Import/Export Macro Feature for Roll20

[Under A Bleeding Sun]

Hello!  As most the collective has moved to roll 20 I've been running into a serious issue with logging in an hour early to set up macros that I set up a week or two previously already.  This, in my opinion, is probably the biggest stumbling block of roll 20, particularly for a game like PFS.

I have started a thread on the Suggestion board asking them to please put in this function.  I am hoping to get it fixed to save me quite a bit of time every week, and make games run smoother.  I notice lots of people don't even write macros, and their turns tend to take forever.  Perhaps if they didn't have to rewrite them every game they would at least write them once and get it out of the way.

Please add your voice to the suggestion board if you'd like to see this function added: https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/488080/import-slash-export-macros#post-491022.

[Sior]

I agree that it is annoying to insert macros constantly for every single game table. This why if I'm running a series or something with the same group of characters, I'll just use the same VTT link, so all macros are there already. Not a long-haul fix but helpful.

Till they manage to implement this change, however, I recommend people keep a word document or similar with their collected macro entries so when it comes time to macro-tize the VTT, you can just copy and paste everything you need or want.

Will check the thread to show support for this change.

Sior

[Ben Finger]

What I have done, which has helped a lot is to setup docs which contain my macros.  All I have to do is copy and paste.  Normally 2 minutes at the most to do so, then ready to go

[Informed Opinion]

On Friday, November 29, 2013 3:57:05 PM UTC-5, Ben Finger wrote:

What I have done, which has helped a lot is to setup docs which contain my macros.  All I have to do is copy and paste.  Normally 2 minutes at the most to do so, then ready to go

I do this too.  Most of my PCs' character sheets are Word docs, so keeping a set of comprehensive macros for each is pretty easy and readily accessible.  If you "paste as plain text" (right-click in the body of the macro window to get a menu of options) instead of just using Ctl-V, you get slightly less weirdness in the process.  This method also makes it faster to update your macros between sessions/levels, and helps reduce the number of macro-breaking typos.  In most cases, the macro set stays exactly the  same except for the roll modifiers.  You just change those and keep everything else: flavor text, emotes, etc.

For what it's worth, I'm trying to set up a trilogy I'm running for VTT2 as a single Roll20 Campaign.  My hope is that, at least for that one day/trilogy, the players who are playing in more than one of the chapters of the series (at the moment, that's nearly all of the players) won't have to re-enter their macros between sessions.  (At worst, they will only need to modify those few that change between sessions, either due to the purchase/upgrade of gear/vanities, boons earned, long-term damage/drain suffered, or growth from level-ups.)  Given the short amount of time between sessions, I'm hoping that this helps streamline player's set-up efforts, as well as encourage everyone to use better or more comprehensive macros, thus helping to keep us to the tight(ish) schedule of the Game Day.

Has anyone done this before?  If so, did it seem to help or hinder?  Are there any other reasons why this would be helpful or troublesome for the GM or players?

TIA!