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Aaron C
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: America's Midwest
Posts: 13

Old January 17th, 2016, 09:16 AM
When preparing for a gaming session that I am running, it has been my practice to first create antagonists, supporting characters, NPCs, etc. within Hero Lab, now when flushing out the session in Realm Works I find myself going through double the effort - creating single entities in HeroLab where my Portfolios were once my one stop shop.

Is there a simpler method that I am missing when creating the same in Realm Works? Any best practices would be appreciated.

Yes, yes. I know what THAC0 means, and remember when the lower the AC the harder it was to hit. I remember the most fearsome monster ever was the tarrasque! I am a veteran of the Old Guard of Grognards!
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AEIOU
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 1,147

Old January 17th, 2016, 09:54 AM
I put the details like personality, appearance, possessions beyond what they normally carry, politics, tactics, etc. for NPCs into RW rather than HL. It's faster, easier and more integrate-able for me to have this stuff in RW.

I create NPC mechanics in HL, save, then import into RW for storage and future manipulation.

I create encounters in HL, save, then import into RW but since I've saved already, they are easy to import again if I have a similar encounter later. This is really helpful for things like skeletons or goblins where I can create several encounters of various sizes then quickly import into RW for use later.
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Silveras
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 1,528

Old January 17th, 2016, 10:08 AM
First, I would suggest you decide what your "source of truth" is going to be.. external HeroLab portfolios, or portfolios stored in RealmWorks.

RealmWorks is the place for all the campaign information.. who is allied to whom, who is an enemy to whom, who is a bit part, who is a major character, and so on. You do not need portfolios for characters who are just there to be populace (name, gender, age, optionally appearance). You would likely want portfolios for any NPC who is, or who can become, an antagonist, a cohort, or a party member... but even then, you may not need the portfolio until later.

I use RealmWorks as my "source of truth". I am presently running Paizo's Rise of the Runelords as a play-by-post using Pathfinder rules. I have the named people of Sandpoint as Individuals, the buildings, and so on, all in RealmWorks. Some of them have portfolios in their Individual records. Before I had RealmWorks, I had begun setting up portfolios for the NPCs I'd want/need.

Easy way to convert portfolios: create the Individual record in RealmWorks. Add a HeroLab portfolio snippet. Click on "Create new data"; a new copy of HeroLab opens. From the Portfolio menu, select "Import Hero from Portfolio". Navigate to your existing portfolio of NPCs. Select the one you wish to import here.

For combat, I use HeroLab's Tactical Console and Roll20.net. From RealmWorks. the contents of a portfolio on a topic (such as an individual with only one creature, or an encounter with a number of creatures) can be added to the current HeroLab by clicking on the "Integrate" button. I can then select which creature(s) I wish to import into my current HeroLab session, and proceed with the combat.

HeroLab is primarily game stats... ability scores, spells and powers, gear, and so on. RealmWorks is about the campaign, and how that creature fits into the story. Using both lets you keep both kinds of information about a creature in one place, though each tool manages its part better than it manages the other tool's type of data (as in, HeroLab doesn't manage campaign relationships as well as RealmWorks, but does better than RealmWorks at details of gears, spells, and powers; and the reverse is true as well).
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