# VASSAL Reference Manual

Home > Module > Game Piece Palette > Game Piece > Marker

## Place Marker

A Game Piece with this trait will have a menu command that places a different piece (the "marker") on top of this one. You can select any existing piece for the marker or define a new one from scratch.
Description: A brief description of this trait that will appear in the Piece Definer window.
Command: The right-click menu text for this trait.
Keyboard Command: The keyboard shortcut to initiate this trait.
Define Marker: Use the Define Marker button to open a Piece Definer to create a new definition of the marker from scratch.
Select: Use the Select button to use the definition from an existing piece in the module. This acts as a pointer to an existing definition, if the original piece is changed, the piece created by the Place Marker trait will also change.
Horizontal offset: The marker will be placed this many pixels to the right of the original piece. Any value other than zero will prevent the marker from stacking with the original piece.
Vertical offset: The marker will be placed this many pixels above the original piece. Any value other than zero will prevent the marker from stacking with the original piece.
Match Rotation: If selected, and both the original piece and the marker have the Can Rotate trait, then the rotation angle of the marker will be adjusted to match that of the original piece.
Place marker: Choose whether the marker should be placed on the top of this piece's stack, on the bottom, or directly above/below the triggering piece.
Keystroke to apply after placement:Optional keystroke to be applied automatically to the marker immediately after being placed.
EXAMPLE: If a game uses a fortification counter to indicate fortified status of an army counter, this trait could be given to the army counter to place a fortification marker on the army with a keyboard command, as an alternative to dragging the fortification counter from the Game Piece Palette.
SEE ALSO: Replace with Other trait.