Custom Compendium

+1

+1

+1

+1

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.

Kenton said: 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 sounds pretty good.  As long as we can have more than one (for different game systems), that would probably do all I would need for my games.

I'd settle for just the searchable database functionality of the compendium. Character sheet integration and the drag and drop features are awesome, of course, but really I just want players and myself to be able to search for homebrew data without me cobbling together layers of tables and linked handouts.

+1

+1

+1

+1 I love the Compendium, and would like to add homebrew stuff to existing Compendiums within a particular game.

It's one of the major feature your customer ask for many years. Still nothing.

:( is a feature in hand of GM's , is hard to create  but can be a great feature

no reply from roll20 dev team?

Nevarim said: no reply from roll20 dev team? Scroll up.

+1000000000 I absolutely understand that rolling out this feature _now_ is extremely hard. What I don't understand: this software was allegedly made by role-playing people. How was this not one of the first features they wanted themselves for their own games? Which brings me to the overarching question whether the devs actually still  use the software themselves to run games. Given that I need to use a 3rd party extension to mass roll initiatives I'm sometimes inclined to answer this with probably not...

Vince M. said: What I don't understand: this software was allegedly made by role-playing people. How was this not one of the first features they wanted themselves for their own games? Which brings me to the overarching question whether the devs actually still  use the software themselves to run games. Given that I need to use a 3rd party extension to mass roll initiatives I'm sometimes inclined to answer this with probably not... When this site started, compendiums didn't exist.  They are a relatively new feature, since all info was presented on handouts.  That is still how info is presented in official adventures or modules that predate the compendium. It is a different form of storing information, but that doesn't mean people couldn't store custom rules/items/whatever before the compendiums existed. Having a compendium (unified database) would make it easier for me to maintain the info to run "unsupported" games, but isn't going to change that I will be copy/pasting info from some form of storage to a character sheet.  The compendium isn't filling a missing void, it is an improvement in convenience in how the information is stored, organized, and maintained.

Kraynic said: When this site started, compendiums didn't exist.  They are a relatively new feature, since all info was presented on handouts.  That is still how info is presented in official adventures or modules that predate the compendium. It is a different form of storing information, but that doesn't mean people couldn't store custom rules/items/whatever before the compendiums existed. Having a compendium (unified database) would make it easier for me to maintain the info to run "unsupported" games, but isn't going to change that I will be copy/pasting info from some form of storage to a character sheet.  The compendium isn't filling a missing void, it is an improvement in convenience in how the information is stored, organized, and maintained. I don´t see how that contradicts what I wrote. Even if compendiums are newer: the moment compendiums were designed why wasn´t the customization option immediately included as a design feature? I cannot believe that there is a single DM who thought "I rather put the custom magic weapon I designed into a handout for my player to set up on his sheet rather than have it compendium style with search and drag&drop features". And I assume the devs are also players and DMs using their own software? How come that they created a legacy monster that neither scales well with supporting the existing professional compendium translation nor with customization. It sounds like the worst outcome next to having nothing and really nothing to be proud of... 

Vince M. said: I don´t see how that contradicts what I wrote. Even if compendiums are newer: the moment compendiums were designed why wasn´t the customization option immediately included as a design feature? I cannot believe that there is a single DM who thought "I rather put the custom magic weapon I designed into a handout for my player to set up on his sheet rather than have it compendium style with search and drag&drop features". And I assume the devs are also players and DMs using their own software? How come that they created a legacy monster that neither scales well with supporting the existing professional compendium translation nor with customization. It sounds like the worst outcome next to having nothing and really nothing to be proud of... In that case, you might want to scroll up and read the last dev comment.

+1 This would be a game changer! Using custom items, spells, monsters, or really anything that needs to be used more than once is a huge pain.

Kraynic said: Vince M. said: I don´t see how that contradicts what I wrote. Even if compendiums are newer: the moment compendiums were designed why wasn´t the customization option immediately included as a design feature? I cannot believe that there is a single DM who thought "I rather put the custom magic weapon I designed into a handout for my player to set up on his sheet rather than have it compendium style with search and drag&drop features". And I assume the devs are also players and DMs using their own software? How come that they created a legacy monster that neither scales well with supporting the existing professional compendium translation nor with customization. It sounds like the worst outcome next to having nothing and really nothing to be proud of... In that case, you might want to scroll up and read the last dev comment. In fact that that was what I was referring to. What the last dev post outlines is quite obvious. That is exactly what I don’t understand. Players and DMs in the games would want to add single items is very very clear isn’t it? And that’s developers would want to add things in bulk is also pretty clear isn’t it? How was this not foreseen a priori?

