Investigation Board

A Foundry VTT module that lets everyone create, edit, and move sticky and photo notes on the scene. A must-have for investigative games like City of Mist, Call of Cthulhu, and all your conspiracy adventures.

NEW FEATURE: Connecting Notes

Click on a pin, click on the other. That's it.

Connecting lines will always have the player's Foundry color initially. You can change it in the Edit menu.

REMEMBER: YOU NEED TO BE IN DRAW MODE TO MAKE ALL OF THIS

CHECK OUT THE VIDEO ↓

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ee486ed2-040f-4d93-a379-e162cf052986

How to Use

Open the Drawing Tools Toolbar in the scene controls. You will find several custom buttons to populate your board:

Note Types

• Sticky Note: Classic square notes for quick clues or short text.
• Photo Note: Polaroid-style frames. Perfect for suspects, locations, or evidence.
• Index Card: Larger lined cards for more detailed notes or descriptions.
• Handout: Image-only notes like maps, pictures, or documents.
• Media (Cassette): Visual representation for audio recordings.

Scene in Compendiums

Don't have a scene? Don't worry, you can use this corkboard scene for starters. Import it in your level and knock yourself out!

Interaction & Linking

• Double Click: Opens the Note Previewer, a high-resolution view of the note and its contents.
• Edit & Drag: Move notes around by selecting them. Note that you must be in the Drawing Tools layer to manipulate notes.
• Linked Objects: You can drag and drop Actors, Items, Journal Pages, or Scenes directly onto a note (or into its configuration sheet) to link them. This creates a clickable reference in the note's preview for quick access.
• Context Menu (Right-Click): Right-clicking any note opens a custom menu allowing you to:
  • Edit: Open the configuration sheet.
  • View: Open the high-res preview.
  • Play for Me/All: (Media notes only) Local or global audio playback.
  • Remove Connections: Quickly clear all yarn lines attached to the note.
  • Open Link: Directly open the linked document if one exists.
  • Delete: Remove the note from the board.

Directory Integration

You can quickly create notes directly from your Foundry sidebars by right-clicking documents:

• Actors: Create a Photo Note using the actor's portrait. You can choose to use the actor's name or create an "Unknown" version.
• Scenes: Create a Photo Note using the scene's thumbnail.
• Playlists: Right-click a sound to create a Media Note pre-linked to that audio file.
• Journals: Right-click any Image Page within a journal to transform it into a Handout.

Note for Players: If the GM has granted you drawing and file upload permissions, you can autonomously create Handout notes from Image Pages in the Journal directory to share evidence with the group!

Permissions Note: Only the GM can assign images to photo notes from the file system unless players are given browser file permissions.

If you click on the Delete button in the Drawing tools sidebar, ALL DRAWINGS ON THE SCENE WILL BE DELETED. To delete notes individually, select them and use the Delete key on your keyboard or use the Right-click context menu.

The module's settings contain some pretty straightforward options, so you can better adjust it for your table.

Module Settings

• Pin Color: Choose a fixed color for your pins (Red, Blue, Yellow, Green), set it to 'Random' for each new note, or 'No Pins' to hide them.
• Board Mode: (Work in Progress) Changes the visual theme of notes. Please use Modern for now as other modes are under development.
• Connection Line Color: Sets the fallback color for the yarn/lines connecting notes. Initial color is always the player color. Note: individual connection colors can also be edited in the note configuration.
• Connection Line Width: Sets the default thickness of the connection yarn (default is 7).
• Note Widths: Configure the default pixel width for Sticky Notes, Photo Notes, Index Cards, and Handouts.
• Base Font Size: Sets the starting font size for text on your notes.
• Font: Choose between several thematic fonts like Rock Salt or Courier New.
• Character Name Key: For photo notes created from Actors, this defines which data field to use for the name (e.g., prototypeToken.name or system.alias for systems like Blades in the Dark).
• Default Note Texts: Set the placeholder text for each new note type (Sticky, Photo, Index, Media).
• Show Setup Warning: Toggle the reminder for GMs about player permissions for drawings and file uploads.

Installation

To install this module, in Foundry VTT go to the Add-on Modules tab:

Search in the top bar for "investigation board" and click Install

OR

Click Install Module

Paste the following manifest URL into the bottom Manifest URL field:

https://github.com/mordachai/investigation-board/releases/latest/download/module.json

After that go to your world and enable the module in your Game Settings under Manage Modules

Compatibility

• Foundry VTT v13.x (minimum v13.332)
• For Foundry v12.x, please use module version 1.3.2 (has a lot less features)