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.
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.
