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Custom Compendium

Score + 1530
I am so happy to hear this. I have been wanting to provide my players with custom content from Shattered World/Syseria for years. I really appreciate all the hard work everyone puts into roll20. Ashton said: In our most recent blog post we talked about being more transparent, and I’m here to tell you: at long last I’m moving the status of this thread to Researching. I know a lot of you have been waiting for this set of features for a long time, and I want to assure you that we are researching it, considering our options, and breaking down the work to get this onto the roadmap. TTRPGs are a collaborative, transformative community, and we want to support you better in the future with tools that tackle your primary issues. I don’t have a timeline right now, but I can promise that whatever comes first will be a small step, then another step, and another.
1646276745
Pat
Pro
API Scripter
I'll be the one to say I think this foot-dragging stems from copyright and trademark issues, as while it might be a lot of work for a GM, there is probably some monetary concern that a person would copy a copyrighted work into a custom compendium to avoid paying for a copy of a published compendium, and not having those assurances for companies that want to release published work through Roll20 would cause problems.  I'd love to make custom elements that could be formatted to be dragged to player character sheets, or monsters I could easily swap between games once I'd created them, or lore for players to look up on their own if they want to research it, or custom backgrounds or spells or classes or kinds to include in character-sheet wizards, or a format I could export to publish to the marketplace ready for consumption.  I just don't think it's going to happen. 
Pat said: I'll be the one to say I think this foot-dragging stems from copyright and trademark issues, as while it might be a lot of work for a GM, there is probably some monetary concern that a person would copy a copyrighted work into a custom compendium to avoid paying for a copy of a published compendium, and not having those assurances for companies that want to release published work through Roll20 would cause problems.  I'd love to make custom elements that could be formatted to be dragged to player character sheets, or monsters I could easily swap between games once I'd created them, or lore for players to look up on their own if they want to research it, or custom backgrounds or spells or classes or kinds to include in character-sheet wizards, or a format I could export to publish to the marketplace ready for consumption.  I just don't think it's going to happen.  Reluctantly, I find I share your concern. I just cannot make myself believe that organizing a simple text database can possibly be all that great a challenge for anyone.
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1647128967

Edited 1647129157
Oosh
Sheet Author
API Scripter
FWIW, I did have a go at creating basic Custom Compendium functionality, and it can be done. At least in terms of saving a repeating section entry, so it can later be dragged to a new sheet - for the majority of sheets, this would at least cover items, weapons, spells, traits etc. This is a temp Firefox browser extension, and obviously I had to use a bunch of hacks that wouldn't be necessary for someone actually working on the VTT code. There were a bunch of system-specific hurdles, but they're certainly not insurmountable. Click for action: Obviously a native version would hook straight into the right side bar, instead of the floating frame I had to build. Fundamentally, all this is doing is saving every attribute in the repeating row after stripping out whatever isn't needed (row id etc.). Dropping it onto a sheet just rolls a new id and creates a new row with the saved data. I'd imagine the sheet author could use the sheet settings JSON to nominate the attribute names in each repeating section which need to go in the Compendium list entry for display purposes, e.g. : // Other character sheet settings customCompendium: { enabled: true, repeatingSections: [ { section: 'spells', title: 'spellname', // the Title is the listed name in the compendium in the right side bar description: 'spelldesc', // This is shown when the Compendium entry is clicked }, { section: 'inventory', title: 'itemname', description: 'itemdesc' } ] } A quick and dirty way to ensure an item will at least have a readable name and description in the right sidebar. I'd imagine the current summernote editor could be used, much like a handout, to pretty up the Compendium entry further - perhaps a separate frame so the repeating_spells_$rowid_spelldesc entry isn't being edited. The other aspect I had in my attempt was Collections - this was for things like a custom subclass. It allows the GM to save links to other Compendium entries, split up by level (this was 5e specific, but that's another aspect that can face the sheet authors). This allows you to, for example, create a SillyWizard subclass, and save whatever spells / items / traits (any repeating section entry really) you would like under each relevant character level for that class. The player can then drag the subclass entry onto their sheet, and select which character levels they'd like to apply to their sheet. I don't have an action shot of that but it was all drag & drop again: So... if I can do it, real coders can definitely do it :) This direction splits the custom compendium away from the real compendium - the two don't really interact. I feel like this is the most realistic direction to go in, considering how unsuitable the backend of the real Compendium is for user-facing functionality, and attempting to get custom content to interact properly with published content and.... loads of problems. Anyways, I abandoned working on this a while ago since I'm not actively playing anymore, and would probably completely rewrite it if I picked it up again. But it worked! You can do it Roll20, you can do it!
