[title]New D&D Monster Builder[/title]
Today is the launch day for the new D&D Monster Builder over on D&D Insider. Here's the email which went out to DDI subscribers:
As far as I can tell from my brief play with it, you can't actually build monsters with it, though. You can only do two things, both to an existing monster:
1) Slide a level slider to adjust its stats
2) Rename its powers/abilities (but not actually alter them) - so you can change an existing Abyssal Ghoul's "Bite" power to "Munch", but you can't change its description, effects, or anything else. Nor can you add a new power or remove a power. And all you can affect even to this limited extent is the powers - you can't alter its hit points, ability scores, resistances, skills, speed, movement modes, or anything else.
So it appears to be an "existing monster level-upper" rather than a "monster builder". The old Adventure Tools downloadable is still on the page, so you can still grab that, but it will only be there for a limited time and won't be updated with new content. Still, I'd advise you to grab it now while you can - it's much better.
UPDATE - A note from WotC's Trevor Kidd:
Paizo Publishing is running a competition on its Facebook page:
Today is the launch day for the new D&D Monster Builder over on D&D Insider. Here's the email which went out to DDI subscribers:
Dear D&D Insider™ Subscriber,
On March 22, Wizards of the Coast will begin rolling out the new web-based Adventure Tools for D&D Insider, starting with the launch of the brand new D&D Monster Builder. Creating new monsters, customizing existing ones and building your adventures will be easier than ever before. On launch day, just log in to your D&D Insider account, click on the Adventure Tools button and give the new Monster Builder a try.
Here are some additional highlights:
You can access it right here!On March 22, Wizards of the Coast will begin rolling out the new web-based Adventure Tools for D&D Insider, starting with the launch of the brand new D&D Monster Builder. Creating new monsters, customizing existing ones and building your adventures will be easier than ever before. On launch day, just log in to your D&D Insider account, click on the Adventure Tools button and give the new Monster Builder a try.
Here are some additional highlights:
- New Design: Completely redesigned, the new Monster Builder will debut with 3,700 monsters - including Dark Sun Creature Catalog and Monster Vault entries.
- No Download: The Monster Builder is served from the D&D site
- PC and Mac Compatible: Requires an Internet connection and Silverlight plug-in
- Import Function: You can easily import your content created in the previous version to the new version
- Save Functionality: All content you create is saved to our database and is accessible through your D&D Insider account
As far as I can tell from my brief play with it, you can't actually build monsters with it, though. You can only do two things, both to an existing monster:
1) Slide a level slider to adjust its stats
2) Rename its powers/abilities (but not actually alter them) - so you can change an existing Abyssal Ghoul's "Bite" power to "Munch", but you can't change its description, effects, or anything else. Nor can you add a new power or remove a power. And all you can affect even to this limited extent is the powers - you can't alter its hit points, ability scores, resistances, skills, speed, movement modes, or anything else.
So it appears to be an "existing monster level-upper" rather than a "monster builder". The old Adventure Tools downloadable is still on the page, so you can still grab that, but it will only be there for a limited time and won't be updated with new content. Still, I'd advise you to grab it now while you can - it's much better.
UPDATE - A note from WotC's Trevor Kidd:
Hey all. The fix is up now and you should be able to save monsters that you've leveled and import and save custom monsters from the classic Monster Builder. It looks like some of you bumped into some issues while we were pushing the fix, but hopefully all those are over.
Now on to the topic of "why did you release something that wasn't feature complete?" questions/complaints. Main reasons, short and sweet - we wanted to give all the DDI members a chance to check out what we're working on, and we wanted to make sure that all DDI members had the chance to use the MB to import monsters into their VT games during the next step of the VT beta.
You still have access to the classic MB (you can download it right now). We won't be doing any more updates to it, but it's still there and still usable. Yes it has issues, but I'm hopefully most people understand that we won't be working on the old tools while adding features to the new tool. With the web-based MB, we have something that gives very basic functionality and is usable with the VT that we wanted to get into everybody hands, not just the small group of testers that we had before.
The VT point is a bit more tangible - Having the web-based MB out, even in this limited form, makes imputing monsters into the VT 1000% (statistic completely made up) better for DMs. So getting this out to DDI subscribers who will very soon be testing out the VT seemed a pretty important thing.
I am definitely sorry that I haven't given you more news on what to expect with this AT release these last few weeks. I'm also sorry if I led you to believe that the AT would be more robust than what the closed beta testers had access to. We did add a couple features, but the biggest changes are on their way. I will be back in the coming days with more information on the features we'll be implementing, focusing on whatever the next big thing is.
[title]Paizo Competition[/title]Now on to the topic of "why did you release something that wasn't feature complete?" questions/complaints. Main reasons, short and sweet - we wanted to give all the DDI members a chance to check out what we're working on, and we wanted to make sure that all DDI members had the chance to use the MB to import monsters into their VT games during the next step of the VT beta.
You still have access to the classic MB (you can download it right now). We won't be doing any more updates to it, but it's still there and still usable. Yes it has issues, but I'm hopefully most people understand that we won't be working on the old tools while adding features to the new tool. With the web-based MB, we have something that gives very basic functionality and is usable with the VT that we wanted to get into everybody hands, not just the small group of testers that we had before.
The VT point is a bit more tangible - Having the web-based MB out, even in this limited form, makes imputing monsters into the VT 1000% (statistic completely made up) better for DMs. So getting this out to DDI subscribers who will very soon be testing out the VT seemed a pretty important thing.
I am definitely sorry that I haven't given you more news on what to expect with this AT release these last few weeks. I'm also sorry if I led you to believe that the AT would be more robust than what the closed beta testers had access to. We did add a couple features, but the biggest changes are on their way. I will be back in the coming days with more information on the features we'll be implementing, focusing on whatever the next big thing is.
Paizo Publishing is running a competition on its Facebook page:
Are you a fan of Pathfinder Tales? Then show us! Between now and 2:00 pm Wednesday, post a picture of yourself here on the Paizo Facebook page showing off your copy of Prince of Wolves, Winter Witch, or Plague of Shadows and I'll select the coolest one at random. The winner gets a free Paizo-produced PDF of their choice!
[title]In Other News...[/title]
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Repercussions of an Open Mouth Chris Dias has written about the repercussions of his controversial recent open letter to WotC. Mainly a lot of random noise on the intrawebs.
Scourge of the Skies A shattered fragment of an evil soul, the yarang seek out the souls of others and absorb them with their stinging tails.
4WFG Sale 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming is having a 2nd anniversary sale until the end of March. 22% off all PDFs at DriveThruRPG.- Monster Madness: Maneater The RPG Examiner details a natural predator whose favorite prey is man.
- Giant Plots, part 2 This week's grave plots concludes the two-part giant plots, providing adventure hooks and plot ideas for hill giants, stone giants, and storm giants, allowing giant-kind to become a large part of any campaign.
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