I found a couple of things interesting about what Baalsabo posted. Bear with me here i am trying to be constructive. I will skip the 3rd paragraph until the end because I think that is where the major conflict is.
There is nothing important in the first paragraph. Moving on.
Now the second paragraph. I believe the experience and level bars technically already exist in roll20. From my view, experience and Level are simply another type of attribute for the character. This means they can be placed in the attribute section of a character, provided by Roll20. It can then be connected to a Token for that character as one of the bars, and there, you have an experience and level bar. I think the Dm can even hide them too.
Of course then you have used 2 of the 3 available bars for the token, but I have been wondering. Personally I have been finding it hard to think of a use for all 3 bars. Sometimes I have 2 to 3 bars not being used taking up space on the tokens edit screen. I wonder if other people have that issue. I wonder if people need more bars. It would be nice to have the ability to add and subtract bars, but I believe that topic goes more into questioning the interface between the token, character, and tabletop. All three of which are of course up to the guidance of the Roll20 team. I wonder if that thought my be useful in some way. Anyway moving on.
In the fourth paragraph, I noticed myself there no way,in Roll20, to create a macro that modifies an attribute of a Character. Lets say we made Exp an attribute. Then you can not use a macro to increase your exp. However, if the exp attribute is connected to a token's bar you can directly affect it. While useful, the situation seemed odd to me. Being able to use macros like that could be useful, but sounds like, from what Gauss posted, that might not be the goal of the Roll20 team. I however, am not quite sure. Of course it is another question of interface.
Of course, the Gm can give out exp to all the players by changing their bars. Unfortunately, they can not do it across all players at once because I believe you can only click one token at a time, well unless they are grouped. The DM, however, can only see the stats of tokens one at a time. If the DM could affect multiple tokens it might be helpful, but again that is a question of interface. It was a interesting idea I think. Now to the fun paragraph.
If you got this far, congratulations!
Now the third paragraph. First, if Exp and Level are attributes a DM can already affect affect them. It might be useful for a DM to be able to lock Attributes in place so Players can not change them. Now that I think of it, the Dm could just deny a player the ability to change their character. They could do it sot of now....... Anyway, to me it kind of sounds like Baalsabo wishes for a greater ability to program. A table could potentially be created filled with attributes, which could technically be influenced by macros. The current interface for roll20, however, is not set up to build it.
Now, I like to think and come up with ideas and all that, but I believe the bottom line of all this is to make sure the overall interface between players and roll20 as well as between players has a solid base. There needs to be a central foundation that all players can enjoy. Now again, I know the Roll20 team has this thought in their cross hairs. i greatly respect the work they are doing. I actually hope to help fund you this year.
I also believe in KISS(Keep it simple Stupid). I think Roll20 needs to be kept as simple as possible. I myself believe in always having a Simple Base or Core if you will.
I, however, also believe in giving the ability to provide a base that allows the player to create their own complexity and automation. So that means keep the core of Roll20
simple but give the players toys to play with to add things on that they like. Will they need it to run the game? No but they wanted it so they made it them selves. Do they have that level of automation at their kitchen tabletop? Yes some did. Some have made programs before to run their abilities. Why? They could of done it because they wanted it so they made it themselves. No role20 is not a video game, but it will only be a table substitute if the individual player wants it to be. It seems to stand in the middle I think. In general at the tabletop, your imagination is limitless, and the automation is at a low. In general in a Video game, your imagination is focused, and the automation is high. For Roll20 , your imagination is still limitless, and the automation ranges from low to potentially high. Role20 may not be a Video Game but they are connected. They all share math and logic surrounded by a shell of imagination. Kind of like a Jawbreaker. I can think of several systems switching between table and Video.
I guess the question is can Roll20 be kept simple but provide for the complexity of the players with toys to play with. Is it important how you have fun or that you do? Do the players decide this? Can two different Players use Roll20 differently in the same campaign?
This is all connected to how The Roll20 Team wishes to guide the interface between players and players and D20. I personally enjoy what they have done so far. I look forward to changes that they will make in the future. I hope I read as being Constructive. I simple wanted to help by providing ideas. I apologize if something does not make sense. I have a habit of skipping logic. If anyway wishes to reinforce a viewpoint already stated in another discussion or this one please feel free to do so. I more than likely missed some ones point. For that I do apologize, it is a little difficult for me to go threw the discussions. I like things more ordered by very specific topics if possible.
i hope some one found something useful from here.
Have fun gaming every one!
