Working with Character Groups
The Groups feature is an optional tool that allows users to organize monsters and Non-Player Characters (NPCs) within their world. This guide will walk you through its functionalities, advantages, and step-by-step processes to create and manage your groups.
1. Uses
The Groups feature provides several benefits
- Efficient character selection: By grouping similar characters together, you can quickly pick appropriate monsters or NPCs for your encounters.
- For example, you can create a group that has all of the members of the local thieves guild, and when you need a thief you can quickly select a member from that group and import it into your scene.
- Easy character creation: The Groups feature enables you to create random new characters based on existing character groups.
- For example, you can create a group of town guards of different levels and classes, then when the players encounter a guard you can have SceneGrinder randomly select a guard template based on that group.
- Organization: By grouping similar characters together, you can keep your world organized.
- For example, since you can see all characters in a group - regardless of which scene they are currently in - the group management window is a great way to get a quick view of all of the characters in your world.
- Pre-set encounters: The Groups feature allows you to pre-set groups within your scenes, simplifying the process of starting encounters.
- For example, you can create a group for each set of monsters in a dungeon so when the players stumble into a monster laden room you can quickly start the encounter with all of the right monsters.
2. Creating Groups
To create a new group
- Click one of the 'Create Group' options at the top left of the Avatar List.
- The "In View" option on the left will create a temporary group consisting of the characters visible in the current scene. This group lasts until you create a new "In view" group. Please note, there can only ever be one "In view" group at a time. When a new "In View" group is created, the previous one is automatically deleted. This is an ideal option when you want to quickly start an encounter with only the visible characters.
- The "Named Group" option to the right of the In View option allows you to create a permanent group. You will be prompted to name this group. This group remains until you manually remove all characters from it.
3. Changing Group Characters
To modify existing groups
- Individual Character Setting:
Here is how you can modify the groups for an individual character.
1. Open the character's sheet
2. Go to the Settings page and scroll to the bottom of the page. Note: the Settings page is always the top left option on the character sheet.
3. Check or uncheck the group options for the character as needed.
- Group Management:
Here is how to modify group content for all characters at once.
1. Click the "Edit Groups" option above the Avatar list to display the Manage Groups popup. (it’s directly to the left of the dropdown box listing the group options)
2. This popup has a matrix of all characters and groups in the current scene.
3. To change a character's group membership, simply click on the appropriate checkbox in the matrix.
4. A button is also available to view a matrix with all groups and characters in your world, allowing global group management.
Remember, the Groups feature is designed to assist in the management and organization of your world, making it easy to quickly find or create the characters you need on game night, and to make starting encounters a breeze. Don't be afraid to experiment and see how this tool can improve your worldbuilding process.