Page Updated:   2021-09-21

Z-order refers to the order in which some objects display on top of other objects on the map. This can be controlled to some degree by right clicking on an object and choosing "To Front" or "To Back" from the resulting contextual menu. Only the GM of the game has this control. Note that although this page primarily references tokens, drawings and text objects also participate in the Z-order.

The rules were altered twice during 2019. The current rules were released on June 18, 2019.

Z-Order Rules

Tokens you control display above tokens you don't own. This was previously released, then rolled back to address issues brought up by users. It has been tested on the Dev Server for a while now.

• If you control a token that has sight, it displays in front of other tokens. This prevents users from losing their tokens under Advanced Fog of War, Fog of War, and Dynamic Lighting. The token and its bars and icons will appear above the black fog of war.
• The player who controls the sighted token will always see it in front of tokens they do not control or which do not have sight. This is true even if the GM has changed their order.
• GMs can reorder all tokens relative to each other. The player controlling the token will always see their token in front, but other players will see the token where the GM has set it (in front of or behind other tokens).
• If the player controls more than one token with sight, the tokens will overlap either in the order the GM has set them, or with the most recently dropped token in front.
• Using CTRL-L, the GM will see what the token sees, with that token in front of other tokens, if it has sight. If the token does not have sight, the GM will see it in the z-order the GM set.
• Tokens you control that do not have sight (commonly used for spell templates) are not pulled to the front.
• Tokens you do not control that other players control are not pulled to the front.
• Tokens are layered with the most recently-dropped token in front by default.

Example Use Cases

• You have a mount and a PC token, and both have sight. For the PC to appear in front of the mount, you'll want to either drop the PC token onto the tabletop last, or reorder them using the right-click menu to send the mount to the back.
• You have a PC that you control, and a spell template that everyone in the game controls. The spell template does not have "has sight" enabled. When you drag and drop it onto the tabletop, it will appear behind all tokens that are controlled by other players and have sight.

Official feedback thread for this feature, now closed.