Regarding the advice to move them to another campaign, I started to do that, then I realized I would not be able to add them to an encounter. I think we still need a way for them be invisible to the players. I have a bunch right now that are bad guys disguised as NPCs.
At this point I'd recommend homewbrewing up NPC's. You can copy a monster that's similar and edit it. Unfortunately it is a bit of a pain to edit, but it works pretty well.
I mean, any competent programmer should be able to code an actual hide feature or just give Campaign DM's the ability to overwrite text boxes that reveal info players shouldn't know about NPC's or even other player's characters marked "Private" -- and in a relatively short time. You know, like weeks as opposed to years.
Or you maybe just rename the platform to: Metagaming -- Far Beyond Role Playing.
I appreciate the arcane workaround, but wouldn't it just be easier to use pencil and paper than such cumbersome workarounds for such a basic feature: A feature largely essential to having a campaign with NPC's and players who want to role play (as opposed to trying not to meta-game on info that they can't help but see about other player's characters and such).
Personally, I have no interest in paying for anything on this platform as long as it is missing such basic features.
I can't believe but you still haven't gotten this feature in place. I have NPC's integral to the campaign then I have to roll everything 4 manually. It is absolutely ridiculous.
Can’t believe it’s been FIVE YEARS and such a simple feature hasn’t been coded: Give DM’s the option to TOTALLY HIDE non-player characters from view for all other players.
Move this to the FRONT of the fix queue TODAY.
Thousands of players pay hundreds of dollars to use this site, and still such a fundamental feature has remained absent, even with FIVE YEARS of direct demands.
For a site that aims so high, falling so far short is frankly shameful.
Can’t believe it’s been FIVE YEARS and such a simple feature hasn’t been coded: Give DM’s the option to TOTALLY HIDE non-player characters from view for all other players.
Move this to the FRONT of the fix queue TODAY.
Thousands of players pay hundreds of dollars to use this site, and still such a fundamental feature has remained absent, even with FIVE YEARS of direct demands.
For a site that aims so high, falling so far short is frankly shameful.
Not only "totally hide" but characters should have an "NPC" tag, that allows the DM to hide/reveal (or even alter so that it shows wrong information if the players have bad info) every different aspect of the character!
Knowing WotC, if they ever do make this feature, it'll be all or nothing, instead of dynamic... and it needs to be dynamic! For instance, I might know that Karth the Mageslayer is a warrior of some renown, but I could have no idea that in addition to being a warrior, he's also got several levels of Oathbreaker Paladin! Or maybe the court mage is a wizard, but also has warlock abilities! Or, I don't know, someone might be a vampire, and in-character we have no clue!
Every possible detail of the NPC characters needs a visibility toggle, along with editable settings so players can see false information vs real information.
Would also really, really, really like to have this feature. I purchased books through DnDBeyond and share campaign resources with my players but we use (for now) Roll20 as our VTT. Their Charactermancer doesn't incorporate my purchased content so I'm restricted as to what I can create there. It would be great to make a quick NPC using DnDBeyond and be able to operate that character in the VTT, but that's hindered by the transparency issues mentioned above. I guess I can just make the NPCs in a "holding area" campaign, port them over when I need them, and port them back when I'm done and just communicate to the players that they shouldn't scroll to their info during the game. Or use the workaround that Doradiia mentioned earlier, but it would be great if someone at DnDBeyond made this piece of interface more user friendly.
There is a work-a-round. Create the character in the campaign, then "Deactivate" it. Only the DM will be able to see it from that point forward. If you need to put it into an encounter, "Reactivate" it, make your encounter, then "Deactivate" it again. It will remain in the encounter (unfortunatley as a hero not a villain), while being removed from player view. You can still access the character sheet even though it is deactivated.
Is this a feature that has been added?? Please say yes!! My players have shared so much content, which is amazing for collaboration, but some things should still be private, especially my NPC's!!
When we've tested it, the players can't see any Deactivated characters. So just Deactivate your NPCs - but when you go to build an encounter using them, you'll need to reactivate them to build the encounter, then just deactivate them again.
As for players seeing other character's character sheets, just set the privacy of each character to private and only the owner of the campaign and the player who owns it can see past their statcard (that only shows race/class/level/name/etc)
Of course a major flaw in this, is that it assumes the DM is the owner of the campaign.
Regarding the advice to move them to another campaign, I started to do that, then I realized I would not be able to add them to an encounter. I think we still need a way for them be invisible to the players. I have a bunch right now that are bad guys disguised as NPCs.
