Hey Adventurers!
Today, we’re releasing something new that transforms the way you tell your stories. Roll20’s newest endeavor, Roll20 Characters, allows you to easily create characters so you don’t have to worry about your sheet, dice, or doing the math. This means it’s easier than ever to create or level up your character before your session, easily explore new game systems, and unlock limitless character options. Whether you’re playing in-person, online, or a mixture of both – just tell your story and leave the rest to us.
We’re live in Beta now with 11 of our most popular game systems–and many more to come–where you can build characters, roll dice, and access free and purchased rulebooks and compendiums wherever you need them. With this first step forward, Roll20 becomes more than just a VTT and gives you new ways to play with your friends. Go create as many free characters as you want.
Seriously, go right now and create a character. I’ll wait.
Back? Great. Let’s keep going…
Make Characters
I have talked with many of you, face-to-face, about the problems you have managing your characters. A few things stood out in our conversations. The VTT is great, but there is more to telling a good story, and not all of that happens during a session or requires a map.
You need to be able to manage your own characters. You need to be able to access them outside the VTT whenever you want. You need to be able to take your character sheet with you to your game session and use it to play in person.
I’ve talked with some of you who feel that you can’t go back to pen and paper. Being able to roll from your sheet, instantly look up rules when you have a question, or see all of your spells and items at a glance is just too much to give up. When everyone else at your table is playing with pen and paper, you can still play from Roll20 Characters.
We are building Roll20 Characters to help you easily make characters. You can use a character builder or drag and drop available in top games like D&D, Pathfinder 2E, and Call of Cthulhu to help step you through the creation process when you are trying a new system. Drag-and-drop options help you add items or abilities to your character as you play. Free Basic Rules give you access to character options so you can try out a game system before you invest more.
Try Games
I believe that trying new games helps you tell better stories. We live during a time when roleplaying games have never been more popular. Thousands of game designers have spent countless hours thinking of new and creative ways for us to play and create collaborative storytelling around a table.
Diversity leads to creativity. That is true for the games you play and the stories you tell. Learning new mechanics from different systems will give you new perspectives and change how you play.
We are building Roll20 Characters to make it easy to pick up a new game system and give it a try. Start by creating a character for a new system. There are free basic rules for most of the game systems that give you access to character options and rules so you can get started playing.
What’s Coming
Today we are releasing Roll20 Characters in Beta. That means we’re not done. There is more that we’re looking to do and we want to hear your feedback along the way.
We want to make it easier for GMs to start a new game. Soon, you’ll be able to share a link to a game with your players. They’ll be able to go to that link and create their own character for the game. The character will be automatically added to the game and the players will have access to your shared content or won’t see the content you have blocked when creating their character.
We want to make it easier for your group to play together. We’re going to add the chat log and dice rolls into Roll20 Characters so you can see everyone’s rolls and even share important details.
Right now we’re focused on auto-saving character changes and making sure that your changes on the character sheet update in the VTT as well. We see that as base functionality.
Here’s the roadmap of additions we’re targeting:
- Automatically save changes on your character
- Adding a character to a game Instead of just moving it (Export Functionality)
- Live-syncing character changes with the VTT which allows you to play on the character sheet and in the VTT at the same time
- The ability to claim a character (Import Functionality)
- See other players’ dice rolls
- See all characters in a game
- Start releasing more sheets
As with every roadmap we talk about, the most important thing for us to do is listen to your feedback. This roadmap is subject to change based on your feedback.
We Need Your Help
Today, with the addition of Roll20 Characters, Roll20 is more than just a VTT. Now you can easily create unlimited free characters from up to 11 different game systems. This is only the beginning of what we hope to do and we can’t accomplish it without you. Your feedback will be the fuel that helps us improve. Let us know what you think.
Thanks for your help. Make characters and try more games!