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Custom Compendium

Score + 1444
+1 Kenton said: I'm glad to hear that Compendium Selection resolved the issue for some of you. Some of you asked about the difficulty of implementing a feature like this. From a very high leve, let me dig into that question. First, there two significant kinds of entering data into the compendium: Large Volume and One-At-A-Time. Since this thread was created, actually prior to supporting the Dungeons & Dragons 5e SRD, the purpose has not been limited to one or the other. The improvements to the Compendium software has been necessary to support the addition of  15 games systems , and more than 50 compendium books spread across those systems. Many of those have been in the last six months. The work has been supporting the Large Volume need. That's created very specific tools that Publishers can use to convert an entire book's worth of data , and add their game system. This requires significant planning and collaboration on how their games have been developed on and for Roll20. From a the other perspective, individual users are more likely going to add entries closer to the One-At-A-Time side of the spectrum. The big difference is the distance between doing all the planning for data/database/character sheet and being able to see, understand, edit, and use individual pieces. That work is detailed and nuanced - each game system is different and will have very specific needs based on the Character Sheet it uses. The One-At-A-Time side also is not likely to have or be able to produce changes to the display layer (like the character sheet, handout, or compendium entry). That "last mile" is making adding and editing compendium entries simple, intuitive, and easy to use. That's the phase we need to move into next. I hope that gives some insight into the problems we're trying to solve. We don't want to release something that's overly complicated or doesn't actually solve your problems. In an very summarized explanation, I expect that the first iteration if this request will be a way to save and retrieve a Handout or Character to a database shared by all your games. That gives you about 10% of the total feature power in the Compendium right now, but it solves the more common themes in this request. Honestly, I would be happy with access to this. I'm perfectly happy building out a "private compendium" book and uploading it, then adding it to the game via Compendium Selection. I'd happily put together a .csv or whatever format is needed with the required information. My recommendation would be to set up: 1. Give DMs of appropriate subscription level the ability to have "Private Compendium" entries that function exactly like the books purchased form the Roll20 marketplace in terms of importing them into a game. These Private Compendium objects are monolithic objects: all or nothing imports into a game. 2. Give DMs the ability to upload a state file of some sort in a standard format to overwrite the Private Compendium" for a game. This could be as simple as a preformatted .csv, xml, or json file with url links to any images and all text necessary for the compendium entries. Should be able to support all current compendium entry types for the current system. Should also be able to support tokens for monster entries. 3. Design a workflow for updating a Compendium (either private or public) and how to update game content with the updated compendium, probably using a versioning system - I'm sure the publishers would like to be able to submit errata through this mechanism as well. 4. As a "stretch goal", once such a system is polished and in place, it could also be opened to allow homebrew creators to publish their compendiums to the marketplace - probably using a dependency system such that if I for example use an Eladrin from "Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes" to make an Eladrin Bandit creature, then that creature can't be used unless the purchaser also owns "Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes". I'd happily sit down and create a marketplace compendium for ennamed 5E humanoid NPCs of various race and class levels to allow DM's to quickly whip up chance encounters with something more interesting than "Human Bandit L 3." Obviously, that step 4 would be a massive undertaking (but would also constitute an additional revenue source), but items 1-3 don't seem like they'd be too large of a project considering the level of demand for such a feature.
Is there another post similar to this one that has actually had a dev respond anytime recently? Wanting to find out what the latest status of this progression is..
Any response from roll20 or is this post here just to make us feel better while being ignored?
+1 Please implement this soon!
This was asked about in the community roundtable tonight - whether we might see this in 2021, the answer wasn't promising.
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Edited 1613053770
Hasan T. said: +1 They probably are trying to find a way to keep people from adding things to their compendium that they can [but have not] purchased from the marketplace. What I don't get is how this is any different than it is now. I can already create a handout with info from a purchased source that I didn't buy from Roll 20. I can share that handout with my players. Having a way to more easily move my already created handouts and share them with future or alternate groups doesn't seem to be a significant change to what we already have going on. 
