Step by Step Guides to becoming an Advanced Roll20 User?

Bear with me as I try to best describe my question. I'm wondering if anyone in the Roll20 Community has a recommendation for how to become an advanced Roll20 User? I am looking for a process or a walkthrough that is less code-themed and more for the “non-coder” user.  I am not a coder by any stretch of the imagination.  I strongly believe that if there were some kind of in-depth “Documentation Outline” that laid out everything you could do with Roll20 for a truly professional looking game, it would attract users that would create better looking games attracting even more users.  Something that would have, not just the Options available, but also provide a combination of step-by-step instructions of the “User Friendly” variety.  Of course, while simultaneously offering Caveats that a greater knowledge of this or that computer programming language might be needed to accomplish particular feats. One example of an area I'm running into some frustration with is understanding what I can do with Roll Templates. I've read through the section listed here, but I would not describe this document as anything approaching User Friendly – at least not for someone who is not, again, a coder. It is not a tutorial in a format that the average user can comprehend with ease. When I do a general search on YouTube for assistance, it seems that there were a number of people that created various tutorials for Roll20, but I'm concerned that these tutorials are out of date. Are the features of Roll20's becoming so archaic that they can only be accessed and manipulated by the chosen few, or those who have been with it from the beginning? I guess my big concern is that, by not having some document that is more all encompassing and readable/available to new users or the less technical-based user is creating a community that of a few users who were grandfathered in from the beginning – and we will have no one else once everyone else moves on to help where the “user guide” as it stands, is failing.  Hopefully people understand I *like* the platform, and I see there are amazing things that can be done with it, but I'm feeling like those options are presented as a carrot I can't hope to reach.

Well... I'm not sure what you are looking at as far as roll templates (are you looking at documentation for writing roll templates for sheet authors?), but there are a few things going against a general tutorial.  Except for the default template that is part of Roll20 and available in every game, roll templates are part of character sheet code (html/css), and so what you have to work with will be dependent on the exact sheet you are using.  Some sheets have really complex roll templates, some sheets have no roll template at all, and then the others are all over the place in between.  Each sheet will have different attributes, roll templates will have different layouts and logic, and so there is usually very little that is universal from using X game system sheet and Y game system sheet. Like anything very complex, the main thing it will take to smoothly run games with Roll20 is time and practise.  And Roll20 is certainly complex with many different settings, types of storage, tools, etc.  The thing to keep in mind is that you don't need to have whatever you think of as perfection in order to run games on Roll20.  As much as some people like to say Roll20 hasn't done anything in 6 years, the platform changes over time.  It is currently going through a fairly major change, and no amount of past experience is going to make people expert at the new version of dynamic lighting as it replaces the old.  Everyone, new and old user alike will need to learn how it works, as well as any changes that happen as a result of the lighting change (like weather/atmospheric overlays, or... who knows). If you have some specific questions and maybe some links to what you found confusing, that might help people help you.  One other thing to keep in mind is that the Help Desk is still (I think) under construction, but the Help Wiki is probably the most complete bunch of articles at this time.  It is community maintained, and will likely remain that way.  I doubt Roll20 will allow sheet authors to put articles on community created sheets in their Help Desk portion of the site, for example.

I agree with what Kraynic has said. Like many things in life, experience is the best teacher. Another analogy is swimming. When you are first learning to swim, you don't start in the deep end of the pool. With Roll20, you don't need to use every feature and automate everything. Start with small steps and build a good foundation of expertise with the system. Add a new piece every other game or so, and before you know it, you will have a strong working knowledge.

Creating Roll Templates is something done by people who are creating Character Sheets. This requires coding skills.  If you want to learn how to use Roll Templates, you should start with the Default Roll Template available in every game. This is the simplest of all, and will get you started. Then you can move on to learning how the Roll Templates for your Character Sheet work, etc.,