Hi guys, one of my mates has decided to start running a Battle Tech - A Time of War game, using Roll20. Well, I quickly discovered that the existing sheet is somewhat functional, but pretty poor, so I wanted to do some work to update it. I've read the Wiki page about creating character sheets, checked out the FAQ sticky threads here, and had a look at the GitHub repo, but I still have a few questions. Major changes to character sheets If I make a rather significant change to this sheet - IE, I rename the strength attribute field - what happens to everyone who is using this sheet already? Do all users automatically get the updated sheet? If so, is there a way to specify a data migration, so that data stored under a previous variable name will be copied over to a new variable name? Sheets should not include character creation or advancement - what does that mean? Under the minimum requirements of the Building Character Sheets Wiki page, it mentions this: Do not infringe on intellectual property . Community sheets should
not include character creation or advancement due to potential
copyright restrictions. 'By Roll20' sheets may include this content
thanks to our partnerships with game creators. Sheets that are developed
from the code of a 'By Roll20' will need to ensure any character
creation or advancement options code it removed. Its okay to have
attributes that auto-calculate based on other attributes (including the
current level). We'll let you know if your submitted sheet violates this
rule. What does this mean? I'm honestly confused by this, as none of the sheets I've seen seemed to have anything to do with character creation. The Pathfinder sheet has what I would sort of consider advancement (you can update the level of your class, which auto calculates how many skill points you should have assigned), but is that ok because Roll20 are partnered with Paizo? Do I need a pro account? I'm a bit confused on this point, because a pro account is mentioned, but usually in the context of creating a new sheet, or customizing an existing sheet. It seems to be implied that you don't need a pro account if you're simply improving an existing sheet, which is what I plan to do. However, I'm also not sure how I can test my code before making a pull request. Is that where I need a pro account, so that I can import my code directly to Roll20 and test it? Rules readily available - what does this mean? Again, from the Building Character Sheets page on the Wiki: Rules must be readily available . Sheets can be submitted for
independent games and homebrew systems. Homebrew games will need to
ensure they are not violating copyright for their respective game
system. In both cases the rules need to be readily available online to
the public. As far as I can tell, the rules for Battle Tech - A Time of War are not available freely online like the Pathfinder rules are. Does this mean that this sheet would fail that requirement? It does already exist, though, so should this sheet actually be removed considering the rules aren't freely available online? Community compendium contributions: I suspect I know the answer to this, but again, from the Wiki page: Compendium Integration .
By designating that your sheet is compatible with a Compendium, players
will have direct access to that Compendium in the right sidebar during
gameplay. Compendiums are still a growing feature on Roll20 and
integration is not yet available to the majority of game systems.
Does this mean that currently I cannot create a compendium for Battle Tech - A Time of War and start adding in items etc? Thanks guys. :)