Latest revision as of 13:39, 30 July 2024

Page Updated:   2024-07-30

This is related to Editing(coding) Character Sheets, which require Pro info to be able to use. Main Page: Building Character Sheets

Main Page: Character Sheet Development

There are plans for major updates to the Character Sheet system, which would bring more tools for sheet developer to use. It would enable devs to use features previously limited to mods, and to more easily integrate modern webdev frameworks like Vue & React in sheet development. It would not replace the existing sheet creation system, but exists as an option.

• roll20/beacon-community-sheets repo seems to have been made public in July 2024.
• The Beacon SDK by Roll20 - Introduction - Docs
• Calling all Sheet Developers - Beacon SDK closed beta^(Forum) March 4th, 2024
• Redesigning the Roll20 Character Builder^(Blog)- Aug. 4th, 2023

[edit] Release Sheets

• Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game by Roll20 is the first sheet using this new framework,
  [1]
  released on Aug. 2nd, 2023.
• Coyote & Crow
• Candela Obscura
• Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster (Community Preview)

[edit] New Sheet Ecosystem

In August 2023, Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game by Roll20 was released as the first sheet developed on the still closed Beacon SDK.

In December 2022, CTO Morgan B. said it will be called the "Beacon Sheet Development Kit".

"Character Sheets: A LOT will be happening here. We have an entirely new charactersheet ecosystem that we're going to begin rolling out this year. First on our own sheets, then to a few partners and then as soon as possible to community creators. We call it the Beacon Sheet Development Kit. Using Beacon you'll have a small npm package you can pull in that exposes an API to control the VTT and VTT interactions, including some powerful new functionality previously only available with Mods (like setting light and vision settings from the sheet!) Sheet developers using Beacon will be able to use most html, css and javascript with few restrictions. The goal is to allow sheet developers to be able to bring their favorite web development tools to bear, from simple HTML to React and Vue. Internally we're using Vue to develop these sheets and are also hoping to share some parts of the UI component toolkit we're building to speed up sheet development. The old system will continue to function as well for folks who prefer it and especially to make sure that there is still a programming-lite option for releasing sheets. "

Details from Q&A with CTO Morgan Buck - Operation Fire Bolt + Product Updates June 22nd 2022

"For developers our existing character sheet system is pretty archaic and you have to know a lot about hacks and workarounds to make a really incredible sheet. Our goal is to create a system where developers can bring their existing experience with web app development to Roll20 character sheets and make some really incredible tools. We're going to start with experimenting with this internally, so the first thing you'll see is some significant level ups to the sheets we're outputting. Once we sort out security we hope to make these tools available to everyone."

[...] "The new character sheets will also expose a lot of functionality that was previously API only to sheets so that they can be more powerful out of the box. Some of the most common functionality of critical API scripts will end up being covered by that work." [...]

response to question about "multiple sheets per game"-suggestion:

[...] "The new sheet ecosystems we're developing allow for a much more maintainable and modern sheet, and doing those as a single sheet application would allow for code sharing and many other desirable things. In the new ecosystem each sheet is effectively a web application that can utilize all of the organizational tools a modern web developer would expect, which would allow for solid segmentation of the code for these sheets modes." - June 2022