Hero Lab Integration

I know adding the functionality for character sheets is on the to do list. Why not do integration with Hero Labs? They already have a lot of support for varrying RPGs and have already integrated with other VTTs like d20Pro and Fantasy Grounds.

<a href="http://www.wolflair.com/index.php?context=hero_lab" rel="nofollow">http://www.wolflair.com/index.php?context=hero_lab</a>

They have support for only a few games (and making your own version is not easy, so you can almost dismiss user input) and Hero Labs is not free and is Windows only.. I would prefer the capacity to display pdf in Roll20. It would solve the character sheet problem, would support all rpgs and would be free.

I support the pdf idea. I run Hero labs but I can still export to pdf. Being able to at least view the pdf would be nice for those of my group who prefer to use other character gen. or like to roll theirs the old way.

Hero lab has a mac client. It works decently well.

But it is still not free. If they did implement it, free users would probably not be able to use it. But for paying members it might be possible, that is if Roll20 and Wolflair come to an agreement about it. But it would be better (in my opinion) if Roll20 comes up with their own Sheets for various game systems and puts them on market place like with tokens. Personally I'd just put all my character stats in the Bio section of my character's journal, but that's just me.

I run HeroLab on Linux through Wine, so it's not just Windows. HeroLab is a great piece of kit and, I believe, pretty popular, so it may be worth investigating.

The number of games covered is still quite limited. Not very game agnostic.

A simple form input system would solve all the solutions without having to rely on yet another outsourced system; while I appreciate the awesomeness of the sound and chat systems, character sheet implementation shouldn't be hard and I much prefer what I'm seeing out of the dev team to the idea of them trying to roll another third party app into roll20. I say more self sustaining development, less dependencies. My two cents.

is hero lab creation 100% free, thats my only concern

No, $30 I think.

What I'd rather see is a general service for bringing data in from other sources. HeroLab has its fans, but a similar web-driven service would likely be a lot easier to integrate with Roll20. And there's no reason that you can't open the door for the fans of any system to implement their own solutions.

The only thought here was that for the systems supported it might alleviate legal concerns since HeroLab already has the rights to use those character sheets.

As far as I know, there has never been a legal problem with characters sheets. There are lots of them on the net that don't seem to cause a problem. Are you aware of a different case?

Character sheets aren't protected in most cases, as far as I know. Honestly, though, I just stick a link to Mythweavers in my character info box. You can make a character sheet there and it can be read by anyone.

Can you make your own sheets with Mythweavers or are you limited to those that are presented?

Patrick, I think you are limited to what is presented. Because of that I use mediafire to upload PDFs and then link it in the character info box as Ian McKie does. - Gauss

I have been doing this with Dropbox. I upload a character sheet in pdf, and, as I use Chrome to play, the pdf opens directly in a new tab in the browser. The pdfs I use are fillable forms,so changes can be made during play. The only problem is that those changes can't be saved before closing, so, I still need to re-write them on the original file. It works, but, as you see, this is not yet the perfect solution. I thought that Mythweavers could have been a solution for saving and modifying a character sheet online, but, if you can't make your own sheet, it won't work for me.

Patrick, I use a fillable sheet (Abellius' sheet that is based on Neceros' sheet) that calculates things so I understand. None of the hosting sites do what I want so I just pick one. Perhaps I should check out dropbox. - Gauss

Dropbox works for hosting the sheet, but I suppose that it is not different from other cloud storage (not sure, I have not used others). I had been quite happy to see that Chrome was able to display (and make changes on) a fillable pdf form. But until the changes can be saved on the original, it won't be a perfect solution.

Yes, Dropbox --and maybe GoogleDrive, SkyDrive, Wuala-- is much better than hosting files in Mediafire. I mean, it allows a more immediate access to the files, and "uploading" them is also easier since you do that by placing things in a folder (the Public folder) of your computer.

Actually, that would be a good reason for me to not use Dropbox. I would rather have it as an off-computer host rather than something that is hosted on my own computer. Then again, I dont know a whole lot about file sharing so I could be misunderstanding how it works. I have never really had a need for it. - Gauss

Gauss, Actually, once you put a file in your Dropbox Public Folder, it's "in the Cloud", in a remote server. This means that while you have the original file in your computer, what is shared is the copy of it automatically stored --and synched-- in that "Cloud", so nobody is accessing to your computer.

Ahhh, I have not used cloud technology at all. Have had no need for it. If I want someone to have something I use a file hosting website or email. Does this do something that standard file hosting does not? - Gauss

Gauss, Yes, this is beyond standard file hosting. It's very useful for sending/sharing large files quickly with friends; you can have private shared folders with them too. It's also useful for synchronizing the files between various computers or mobile devices, since the Dropbox account automatically synchronizes all your files in the different devices. You can get 250mb additional free storage space "in the Cloud" for Dropbox if you create your own account from my invitation link: <a href="http://db.tt/ypsaXGP" rel="nofollow">http://db.tt/ypsaXGP</a> --that also gives me 250mb ^^ I don't know . . . You could just try it, and if you don't like it, just uninstall Dropbox. If you try it, just be sure to not put in your Dropbox folders sensible information, just in case. The info "in the Cloud" will be accessible from any computer or tablet device with your account. Also, if you own your own copyrighted stuff, don't put it there --I'm not sure, but I think the rights could be lost in some cases.

LOL, thanks for the warnings on what not to put on there. Actually, that is part of the reason I do not use cloud technology. The lack of 'real world' security. All data I want to keep is kept on a flash drive. Much easier to keep track of who has access than cloud tech. I am somewhat anachronistic. I do not text and I will never own a smartphone if I have anything to say about it. Heck, I would love to get rid of my cellphone except the women in my life would be annoyed by that. I also do not play most modern games and would not touch games like WoW if you paid me. Well, maybe if you paid me a lot. - Gauss

Well Gauss, I understand your posture. I even share a good part of it. This is related to my non-onesidedness view about modern technology, although this, even coming from someone involved into Virtual Tabletops, is more a paradox than a contradiction. On the other hand, if you don't want to risk your data because "the Cloud", you still could use Dropbox just for more efficiently sharing very specific files like character sheets and other game assets with friends, or with players if you are the GM. Nothing more. But I acknowledge there is a certain value of freedom in choosing to not submit to new technologies again and again, so don't get me wrong: I'm not pushing you to use Dropbox or similar services.

No worries Axel, nobody could push me to do anything. (People have tried.) LOL :D Im pretty much immune to anything other than a rational argument. I have never understood the whole 'peer pressure' concept (on a personal level, I understand it intellectually on how it applies to others). About the only reason I even allowed the females in my life to insist that I have a cellphone is because they made a reasonable argument (it was cheaper than my former land line). - Gauss

Good. Also, since English isn't my first language, maybe I used the word "push" in a wrong way: I actually meant that I don't want to sound "insisting" :)

LOL you are fine. :) - Gauss