Same HeroLab portfolio added to many topics -- any performance concerns?
 

Is is better to have a monster entry with a hero lab portfolio and have everything just link to that than to copy that portfolio to every scene in which the monster appears?

The organizer in me says, yes. But as a DM is much more convenient to have the portfolios available in the scene without having to navigate to a new page or open a new tab.

It appears, based on the default snippet language and how I'm seeing content-market content being organized, that when you add a HL portfolio to a scene that it is mean for handling multiple antagonists in one POR file, whereas individual monsters are to be linked with their individual HL portfolios embedded in that monster's article.

For example. In my "area" topics, I frequently have wandering monster tables. Below which I have all Herolab portfolio snippets, one for each potential monster encounter. Similarly, if there is a single monster encountered in a scene topic, I'll add a Herolab portfolio snippet for it even though that monster's name is linked to an article for that monster that contains the same snippet.

In a large realm, I am going to have a LOT of topics with goblins or skeletons, or similar frequently encountered monsters. Am I going to run into performance issues doing this?

Opening a new topic to get to the portfolio is not snappy in Realmworks. It is noticeably quicker to access the portfolio from the topic currently being viewed. So I'm hoping that this is fine, even if redundant.

It will add bloat to the DB but will be faster since you don't need to load the extra topic before loading the portfolio.

That's my thinking as well. I just don't know how concerned I need to be about the bloat. I'm guessing that the POR files data is insignificant compared to all my map images.

Unless there are a truly enormous number of characters in the portfolio it is insignificant.

I suppose the other consideration is whether you have a Realm per adventure, or one Realm with every adventure for the given game system.

An optimal approach might be an adventure neutral Realm, for the game rules, whether spells, classes, geography, maps whatever.
And import that into a new Realm, for a given adventure.

I'm personally going with a single Realm for everything Pathfinder related.
But my Realm isn't that large yet.
We've finished one campaign and I'm adding information for the second, set within the same world.

I'd go with one realm per campaign. If you just buy and run adventures then a campaign is likely something like an AP or the equivalent, the career of the PC's.

Counterpoint: I am working on a "shared continuity" setup for most/all of the Adventure Paths in Varisia .. Rise of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne, Second Darkness, Shattered Star, (Giantslayer, maybe), and Return of the Runelords.

The events, successes, and failures of each AP will shape the conditions for the next.

While that's an interesting idea how are you actually going to run it? Do you intend to run separate parties through each AP or to run them in succession?

In succession. I've started Rise of the Runelords on Roll20 just recently. The players are hyped for the idea of playing several APs in the same region, with the outcome of one impacting the others.

By keeping a careful log of events, during each successive AP I can mention events that occurred in the previous ones as news and rumors (since the settings are isolated enough by distance for that); likewise, by knowing what is coming, I can insert the significant events of a concurrent AP in the same manner.

So, for example, Rise of the Runelords originally began in September 4707. Curse of the Crimson Throne begins in February 4708. When March of 4708 rolls around, my Rise of the Runelords characters can hear about events in Korvosa. Second Darkness begins around August of 4708, and my Rise of the Runelords characters can hear about the Shadow in the Sky over Riddleport around that time.

Later, when playing out Curse of the Crimson Throne, events that occurred in my Rise of the Runelords campaign can become news and rumors that the characters hear about in Korvosa at the appropriate times.

For which reason, I *really* want to see per-character reveal controls come soon, as (hopefully) the same players will be playing characters in each campaign.

Use Fantasy Grounds as your VTT. it already has per character reveal.