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Hero Lab Portfolio Integration Question

G

Gord

Well-known member
When adding an Herolab portfolio to RW, it works just fine but I seem to have to do several unnecessary steps (or they happen automatically). I'll list what I do below and say what happens:

1. Add the HL portfolio snippet
2. Click on the puzzle piece which asks you to save the topic and open HeroLab (which then opens a new instance of HL every time and requires you to wait while this happens. (Why not just use the previously opened version?)
3. With HL open, I click on the Encounter tab to launch the Encounter Builder
4. Click on a monster or monsters and add them to The "Characters in Encounter" panel.
5. Click Import and then answer the question "Are you sure you want to import # characters into the current portfolio?" by clicking another "Import" button
6. Herolab loads the portfolio perfectly BUT always also has an "Unnamed Hero" showing on the Dashboard. - Why? What am I doing wrong? Is there a setting I don't see to stop this from happening.
7. This always requires me to delete the unnamed hero if I don't want to have it show up when I hit "Save portfolio" and finish the RW integration

Is there a way around these two issues that I am missing? It is a PITA when doing a lot of data entry.

Thanks for any help with this.
 
I can answer one part of this:

When you open HeroLab (whether on its own or from within RW) it opens with a blank character. Importing monsters from the encounter builder doesn't delete this character, you have to do that manually. So no, you're not doing anything wrong - it's just a part of the process.
 
Thanks. That's what I figured but was hoping I was wrong about. It would be nice if there was a setting to stop this automatic creation. It's such a time waster.
 
Last edited:
What I do and I find it works better is I build the encounters first and save the resulting portfolio somewhere easy to find with a clear name. Then I open RW and add the portfolio by simply opening the file.

It saves me the hassle of needing to open HL over and over again and having to remember to shut it down every time.
 
kbs666 said:
What I do and I find it works better is I build the encounters first and save the resulting portfolio somewhere easy to find with a clear name. Then I open RW and add the portfolio by simply opening the file.

It saves me the hassle of needing to open HL over and over again and having to remember to shut it down every time.
Click to expand...

Same here
 
Just before the start of a session I:

1. Open HL with the party's portfolio. I'm using DnD Beyond now, so I'm not keeping the characters up to date in HL. I just have all the PCs for initiative tracking in the tactical console.

2. Open Realm Works

Then during the game when they have an encounter, I simply click on the integrate button (the one with the crossed arrows icon).

I import the scene or monster(s) into the characters portfolio as enemies and run the encounter.

After the encounter is over, I select the "delete all enemies and non-allies" from the "Portfolio/Delete Heroes" submenu.

It is quick and easy.

Even when I've not had the PCs in a portfolio, I never had to close and reopen the program. Because I was using DnD Beyond, I was not putting PCs in HL when I started my current campaign. What I would do is simply open a portfolio and not bother creating the hero. Basically, has a blank hero in an unsaved portfolio.

I would integrate an encounter into it. After the encounter, I would simply CNTRL+N to open a new portfolio. I would decline saving the current portfolio and open a new portfolio with a blank character. Rinse and repeat.

Really the only reason to create a PC portfolio was to integrate them into the tactical consoles initiative tracking.

Using the methods described above has always been more convenient than manually opening portfolios by clicking on the files in Windows Explorer. I'm running Rappan Athuk, a massive mega-dungeon sandbox. I have hundreds of monsters and scene portfolios. Even with alphabetical naming for monsters and location key prefixes for scene names, having to go to another window and scroll through the files is a lot less convenience than clicking on the integration button in RW and clearing the non-PC heroes after the encounter.
 
Thanks guys. I was wondering if building it first might be a better way to go for just that reason. Seems like it should work the other way but perhaps it is a future improvement we can ask for.
 
It's been a while since I wrote Windows desktop software but IIRC when you use the Windows features to launch a program from within another program it always opens a new instance of that software.
 
kbs666 said:
It's been a while since I wrote Windows desktop software but IIRC when you use the Windows features to launch a program from within another program it always opens a new instance of that software.
Click to expand...

Not always. There are hooks you can implement when developing Windows software that will cause the OS to pass along the arguments to an existing instance of the application rather than open a new one.
 
I do it exactly the same way as MNBLOCKHEAD when using it and it works well. We must have the same players because mine are slow to update their HL data too.

The problem was with the multiple steps needed to set up the HL data so it could be integrated easily.
 
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