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Would absolutely Love to be able to create a custom Compendium I could call "D&D 5E (Custom)", in which I could add the various NPC's and Magic Items I've created for my world, various handouts I have created from scratch for my table, overland and city maps already optimized... Can you imagine the hundreds of hours one could save with this?!? Sign me up! <3
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How is this not a thing? I'm sure that most paid subscriptions to Roll20 are DMs. This is a thing that makes it more fun for the DM. This allows us to create one-off unique items to our world that work like the generic items available in the purchased compendiums. RPGs aren't just lego worlds! +10000000
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I have written my own Star Wars hack for 5e dnd, and having to manually input weapons for character and stat block without being able to drag and drop anything is horrendously time conuming, please give us custom compendiums
I hear you. I have a 220 page Campaign Guide and a 340 page Encounter Guide for my 5e campaign setting. It would be so nice to be able to enter the info once and be able to drag and drop.
+1 Please, i just want my players to be able to drag and drop custom magic items i make for them rather than them have to copy and paste.
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I would love to create a custom compendium with my added house rules.  
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Looks like this one didnt make the top 5 list for this year so its going to at least another year for this one. Although i reckon its probably going to be longer then that...... <a href="https://blog.roll20.net/posts/tactfully-tackling-the-top-ten-list/" rel="nofollow">https://blog.roll20.net/posts/tactfully-tackling-the-top-ten-list/</a>
Fluffanutter said: Looks like this one didnt make the top 5 list for this year so its going to at least another year for this one. Although i reckon its probably going to be longer then that...... <a href="https://blog.roll20.net/posts/tactfully-tackling-the-top-ten-list/" rel="nofollow">https://blog.roll20.net/posts/tactfully-tackling-the-top-ten-list/</a> Well, it says they aim to tackle five of the top ten, but only three were mentioned; doesn't that mean the compendium could be one of the five? After all, it appears to be the most requested feature that hasn't been addressed yet. Of course, if they ignore it, that's...well. That's bad, that is.
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Kenton said: We're very interested in Custom Compendiums. However, there are several issues preventing us from implementing them right away. The largest blocker is how difficult it is to add data to the compendium. There is a secondary issue of preventing this from becoming a piracy-focused tool. We're currently improving data entry to make this process less difficult in coordination with 3rd party developers who would like their systems here in Roll20. Once we've streamlined that process, we'll solve certain data storage and sharing issues before development can begin. An initial plan for Personal Compendiums would include: User will have many Systems (to keep one game system from interfering with unrelated rule sets) Systems would have Categories (Bestiary, Class, Weapon, Spells, etc) Categories would have Entries How about starting small and allowing GM's to export Handouts, Folders, PC/NPC sheets, maps, macro and tables from one game they have created to another game they have created? #BabySteps
Neo said: How about starting small and allowing GM's to export Handouts, Folders, PC/NPC sheets, maps, macro and tables from one game they have created to another game they have created? #BabySteps Doesn't the Transmogrifier allow all that?
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Dave said: Neo said: How about starting small and allowing GM's to export Handouts, Folders, PC/NPC sheets, maps, macro and tables from one game they have created to another game they have created? #BabySteps Doesn't the Transmogrifier allow all that? Ohhh... I see o.O I learn things every day it seems -.- Thanks for the info m8!
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The thing I mostly want is to save skills and spells in a personal compendium to help me make characters (NPCs and spellcasters players) faster. I am from Brasil, so I have to translate all the feats, skills and spells to portuguese over and over when I create a new character.
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Pedro S. said: The thing I mostly want is to save skills and spells in a personal compendium to help me make characters (NPCs and spellcasters players) faster. I am from Brasil, so I have to translate all the feats, skills and spells to portuguese over and over when I create a new character. If you're a pro user, there's kind of a workaround for this. You can create a macro which will automatically enter the feat/spell/whatever into the character sheet using the chatsetattr API script; and then make a handout with links to the macros. This way you only need to create each spell once, then it's one click to add to a character in future. This is how I've been building my 'compendium'.
Jan K. said: Pedro S. said: The thing I mostly want is to save skills and spells in a personal compendium to help me make characters (NPCs and spellcasters players) faster. I am from Brasil, so I have to translate all the feats, skills and spells to portuguese over and over when I create a new character. If you're a pro user, there's kind of a workaround for this. You can create a macro which will automatically enter the feat/spell/whatever into the character sheet using the chatsetattr API script; and then make a handout with links to the macros. This way you only need to create each spell once, then it's one click to add to a character in future. This is how I've been building my 'compendium'. But how can I create a spell with the chatsetattr API? I thought this API just modify/add atributes
Jan K. said: If you're a pro user, there's kind of a workaround for this. You can create a macro which will automatically enter the feat/spell/whatever into the character sheet using the chatsetattr API script; and then make a handout with links to the macros. This way you only need to create each spell once, then it's one click to add to a character in future. This is how I've been building my 'compendium'. Can you use chatsetattr to add something to, say, a repeating section? And can you display the data in a handout without having to enter/manage it in two separate locations?
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+1 Please make the lives of DMs and Players easier with proper Custom Compendium / Homebrew Support
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