1613058750
Kraynic
Pro
Sheet Author
Justin M. said: What I don't get is how this is any different than it is now. I can already create a handout with info from a purchased source that I didn't buy from Roll 20. I can share that handout with my players. Having a way to more easily move my already created handouts and share them with future or alternate groups doesn't seem to be a significant change to what we already have going on.  To me, it is.  I mostly run a system that will never have any sort of compendium.  I have pretty much the entire system built into a base game, which I copy when I start a new game, run a one-shot, etc.  But when I add new information, that is where the change would happen.  As it is now, I need to then use the transmogrifier to bring the new content (whether new handouts or updated existing ones) into every active game, and if I didn't have a pro subscription I would need to recreate it all manually in each active game.  The advantage of a central database is that I will only have to update the info in one place to have it available in all games.  It might not be that big of a deal for you, but for someone managing an entire game system with a fair bit of homebrew world, just having a centralized place to edit/update that would be propagated across all games is huge.
It's the crunchy bits that differ from just a handout as well, drag-drop from compendium to sheets/vtt for example. It might not matter for people playing stock games that are well supported (5e), but for some campaigns it matters a whole lot.
1613077437
Kenton
Forum Champion
Translator
Hello all. I was able to talk a bit about this in the Community Roundtable last night ( will be available on YouTube here soon ), but wanted to fill you all in here, as well. A "Custom Compendium" is not just one feature, but a bunch of features working together. Some of those are built into the Character Sheet and the Compendium Tab (that's how Drag & Drop works for sheets). Some of the work that's needed has been underway with things like the enhancements on Character Sheet rendering  and the way we serve our character sheets. That work creates the "less crunchy" bits that make the Compendium Tab and Pages work. Dragging & Dropping, integrating homebrewed content into a Charactermancer, and the like are dependant on the work mentioned above, but also requires the data added in a very specific way. We need to make adding that data more tolerant. We need to open the Compendium software able to provide the data to multiple games and other areas. The good news is that a team is spinning up focused specifically on this area of the software. I don't have any timeframes to commit to, however I'm glad to share the progress we have made.
That is good news, thank you.
Kenton said: Hello all. I was able to talk a bit about this in the Community Roundtable last night ( will be available on YouTube here soon ), but wanted to fill you all in here, as well. A "Custom Compendium" is not just one feature, but a bunch of features working together. Some of those are built into the Character Sheet and the Compendium Tab (that's how Drag & Drop works for sheets). Some of the work that's needed has been underway with things like the enhancements on Character Sheet rendering  and the way we serve our character sheets. That work creates the "less crunchy" bits that make the Compendium Tab and Pages work. Dragging & Dropping, integrating homebrewed content into a Charactermancer, and the like are dependant on the work mentioned above, but also requires the data added in a very specific way. We need to make adding that data more tolerant. We need to open the Compendium software able to provide the data to multiple games and other areas. The good news is that a team is spinning up focused specifically on this area of the software. I don't have any timeframes to commit to, however I'm glad to share the progress we have made. As you point out, many people see the custom compendium as many different things.  As the Roll20 crew starts figuring out what they are planning to build product / feature wise, can that be brought back here into separate new features to be discussed?  That might allow for more focused discussion about individual needs.
