Using Roll20 without character sheets

Just starting a 5e campaign. Does anyone play on Roll20 but only using paper character sheets? I find I have enough work to, I don't want to do tech support for Roll20 for my players as well! I am thinking of suggesting that players can build their sheets in R20 if they like, but I am going to focus on the campaign instead of implementing the technology for each character. I have enough work to do unloading and  sizing images. Playerse are responsible to have paper character sheets and work off of them, and understand them, and I can help them make them. They have PHB hard copies.

I feel like not relying on the Roll20 sheets also frees us up from needs to buy or develope compendium. If player gets a magical item from the DMG, they can just write it down, instead of me purchasing the DMG from R20.

I also think it might help with verisimilitude. I stress to my players that the game happens in the mind and out loud, not on the table. The table is there to help our thoughts stay in sync. An attack happens when you say, "I swing at the goblin behind me with my battle axe," not when you click on the attack action. There is something physical about clicking on the attack.

Thanks so much for this great resource, btw. I am glad these features are hear, and now I am trying to use them the best way for our group.

Has anyone had any success or failure running a game like this? Brand new dm here, so any insights or suggestions are welcome!

Edited, added a point.

Edit, question: Can players access their character's journal without my help, any time, to edit and configure their character sheet if they desire? 

You only need the compendiums if you want to drag/drop info not the character sheet. I'd personally recommend using the Roll20 developed sheet as it's pretty user friendly and makes dice rolling a lot easier.

You don't need to use a character sheet if you don't want to, but as a newb to 5e, I find the 5e OGL sheet useful (though you may tell your players if they choose to use the sheet you'll not be tech supporting it, so they'd need to read the wiki...

Using a character sheet in Roll20 saves a ton of time. Instead of having to type in rolls every time or roll where you can't see them with physical dice, they just click a button. Clicking a button does not stop players from describing their actions, it just saves the tedium of adding up modifiers and such.

That and you in no way need the compedium for anything, it's just there for convenience sake. You can put everything in there manually.

You do not need to use a community supported sheet. You can just use the journal's bio tab as a paper sheet then use the attribute and ability tab for your macros.

We did that years ago before those sheets were created.

Pat S. said:

You do not need to use a community supported sheet. You can just use the journal's bio tab as a paper sheet then use the attribute and ability tab for your macros.

We did that years ago before those sheets were created.

That's a helpful thought, thanks!

Question,

Can players access their character's journal without my help, any time, to edit and configure their character sheet if they desire? 

Yes they can, but they cannot create a fresh new sheet. You, as GM need to be the creator. This can be done at any time, regardless of whether the player is present. Once you have assigned it, they can log into the game whenever in order to edit.

Pat S. said:

You do not need to use a community supported sheet. You can just use the journal's bio tab as a paper sheet then use the attribute and ability tab for your macros.

We did that years ago before those sheets were created.

That's exactly how I run my game ..tbh the character sheet is just a working record of the characters abilities etc, it is the attributes section that really drives any automation you want to use...

Personally, I find it works just fine.

In the dawn of time, before 'sheets' were added to character journals, I started a D&D 4e game.  Players maintain their own sheets in whatever format they chose and sent me copies at level up. I update their journals and maintain their macros, as I am the one who actually cares about pretty macro output.  As Ray says, the journal is simply a collection of the things needed for dice rolls.  Since my players are all friends who I've known away from the table for a minimum of 17 years, this works for myself and for my table.

I once asked a question like this, and the answer seemed to be that lots of people use Roll20 in a non-automated way, but since there are basically no difficulties in doing this, none of them ever write on the forums about character sheets. In other words, only people who use character sheets are going to be talking about character sheets on the forums.

I haven't run a game for a while, and when I did I used a character sheet I created myself, because the official one for my game was fairly bad. I have since come to realize that while it may be simpler for the player not to have to worry about touching anything outside of Roll20, it's a whole lot more fiddly. The simplicity of data entry of character sheets actually caused the players to completely ignore data entry on character sheets, making their characters woefully out of date, and they had little incentive to actually learn the rules of the game. There's something to be said for doing it yourself by hand.

My ideal game now is one that eschews character sheets in favor of only storing the most variable character stats as attributes. A character in the journal is a container of variables and macros, plus a portrait and public information page. I don't want automatic buttons conveniently calculating every modifier for a roll against every esoteric skill a character may have.

I know my preference is probably in the minority. I know that if I find the time to start a new game, people are going to demand to know why I'm not using a character sheet. Aside from my lack of time lately, I've been hesitant to start a new game partly because of this expected backlash.

keithcurtis said:

Yes they can, but they cannot create a fresh new sheet. You, as GM need to be the creator. This can be done at any time, regardless of whether the player is present. Once you have assigned it, they can log into the game whenever in order to edit.

Very helpful, thank you!