Vince M. said: In fact that that was what I was referring to. What the last dev post outlines is quite obvious. That is exactly what I don’t understand. Players and DMs in the games would want to add single items is very very clear isn’t it? And that’s developers would want to add things in bulk is also pretty clear isn’t it? How was this not foreseen a priori? Well, if you can write an application, see 7 years in the future, and have all the groundwork laid out for future expansion from the get go, account for changes in infrastructure, hardware, account for changes in customer expectations, shifts in the industry, and so forth...  Then you should apply for a position next time they are hiring, because I'm sure they could use that skill.

Kraynic said: Vince M. said: In fact that that was what I was referring to. What the last dev post outlines is quite obvious. That is exactly what I don’t understand. Players and DMs in the games would want to add single items is very very clear isn’t it? And that’s developers would want to add things in bulk is also pretty clear isn’t it? How was this not foreseen a priori? Well, if you can write an application, see 7 years in the future, and have all the groundwork laid out for future expansion from the get go, account for changes in infrastructure, hardware, account for changes in customer expectations, shifts in the industry, and so forth...  Then you should apply for a position next time they are hiring, because I'm sure they could use that skill. If you go to a restaurant, get bad food, and then write a bad review, would you then expect someone else to comment in the fashion: if you think that you’re such a good cook then go in and apply as a cook yourself in that restaurant! The answer is obviously no.  I do not have to have these skills since developing Roll20 is not my job.  But it’s unfortunately terribly too common that development is done without any proper inclusion of customer testing, proper Ux/Ui development and without a proper strategy. And my point is exactly that the need for custom compendiums must have been clear from the first day that compendiums were mentioned internally. I’ll give you another example. Blizzard used to make incredible games when you still had the feeling that the game makers actually were gamers them selves. Unfortunately I don’t have that feeling when using Roll20. I somehow do not have the feeling that the developers actually use the product themselves with passion. If they were they would fix all the little annoying things that give you the feeling that you’re using a beta software. How can it be that you need an extension to get something like initiative mass roles? It’s probably one of the most annoying “features” of the vanilla version that you can’t do that.  Another one. Almost every new user was completely flabbergasted how to use dynamic lighting together with advanced fog of war. for years nothing happened although it would have been very very simple to just add some basic tutorials and also to add some basic settings. Had they done some customer testing I’m convinced that they would have found out that 80% of the player base was using certain default settings. For example, it would have been very easy to set up a drop-down menu of the most common settings for dynamic lighting, for example for dark vision or for torches. Instead,  they decide to completely re-design it but they faled to properly explain to players that actually the new system is a beta testing in parallel. This leads to countless destroyed games with an incredible bad experience for the DMs and players where the dynamic lighting feature is absolutely not working. These are highly questionable development choices paired with an inability to properly communicate what is going on. I’m convinced that the Roll20 development team and the executive team really need to step up their game.

+1

+1

+1

Kraynic said: Vince M. said: In fact that that was what I was referring to. What the last dev post outlines is quite obvious. That is exactly what I don’t understand. Players and DMs in the games would want to add single items is very very clear isn’t it? And that’s developers would want to add things in bulk is also pretty clear isn’t it? How was this not foreseen a priori? Well, if you can write an application, see 7 years in the future, and have all the groundwork laid out for future expansion from the get go, account for changes in infrastructure, hardware, account for changes in customer expectations, shifts in the industry, and so forth...  Then you should apply for a position next time they are hiring, because I'm sure they could use that skill. No i just switched to Foundry VTT, where i can create any compendium i want. (and use a top of the line Dynamic light system).

Darshyne said: No i just switched to Foundry VTT, where i can create any compendium i want. (and use a top of the line Dynamic light system). If you are playing a supported system, I'm sure you are having a grand time.  Good for you.  After looking at the gitlab issues associated with the simple worldbuilding system for Foundry, there is no way I am paying $50 for something that simply won't be worth fiddling with for an unsupported game system.  From the sounds of it, setting your character sheet to "None" on Roll20 is miles ahead.

Kraynic said: [...]  From the sounds of it, setting your character sheet to "None" on Roll20 is miles ahead. This assumption does not equal my experience. With the sandbox-module you can easily build your own charactersheet. Build with drag'n'drop, without knowing any computerlanguage. With full compendium support with drag'n'drop. Roll20 is miles behind that feature.

