You can now share sheets with everyone at the table! To share a sheet, open the sheet's options menu by clicking the gear icon located at the top right of the sheet and selecting "Share with Table". This gives all players at the table the ability to view the sheet and edit it. Any player at a table can share a sheet. Shared sheets still belong to the person who shared it and will still live in that person's account. Please note that a sheet that is marked as private and shared, will be viewable and editable by everyone at the table. Meaning that sharing a sheet ignores its privacy. This change now gives sheets three possible statuses at a table:
- Public: The sheet is viewable by everyone at the table and editable only by the owner. This is the default for any sheet added or created at a table.
- Private: The sheet is viewable and editable only by the owner.
- Shared: The sheet is viewable and editable by everyone at the table (even if it is marked as Private).
NOTE: If two players edit a sheet at the same time, the person whose changes are submitted to the server first will override the other person's edits. To help with this, shared sheets will have inputs highlighted when someone is editing it so you can be aware of any incoming changes. We've intentionally made the player making the edits anonymous so that this feature can support group safety tools such as Lines & Veils.
With this feature we have updated the UX around viewing/selecting sheets at the table. We have added an explicit dropdown located above the sheet panel. This dropdown will list all players that are part of the table plus a new option labeled "Table". Selecting this will show sheets that are shared.
Previously, you could select a player's sheets by clicking on the name in the header of any sheet. We have removed that functionality and have added showing the status of the sheet next to the player's name.
Misc Improvements and Fixes
- You can now set a sheet as your Primary Sheet at a table. Primary Sheets load first and will be listed as your default sheet at the table. You can set this by opening the sheet's option menu and clicking "Set as Primary".
- If you select "Viewing Sheets" for a player with no sheets at the table, we now tell you they have no sheets instead of having the UI do nothing.
- Fixed being able to fully backspace out a modifier value and then typing. Previously, it would automatically become zero, making inserting negative numbers annoying.
- Fixed updating a modifier setting the correct new value for other players at the table.
- Fixed selecting a modifier sometimes causing numbers in the Dice Roller to output a string such as "0-4" or some other non-number combo.
- Fixed removing a sheet from other tables if it has been given to another player.
- Fixed a crash sometimes caused when trying to start your camera or microphone and then leaving the page.
- Fixed usernames wrapping oddly on the Dashboard.
Live Play Connection Fixes
In our last big video and audio push, we made it so that entering a Table would automatically connect you to in-progress Live Play sessions. However, after living with it for a bit it was not quite as smooth of an experience as we had hoped. We saw that there was more "missed" connections than we would like. For example you might enter a table and be able to hear people but not see them, even if they had their cameras turned on.
With this update we've updated the flow to be a little closer to what it was previously (but still keep the optimized video and audio settings). Now when you enter a table, in the top navigation bar you see a button that says "Start Live Table" or "Join Live Table", depending on whether or not there is a Live Play session currently in-progress. If there is, you will also see how many current players are connected. Once you start or join a live play session, the button will disappear and you will be able to turn on your camera and microphone if you so choose.
Thank you to everyone who has been using Role and helping us refine our video / audio technologies & user experience!
Misc Fixes
- Fixed an issue that could cause the "Close" or "Minimize" buttons to not be clickable when viewing a Map or Image.
- Fixed an annoying bug with Notes that were fairly long. When typing text in a long Note, the scroll box would often jump to the top of the note and you would need to scroll back down to where you were typing. This was particularly affecting Google Chrome players. With this update, that bug should no longer be present!
Give a Sheet to Another Player
There is now now an option to "Give Sheet to Player" listed in the Sheet Menu accessed by the gear icon on the top right of your sheet when viewing it at a table. When selected you can choose another person at the table to transfer your sheet to. When you do this, the sheet is removed from you account and moved over to the other player's account. They will have now have full access and ownership of the sheet!
Change Your Display Name
We've given player names at the table a design update. Sheet avatars and player names now appear together on a person's thumbnail. Clicking on a sheet avatar will still open that sheet. Clicking on your own name will open a menu that allows you to update your display name. This will change your name at the table only. Now you can update your display name to match your character's, show your pronouns, and showcase other important information! This will have no affect on your account name which will remain unchanged.
