Actor Management

The Cast of Your Digital Theater

In Foundry, an "Actor" is anything that can act in your world, from mighty heroes to humble shopkeepers, from terrifying dragons to helpful horses. Think of yourself as a casting director with an unlimited roster of performers, each ready to play a role in your story.

Just as a theater company has leads, a supporting cast and extras, your world has player characters (the stars), important NPCs (the supporting cast) and generic creatures (the extras). Each needs a different level of detail, and Foundry gives you the tools to manage all of them: the Actors tab in the sidebar, character sheets, tokens, ownership, folders and compendiums.

The Actor Ecosystem

Core Foundry only knows that Actors exist. Which kinds of Actor you can create is decided by your game system. The dnd5e system, for example, offers separate types for player characters, NPCs and vehicles, each with its own sheet; other systems offer different types (some add hazards, loot containers or parties). When you click Create Actor, the type list you see comes from the system, not from Foundry itself.

Creating Your First Actor

Let's create a tavern keeper named Gareth. Open the Actors tab in the sidebar, click Create Actor, type a name, pick a type (here, the system's NPC type) and optionally a folder. Foundry opens the new actor's sheet, where you set a portrait, fill in stats and write a biography.

The sketch below shows the kind of information a sheet holds. The layout and the stat fields (HP, AC, speed) are a dnd5e-style example; every system draws its own sheet, so yours will look different.

The Actor-Token Relationship

Understanding the difference between Actors and Tokens is crucial:

• Actor: the main record, the character sheet that lives in the Actors tab.
• Prototype Token: the actor's default token settings (image, size, vision, bars, disposition). Open it from the Prototype Token button in the actor sheet's header.
• Placed Token: a token on a specific scene. When you drag an actor from the sidebar onto the canvas, Foundry creates a token from a copy of the prototype.

Changing the prototype affects tokens you place afterwards; tokens already on a map keep the settings they were created with. That is the most common source of "I changed the token but nothing happened" confusion.

Linked and Unlinked Tokens

The token configuration has a Link Actor Data option, and it changes everything about how the token behaves:

• Linked token: the token is the actor. Damage taken on the map changes the actor's sheet, and every linked token of that actor shows the same values. Use this for player characters and unique NPCs like Gareth, who might appear in his tavern, at the market and in a flashback scene: three tokens, one shared set of stats.
• Unlinked token: each token carries its own copy of the actor's data (Foundry stores only the differences). Put six unlinked goblin tokens on a map and each one tracks its own hit points; the goblin actor in the sidebar never changes.

Many systems link player-character tokens by default and leave NPC tokens unlinked, but check the setting on your prototypes rather than trusting the default.

Token Configuration: Making Actors Visible

Tokens are how actors appear in your scenes. Right-click a token and use the configuration (gear) button on the Token HUD to open its settings (double-clicking a token opens the actor's sheet instead); edit the Prototype Token instead when you want the change to apply to future placements.

Essential Token Settings

• Name and Display Name: the token's own name (it can differ from the actor's, handy for "Goblin 3") and who sees it, from nobody to everyone, or only on hover.
• Disposition: Friendly, Neutral, Hostile or Secret. It colours the token's border and controls some targeting and visibility behaviour; Secret hides the disposition from players.
• Link Actor Data: linked or unlinked, as above.
• Appearance: image, size in grid units (width and height), scale and mirroring.
• Resource bars: which attributes (for example hit points) appear as bars, and who sees them. The attribute names come from your system.
• Vision and light: whether the token has sight, how far it sees, and whether it emits light (a torch, a glowing sword).

Vision Modes and Detection Modes

On the token's vision settings, turn vision on and set a range. Each token then has one vision mode, which decides how the world looks to it (Basic, Darkvision, Tremorsense, Light Amplification and others), and any number of detection modes, which decide what it can notice and how far (Basic Sight, Feel Tremor, See Invisibility and others). A rogue with darkvision sees a dark corridor in grey; a creature with tremorsense notices moving tokens through walls of darkness. Your game system may preset these values from the actor's senses, so check the sheet first before hand-tuning a token.

Ownership: Who Can See and Control What

Every actor has ownership levels per player, plus a default for "all players". Right-click an actor in the Actors tab and choose the ownership option to set them (you can set a default on a whole folder, too).

Assign each player as Owner of their own character, and set the user's character in their player configuration (right-click their name in the player list) so their rolls and token default to it.

