I've now spent 8 hours trying to make what should be a simple homebrew magic item display appropriately on the character sheet action page. This has driven me past frustration into the realm of the ridiculous.

First off, you can't really create a magic weapon from scratch. You have to use an existing template which can only be modded so far.  For example, what I've been trying to do is craft a 2d10  force damage blaster pistol. Well, there are no default 2d10 damage weapons, which is why I turned to homebrew. 

On top of being unable to get die type and number to display appropriately on the action page, there seems to be no way to mod things like weapon range or firearms stats (reload, misfire, etc.) nor to ignore things like 2 hand requirements.

I was asked to run this Far Wars campaign for the first weekend in May. I've got Duke Highwater, Alea Angana, Dan Polo and his Pookie buddy Jewahka all set to roll with the forest gnome Gouda, but if I can't knock out this simple weapon I'm gonna have to cancel the whole thing.

You can ignore Two-Handed. The rest not so much. 

I gotta do something, those guys are gonna be so disappointed. They already rented the cabin...

So can anyone explain why they even have a "create from scratch" button if it requires a template?

For non-weapon magic items.

What exact stats are you trying to achieve? I might be able to help you get close.