At this point I'd recommend homewbrewing up NPC's. You can copy a monster that's similar and edit it. Unfortunately it is a bit of a pain to edit, but it works pretty well.
What decade might that "Future" be Stormknight?
I mean, any competent programmer should be able to code an actual hide feature or just give Campaign DM's the ability to overwrite text boxes that reveal info players shouldn't know about NPC's or even other player's characters marked "Private" -- and in a relatively short time. You know, like weeks as opposed to years.
Or you maybe just rename the platform to: Metagaming -- Far Beyond Role Playing.
I appreciate the arcane workaround, but wouldn't it just be easier to use pencil and paper than such cumbersome workarounds for such a basic feature: A feature largely essential to having a campaign with NPC's and players who want to role play (as opposed to trying not to meta-game on info that they can't help but see about other player's characters and such).
Personally, I have no interest in paying for anything on this platform as long as it is missing such basic features.
And here we are... still!
Is WotC going fix/address any and all of the glaring issues with DDB now that they own it?
I still wan't that feature!
I can't believe but you still haven't gotten this feature in place. I have NPC's integral to the campaign then I have to roll everything 4 manually. It is absolutely ridiculous.
How many people need to add to this post for it to get some traction?
Can’t believe it’s been FIVE YEARS and such a simple feature hasn’t been coded: Give DM’s the option to TOTALLY HIDE non-player characters from view for all other players.
Move this to the FRONT of the fix queue TODAY.
Thousands of players pay hundreds of dollars to use this site, and still such a fundamental feature has remained absent, even with FIVE YEARS of direct demands.
For a site that aims so high, falling so far short is frankly shameful.
Please make it a basic check box feature for a DM to hide an Npc character sheet. Thank you
Not only "totally hide" but characters should have an "NPC" tag, that allows the DM to hide/reveal (or even alter so that it shows wrong information if the players have bad info) every different aspect of the character!
Knowing WotC, if they ever do make this feature, it'll be all or nothing, instead of dynamic... and it needs to be dynamic! For instance, I might know that Karth the Mageslayer is a warrior of some renown, but I could have no idea that in addition to being a warrior, he's also got several levels of Oathbreaker Paladin! Or maybe the court mage is a wizard, but also has warlock abilities! Or, I don't know, someone might be a vampire, and in-character we have no clue!
Every possible detail of the NPC characters needs a visibility toggle, along with editable settings so players can see false information vs real information.
Would also really, really, really like to have this feature. I purchased books through DnDBeyond and share campaign resources with my players but we use (for now) Roll20 as our VTT. Their Charactermancer doesn't incorporate my purchased content so I'm restricted as to what I can create there. It would be great to make a quick NPC using DnDBeyond and be able to operate that character in the VTT, but that's hindered by the transparency issues mentioned above. I guess I can just make the NPCs in a "holding area" campaign, port them over when I need them, and port them back when I'm done and just communicate to the players that they shouldn't scroll to their info during the game. Or use the workaround that Doradiia mentioned earlier, but it would be great if someone at DnDBeyond made this piece of interface more user friendly.
There is a work-a-round. Create the character in the campaign, then "Deactivate" it. Only the DM will be able to see it from that point forward. If you need to put it into an encounter, "Reactivate" it, make your encounter, then "Deactivate" it again. It will remain in the encounter (unfortunatley as a hero not a villain), while being removed from player view. You can still access the character sheet even though it is deactivated.
Playing D&D since 1982
This does not work. Players can still see deactivated players.
It's a huge bummer that this still isn't a feature despite years of folks asking for this.
Really need this as a DM. Small features like this are vital when it comes to what platform a DM wants to use to run their campaigns.
Is this a feature that has been added?? Please say yes!! My players have shared so much content, which is amazing for collaboration, but some things should still be private, especially my NPC's!!
When we've tested it, the players can't see any Deactivated characters. So just Deactivate your NPCs - but when you go to build an encounter using them, you'll need to reactivate them to build the encounter, then just deactivate them again.
As for players seeing other character's character sheets, just set the privacy of each character to private and only the owner of the campaign and the player who owns it can see past their statcard (that only shows race/class/level/name/etc)
Of course a major flaw in this, is that it assumes the DM is the owner of the campaign.
Playing D&D since 1982
Damn. I came here hoping this had already been set up. It is really frustrating.
Do the powers that be even read all this? Do they even care?