JC-inkroll's page

Hey, sorry for the late answer, I thought I got notification for new replies, but I didn't!

To answer your questions:
1. Yes, you can roll arbitrary dice, with the syntax {1d20+5}
2. Yes, you can post images directly, either via a url links, or uploading the image (and the campaign has a "Media" tab where you can later see all the uploaded images)
3. the roll cannot be previewed, by design. You either roll it or you don't, and when it's rolled it's immutable (you can edit your post and remove the roll, but it will still be visible in the roll "ledger" attached to the post, so people will know you removed it!)
4. not sure I understand what you mean by "alias"? One user can control several characters (you get a dropdown selector in the post section to pick the one you want to speak "as"). Characters are named, so no "alias" here.

Hope it helps! I'll check here more often, so expect a quicker response next time ;)

Just to clarify and perhaps close this AI discussion: there is NO ai in inkroll except in the illustrations of the demo campaign (won't be visible if you don't look at the demos), perhaps some icons/badges here and there, and if you optionally use the summerazing feature of the "chronicle" tier, which is really just to save people the pain of copy/pasting the exported campaign to chatGPT + better integration. Yes, I could pay an artist to make genuine illustrations for the demo campaign, but I would need to make a bit of money first :) As for the chronicle feature, I use it with my 6 years old campaign and it's amazing, because you can ask questions about obscure past events or onboard new players easily, but really it's up to the GM to decide if they want it or not, it's never AI forced down on you.

Now, on the more PF2 part: I've added a small improvement. The PF2e sheet now calculates itself out of the box: skills, saves, Perception and Lore bonuses derive from attribute + rank + level, so leveling up means changing one number and everything moves, including the dice menu. Your Untrained Improvisation checkbox is in too (half level, full level from 7th). Typing over any derived bonus overrides it (item bonuses, odd cases), with a little reset arrow back to the formula.

Under the hood it's a small formula grammar on the ruleset definition, so custom systems get the same power:

{ "id": "perception", "label": "Perception", "type": "number", "signed": true, "compute": "wis-mod + pick(perception-rank, Untrained=0, Trained=level+2, Expert=level+4, Master=level+6, Legendary=level+8)" }

Your more general "increments with level" case works the same way: a 5e-style proficiency bonus is just "2 + floor(level - 1, 4)". There's also if, min/max and basic arithmetic.

You also have 'if', min/max/floor, and some basic arithmetic. It should get us there, I hope. I would really like to have your feedback on all this if you get a chance to try it.

About Discord, myth-weavers and Foundry, roll20, etc: I've used them all, and none of these are really taylored for PbP (they are chat, forum, or real time platforms, twisted into PbP). My ambition here is to make a pure PbP platform. Not to do "more", but to do "less". Try to not be overwhelming with features, just focus on the core, and do it well. Focus on the experience, make it really nice, fluid, pleasant and, hopefully, beautiful. We will see if these are valued by players in the long run, but as for myself, I'm really happy to use it! always have yourself as a customer, I guess :)

Hi QuidEst!

About AI: yes I use it to create demo campaign and illustrations for example (honestly, it wouldn't be possible for me otherwise), and it's an option in the highest tier to help people query their campaign, make summeries, etc. But it's totally optional. If you are in principle against any product where AI is optionally available, then you would be facing the decision to cut off about 99% of everything you use in your digital life nowadays...

About the 6$/month "most popular". This is a classic marketing formulation, meaning essentially: if you want to pay, this is probably the tier that you want. It's not based on statistical analysis for sure, we don't have enough users for that at the moment! I can definitely change it to "our recommendation", which is more correct I agree.

* PF2 sheet with automatic proficiency calculation: I'll look into it, thanks. The trick is to make it generic enough I can formulate it within the json format used to define a game system, so that it's not a PF2 special trick, but a general expressivity of the machinery used for PF2.

* noted for pathbuilder. I could add this indeed, because otherwise the myth-weavers import does just import the content, but not the sheets for now.

* no problem to add slots for lore skills, ok

* ok for the ability modifiers change, I'll look into that!

I'm going to work on a patch to include all this. Many many thanks for the great and constructive feedback! And feel free to move this thread where it belongs of course.

Hi, I'm JC. I've run asynchronous tabletop games with friends for years, got frustrated running long campaigns in tools built for real-time chat or some kinds of forums, and built inkroll.gg, a browser platform made specifically for play-by-post, with a beautiful and (hopefully) well designed interface without the usual noise and complexity.

Pathfinder 2e is one of the systems it supports natively now, and this forum holds more play-by-post experience than anywhere I know, so I'd like your judgment on whether I got it right.

Concretely: characters carry real sheets and the dice read them. You type a roll in your post, like {perception}; on publish the server rolls 1d20, adds your modifier and freezes the result in, and editing afterwards never rerolls it. The three saves and every skill answer to their own names, so {save-reflex}, {stealth} and {thievery} all work, and a menu above the editor lists what your character can roll right now. All this is customizable, and you can add your own roll types. Every roll a post ever made stays in an audit beside the timestamp, including ones deleted mid-edit, so nobody can quietly reroll a failed save. It never sees the DC, so degrees of success stay with the table.

Posts can write back to the sheet (which is versioned, so a post from six months ago shows the character exactly as they were then). {hp-8} takes eight damage and stops at zero, {hero-1} spends a hero point, {dying+1} raises the dying condition when you drop. Above the composer sits a strip with hit points, AC, hero points, focus and a row of pips per spell rank, so spending a slot happens in the same move as describing the spell. If I've missed a field you need, it's easy to add.

Optionally, and this part is on the gamemaster's paid tier, world and tactical maps live in a side drawer, with a grid and tokens you can lay over them for reference. I don't want to build a full combat system, that stays in the gamemaster's hands, but a place to put the tokens helps, and it's versioned with the posts like everything else.

The part I'd most like poked at is secrecy. A gamemaster can seal part of a post for chosen characters, and nobody else receives that text at all, since it's stripped on the server rather than hidden in the page. Dice are deliberately never secret though, so a roll inside a sealed passage still shows in the audit anyone can open. An audit nobody can edit is what makes dice worth trusting.

The app is free and stays free for the core: campaigns, posts, dice, sheets, secrets, import and export, plus importers that carry a game over from Myth-Weavers or a Discord channel (nothing for paizo.com yet, tell me if you'd use one?). Optional paid tiers add the maps, campaign statistics and a printable book, and only the gamemaster ever pays.

Better than long explanations: there's a one-click demo on the front page: inkroll.gg, then hit "Try the demo", pick Pathfinder, and you're inside "The Embervault Company" as its gamemaster with no account, posting as any of the cast through the dropdown. Not affiliated with Paizo, to be clear.

So, does this match how you run second edition by post, and is it pleasant to use? What I'm chasing is low cognitive load, and a tool made for writing asynchronously and does not try to do everything. I'm least sure about two things: whether a secret check should hide from the audit as well as from the page, and whether the app should name the degree of success when a gamemaster hands it a DC, or whether that leaks a number players aren't meant to have. Let me know and I'd be happy to patch it and make it better.