Managing Multiple Actors: The GM's Repertoire

As your world grows, so does your cast. Folders, naming conventions and compendiums keep hundreds of actors manageable:

Compendiums and Importing

• Your own library: in the Compendium Packs tab, create a compendium of type Actor and drag finished actors into it. Packs stored in a world stay with that world; to reuse them across worlds, put them in a module.
• Importing from a compendium: drag an entry from an open compendium into the Actors tab (or right-click it and import). You get an independent world copy you can edit freely. Right-clicking the pack itself offers to import everything at once.
• Placing straight from a compendium: you can drag a compendium actor onto the canvas; Foundry imports it into the world first.
• System and premium content: most systems ship compendiums of monsters and sample characters, and official premium modules (for example the Paizo Pathfinder Beginner Box or the Wizards of the Coast Player's Handbook module) arrive as compendiums or Adventures you import.
• Moving one actor between worlds: right-click it and use Export Data to save a JSON file, then Import Data on an actor in the other world (which overwrites that actor). Both worlds should use the same system.

The Art of NPC Creation

NPCs are the soul of your world. They don't need every stat a player character has, but they need personality. Here's a quick formula:

The Three-Trait Method

1. Visual Hook: "Nervous eye twitch" or "Always cleaning glasses"
2. Personality Trait: "Optimistically naive" or "Secretly romantic"
3. Story Purpose: "Knows about the thieves' guild" or "Lost their son to goblins"

Put the three traits in the actor's biography (or a GM-only notes field if your system's sheet has one) so they are on hand when the party walks in.

A Quick NPC Gallery

Combat Actors: Building Your Bestiary

Combat actors need different care than social NPCs. They must be mechanically sound and visually distinct on the map.

The Combat Actor Checklist

• Clear token: players need to tell goblin A from goblin B. Give unlinked tokens distinct names, or let a module number them.
• Quick stats: the numbers you need every turn should be visible on the sheet's first tab.
• Special abilities: anything unique they can do, ideally as items or features your system can roll from the sheet.
• Resistances and vulnerabilities: filled in where your system tracks them.
• Loot: what they carry, as items in their inventory (see Items & Inventory).

The Minion vs Boss Approach

Shapechanging: Actor Transformation

How a druid's wild shape or a polymorph spell works in Foundry depends on your game system. Some systems have a built-in transformation feature; the dnd5e system, for example, lets you drop one actor onto another's sheet to transform it. Where no such feature exists, the general approach is:

1. Create both forms as separate actors.
2. Give the player Owner permission on both, with matching vision settings.
3. Swap the token on the map (or, with Active Effects V2, use an effect that changes the token's image for a simple visual change).
4. Track shared resources (hit points carried over, spell slots) on a note or the original sheet.

Try It in Foundry: Populate Your World

Actor Management Tips

The Reusability Principle

Build template actors ("Generic Guard", "Common Thug", "Typical Merchant"), keep them in a compendium, then import and customize a copy whenever you need one.

The Face Gallery

Keep a folder of portrait images. When the players meet an unexpected NPC, create an actor, pick a face, give it a name, and nobody will know it wasn't planned.

The Voice Note Trick

In each NPC's notes, write how they sound: "speaks like a pirate", "whispers everything", "ends sentences with questions?" It keeps you consistent from session to session.

Common Actor Pitfalls and Solutions

The Token Sync Trap

Problem: you updated the Prototype Token, but the tokens already on the map didn't change.

Solution: that's by design: placed tokens are copies. Edit the placed tokens directly, or delete them and drag the actor in again. Going the other way, a placed token's configuration can save its settings back to the actor's prototype.

The Shared Hit Points Surprise

Problem: hitting one bandit damages every bandit.

Solution: their tokens are linked. Unlink the prototype and re-place them.

The Cluttered Directory

Problem: 200 actors in one folder and nothing can be found.

Solution: use folders, prefixes and the directory's search box, and move finished actors you aren't using into compendiums.

The Forgotten NPC

Problem: "Wait, what was that shopkeeper's name again?"

Solution: link actors from your journal entries (drag an actor into the text editor to create a link) and keep session notes.

What's Next?

Your world now has a cast: actors with sheets, prototype tokens, the right ownership, and a tidy directory backed by compendiums.

The next part, Items & Inventory, equips that cast with everything from simple swords to legendary artifacts.