Database

What roller.db is#

Everything you make in Roller — all your worlds with their stories, characters, places and games, the Protocol and the Patcher — is kept in a single file: roller.db, in the Roller folder (next to roller.command). It's locked with your password, so nobody can read it without it.

Roller creates this file the first time it starts. You never need to open it yourself.

Don't overwrite or share roller.db#

• To share a world or story with someone, don't send them your roller.db (they couldn't open it without your password anyway). Use Export legacy instead: it saves one world as a file they can import into their own Roller. See Export a world.
• To keep a backup of a world, export it the same way. You can also copy roller.db somewhere safe while Roller isn't running; that copy only works with your password.
• To move everything to another Mac, export each world there and import it on the other Mac: see Move a world to another Mac, or share it.

"roller.db is for a different version of this app"#

When Roller starts, it checks that roller.db was made by this version of the app. If it wasn't — for example because it comes from another version of Roller, or someone gave it to you — Roller doesn't touch it, and tells you so in a message.

1. Quit Roller (close its Terminal window).
2. Move the file roller.db out of the Roller folder, for example to your Desktop. (Don't delete it if it might hold something you need.)
3. Start Roller again. It creates a new, empty roller.db and asks you to choose a password.

If someone gave you that roller.db because they wanted to share a world or story with you, ask them to use Export legacy instead and send you the file it makes. You can then load it into your own roller.db with Import world: see Import a world.