Wanting to share a custom sheet (D&D BECMI)

I've been working for the past year or so on making improvements to the existing B/X Moldvay sheet on Roll20. I added lots of auto-calculations, options, and functionality for all the classes (including the optional ones) in the Rules Cyclopedia while keeping the overall aesthetic and general layout. I even added two popular fan-made classes for BECMI (demihuman tiefling and demihuman dragonborn). My group really enjoys it, and I'd love to share it with the other oldskool players out there, but I don't know how best to share it/make it available. I left in credit to the original author, although it's gone from about 3000 lines of html to 8000, and about 300 more lines of css. What's the best way for me to share? This is my first-ever sheet.

Hey Antaine, that's very nice. There are at least 2-3 different ways to approach that. You can paste the code somewhere online & Roll20 Pro users would be able to copy-paste and use it as a Custom Character Sheet. Or you could go through proper steps to try to update the existing Community-Created Character Sheet in the GitHub which will push your changes out to everyone who uses that sheet in Roll20. (Unlikely 3rd option, submit your sheet code to the github Community Character Sheet repository as a new sheet of a "different" game system, like maybe instead of being a BECMI sheet perhaps if you have made an Immortals sheet, thus attempting to allow users to choose your new sheet or the older existing sheet). The starting point could be --- go ahead and share your code here in the Forums. It has to be HTML and CSS separately. If you paste it in the Forum you should use the Code textstyle. I'm not sure if 8000 lines can be pasted in the Forums or not. Alternatively you could paste your code(s) somewhere else online and share the Link here. This would allow Roll20 Pro users to use the sheet as a Custom Character Sheet via copy-paste procedure. If you want to submit it on the Community Created Character Sheet Repository to overwrite & update the old sheet for everyone --- in that case, look into the Help documentation about the proper procedure to do it. I believe you start with attempting to contact the existing character sheet's code author to see if they were working on updates themself. 

Thanks for this reply. I'd really feel funny to displace the original Moldvay B/X sheet (which is the one mine is based on). The BECMI sheet (completely different sheet) is actually only a BECM sheet (the developer calls it that and says they didn't implement the Immortals rules), so mine would technically be the only sheet out there for the full Rules Cyclopedia BECMI.   Would that not qualify for being its own thing and not simply a revision/replacement of an existing sheet? I suppose sharing it here on the forum would be a good first step. Should I just do it here in this thread?  Again, I don't want to make a faux-pas in Roll20 forum etiquette.

I tend to think the fan-made classes need to be removed if it's going to be submitted as an overwriting update of the existing sheet (github, Community Created Character Sheets repository).  How are those classes accommodated on your sheet? I tend to think.... DM's wouldn't want those classes appearing as a viable Option for players to select (like from a drop-down menu or something), as any DM that doesn't allow those would forever be explaining to players.  If it can be accomodated with blank fields, fill-in-the-blank, sure, that's great if anyone can type anything for the Class name.  You can post screenshots here if you want to Demo the sheet's features

Antaine said: Thanks for this reply. I'd really feel funny to displace the original Moldvay B/X sheet (which is the one mine is based on). The BECMI sheet (completely different sheet) is actually only a BECM sheet (the developer calls it that and says they didn't implement the Immortals rules), so mine would technically be the only sheet out there for the full Rules Cyclopedia BECMI.   Would that not qualify for being its own thing and not Yes I think that submitting a Rules Cyclopedia sheet would be a "new" sheet.  Certaintly I understand how that IS in-fact a new/different game. Because I actually grew-up playing Basic, then BECM, then BECMI, and I own the Rules Cyclopedia now too. Roll20 might give some pushback on that being a different game system but hopefully not, or the differences can be explained if so. Another Forum member called Vince can speak to this idea if he sees this thread. He is the latest editor of the AD&D 1e sheet on Community Created sheet. It is an idea that has been brought up before. I would say just look carefully and make sure there isn't someone else submitting under Rules Cyclopedia. I think you can go for it. 

Antaine said: I suppose sharing it here on the forum would be a good first step. Should I just do it here in this thread?  Again, I don't want to make a faux-pas in Roll20 forum etiquette. Yes, other users have Pasted their Custom Sheet Code (HTML and CSS) into the Forums here. I believe that is allowed.  As you can imagine it's going to be a long-scrolling thread after you do that, unless you use Pastebin or some external website to link to it. So it's allowed but it may be a bit unweildy, but it should work, as a starting point to get your Code shared out and useable and playtestable by Pro subscribers.

They do appear on the drop-down list at the end. I could add an asterisk (there is a note on one of the tabs). The Rules Cyclopedia has the standard classes and then optional druid and mystic, and rules for an optional gnome in an appendix (all were brand new at the time). I've laid out the dropdown in the same order. Because the auto-calculations read the class and xp inputs to figure out everything else, it kind of has to be a dropdown to prevent typos or alternate spellings from causing issues (way more of an issue than a DM telling players what classes are in the campaign).

Antaine said: They do appear on the drop-down list at the end. I could add an asterisk (there is a note on one of the tabs). The Rules Cyclopedia has the standard classes and then optional druid and mystic, and rules for an optional gnome in an appendix (all were brand new at the time). I've laid out the dropdown in the same order. Because the auto-calculations read the class and xp inputs to figure out everything else, it kind of has to be a dropdown to prevent typos or alternate spellings from causing issues (way more of an issue than a DM telling players what classes are in the campaign). I would say please put the asterisk. With that in place, I personally don't mind, I'm not going to raise an objection. I'd be interested to see what Vince (another Sheet Author from the community on here) would say to that. I'm not sure if there is an existing Sheet Etiquitte for that other than follow the official game rules, or how strict that is. It's definitely outside the norm to add fan-created content there. At the same time, users always ask that Sheets be able to accommodate homebrew content. Personally I'd want to see the sheet be Non-Dependant upon a drop-down. What is a DM supposed to do if their game allows a homebrew race-class that isn't in the drop-down? 

I'm not opposed to just linking to the html and css files on Google Drive, if that's okay.

Antaine said: I'm not opposed to just linking to the html and css files on Google Drive, if that's okay. as far as i know, that should work just fine  it just limits your sheet to being used by paid subscribers who find it, instead of all GM's via the drop-down Character Sheet selection under Create New Game 

I did think about the possible desire for other homebrew, but I suppose a DM could use the B/X sheet and input whatever they want if they want to invent new classes or whatnot. The benefit to the sheet I made is that it minimizes the need to refer back to the Rules Cyclopedia since its so old that the DM may have the only actual copy (and looking things up on the Archive.org scan is cumbersome). I did leave the thief skills and spells known per level to be manual inputs.  I could have had them auto-fill based on the Rules Cyclopedia, but I know that homebrew rules for them (especially the thief skills) are very popular, so I didn't do that. One thing that I did auto-fill but also made editable is the cleric's spells. Since the cleric gains access to all spells of the new level upon reaching that level, I had the spellbook prefill the names, ranges, durations, and essential effects (with page number citation for more info in the Rules Cyclopedia for the more complex effects), but all those fields can be overwritten if desired by the player or DM. That cuts down on loads of typing, filling, and looking up if a campaign is just following the standard rules. As for the Google Drive, I meant for this first step of sharing in the forum, rather than pasting long code. Like the original sheet I started with, it requires Legacy Sanitization to be checked. Here's the html code Here's the css code