Danii said: This assumption does not equal my experience. With the sandbox-module you can easily build your own charactersheet. Build with drag'n'drop, without knowing any computerlanguage. With full compendium support with drag'n'drop. Roll20 is miles behind that feature. So you can easily use attributes once created?&nbsp; That doesn't seem to fit the issues mentioned here:&nbsp; <a href="https://gitlab.com/foundrynet/worldbuilding/-/issues" rel="nofollow">https://gitlab.com/foundrynet/worldbuilding/-/issues</a>

That may be correct, but I wouldn't use this specific module you link to. I'd switch it with the sandbox-module which gives the features I mentioned above. Anyways, let's not go offtopic. Fact is: This feature is one of the most voted for. Roll20 needs it rather sooner than later if they want to keep being "miles ahead".

+1&nbsp; ... make a paid feature, will pay for itself :)

+1, amazed to learn this isn't a feature yet.

+1 ...This functionality would be awesome:&nbsp; it reduces repetitive actions by the GM to distribute multiple items that don't exist in the compendium (e.g., the amulet that in CH.12 Out of the Abyss that gets distributed to each member of the party that doesn't exist in the compendium), 2. players, who tend to know less about best practices when it comes to keeping roll20-based character sheets, won't need to be taught how to tend item entries on their sheets These are the reasons why drag-n-drop became such a popular paradigm to begin with.

+1

+1

+1

+1 I would love to be able to add my own custom content!

As a die hard BECMI player....the ability to create a custom Compendium would be HUGE. +1,00,000,000

First think : Roll20 is amazing. I'm a french GM of Shadowrun 5 and i need to have my own compendium (Shadowrun 5 &amp; 6 in french) to show to my players what is the 5th world. At the moment, I only use 1 game for all my sessions (campaigns and one-shot). I write dozens of game aids with a lot of content. Cannot easily link or categorize them. What is the best solution for me ? (without leaving from Roll20 to go to Foundry VTT)

Loïc V. said: First think : Roll20 is amazing. I'm a french GM of Shadowrun 5 and i need to have my own compendium (Shadowrun 5 &amp; 6 in french) to show to my players what is the 5th world. At the moment, I only use 1 game for all my sessions (campaigns and one-shot). I write dozens of game aids with a lot of content. Cannot easily link or categorize them. What is the best solution for me ? (without leaving from Roll20 to go to Foundry VTT) You can easily link handouts together.&nbsp; I tend to only leave things visible that absolutely have to be, like an index or table of contents handout, but archive everything else.&nbsp; Since archived handouts pull up just fine from a link, that cuts down on journal clutter.&nbsp; If you didn't already know, if you have a handout named "Weapons", and you want to be able to bring it up from inside your handout called Equipment, then you just type in [Weapons] where you want the link, and it will create the link when you save.&nbsp; This also works for characters if you have prominent NPCs on character sheets instead of just portraits on handouts.&nbsp; <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Handouts#Link_Between_Journal_Entries" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Handouts#Link_Between_Journal_Entries</a> Since you are a pro subscriber, you can set up a base/core game with all the material you want to have in it using the transmogrifier.&nbsp; Then you just copy that game when you start anything new.&nbsp; If you want to separate your games, that is.

Oh Thx for the help links, i will read all the page seriously. It's seems, it's would help me. Kraynic said: Loïc V. said: First think : Roll20 is amazing. I'm a french GM of Shadowrun 5 and i need to have my own compendium (Shadowrun 5 &amp; 6 in french) to show to my players what is the 5th world. At the moment, I only use 1 game for all my sessions (campaigns and one-shot). I write dozens of game aids with a lot of content. Cannot easily link or categorize them. What is the best solution for me ? (without leaving from Roll20 to go to Foundry VTT) You can easily link handouts together.&nbsp; I tend to only leave things visible that absolutely have to be, like an index or table of contents handout, but archive everything else.&nbsp; Since archived handouts pull up just fine from a link, that cuts down on journal clutter.&nbsp; If you didn't already know, if you have a handout named "Weapons", and you want to be able to bring it up from inside your handout called Equipment, then you just type in [Weapons] where you want the link, and it will create the link when you save.&nbsp; This also works for characters if you have prominent NPCs on character sheets instead of just portraits on handouts.&nbsp; <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Handouts#Link_Between_Journal_Entries" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Handouts#Link_Between_Journal_Entries</a> Since you are a pro subscriber, you can set up a base/core game with all the material you want to have in it using the transmogrifier.&nbsp; Then you just copy that game when you start anything new.&nbsp; If you want to separate your games, that is.

