Player View windows title

[Bobifle]

Fellow realm workers,

I have a minor concern about the title bar of player view windows.

Here's an example.

I have a character named "Sabella". My players are supposed to meet her, but she's some kind of spy, and while Sabella is her actual name in society, she's not willing to provide that name to the players.

Having a portrait of her I'd like to show the players, the player view windows title is "Portrait of Sabella". Because that's what I entered in the image description.

That's my problem, often the windows title says way too much. There is an obvious solution : change the picture description to "a mysterious woman". However:

1/ I'm using the player view management window on the right of the GM screen, instead of seeing explicitly "Sabella" I see'll "a mysterious woman" which can become an issue if I have multiple "mysterious woman" in the campaign. (My player view is preloaded with everything I need and I just hide/show the items using the yellow bubble). In the end if I keep using generic no spoiler descriptions, my GM list on the right will not be very helpful as I won't know what each window contain.

2/ a woman can be mysterious at the begining, but not anymore as the players unfold the story. Meaning I'd have to update the picture description regarding what the players have learned. I don't want to do that.


Question : is there a way to disable/hide the window titles in the player view ? The player view is often used by me as a first encouter display. Any information in that title may give away information.

[Lexin]

I don't have my copy of RW with me, but can't you use the "alias" thingy to give her a pseudonym? Or do you need to call her 'anonymous woman'?

[Vargr]

I never ever write anything in the image description for exactly that reason.

I would forget that I wrote it, show a dark-in-dark picture of something that might be a bear, might be a monster - and the window would say "Portrait of the friendly bigfoot".

The Alias does not work that way.

The best would be to make two topics, one for Sabella and one for "Contact at Rose' Bar" (or however the characters get to know the shady Sabella).

Make the descriptions more or less the same (same height, same stutter, same favourite phrase...) and then use the "Contact at Rose' Bar" when they deal with the shady one and use "Sabella" when they chance-meet her at a fund-raising for orphaned goblin-children.

Make a "Equivalence"-relationship between the two.

Reveal snippets for each of the two as the players meet them.

And then - at the big finale - reveal the "equivalence"-relationship and hear the GASP in the room :-)

[Bobifle]

That's an awful lot of work

I'd be willing to spend that time for a very important NPCs, someone central to the plot.

Problem is, most of my player windows have this issue. Another example is a puzzle I have, "Entrance to the cultist temple". I need that info for organization purposes but players are not supposed to see that it's an hidden entrance to a temple.

And the list goes on ...

Not to mention that, what if players meet Sabella elsewhere than at Rose's Bar ? (you know how players like to wreck the GM diabolic plans).

The more I think of it, the more I think I need to be able to reveal an image without revealing its description.

[Vargr]

You don't have to write anything in the image description - problem solved. :-)

I have nothing written there and it doesn't give me any problems.

[Vargr]

You could also simply duplicate the topic and adjust one of them as required (including the name of the heroine/villain.

That should mean less work and less likelihood of not duplicating the data correctly.

[Bobifle]

Originally Posted by Vargr

You don't have to write anything in the image description - problem solved. :-)

I have nothing written there and it doesn't give me any problems.

Here's my problem:

The first Item I've left the default value. The 2nd and third I've deleted everything.

It does what I want in the player view, but I have no idea what I'm hiding or showing from the GM panel.

player_titles.png

[Vargr]

Well, never thought of that.

One work-around:

Click the first one - not on the dotted circle but on the Portrait text.
The portrait will now jump to the front - but not on the player view.
Is this the one you want to reveal?
If yes, click the dotted circle.
If no, repeat with the next in the list.

I know, a bit like crossing the stream to get water.

A possible solution that might be possible to implement as a stop-gab measure (and which would be nice to have anyway), is to have the text in the snippet immediately below (the one with ... in it) show next to the Portrait text in player view when you hover the mouse over it.
Then you can add whatever information you need. Either the character name or instruction to the GM as to when to show the picture or whatever.

[Parody]

Alternatively, put a tiny physical description ("red-haired woman" or "cloaked man" or whatever) in the image description. Update it when the players get more info, if you want.