Here's what I have so far:

1. Value list of all monsters names

2. Table (monster table) with a record for each monster. Each record contains a variety of fields (monster name (drop down of value list), armor, hp's, attacks, speed, etc., etc.,)

3. Table (encounter table) with a record for each encounter I want to run.

In the encounter table I want to be able to do the following:

• Be able to add multiple monsters.
• Click/Highlight a monster name and have all their stats from the monster table appear to the right

I'm not really sure how to do this... Here's an image of what I'd like to do, in case that makes it more clear.

http://imgur.com/pnT0apo

Thanks for any help!

you need a join table between monsters and encounters because the relationship between the two entities is many to many.

Solving many to many relationships requires an associative entity ( join table)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associative_entity

Edited June 15, 20169 yr by Kris M

Sorry, I'm still not getting it...

In my image example, Monster 2 is highlighted and to the right, it shows Monster 2's stats. I want to be able to click on any of the Monster names on the left and have the stats on the right change to the monster I selected. I also want to be able to add new monsters on the left as I need to.

You have two separate questions in there. One deals with data structure. I know nothing about this game, but it does seem like the relationship between Monsters and Encounters is a many-to-many - which means you will need a third table to join the two. See a basic demo of a join table here: http://fmforums.com/topic/50942-portal-grouping-problem/?do=findComment&comment=239210

The other question is about user interface. it can be solved by storing the selected monster's ID in a variable, and using a one-row filtered portal to show the details. See an example of this technique here: http://fmforums.com/topic/71867-getting-more-out-of-filtered-portals-2view-selected-child/#comment-339877

This looks really promising! Thanks for your help! I'll reply with an update once I give it a shot. 

This is a common interface design pattern sometimes called Master/Detail. Here's a neat FileMaker implementation:

http://www.modularfilemaker.org/module/masterdetail-2-0/

2 hours ago, comment said:

The other question is about user interface. it can be solved by storing the selected monster's ID in a variable, and using a one-row filtered portal to show the details. See an example of this technique here: http://fmforums.com/topic/71867-getting-more-out-of-filtered-portals-2view-selected-child/#comment-339877

This is really close to what I'm looking for. What I want to be able to do is add whatever monster I want to the portal. In the example you linked, it's showing results in a portal, but it doesn't have a way to add whatever country you want to the list. For example, if I wanted to show Germany, Canada and China in one portal list and then decide to add in another country afterwards.

Is something like that possible?

If you want to add related records by entering them into the first empty portal row, then you cannot have the entire portal row occupied by a button. So either make the "selecting" button smaller, or have a button outside the portal for adding new related records via a script.