A basic question about creating character sheets

Hi, I'm a total coding noob.  I'm considering creating a character sheet for an indie game, Sigmata.  As far as I can tell, nothing really exists.  I've been able to figure out that I'll need a Pro account to add a custom sheet to Roll20. It also seems that I'll need to use some combo of CSS, HTML and possibly other stuff... (can you smell my noobosity?).  I also realize that Git/Github will be part of the process.  My question is as follows:  Can I do a bunch of the creative work of sheet building locally on my desktop or will the whole process need to done via Roll20?  I guess I'm wondering if there is software that I can use to build and test the sheet 'offline' and just upload the final creation. Thanks!

Hi Dochockin, you'll have a very hard time trying to setup an environment that matches roll20 vtt.  Roll20 doesn't work exactly like same as designing a webpage for the www .  Similar, but different.  The wiki on Building Character Sheets has "most" the details.  You'll more than likely need to do your coding using a simple text editor(notepad, notepad++, etc.) or something more robust(VSC, Sublime, etc.) then copy/paste into roll20's game settings editor which includes three editing windows/tabs(html, css, translation) and a preview window/tab.  Save your changes and use a test game to see how your sheet looks/functions in an actual game since the preview window has some known limitations.  Small changes can be made right within roll20's editors, but anything larger is best handled locally.  Post back with questions.  There are lot's of friendly, knowledgeable, people here on the forums to help.  Cheers

Thanks Vince, I'm not sure if I understand your suggestion however.  It will be best to work locally with, for example, VSC and test my creation in the Roll20 vtt?  Is that what you'd recommend?

Dochockin said: Thanks Vince, I'm not sure if I understand your suggestion however.  It will be best to work locally with, for example, VSC and test my creation in the Roll20 vtt?  Is that what you'd recommend? Yes, exactly.  You'll work on your actual coding locally then copy that code, then paste into the roll20 editor, save, then reload your test game.  Rinse and repeat.  The process kinda sucks, but that seems to be the normal process.  Some authors do more direct editing on roll20's sheet editor, but I like my local environment.  VSC  in my case. and to add to this; I also use github's desktop app when it comes time to sync with roll20's git repo (basically you fork the main repo, then clone for local editing, commit/merge to your fork, then submit a pull request to the main repo).  There's instructions in the wiki for that as well.

Thanks!  Now to climb the big hill of the learning curve...

Dochockin said: Thanks!  Now to climb the big hill of the learning curve... It's not that bad.  You might grab a sheet that's "similar" to your system and experiment with that first.  You can always start small(think basic spreadsheet) just basic inputs to enter attribute data to get the hang of what you can do.  You can always add-to or re-write(keeping the same attribute names if possible to preserve character data...) as you learn more or need more out of a sheet.