Dark Sun specific rules - looking for guidance

Hi all, first post here. Excited to get going with Roll20. I just started a Dark Sun campaign using a patchwork of rules, a 5e Homebrew from Toucanbuzzz, some of the basic rules from 5e for several classes, a little bit from the original 2e box, basically what I felt would fit well. As such, I'm struggling a bit with Roll20 (also because I'm new to it). I have a couple things I'm trying to model in Roll20, and was hoping you guys could nudge me in the right direction. I'm not expecting full solutions, but it would be cool to know if a particular modeling can only be done with macros, or API, or if I should be able to model it with token/sheet magic. Here are some of my challenges: I want to model different weapon material. In Dark Sun, metal is scarce, and as such weapons are mostly made of bone, obsidian, or wood. Each of these has different stats for attack and damage. If possible, I'd like to have a dropdown to choose the material and it automatically calculates the attack and damage modifier I want to model weapon and armor breakage. If a non-metal weapon hits for max damage, there is a 1/20 chance that it breaks beyond repair. Survival and exhaustion rules. I want to more realistically model water and food needs per PC, and also how/where they carry things. Even though a Half-Giant has 21 str doesn't mean he can carry 30 different 1-gallon waterskins while swinging a 2 handed maul. Psionics. I'm using Kibblestasty's homebrew. Would love to be able to model that whole thing somehow. Dark Sun specific races. Thri-Kreen, Mul, Half-Giant, etc. And probably a lot more... Maybe the answer to this is just "macros and api", if so would still be great to hear it, and maybe some hints in which direction I should look first. Then I can go and study macros and api until my eyes bleed. Thanks for any hints!

Much of what you are asking depends on they type of character sheet you are using? Are you using no character sheet, or are you creating a custom one?  Basic macro's may cover some of what you want to accomplish but if you want to pull form stored attributes from a character sheet it helps to know which one. Note you do not need to use a specific one though most user do. For more complex Rolls and features not provided in macro or cannot be done from the character sheet you would need the api. There are several that might work for you needs. I would suggest starting here Macros  this will give you starting point for macros or its a good refesher if you look at it already. Beyond that I would suggest Power Cards , and ScriptCard its successor as possible powerful api scripts to use that can do more than the average macro. Note these can be come quite complex and the syntax as a learning curve so be prepared to have it take a bit of time. Lastly the forum search is great place to look for information however to save some time here is recent post for api scripts for newbies Hopefully this well help get a direction. Another thing to look at is thread that has tips and tricks the other use on roll20 that might help you as well.

Mark (GM) said: Much of what you are asking depends on they type of character sheet you are using? Are you using no character sheet, or are you creating a custom one?  Thanks for the pointers! I just started with the basic roll20 5e character sheet. But as I read more, I'm guessing I need to learn to create a custom one. (I have pro  plus btw).

Are you sure you have Pro? Your tag says Plus, and Plus and Pro are different. 

GiGs said: Are you sure you have Pro? Your tag says Plus, and Plus and Pro are different.  Yes, brainfart, thanks!

If you opted to switch back to AD&D 2nd Edition, there is a built-in Character Sheet on Roll20 for it with tabs accomodating Dark Sun specifically (for the 2e rules system).  For example it has the Athasian coin denominations. Hit me up with a message if you want to get back into Dark Sun 2e, Revised Box Set! I'm in a group that plays it, on Roll20. The 5e conversion homebrew is a somewhat different take on Dark Sun though, as far as how certain character skills are expressed and the mechanics of it, so if you're going 5e, you might need to either: Use existing 5e char sheet and adapt yourself. Or, make a Custom character sheet. Or, don't rely on the Character Sheets in roll20, just roll flat dice rolls in roll20 and keep track of the PC stats on paper character sheets at home. Or, wait for possible official Dark Sun 5E release, which will probably prompt Roll20 Dev Team to support it on the official sheet in the future if this happens.

Gold said: If you opted to switch back to AD&D 2nd Edition, there is a built-in Character Sheet on Roll20 for it with tabs accomodating Dark Sun specifically (for the 2e rules system).  For example it has the Athasian coin denominations. Hit me up with a message if you want to get back into Dark Sun 2e, Revised Box Set! I'm in a group that plays it, on Roll20. The 5e conversion homebrew is a somewhat different take on Dark Sun though, as far as how certain character skills are expressed and the mechanics of it, so if you're going 5e, you might need to either: Use existing 5e char sheet and adapt yourself. Or, make a Custom character sheet. Or, don't rely on the Character Sheets in roll20, just roll flat dice rolls in roll20 and keep track of the PC stats on paper character sheets at home. Or, wait for possible official Dark Sun 5E release, which will probably prompt Roll20 Dev Team to support it on the official sheet in the future if this happens. Hey, thanks for the response. I doubt I will move my group fully back to 2e, however, it would be very helpful if I could see the 2e char sheet you use. And if you have a community of people playing dark sun in roll20, I'd definitely want to be a part of it, learn from each other.

Freysi, Post on the JOIN forum to get the INVITE for Dark Sun (2e Revised based) community in Roll20, great group: <a href="https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/257907/2e-dark-sun-w-l-d-star-1-dot-000-dot-000-star-pug-ch-gold" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/257907/2e-dark-sun-w-l-d-star-1-dot-000-dot-000-star-pug-ch-gold</a> Click on Launch Game, enter the tabletop, look for our DISCORD link to daily text chats. From there (that's a link to our 2E Dark Sun discord), to be honest I know of 2 more Dark Sun Roll20 based Discord servers that are more 5e than mine. You can leapfrog from one to the next.&nbsp; There's my group A PUG's LIFE, then there's DM Champion's 5e Swords And Sandals (very active), and there's DM Jesse's general Dark Sun group that's more about the novels, setting, and has a few people from all editions in fact i see people there converting Dark Sun to other systems like DCC, CoC, C&amp;C, etc. They have 3.5 and 4e players too. There is 2 artists taking Dark Sun token requests also, one is crowdfunding and is a Roll20 Marketplace creator, see Devin Desert Encounters I &amp; II that are already out now on Roll20 Marketplace.&nbsp; Those are Dark Sun specific tokens and unique monster types but just his own artist intrepretation and not labeled with any trademarked names, they are renamed generically. Devin and another artist GEM (Hero Forge Pro) are on these groups too, great resources.

Awesome, thanks, will do. Yeah, I already bought Devin's tokens! Good stuff.