Tutorial 5

Tutorial 5: The Faceless Horde (Using Wildcards)

Goal: Let's create a "Zombie" Identity that looks different every time it is applied. This tutorial introduces Wildcards, allowing you to instantly generate a diverse horde of monsters using a single Visage without having to manually assign art to every individual token.

Prerequisites

• Role: Game Master (though Players can also use Wildcards for their own Visages)
• Required Modules: Visage

Concepts Covered

• Using the * wildcard in image paths
• Applying a Global Visage to multiple tokens at once
• Understanding how Global Identities interact with the Selector HUD

Step-by-Step Guide

Phase 1: Creating the Wildcard Identity

1. Create a New Visage: Open the Global Library (the blue window) and click Create New Global Layer.
2. Set the Metadata: Name it "Zombie Horde" and ensure the Mode is set to Identity. (Since a zombie completely replaces the base creature, we want this to act as an identity). Set sharing to "Private" (so we can see how it interacts with the Selector HUD later).
3. Use a Wildcard Path: With Token Appearance selected in the Layers list, tick the box for Image in the Identity section. Instead of selecting a single specific file, we are going to use an asterisk (*).
   • If your zombie images are stored in a folder called monsters/zombies/ and are named zombie_01.png, zombie_02.png, etc., you would type: monsters/zombies/zombie_*.png
   • Alternative: You can use the File Picker to select one of your zombie images, and then manually replace the number with an * inside the text box.
4. Check the Preview: The Live Preview will immediately select a random matching image to prove your wildcard path is working.
5. Save: Click the Save Global Layer button.

Phase 2: Unleashing the Horde

1. Select Multiple Tokens: Drag a selection box over 3 or 4 tokens on your canvas (e.g., some generic bandits or townsfolk that are about to be infected).
2. Apply the Visage: Inside the Global Library, click the Apply button on your new "Zombie Horde" card.
3. Watch the Canvas: Every selected token will instantly transform into a zombie, but Visage will roll separately for each one, giving them all different artwork.

Testing It Out (The Private Global Identity Quirk)

1. Right-click one of your new zombies and open the Visage Selector HUD.

2. Notice what is added: You will notice that the "Zombie Horde" tile appears in the HUD's grid of identities and has a green border to show it is the active Identity.

3. How to remove it: Simply click the token's Default (the top-left tile with the gold star) to restore the original token, or apply any other Identity from the HUD to overwrite it.

   Tip: As soon as you change Identity, the "Zombie Horde" tile will disappear from the token's Selector HUD because it is a private Global Visage that would not normally be available to the player. If you changed its sharing to "Public", the tile would remain in the Selector HUD.

Pro-Tips & Creative Ideas

• The ? Wildcard: If you only want to randomise a single character in the filename, you can use the question mark. For example, dragon_red_?.png will match dragon_red_1.png but will ignore dragon_red_10.png. You can use a mix of * and ? in the same filename, such as dragon_*_1?.png to select any colour of dragon with a number of 11-19 in its filename.
• The Wildcard Badge: When a Visage uses a wildcard, a special "Shuffle" icon will appear/light up in its tile or card. If you are ever unhappy with the random image it picked, just apply the Visage again to re-roll and pick a different one.