Topic: ERA: Monster pics

[Ginger McMurray]

Is it possible to add pictures for creature templates in ERA? I'd like to be able to project my screen while we're in combat so people can have a better idea of what's going on. Having pics for the things will make it a lot easier for them to match enemies to miniatures.

Voriigkye, I also sent this via email but then realized that maybe some people would also want the answer. Or maybe they already know and can save you the trouble.

[Voriig Kye]

I am almost sure I have already answered this some time ago but couldn't find it.
So here goes (again?)

Short answer: yes, it can be done, with "minimal" effort.

Creatures in the Adventuring Module are provided to quickly add commonly encountered enemies to adventures.
They all offer a standard avatar to differentiate them from other NPCs or PCs.

If you are using creatures that deviate from the basic information provided in Creature Law, and have the time, I'd always suggest going through the process of creating a full fledged character using the Character Sheet module, filling out only the necessary skills (weapons, body development, spells).

If you add a Creature from the templates, and save the adventure, and load it later, you'll see that it has lost the Creature avatar, and instead has the undefined NPC avatar (a dotted silhouette). This shows that Creatures added from the templates do not have anything special stored once they are added to the adventure, they work just like any other NPC.

So, just like with any PC or NPC, you can fix the avatar it shows, by adding a file in the ERA/Server/Resources/Avatars folder.

To sum up:

• Add the creature from the list of templates
• Save the adventure
• Add a PNG image file named like the creature (without spaces, first letter of each word capitalized) in ERA/Server/Resources/Avatars
• Load the saved adventure
• Project and enjoy

Let us know if that covers your needs. Thanks for the question!

[Ginger McMurray]

That worked!

I'd love a feature that allows tying a pic to a specific template. Or even just being able to browse to a pic for a specific enemy. It would make it easier to add them to a bunch of foes at once.

But still, that's a "nice to have." This works.