Roll20 Initiative Tracker

[TwilightKnight]

I use Roll20 for my VTT and one problem I encounter is that even when I hide the token's name, it appears in the Initiative table. I really don't want to have to manually change the name of the creature in order to conceal what it is and then change it again when/if the PCs successful identify it with Recall Knowledge, but i cannot figure out another way to do it.

How do you handle this issue?

[thenobledrake]

How I handle this issue is to not consider it an issue in the first place.

Trying to convince my players that piece of art that is definitely a dullahan isn't called a dullahan, or that orc isn't an orc, or that giant covered in runic tattoos shouldn't be referred to as "rune giant", or so on, just isn't actually going to work basically ever - and them knowing the name of a creature isn't going to change the way they interact with it (since they aren't going to like, google it and start using that information, or choose any actions for their characters that the characters can't already reasonably do).

[HammerJack]

"Put a different name on the token" is pretty much the answer, here.

[TwilightKnight]

thenobledrake wrote:

How I handle this issue is to not consider it an issue in the first place

That depends on how you feel about meta-gaming and if you occasionally use images that are not directly out of the Bestiary (which I do). There are many creatures that can resemble each other and by avoiding the standard Bestiary image, I can maintain some sense of mystery adding value to knowledge checks.

And no offense, but I'm not interested in the philosophy of how we feel about the issue. This is specifically a technical question about how people deal with it, assuming that they do. If you don't worry about it, that's fine, but not helpful to the conversation.

[Eric Clingenpeel]

You might check it as a player. All the time I'm seeing blank names in the init tracker as a player but the GM calls them by name. I thought If the token had a hidden name from players, it didn't show up in the tracker for the players.

I just tested it in my own game. If you deselect the players can see in the token page, the name doesn't show up in the tracker for the players, but it does for the GM.

[TwilightKnight]

You are 100% correct. Thanks. I often forget about the "Player View" option.

[HammerJack]

I think that if you don't change the token name, you can still end up with the creature's real name in macros that you use.