Kenton said: Hello all. I was able to talk a bit about this in the Community Roundtable last night ( will be available on YouTube here soon ), but wanted to fill you all in here, as well. A "Custom Compendium" is not just one feature, but a bunch of features working together. Some of those are built into the Character Sheet and the Compendium Tab (that's how Drag & Drop works for sheets). Some of the work that's needed has been underway with things like the enhancements on Character Sheet rendering  and the way we serve our character sheets. That work creates the "less crunchy" bits that make the Compendium Tab and Pages work. Dragging & Dropping, integrating homebrewed content into a Charactermancer, and the like are dependant on the work mentioned above, but also requires the data added in a very specific way. We need to make adding that data more tolerant. We need to open the Compendium software able to provide the data to multiple games and other areas. The good news is that a team is spinning up focused specifically on this area of the software. I don't have any timeframes to commit to, however I'm glad to share the progress we have made. Thanks for the address Kenton! This is all the majority here is after! I for one saw responses early on in this thread from Roll20 techs etc which didn't actually address the issue. You've now expressed it is something thats being worked on and have gone into a little bit of what its going to take. Its the lack of response, and knowledge the users are given which cause the tension and drive people to other platforms. If i know theres progress being made, and theres updates on the processes being undertaken I'm much keener on sticking with the platform as the concerns of the majority are being recognised. The fact you can bring it forward also means fellow techies (definitely not me) can potentially provide feedback and even potential solutions to the issues you are encountering. What better people to ask about quality of life changes then the people who use the system the most.
+1 for that idea, schould even be useful to upload a pdf as compendium
+1 Absolutely, this sounds like it would be brilliant.
Custom compendium would be great for us homebrew dms
Fantastic to hear this is being worked on. I just subbed and am learning the DM side of things here and that would be a huge boon.
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Elv
Plus
+1 Thank you for working on this!
+1 Really looking forward to this.  Please keep up the good work!
+1 this should be the main focus of the roll20 team
1616194487
HollowFiend
Pro
Marketplace Creator
This would be an amazing feature. +1
I have friends who create a lot of homebrew items. If nothing else this could help them finally publish some of this. I feel like Roll20 needs a team working on this. Might be a good idea to hire one? 
+1
+1
+1
+1 Yessss this would be incredible for homebrew
Big +1 from me
+1  for this. I'm a new DM to Roll20 and it's the first thing I was looking for 
They're no doubt worried that people would 'homebrew' official stuff and never need to buy another book again, but there's so much great homebrew out there that would be fantastic to run in games without hassle.
Up Vote I made a system (over the last 3 years) with regular gameplays(7-9 players) that is now optimized for Roll20. Whats missing (at last) is the option to create an own compendium with connection to charactersheets so we dont have to use google sheets and database anymore. Would be the last missing point for activating a plus/pro account.
+1 vote :)
+1.  Manually adding things from the Starfinder Armory grinds our game to a halt.  It would be great to have the ability to add the items I plan to give my players beforehand so they can drag and drop.
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+1 It would be a good time to get this going with so much customization being developed for other, cheaper, VTT software....
+1 yes please!! 
Once Roll20 can offer a custom compendium or otherwise a better homebrew experience, I can’t see myself using another platform.  I’m not saying it’s easy, and I understand there are hurdles and there is progress to be made. Understandable. I appreciate the hard work. Just saying, with solid homebrew support, roll20 would be second to none as far as I can tell.
The lack of homebrew support is the biggest reason I've been considering other virtual tabletops. Add custom compendiums please!
+1
As new DM to roll20 this a feature I already want, I am very homebrew centred and the lack of this makes it dificult. +1 for this idea, it should be high priority. 
+1
The biggest difference is that a customer compendium tool would allow you to very easily bulk upload copyrighted material into games. Think the PF2e Compendiums that come with the books being able to be quickly shared and uploaded from game to game with just a few clicks and less than a minute. That being said, I absolutely love the idea of a compendium editor. This would be one of the best tools in the system if implemented! It has a huge upvote from me!
+1
I think Roll20 puts this in place before D&DBeyond puts a VTT in place or Roll20 is done. I am tired of waiting on Roll20.
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1 I'm working on a Corporation RPG game which is not supported by roll20 and the system is really messy to integrate without a homebrewed compendium. Please add this feature! I already invested so much money in roll20 and would gladly put in more for that.
+1
Every day this feature continues to be "Obstructed" is another day you lose customers to your competitors who support this feature.