Multiple Compendium entries of the same name can exist in your Journal tab. We mark the entries with source information, publisher icon, and book title abbreviation to differentiate the entries. Read more about Journal Tab Expansion Sources.
Compendiums are "books" of indexed and categorized series of web pages devoted to a particular RPG rule system. Compendiums are designed similarly to a mini wiki. A Compendium can be used both outside and within the VTT. You can perform quick rule searches and use the drag-and-drop functionality to populate fields on character sheets, such as equipment and spells.
There are Compendiums available under different license models. Some Compendiums, such as the D&D 5th Edition SRD, Pathfinder SRD, and Dungeon World, are freely available to use due to their Open Gaming License (OGL) or Creative Commons Public License (CCPL) status. Additionally, we offer licensed material for purchase in our Marketplace. Examples of this licensed material include Wizards of the Coast's Volo's Guide to Monsters and Monster Manual, as well as Kobold Press' Tome of Beasts.
The Compendium Tool
You can access the available Compendiums by going to the website's main navigation bar and selecting Tools -> Compendium. This brings you to the Compendium Page where you can choose the Compendium you wish to browse.
Browsing a Compendium
When browsing a selected Compendium, you'll find a search bar and categories like Rules, Races, Classes, Items, Equipment, Spells, and Monsters. Some categories may have subpages. In the D&D 5th Edition SRD Compendium, for example, the Spells category has dedicated pages for each Class with individual spell lists.
No matter which page of a Compendium you're on, there is a search bar directly above that allows you to look up more entries at any time. The search looks for keywords used in the page title and header tags of an entry.
"Why isn't there an entry for (Spell, Rule, Monster, Etc.) in here?"
Some Compendiums may lack content, particularly newly created compendiums. Please note that an OGL version of a rule system may not cover the entirety of the published rule system. For instance, the D&D 5th Edition OGL SRD does NOT have entries on Displacer Beasts or Mind Flayers, nor does the compendium cover any other feats beyond Grappler. Such content may be intentionally excluded from the SRD (System Reference Document) by the publisher. If something is missing from a Compendium, you should first check to see if that entry is actually part of the OGL SRD. If something is missing, please report this by contacting us through our web form.
Purchasing Compendium Expansions
You can purchase Compendium Expansions from the Roll20 Marketplace. These expansions provide access to entries not included in the original SRD.
To access this content, all you need to do is purchase the expansion of your choice. Once bought, all content under that expansion becomes immediately available to you. It's important to note that access to these expansions' content shared in games is limited, and game owners must choose to share their purchased compendium content on a per-game basis. Even without sharing, a GM can create handouts and character journal entries of Compendium content by dragging entries to the Tabletop to generate them. These journal entries can then be shared among players on an as-needed basis if they themselves do not have access to the expansion content.
Compendium Search Filters
Utilizing the Search Filters
The 5E Compendium's Monsters List has search filters for Monster name, Alignment, Speed, Type, and more. Likewise, the Spells List in the same Compendium has search filters for specific details such as spell Name, Level, Class, School, etc.
With the exception of the Name field and the Monster Speed field (which are simple text fields), the rest of these hard-coded search filters are either drop-down multi-select fields or Yes/No radio buttons. When selecting one of the multi-select fields, you will have every option that's available for that listed attribute.
For example, the Spell List filter for Spell School has multiple selection options available such as Abjuration, Divination, Necromancy, etc. You can choose multiple options from a select search filter. Hold down Ctrl(Windows)/⌘(Mac) while clicking on a search filter to choose multiple options from the select drop-down list. You can also add more options afterward, by clicking on the empty space to the right of the last filter item within the input field to bring up the selection drop-down menu again.
Making Personal Search Filters
Each list page has preset search filters, but you can add custom filters if needed. Clicking "+ New Filter" creates a new filter field where you can choose an attribute and enter your search term. All attributes in the Compendium are available. For example, to find monsters wearing scale mail, create a new filter for the AC attribute and enter "scale" in the text field. The monster list will then be filtered to show monsters with "scale" in their AC attribute.
You can delete a custom search filter at any time by clicking on the X icon to the right of the filter's text field. Custom filters do not persist after closing or refreshing the page.
Hiding the Filters
Right below the Compendium search bar is a toggle button labeled "Would you like to use search filters?". Clicking on the toggle icon will hide or reveal the search filter options (shaded blue when revealed, grey when hidden).
The Filtered Results
This is what the list filtering looks like on the Monster List of the 5E Compendium
Below the Search Filters, the entries are displayed as tabled data. Each entry block includes the name of the entry, which is hyperlinked to its specific page in the Compendium. The tables show all the attributes from the search filter section and additional helpful ones.
Sorting the List
Entries displayed in the list are sorted in alphanumerical order, but you change the sorting attribute. Under the text Sort results by: are blue buttons that list every attribute that is displayed in the list. Click on any button to sort by that attribute. An up or down arrow will indicate the currently selected attribute with its sorting order (ascending or descending). Clicking the same button toggles between ascending and descending order in the list.
