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Custom Compendium

Score + 1532
+1 This would be amazing! 
Yes please
Really would love to see this feature soon.
+1
aisforanagrams said: I didn't really follow this thread closely, but sounds like the barrier is data entry.  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.  Maybe that just can't be avoided.   Or maybe it's worth the time to design a thoughtful UI with minimal level of satisfactory UX in mind.  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. That's entirely fair. As someone who has had to do plenty of data entry work in the past, I completely empathize with anyone who wouldn't feel comfortable working with the system until there's a more user-friendly way, but I also know that I personally would feel quite comfortable entering however much data I needed into the system, even in a raw text form, in order to make it do what I wanted.
+1
+1
+1, and ideally the ability to edit / modify existing compendium entries in a given game as house rules. I totally understand the complexity of this, especially given that it is a platform to store rules systems in general and not just one specific rules system, but it would be at the top of my personal list.
I'll spend an hour entering metadata to get a single spell to work, I don't care. I know they keep asserting that Roll20 is just heaping mess of spaghetti code, but they also gave priority to a Dynamic Lighting overhaul that is, if we're being generous, still a step below most of their competitors' solutions. Roll20 is quickly becoming the most expensive and least feature-rich VTT option. Even the API developers don't seem to be able to do as much as they can on some other VTTs. 
Well, they emailed a "What do you want in a VTT?" survey out to everyone so fill it out and spam CUSTOM COMPENDIUM, folks.  :D
+1
Did the survey, WANT! lol
+1 as a game designer its the main hang-up I have using Roll20 that pushes me back to pen and paper.
I, too, would love this.
+1 There is no doubt in my mind that being able to Edit the SRD entries into my own Compendium version and the ability to add Homebrew items would be an absolute godsend.
I would love to see something similar to this.
I have read most of this threadand talking as a coder I donjt believe it would be hard at all to be honest because we could have the same sort of handout layout with a dropdown  a structure like this would enable dungeon masters to create their own content without issue and you guys would simply reuse the same componentsw from the compenium at current all that would change is the datasource and with your own layout you control how it appears in the db  
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Edited 1601597819
in coding everything is more complicated than it seems if you make it. I would advise rethinking it and simplifying the process (and if it is indeed too complicated to do with the current system I would not be apposed to paying for a more expensive package to have the ability to do this and I'm sure, I'm not the only one) that should be enough incentive to build it
oh wait forgot to  +1
+1
+1
+1
+10000000
+1
+1
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Edited 1602715922
+1. Please, yes. I seriously considered switching to other system specifically due to this.
I would really like to see this feature even if it was only Pro and based on importing a Json file or Xml.... It could be done incrementally with items - abilities(eg feats in dnd) - Antagonist (Monsters in DnD) done as seperate releases The dificulty would be enabling the drag and drop into the character sheet (for items and abllities)  as this would be different for each system Lets hope some form of this functionality is posible as its greatly needed.
This would also mean that for custom campaigns, you could just make common weapons, items, etc with ease, instead of having to dig into the player's character sheet and "mess" around. We can already build monsters easily using the NPC template, but we can't do it for basic inventory items (e.g. improvised hide armour AC11) Likewise, we could manually add the magic items in the DMs Guide that aren't in the SRD and which ARE NOT AVAILABLE BY ANY OTHER MEANS!!! Seriously, you won't even take our money to let us have all the non-SRD magic items, some of which exist in licenced content that you can buy on roll20 (e.g. Saltmarsh), which then don't exist in the compendiums, and is a phenomenol pain in the butt! 
Seriously, why is this taking so long? Some games don't even have a compendium. I am playing Cypher System, and I have some notes for players that would be MUCH MUCH better if they could read them via the Compendium.  I find arguments about sharing sourcebooks kind of absurd, seeing how someone can just email a PDF to someone else. Can't Roll20 just put a disclaimer that users are responsible for their content or sharing? At the moment it feels like I will need to just use the journal as my own compendium forever. I pay every month for Pro membership, come on guys. Make this happen. This thread is years old.
Dragonsbane777 said:  Can't Roll20 just put a disclaimer that users are responsible for their content or sharing? At the moment it feels like I will need to just use the journal as my own compendium forever. I believe the problem is the other way around. Nobody can force WoTC and the other publishers to make their stuff available for a VTT. So, while roll20 could do what you suggest it does not guarantee that the publishers are happy and won´t simply withdraw completely from roll20. So, they must find a way that is technically feasible and agreeable to all publishers. It seems neither part is easy. 
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Edited 1603205935
Andreas J.
Forum Champion
Sheet Author
Translator
And the sharing isn't even the real problem, is that the current compendium creation tools are not easy to use. If they where, there would exist a lot of more compendiums for sale, and Custom Compendiums for users would be much closer. Read Kenton's comment from the previous page(emphasis mine): 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 level, 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.
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+1 to this. Honestly, it can't be that hard. Legit can't. You have the interface to create spells in the compendiums. You can duplicate a spell in the compendium. In a game session, everyone uses the same character sheet model. Since multiple players can access the same sheet, nothing is stored locally. It's not hard to literally create a button that copies whatever is written on the content block of a sheet to a handout-like file and let it be pasted into another sheet of the same type
+1
+1
This is taking a ridiculous amount of time, hoping for actual progress on this soon
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Edited 1604699729
Even though this is overwhelmingly popular with 726 up votes, Roll20 has indicated this feature will be not be implemented anytime in the near future (Obstructed). This is sad. I don't understand why this would be so difficult to implement.
+1
+1, though I won't get my hopes up
It would be great to have this.
Kenton wrote:  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. YES PLEASE! I keep having to create the same mechanics handouts over and over, or use the transmogrifer. If the transmogrifer was able to move folders that would be a big help (and has its own suggestion thread). 
+1
+1 As someone who makes a lot of homebrew for my players, I would love if I could make a custom compendium so they could use a homebrew class/subclass with charactermancer or drag and drop a custom spell or item onto their sheet instead of us having to retype things over and over again.
+1 would love it
+1 Need it 
+1
Absolutely needed. 
+1 I create homebrew for nearly every item I give my players. Currently I have to use an external tool to keep track of them. If Roll20 had this feature I'd definitely be buying their virtual books since I'd be using their compendium heavily. 
+97 At the very least, custom items please! But spells would be nice too.
Any chance for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition Compendiums?
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Edited 1607208720
This original request was from 4 years ago.  How can this finally be implemented?  All I really need is to have my manually updated content, with tags, searchable with the compendiums that I purchase.