Doc said: Razzed25 said: Perhaps the devs could release a video or instructions on how it works currently so that the "average" user can see how difficult and unintuitive it is. Maybe we can then start concentrating on ways they can make it better and more usable instead of endlessly asking/voting for updates. I want Homebrew compendiums as well and am almost ready to pull the plug on my Roll20 subscription because it is VERY important for me to use all of the homebrew content that I have access to and would like to use in multiple games. The current model makes this so tedious as to be impossible. I believe there should be a way that these items can be linked to an account and not required to be transmogrified from game to game within an account. I have to admit, I'm still largely just wondering how difficult this can possibly be for many of the users of this site. I may, admittedly, be oversimplifying, but it seems like it has to just be a database. How hard can it really be to enter things in even a very clunky database, as compared to writing API scripts and custom sheets and all that sort of thing? I can understand that the average user might have trouble with it, but for those of us who are used to dealing with any kind of code--or less user-friendly sorts of databases--it's just hard to imagine it being that prohibitively difficult. At the very least, an example of how difficult it actually is would do a lot to satisfy my curiosity! Okay, I shall humor you, so that you can see exactly how clunky this can possibly get. Name Prefix First Middle Last Suffix Stats (Str, Dex, Con, Agi, Int, Wis, Luck, etc.) Stat 1 Name Minimum / Initial Current Maximum Button to add Stat 2 Name Minimum / Initial Current Maximum Incrimental Abilities Ability 1 Name Minimum / Initial Current Maximum Button to add Ability 2 Name Minimum / Initial Current Maximum Incrimental Skills Weapons Armor Rings Clothes specific equipment slots for games like 3.5e or even 1e &amp; 2e that doesn't exist in systems such as 5e. (good ol' Drag &amp; Drop) See, the problem is that last one being a logistical nightmare. Yes, in most cases, You will find that Patchwork is best work. I fully and wholeheartedly agree... but only because there's nothing better currently available to me, and for no other reason. If me and my players had the money for it, we could easily move our entire campaign to somewhere like WorldAnvil or similar sites. I've been at it for longer than this idea has been posted on this site, constructing this massive intricate world in my head, evolving it organically as I figured out what each thing does and explored how it works and functions in my mental simulations. My content is my own, and it would take me many lifetimes to write about everything I've created in my mind over the years... that being said, I don't want to need to make a sheet for 50+ Races every time I start a new game, and would much prefer being able to Drag &amp; Drop the Sheet in so that I'm capable of having my games more often than once a week please and thank you, because I would love being able to have 3-4 games a week, but it takes so much work to prepare everything. Oh, and let's not forget the logistical nightmare of the customizable UI Layout.

Really, I just enjoy homebrew monsters and spells that I've paid for in support of my favorite content creators in the industry and that unlike Fantasy Grounds can't just be ported into the program. I love some of the items, tables, and spells I've picked up and made personally over the years. I love converting old modules to 5e and having the setting and race information handy. I'd be fine &nbsp;with not even being able to share the content. But creating the monsters in a dummy game means that game is slow to load, and repeatedly dumping items and spells into handouts or editing them into sheets gets old, and porting tables between games is tedious even with the transmogrifier tool, and I have lost games using it (back up your games folks, it saves lives). I would love the ability to create a personal compendium to have access to that content so I can draw from it the same way I do the official compendiums I've bought. Can &nbsp;I port these things into a game one by one every time I need them? Yes. Can &nbsp;I use my character vault or a side game to have the needed content stored? Yes. Can I port things into my game at current in perhaps not an ideal way, but in a completely manageable way? Yes. But would it be endlessly more convenient to be able to pay for a personal compendium where I can store all that content for myself? Yes.&nbsp; &nbsp;And I'm willing to wait for it, but I will not stop stating that it is something I want more than any other promised feature Roll20 has confirmed.

