How To Set Up Dynamic Lighting

Looking for a detailed walkthrough before diving into Dynamic Lighting? Below we have a step-by-step look at both phases of setting up Dynamic Lighting: Building Your Map, and Readying Your Tokens.

Remember- your adventure is unique! Feel free to experiment with settings to find what works for your game, your group, and the atmosphere you want to cultivate.

Building Your Map

Map building is broken up into two phases:

  1. Enable + Customize Your Setup In Page Settings: Page settings is where you turn on Dynamic Lighting, and tailor it to your liking. You can turn on things like Daylight Mode, a feature that lights your entire map, or Explorer Mode, which allows players to see areas of the map that they’ve already explored in grayscale. Learn how to access Page Settings, and check out other customizations here.

  2. Draw Your Barriers/Walls On The Map: By going to the Layer category of the Toolbar and selecting Dynamic Lighting, you switch to the layer that is used for laying down lines and shapes that will serve as barriers for blocking vision. From there, you can use the drawing tool to create walls, columns, doors, other pieces of the map that you want to block light for total engagement. Learn more about drawing barriers on your map here.

Readying Your Tokens

Tokens can represent a wealth of things on your map- wether it be a shimmering light, a terrifying foe, or a cowering hero. Setting up your tokens is a vital part of setting up Dynamic Lighting, and it’s the most customizable part of Dynamic Lighting as well.

  1. Place Your Tokens: When building a Dynamic Lighting map, tokens can be placed the same as you would set up a normal encounter. Tokens will not get lighting or vision until they are moved onto the Token Layer, however!

  2. Customize Each Token’s Settings: This is one of the most vital parts of setting up Dynamic Lighting! You can do two major things in Token Settings:

This page is about Dynamic Lighting, a feature exclusive to Plus and Pro subscribers, or to players in a game created by a subscriber. If you'd like to use this feature, consider upgrading your account
  Free Plus Pro
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Looking to set up Dynamic Lighting quickly, or need to double check your work?

You can visit the Dynamic Lighting Checklist for a quick and easy walkthrough!

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