Fixes
- Fixed an issue where you would see the same user rolling dice listed multiple times.
Coming Next
- Ability to manually add Buffs and References to your rolls.
- Shared sheets allowing multiple people to edit the same sheet.
- Text Chat!
- Updates the positioning of other player's dice rolls to not overlap with your dice tray.
- Fixed seeing other player's dice rolls after they leave the table or refresh the page.
- Fixed the dynamic grid layout when more than four people are at a table.
- Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred when entering a table if your player colors didn't load.
Who's excited?? We're excited! Welcome to our first big release of 2021. We've focused our initial efforts this year on tidying up the video experience, as well as refining critical parts of the dice interface. We hope you enjoy!
The New Dice Tray
Our goal is to always do our best to keep people front and center when you play on Role. To that end we wanted to find a way to display the Dice Tray without it needing to be a pop-up over people's faces. With this update the Dice Bar is now persistent at the top of your table. When selecting dice from the bar, or selecting a modifier from your sheet, the Dice Tray will now slide down into view. The video thumbnails of people at the table will rearrange themselves so that everyone stays visible allowing you to see them and your roll at the same time!
Video & Audio Improvements
- We've moved the camera and audio buttons to the top navigation bar and we've updated their designs to make it more obvious when you have a device turned on or off.
- If you enter a table that has a video call already in progress you will automatically be connected to it. Your camera and mic will default to off, but you will be to see and hear anyone that is already streaming.
- We've updated/fixed how and when we ask for device permissions. This should help resolve people running into the "Device not found" error.
- The grid of video thumbnails has better dynamic sizing so that we always display video streams as large as possible.
- We've tweaked some video and audio settings to improve overall quality and minimize the chances of videos freezing.
Misc Improvements and Fixes
- Added a loading indicator when initially opening the Role app.
- Changed "Table Menu" to "Settings" to clarify its intent.
- Moved our changelog into it's own page located at playrole.com/changelog.
- Added more info about us to our about page and moved it to our root domain at playrole.com/about.
- Fixed Fate dice not properly adding up for the people viewing your roll.
Coming Next
- Ability to manually add Buffs and References to your rolls.
- Ability to change your Display Name at a Table.
- Ability to give a sheet to another player.
- Shared sheets allowing multiple people to edit the same sheet.
- Text Chat!
- You can view Saved Templates! In your Template Library you'll see a new "View" button under Saved Templates. Template Share links will automatically open in preview mode.
- We've updated the Role color palette. This includes updates to our grey color values to help with color constrast within our Dark UI.
- Various styles were tweaked within Sheets and Templates to create better visual hierarchy and readability.
- Styling has been added to text formatted with Markdown including: links, images, tables, lists, quotes, and code.
- Markdown links now open in a new tab.
- Updated logic in how Sheet Duplication works.
- Fixed being able to click on the video/audio buttons if you have the Sheet panel collapsed.
- Fixed a bug with creating tables.
- Fate dice will now have a value of -1, 0, or 1 that is added to the Dice Roller's total.
- You can now edit your Sheet's name from the dashboard.
- Fixed a crash caused by closing the Dice Roller while the roll animation was still playing.
- Fixed properly displaying dice links in Template Creator.
- Fixed an issue with dice links / modifiers not always being added to the Dice Roller when selected.
- We've added support for Two-Sided dice and Fate/Fudge dice.
- The Dice Roller now allows you to re-roll all dice! Instead of a "Done" button, we've updated it to be a "Re-roll" button. You can dismiss the Dice Roller by clicking the X in the top right corner of the modal.
- You can now re-roll a single die by clicking within it's circle in the Dice Roller.
- Fixed the Dice Roller showing the proper total if you add additional dice after rolling once.
- You can now view and edit your sheets right from your Dashboard!
- On your dashboard, sheets will now display a "Sheet Update Available" message when the sheet's template has been changed. Updating a sheet will change it to match the updated template. If there is information that doesn't fit on the updated template, a Rollover sheet will be created to preserve your data.
- Updated how List Items are displayed to make them more visually consistent with the other input types.
- Fixed a bug where Buff toggle links weren't selecting other toggles.
- Fixed a crash with older browsers when trying to duplicate blocks.