+1&nbsp; Pls do this, I want to use the 5e homebrew classes

I don't quite follow your point. Are you trying to claim that this highly simplistic bulleted list is somehow evidence of a complex data set? Blue64 said: Doc said: Razzed25 said: Perhaps the devs could release a video or instructions on how it works currently so that the "average" user can see how difficult and unintuitive it is. Maybe we can then start concentrating on ways they can make it better and more usable instead of endlessly asking/voting for updates. I want Homebrew compendiums as well and am almost ready to pull the plug on my Roll20 subscription because it is VERY important for me to use all of the homebrew content that I have access to and would like to use in multiple games. The current model makes this so tedious as to be impossible. I believe there should be a way that these items can be linked to an account and not required to be transmogrified from game to game within an account. I have to admit, I'm still largely just wondering how difficult this can possibly be for many of the users of this site. I may, admittedly, be oversimplifying, but it seems like it has to just be a database. How hard can it really be to enter things in even a very clunky database, as compared to writing API scripts and custom sheets and all that sort of thing? I can understand that the average user might have trouble with it, but for those of us who are used to dealing with any kind of code--or less user-friendly sorts of databases--it's just hard to imagine it being that prohibitively difficult. At the very least, an example of how difficult it actually is would do a lot to satisfy my curiosity! Okay, I shall humor you, so that you can see exactly how clunky this can possibly get. Name Prefix First Middle Last Suffix Stats (Str, Dex, Con, Agi, Int, Wis, Luck, etc.) Stat 1 Name Minimum / Initial Current Maximum Button to add Stat 2 Name Minimum / Initial Current Maximum Incrimental Abilities Ability 1 Name Minimum / Initial Current Maximum Button to add Ability 2 Name Minimum / Initial Current Maximum Incrimental Skills Weapons Armor Rings Clothes specific equipment slots for games like 3.5e or even 1e &amp; 2e that doesn't exist in systems such as 5e. (good ol' Drag &amp; Drop) See, the problem is that last one being a logistical nightmare. Yes, in most cases, You will find that Patchwork is best work. I fully and wholeheartedly agree... but only because there's nothing better currently available to me, and for no other reason. If me and my players had the money for it, we could easily move our entire campaign to somewhere like WorldAnvil or similar sites. I've been at it for longer than this idea has been posted on this site, constructing this massive intricate world in my head, evolving it organically as I figured out what each thing does and explored how it works and functions in my mental simulations. My content is my own, and it would take me many lifetimes to write about everything I've created in my mind over the years... that being said, I don't want to need to make a sheet for 50+ Races every time I start a new game, and would much prefer being able to Drag &amp; Drop the Sheet in so that I'm capable of having my games more often than once a week please and thank you, because I would love being able to have 3-4 games a week, but it takes so much work to prepare everything. Oh, and let's not forget the logistical nightmare of the customizable UI Layout.

Let me give just one example of my 5e needs from a Custom Compendium feature. 5e allows for, even encourages, homebrew backgrounds for characters. The campaign I am running effectively requires them. The backgrounds in 5e are often very specific to the WotC campaign settings. When people are creating characters, the only backgrounds that are available in the drop down list are the ones from the purchased compendiums. I have many homebrew backgrounds that are specific to my campaign, and again, this is something that is actually assumed and encouraged by WotC. But it's a major pain to have to enter all the background information directly to the character sheet. I would vastly prefer to be able to add a background to the list of character backgrounds in a custom compendium, and have the additional entries show up on the dropdown list of backgrounds in the charactermancer. Again, this is just one example of many I could give. Creating custom items that players can select out of the items list and drop on to their character sheets is along the same lines.

+1

Darshyne said: No i just switched to Foundry VTT, where i can create any compendium i want. (and use a top of the line Dynamic light system). I've never heard of Foundry.&nbsp; Just checked out some videos on it (unfortunately, doesn't seem as though they have a free demo or anything of that sort).&nbsp; Foundry reminds me of the old original open source VTT (I can't recall the name) in that it's decentralized.&nbsp; It also seems pretty developer friendly (just quickly skimming its API) and I like that it's a one time payment for ownership of the software license.&nbsp; It has potential.&nbsp; Having said that, I'm financially and socially pretty tied to Roll20 at the moment.&nbsp; I have various assets here that make running my 5E games awfully convenient.&nbsp; But most importantly the fact that it has, to the best of my knowledge, by far, the largest VTT community is its biggest asset.&nbsp; I'm rather committed to try to nudge Roll20 to improve their product than switch altogether.&nbsp; If/when Foundry can develop a large active community, I may consider a switch. Anyway, my 2 cents. Don't want to get anymore off topic. Also +1 to this much needed feature.&nbsp; Hopefully, the devs are working on this in earnest.

Doc said: I don't quite follow your point. Are you trying to claim that this highly simplistic bulleted list is somehow evidence of a complex data set? I didn't really follow this thread closely, but sounds like the barrier is data entry.&nbsp; If you've ever in your life had to deal with manual data entry... well, it is soul sucking and horrible. And if it requires slew of metadata on top of that to make things work with higher level functionality... that just adds to the soul-sucking-ness.&nbsp; Maybe that just can't be avoided.&nbsp; &nbsp;Or maybe it's worth the time to design a thoughtful UI with minimal level of satisfactory UX in mind.&nbsp; And for those that know their way around development, an API for manipulating compendium entries would be the best so that automated entry is at least plausibly seamless.