Options and toggle Desktop: Show PCs to Active Only.

Unlocking and Moving the Character Bar

The Character Bar, like the Dice Tray at the bottom-left of the screen, can be unlocked and moved freely around the Fantasy Grounds Unity desktop. There are two ways to unlock and reset the Character Bar:

1. Hover your mouse just to the upper-left of the first character in the box. A Locked icon with appear. Click it to change it to an Unlocked icon. A Reset Position icon will also appear beneath the Unlock icon. Once unlocked, you will also notice a thin border around the character area. Clicking and dragging on an empty area within the Character Bar border will allow you to drag it around and place it elsewhere.
   To return it to its default location, click the Reset Position icon.

2. Right-click on any character in the Character Bar to bring up the radial menu. From there, click the Lock Position icon to unlock the bar. You can then move the bar around by clicking and holding outside of any character portraits, but within the thin border around the Character Bar. To reset the position, right-click on a portrait again and select Reset Position and, if you wish to lock the Character Bar in place again, right-click a portrait and select Lock Position.

Party List / Combat List Toggle

The small button in the lower-left corner of the Character List is a toggle button that toggles between Party Tabletop List mode and Combat Tabletop List mode as shown above.

• When in Party Tabletop List mode, the Character List behaves normally as illustrated in all of the examples above.

• When in Combat Tabletop List mode, the list now shows all PCs and NPC currently in the Combat Tracker, as well as the turn number, the position each player or NPC is in according to initiative (if the ruleset supports it, like D&D 5e), and the ability to end your turn and progress the turn to the next PC/NPC in combat order.

Combat List Features

The Combat Tabletop List is a clean, easy way to keep track of who’s turn it is, who’s turn is coming up, and when the current turn will end / the next turn begins.

Players appear in the list in the same order as they appear in the Combat Tracker. If they have not been added to the Combat Tracker, they will not appear in the Combat Tabletop List.

1. Here you can see that the same character is listed in the bar and the Combat Tracker, and in the same order.

2. Since Bill has the highest Initiative with 22, he is first in Turn Order, then Jane with 18, the enemy Arakrocra with 10, and finally Bob with 8.

3. Next to Bob you will see a bar with a 1 on it. Since no players or NPCs have completed any rounds, they are still currently in Turn 0. When all players and NPCs have taken their round, then Turn 0 will be complete and all players will begin Turn 1.

4. The Next Actor button also correlated with the Next Turn button in the Combat Tracker. This signifies the end of a turn for a player or NPC, and moves the round to the next player or NPC.

Below, you can see pressing the Next Actor button moves the Turn Indicator (gold medal with blue ribbon to the left of the actors in the Combat Tracker) down one actor and it becomes their round to act. Once all actors have completed their rounds in Turn 0, they progress through Turn 1, and so on.