Entry Summaries
Search result entries have hidden summaries showing the first few sentences of the linked Compendium page. You can reveal a summary by clicking the down arrow next to the entry's name. Clicking the arrow again hides the summary.
Turning Compendium Pages
Compendium expansions have had their pages given a order to follow the sequence found in the physical book. At the bottom of a page in an expansion, there will be << Previous Page and Next Page >> links. These will bring you to the previous or following page in the order so you can read the compendium content in a similar fashion as a book. If you mouse over the Previous and Next links, the hover text will display the title of the page you will be navigating to.
Adding a Compendium to your Game
Compendiums are highly versatile when attached to a game in a virtual tabletop (VTT). GMs and players can quickly access rules during the game and GMs can create handouts by dragging entries from the Compendium to the tabletop. While editing a character journal, items, spells, and abilities can be easily dragged from the Compendium to auto-complete elements on the character sheet. Monster entries can automatically generate NPC journals and provide linked tokens when dragged to the Tabletop.
Compendiums can be tied to a community Character Sheet. To enable VTT/Compendium functionality, the author of a community-created character sheet needs to design it to reference a specific Compendium. For instance, choosing a D&D 5th Edition character sheet will automatically assign and enable the 5th Edition Compendium to be used in your game as well as Pathfinder sheets linking to the Pathfinder Compendium. You can choose a character sheet at game creation or by going to the Game Settings page at any time afterward.
Once added, a new tab will be added on the Sidebar placed between the Journal tab and the Jukebox tab. This is the Compendium tab. Browsing and searching for entries within the Compendium Tab behave exactly as the webpage version. The only difference here is that the entries will pop up in their separate window when you select them from the tab.
If you are not relying on a Character Sheet to load a desired Compendium, you'll want to go to the Game Settings Page and choose the Compendium you want to use.
Entry List Data In-App
When browsing entries that have a List Page (like Spells or Monsters from the 5E SRD Compendium) on the external Compendium, you can pull down the same block of data that displays underneath the search filters within the VTT.
While looking through a listed category on the Compendium Tab, a down arrow icon will appear when you mouse-over over an entry. The icon will appear to the left of the entry name or token graphic (when available). Clicking on this icon will roll out that entry's info block. You can roll out as many entries in this fashion as you want on the Compendium Tab.
To hide the block of information again, mouse over the entry, and the arrow icon will point up instead of down. Clicking on this icon will hide the info block.
Book Expansion Sources
While viewing Compendium entries in-app, a publisher icon and a book title abbreviation will be listed on the entry's far-right to signify where this info is sourced from. For instance, an entry from the Monster Manual expansion will have the Dungeons and Dragons ampersand logo as well as the abbreviation, MM1, underneath it. Kobold Press' Tome of Beast expansion entries will have a kobold logo icon and the abbreviation, TOB, underneath it.
Journal Tab Expansion Sources
For games created before 08/20/2021, if Compendium entries with the same name are added, duplicate entries will appear in the Journal. One of the entries will lack the mentioned source information. To resolve this, delete the unnecessary entry from your Journal.
Journal tab entries that have been added from the Compendium tab will display a book title abbreviation and publisher icon. This source information was added in an update on 08/20/2021 to help distinguish Compendium entries with the same name, but different source information. Check out an example below:
Visit the Compendium in Journal tab FAQs page for more information.
D&D Examples
Source Book Name |
Publisher | Icon |
---|---|---|
5E SRD | Wizards of the Coast | |
Monster Manual | Wizards of the Coast | |
Volo's Guide to Monsters | Wizards of the Coast | |
Tome of Beasts | Kobold Press |
Drag and Drop Functionality
A Compendium which is included in a game can speed up the process of content generation for a GM. Not only can you use the Compendium tab to look something up in the rulebook without opening a physical book or switching to another browser tab, but you can click and drag on a Compendium entry to pull it out of the Compendium tab for various automated purposes listed below.
Non-Monster Entries
Compendium entries that aren't designed as a complete NPC sheet (Rules, Races, Classes, Items, Spells, etc) will add a Handout to the Journal tab containing all the text and images from the provided Compendium entry after dragging and dropping the entry to the Tabletop. When in handout form, the GM can share this with other players. This method is how you can grant players access to purchased Marketplace content.
Monster Entries
If you look up a Monster/Beast/NPC entry in your Compendium and then drag and drop it to the tabletop, so long as you are using a Character Sheet that has this enabled, a Character Journal will be automatically created and have stats filled using the content from the Compendium entry to fill out the various attributes and abilities.
Character Sheet Integration
When filling out a character sheet, if enabled by the Sheet Author, a player can drag and drop Items, Equipment, Abilities, Spells, and other entry types directly to the character sheet to automatically fill them out with the information provided by the Compendium entry. The range of interactivity depends on the Sheet's design.