WotC is going online. What do you want the digital initiative to be?

[Zaruthustran]

I will pay for content via books and pdfs. But I will not pay to obtain a monthly license/contract (via an online susbcription) to be able to use material or content in my games or sign a waiver that may limit my ability to use content I've purchased within my games after my subscription expires. Saddly, these worst case scenerios are possible given the nature of online networks.

In other words... What I want is for the DND digital initiative to not be the worst possible scenareo in terms of the digitalization of pen and paper role-playing games.

Okay, now I understand what you meant. I think we can all agree that it'd be a big mistake to make individual purchases contingent on a continued subscription.

That said, it's important to differentiate purchasable passive content from active online services/tools. As in, if you cancel your subscription you should still be able to access any books, PDFs, and other single-cost-to-produce items you've already bought, but you should lose access to online character creators, spellbook makers, virtual tabletops, and other ongoing-cost-to-maintain items that are part of the subscription fee.

-z

 

[GreatLemur]

Oh, man. The sky is clearly falling, for some folks. You'd think the posters on an RPG-related Internet forum wouldn't be so opposed to the idea of RPG-related services and information on the Internet.

As for what I want out of this deal--what I'd be willing to pay for, more importantly--is damn good (I mean slick, Google-quality) character-generation tools with good storage and output options, and some very serious support for third-party content and house rules. If I can't use it my way, I won't really be interested in using it at all.

I'd also really like a good, searchable database (or at least d20SRD.org-style interlinked documents) full of all of WotC's published, D&D v.3.5 mechanics. Feats, classes, spells, monsters, etc. If they've got to limit crunch access to people who actually own the appropriate books (somehow), that's fine. I'd also really like this to be house rule-friendly, allowing us to make edits or attach notes to own own versions of the data.

And, of course, I want content. I could honestly deal without fluff and setting-specific stuff, but that's just me. As long as there's a Dragon Magazine-sized load of crunch available each month, I'll be cool. Even just the Class Acts section would be good. (And, obviously, this new crunch would have to be integrated into the existing database.)

I'd also dig a way to choose a bunch of material--approved classes, races, feats, and variant rules, for example--and export them in a format that I can give to players. It doesn't have to be the whole body of copyright-protected material; I think feats table-style one-line descriptions would be okay. I just need to be able to put together a basic campaign bible in the form of a bunch of lists (although pictures would be nice, too, I suppose).

I can't really see myself paying more than $5 a month for even a best-case scenario, here, but that's mostly just because I don't play enough to justify it. If I had a more regular D&D game or two going on, I could probably go up to $10.

I'm not paying for "stuff you already know about character classes" or "flowerpots of the Realms."

Ha. Nice.

 

[helium3]

WotC is sure to like your thinking? Would you like to work as the Assistant Brand Manageer?

Sorry. Jobs already taken.

 

[Zaruthustran]

I'd also dig a way to choose a bunch of material--approved classes, races, feats, and variant rules, for example--and export them in a format that I can give to players. It doesn't have to be the whole body of copyright-protected material; I think feats table-style one-line descriptions would be okay. I just need to be able to put together a basic campaign bible in the form of a bunch of lists (although pictures would be nice, too, I suppose).

Another terrific idea. A "My campaign bible" tab (for want of a better word) would be very cool. You can drag-and-drop (or select from a list) individual feats, classes, PRCs, magic items, gods, spells--whatever--and the tool will sort it all out and present it to you in a clean, slick format. Hit print, and bam: all the crunch for your custom campaign setting. It should even auto-create a bibliography, so the reader can see what sources were used.

And definitely, every single component in the searchable database should be user-editable. So if you, for example, change the Fighter hit die to d12 the system should automatically add "Fighter" to the My campaign bible tab, so when you print the bible your changes are included. Henceforth, when you browse the main rules for Fighter the system should show a d12 hit die but include a flag that somehow notes "in the core rules, the hit die is d10".

I'm not a UI or programmer guy, so the implementation of that is beyond me, but it sounds very much like what I want.

Another thing these comments seem to indicate is a desire for at least two tiers of services/two tiers of pricing. A "Player" subscription, with access to the core rules, and a "DM" subscription, with access to expanded features (including the ability to enter custom rules and print a campaign bible). DMs should be able to add a number of players to their account, and thereby share the campaign bible (but not the ability to edit the bible).

The two-tier subscription model mirrors the fact that DMs tend to spend way more on D&D than players (who may share a single PHB, or even dice). It also lets those DMs who'd rather do all their customization offline to just choose the Player subscription, if all they want is access to the up-to-date, searchable rulebase and basic tools.

-z

 

[Michael Silverbane]

I would prefer it to be a magazine... Failing that, I'd prefer to pay less than $50 per year.

For that $50 per year, I'd like to see...

* An electronic character generator that can handle any character from any WotC book.
* The ability to add functionality to the character generator to handle characters in other companies' books.
* Spectacular articles and Dungeons, like those found in... say... a magazine.
* A virtual table top program that could handle map and figure creation, had good text and voice-based chat capabilities, and included content from the dungeons presented in the Dungeon-y stuff.
* And... Basically anything else of any value that has been mentioned in the thread.

Later
silver

 

[Blessed Kitten]

I know monster generator has been said, but it definitely needs to easily support generating advanced monsters.

Adding extra hit dice or class levels should quickly and effortless propagate through the stats. Preferably with some reasonably sophisticated heuristic in the way it goes about selecting skills, feats and other options. If it is a classed creature, equipment should be given and scaled accordingly as well. You would then be able to go back tweak anything to your liking.

Creatures could then be exported to any number of customizable stat blocks.

One of the most common complaints about D&D that I've seen is the length of time it takes to create detailed NPC's and advanced creatures. There really needs to be a tool to do this quickly and easily.

 

[Zaruthustran]

One of the most common complaints about D&D that I've seen is the length of time it takes to create detailed NPC's and advanced creatures. There really needs to be a tool to do this quickly and easily.

Man, amen to that. Right now, applying a template takes a crazy amount of time, especially considering the critter is not going to survive a single fight. I'd love to be able to drag "Vampiric" over "Medusa" and poof--everything instantly auto-calculates.

Not to mention mid- or high- level character creation. I want to set a starting level, choose classes, and while I'm doing that, see separate panels with lists of feats and PRCs that brighten as they become available.

Someone earlier set the quality bar at "Google" height, and he's not wrong. Clean and effective is what we want for the base interface skin. Leave the wrought-iron, gem-studded textures and other BS as a non-default (or even user-created) option.

-z

 

[Vigilance]

Id like standard Dragon and Dungeon material, with expanded support for Modern and Future and Star Wars, now that Dragon fans can't complain that they're "losing pages", available a la carte so I can buy what I want piecemeal, or for a monthly fee where I can download as much as I want, for use at any time, even after my subscription lapses.

Chuck

 

[Dinkeldog]

Please, everyone remember the rules of the board and keep things civil. Calling people ignorant or immature because they do not share your opinion is not keeping things civil.

Thanks,
Dinkeldog
Moderator

 

[BobROE]

I don't think I'd subscibe, but I'd be willing to buy stuff on an article by article basis (if it were of a good price). Charge me a per page price and allow me to sellect the stuff I want to buy, not the stuff they want me to buy.

Also I don't trust the WotC website enough to give them my credit card number so I'd want them to improve their web stability first.