If you’ve been playing around with SyncRPG and our PFRPG base campaign file, you’ve been using a lot of macros, even if you didn’t know it. Macros in a virtual tabletop are little bits of code that live inside a button, like all of those little buttons for attacks, defensive abilities, and skills that characters that you’re familiar with by now.

In addition to the macros provided in the core framework, users are free to create and share their own macros on SyncRPG for others to use in their own games and characters. There are macros that reveal secret doors and traps, magic missile and sneak attack macros that roll the right number of dice (based on your character sheet!) with a single click, and summon macros that link directly to the correct tokens on SyncRPG!

A GM can drag macros from SyncRPG right into any of the various macro panes (Offense, Defense, Disc/Misc, etc). If this is done before a game is started, your players will receive the macros when they join your server, just like all the macros in the base framework. You can also drag a macro onto the Selected panel while having an NPC token selected to tie it to that token. For example, a bandit NPC you’re using might find that sneak attack macro handly. Just select the bandit, go to the Selected macro panel, and drag the macro onto it. Now whenever the bandit is selected, you’ll be able to mash his little sneak attack button, and the macro won’t be cluttering up the normal interface.

PC tokens are a little different, because they are less static than the core macro panels or NPC tokens. Whenever a character is synced, all statistics and macros on the token are erased, and overwritten with the latest data from Google Drive and SyncRPG. If you drag a macro from the site onto your PC token, it will be obliterated the next time you sync your token with your sheet.

The way to get around this is to associate macros with your character on SyncRPG. Instead of dragging the macro into the VTT, all you have to do is click on the little icon on its widget, and select all the characters you’d like to have access to that macro. Once associated, the macro will be delivered to the token when syncing, ensuring that the character always has the most up-to-date version of the macro available. To see what macros a character has associated with them, or to remove macros you no longer want, simply go to the character’s profile page and click on the Macros tab.

If you’ve played with an NPC spellcaster, or a PC that had slotted some spells on the “Spellcasting” tab of the PFRPG Autosheet, you may have noticed that macros for those spells show up in the Selected panel without your doing anything. This is SpellSync! They’re simple macros that provide a short description of the spell and a link to its d20pfsrd page when pressed, so that users can get their spell details quickly. This makes it very easy to pick up and play a spellcasting N/PC without spending too much time looking up their abilities: All their spells just show up as buttons with helpful descriptions and links!

SpellSync has another cool feature that works with macro association in an interesting way: if your character has a macro associated with it whose name exactly matches one of the spells in your list, the SpellSync macro will be replaced by the “advanced” version. This reduces duplication and clutter on your token, and is yet another way SyncRPG helps to keep technology from getting in the way.

Discuss 'SpellSync, and Advanced Macro Usage Made Easy with SyncRPG' on the SyncRPG forums