Linking rigged character

Usually when I create a complex scene I break it down and link the separate element into the final scene. I do this by grouping all the objects together that should be linked into the scene. Up until now this worked well as I had no characters in the scene.
How can I achieve this or something similar with characters. In the base file they should be rigged but the posing has to happen in the final scene, so the character is reusable.

Are you saying you want the character to be grouped into a group with all the other back ground scenery?.. or just grouping the character into a group of it’s own with all it’s character ‘stuff’ …?

I’m not sure either way would effect much the animation… however I have never tried grouping everything into a group… hummm…

I’m talking about grouping of the parts of the character (limbs, cloth, armature, …). Primary aim is not animation but just posing for a still render.
There might be other approaches. The idea is to have a character library.

Link in your character group, then with the dupligroup selected, hit Object > Make Proxy, and choose your control rig from the object list that appears.

Ctrl+Alt+P

That seems to work. However would that not be the same as appending the group instead of linking it?
When I select the proxy object option I get a selection: The whole group, the body or the eyes. I tried the whole group and it seem to work for what little I checked. I’m not sure however if that is the correct approach. By the way the model is basically an export from MakeHuman.