Campaign Theatre - Campaigns and Characters

[MagicSN]

Hi!

I noticed that when I enter a character into a campaign it is removed "outside". I still have the possibility then to make a "copy of the character Outside", but this is not what I want.

What I would like is that the Campaign Character list is only a "link" to the "character outside", and that all changes I do to the character outside will automatically be done to the character in the campaign and vice versa.

Would it be possible such a feature could still get added in the future ?

Thanks for the Campaign Theatre, anyways! Good work!

Best regards,
Steffen

P.S.: Any news on the ability to use Herolab Online with family ? Campaign theatre makes this even more important. Right now the only option to add a character of me and my brother to the same campaign seems to be to add the character as "GM Controlled".

[Ryan F]

Hello Steffen,

I can answer this for you although I fear you may not like it. This isn't something we plan on doing or implementing, at least for the time being.

We made a conscious decision to disallow copying a character into a campaign for players since we don't want them assuming the same character exists in both places and can be accessed via either path.

That being said once the character is added, the player can copy it back out. So the player is not dependent upon the GM to get a copy of his character back out. We just want to make it painfully clear to players that their PC within the campaign is NOT the same PC as outside the campaign. Edits to one will NOT appear on the other, and vice versa, this is intentional behavior.

We covered this somewhat in the Campaign Theater Beta Primer document but as I mentioned, perhaps the UI doesn't do the best job of letting you know this without having gone through the documentation or suggest that this is how it is supposed to work.

The basic idea here that we fundamentally want to prevent a Player from changing their own Character on their own Account and having those changes automatically be transferred to the Character in the Campaign.

For now, we suggest as you go along and use the Campaign Theater and change, advance and update your Character that you should do so on the copy that exists inside the Campaign and whenever you want to get a copy of that PC for your own Account/Character Select Menu, you can always enter the Campaign itself and make a new copy of it that you can play with on your normal Character Select screen.

In regards to a Group/Family License/Account, we are dedicated to making this a reality, we simply do not yet have an ETA on when this will be ready for use. If you haven't already checked it out, I suggest taking a look at the Campaign Theater Beta Primer which you can find below. It does a great job outlining the functions, verbiage, terms, and intent behind the CT in general and also includes some info on what we hope to be working on for the system and service next too.
https://www.wolflair.com/wp-content/.../01/ctinfo.pdf

I hope this helps explain things a bit. Thanks!

[Farling]

So, whilst the GM is using our character during a game, we can't change it ourselves on our PC/tablet/browser?

Such as switching buffs on and off?

[Joe]

Right now, the GM only has complete autonomy over a few aspects of all characters they don't otherwise control: Their position in the initiative order, their allegiance to the party (ally/neutral/enemy), and whether they have acted or other related states (ready action, defer, skip, etc).

It is up to the user who controls the character to make changes such as HP, buffs, roll attacks, mark off spells, etc. In the case of monsters, the GM controls these so they make such changes. In the case of PCs, typically a player controls them, so the player makes these changes. But there are cases where a GM can control a PC:

The GM is able to control any Player Characters they created themselves and added to the campaign. This can be used if the GM also plays a character alongside the party (rare, but it does happen). It can also be used if the GM wants to control a character within HLO on behalf of a player who does not have HLO. As of right now, that has to be a full PC with all the complexity therein, but in the near future we'll be introducing "stand-in PCs", which are simplified characters with basic stats meant to streamline what a GM needs to do to control them. This will be the ideal case for a situation where a player does most of the heavy bookkeeping and gameplay with a physical character sheet and dice, with the GM just making key aspects like HP and status effects visible to all through the Stage view.

For the time being, these are all effectively "permanent" ways for a GM to control a PC. Later on, we plan to introduce ways for a GM to temporarily control a PC owned by a player who DOES use HLO, e.g. if they are absent for a game. But that's a little farther out.

Right now, our model is a simple one that mirrors traditional gameplay: The GM announces what happens to the player, and the player records it on their sheet. Similarly, the player announces what their rolls are for attacking a monster, and the GM decides whether it should it, how much damage to take, etc.

In the future, we also plan on ways for the GM to target players with attacks, damage, debuffs, and the like, to make it easy for a player to apply those things to the character. The same will apply to players targeting monsters, etc. This keeps the gameplay model the same (no one has final say over what happens on your character sheet BUT you), but streamlines some common things in a clean way.

[Joe]

Originally Posted by MagicSN

Hi!
What I would like is that the Campaign Character list is only a "link" to the "character outside", and that all changes I do to the character outside will automatically be done to the character in the campaign and vice versa.

Would it be possible such a feature could still get added in the future ?

There may be a point of fundamental misunderstanding here: A PC that you bring into a GMs campaign is still YOUR PC to control, it just no longer lives in your folders. Any changes to that character, anything from leveling up to taking damage, should be done on the PC inside of the campaign.

What we may end up doing, is providing a "pseudo-folder" of all your campaign PCs from within the normal character selection screen. The underlying model will remain the same, but you won't have to open the campaign first to play your PC.

Originally Posted by Farling

So, whilst the GM is using our character during a game, we can't change it ourselves on our PC/tablet/browser?

Such as switching buffs on and off?

Right now, the GM only has complete autonomy over a few aspects of all characters they don't otherwise control: Their position in the initiative order, their allegiance to the party (ally/neutral/enemy), and whether they have acted or other related states (ready action, defer, skip, etc).

It is up to the user who controls the character to make changes such as HP, buffs, roll attacks, mark off spells, etc. In the case of monsters, the GM controls these so they make such changes. In the case of PCs, typically a player controls them, so the player makes these changes. But there are cases where a GM can control a PC:

The GM is able to control any Player Characters they created themselves and added to the campaign. This can be used if the GM also plays a character alongside the party (rare, but it does happen). It can also be used if the GM wants to control a character within HLO on behalf of a player who does not have HLO. As of right now, that has to be a full PC with all the complexity therein, but in the near future we'll be introducing "stand-in PCs", which are simplified characters with basic stats meant to streamline what a GM needs to do to control them. This will be the ideal case for a situation where a player does most of the heavy bookkeeping and gameplay with a physical character sheet and dice, with the GM just making key aspects like HP and status effects visible to all through the Stage view.

For the time being, these are all effectively "permanent" ways for a GM to control a PC. Later on, we plan to introduce ways for a GM to temporarily control a PC owned by a player who DOES use HLO, e.g. if they are absent for a game. But that's a little farther out.

Right now, our model is a simple one that mirrors traditional gameplay: The GM announces what happens to the player, and the player records it on their sheet. Similarly, the player announces what their rolls are for attacking a monster, and the GM decides whether it should hit, how much damage to take, etc.

In the future, we also plan on ways for the GM to target players with attacks, damage, debuffs, and the like, to make it easy for a player to apply those things to the character. The same will apply to players targeting monsters, etc. This keeps the gameplay model the same (no one has final say over what happens on your character sheet BUT you), but streamlines some common things in a clean way.

[dacoobob]

Originally Posted by Farling

So, whilst the GM is using our character during a game, we can't change it ourselves on our PC/tablet/browser?

Such as switching buffs on and off?

No, you still have full control of your character even when it's in a Campaign created by someone else. The GM does NOT control your character (except for putting it on/off stage, and initiative stuff during encounters). HP damage, conditions, buffs etc are all on you to apply, not the GM.