New Character Builder from WotC!

[DonAdam]

I was all for the online CB as a Mac user. But then I found about the 20 character limit.

So let me get this straight. The new CB won't let you:

-Share your character with other users (except by printing the character sheet to pdf and emailing);
-Export the data; or
-Have more than 20 characters

That last one just kills me. 20?!?!? Short of getting the rules wrong, releasing my financial information, or fragging my operating system, that is the worst combination of features I can imagine on a character builder.

The software decreases in functionality the more you want to facilitate gameplay. I can't, for instance, keep premade characters around for any one shots I might run. The very people who do the most to promote the game (by running it for noobs at game days and such) or enable it to thrive over time (by running campaigns where, oh, you might want your players' character files) are the least accommodated.

I'm canceling my subscription if they don't remove that cap right away. Meaning, I'll cancel the first time I run up against the cap. That will be soon since I'm running a game. And those other two need to get gone as well in relatively short order (they involve actual coding, so I'm willing to be a little patient for them).

 

[Scribble]

Maybe WotC will add additional features "soon" after launch such as making the new CG doing my laundry and fixing me a sandwich, but right now I can only go on what WotC is telling us, and it amounts to a lot of "Wow! Look at all these new limitations! Aren't they AWESOME?! for our company."

Personally I think there are a number of features that benefit the user directly, but that said, a lot of times what benefits th company also benefits the client.

Admittedly a lot of it though is in the realm of actions will speak louder then words... IE the fact that they're condensing the number of databases they have to update will free up man hours... This SHOULD end up meaning we see updates quickly and consistently with less errors.

We'll see if it actually does or not...

 

[DEFCON 1]

I'm canceling my subscription if they don't remove that cap right away. Meaning, I'll cancel the first time I run up against the cap. That will be soon since I'm running a game. And those other two need to get gone as well in relatively short order (they involve actual coding, so I'm willing to be a little patient for them).

See, this is the kind of thing that makes me roll me eyes.

DonAdam... you are saying flat out that you are running a game and want to use the Character Builder for it. My guess is... the Character Builder will be helpful to you with running your game.

Now why, with all that is holy, would you voluntarily shoot yourself in the foot AFTER the fact, by cancelling the subscription because you can't make at this moment in time more than 20 characters? Does your game have more than 20 PCs in it? If it does... then you might as well cancel your subscription now rather than later, since you already know you won't be able to level every single one for your game.

If, however, your game does not have more than 20 PCs... and using the CB is a boon for your game and the characters therein... I would honestly love to know why the inability to save extras characters you aren't currently using is worth destroying the ones YOU ARE by cancelling the subscription? How does that make any sense?

I mean really... what if you don't reach the 20 character limit until 5 months from now, after you've been using and leveling your PCs for your game this entire time? Are you REALLY going to just say "well, that's it then!" and send those existing PCs to dust just to prove a point? Heh heh... if you can actually do that, I'd be impressed. I'd think you were also ridiculous... but I WOULD be impressed.

 

[gourdcaptain]

I hear you. I know the 20 character limitation is going to be a pain in my ass for sure. There is plenty of room for serious complaints.

I barely ever post. But the volume of gripe quotes has compelled me to interject because so many people seem to be so clearly grumpy over the fact that they are not getting lots of good stuff for a price approaching free. Frankly, I find it offensive that people are so hostile to the fact that something so totally awesome as D&D might need some money to keep doing what the are doing. I really, really do not want to go back to the bad old days of late 2e when there was not much worth buying and we decided to just stick with what we had. For all you people who have said, "I hate the new CB; I am picking up my toys and going home," you have no idea how crappy D&D can get when it gets really crappy. Imagine wanting to buy something but there is nothing worth buying.

The fact is that that the world is moving towards server-based computing and the expectation that WOTC will maintain a per-user desktop resident application is silly. All these CB advocates might as well be arguing for the horse-drawn carriage and Betamax. Yes, WOTC is making an application where all the relevent data is stored elsewhere and your computer function essentially as a dumb terminal. Get used to it. If you don't like it, that silly hobby you play once every couple of weeks is the least of your problems.

Huh - with the recent books, I am running into the problem of wanting to buy new material but not liking any of it. And on the topic of the server based computing, God, I'm 19 and I'm already a complete curmudgeon.

 

[KidSnide]

I have to say that 20 characters seems like a bizarrely low number. Including guest players, I'm sure both of my on-going campaigns have had over 20 different PCs each. I suppose it's perfectly possible to throw that information away, but who wants to clear out old characters? That information is crazy useful. I love bringing back old characters, and it's a total pain to recreate them from scratch.

And, of course, that doesn't even count "classic RPGA" style games where the author has to pull together a party of 6 pregens. The character builder is pretty much the perfect tool for that annoying task, and a scenario author could easily blow through his entire limit preparing for a single con!

-KS

 

[DEFCON 1]

I have to say that 20 characters seems like a bizarrely low number. Including guest players, I'm sure both of my on-going campaigns have had over 20 different PCs each. I suppose it's perfectly possible to throw that information away, but who wants to clear out old characters?

You don't have to throw those old characters away, because you will still have them saved on your off-line Character Builder. It's only new or current characters that need leveling up that will bring you up against the cap possibly. All those other saved characters can just remain on your hard drive until you need them.

 

[tuxgeo]

You don't have to throw those old characters away, because you will still have them saved on your off-line Character Builder. It's only new or current characters that need leveling up that will bring you up against the cap possibly. All those other saved characters can just remain on your hard drive until you need them.

That's assuming that one already has the offline Character Builder.

And, speaking of which: If you don't already have it, download it now, or possibly do without! The online version goes live tomorrow, so anyone who doesn't already have the offline version might not be able to get it after today.

 

[renau1g]

Anyone know what time it goes live tomorrow? I'm assuming somethimg in the afternoon (EST) to match up to PST's start of day...

 

[DonAdam]

See, this is the kind of thing that makes me roll me eyes...

Are you REALLY going to just say "well, that's it then!" and send those existing PCs to dust just to prove a point? Heh heh... if you can actually do that, I'd be impressed. I'd think you were also ridiculous... but I WOULD be impressed.

Roll away.

Yes, I will eliminate my subscription just to send a signal. Because I think the signal will be effective at making them eliminate the limit down the line. I've already sent an email to customer service along these lines. I will not continue paying the same price for a lower quality service (relative to what it was back when the existing builder was updating regularly).

Obviously the builder would not be useless for me. But having to delete a character to enter a new one will increase the cost (time, headache) of using it. Lower net benefits equal lower willingness to pay, especially when I have the old builder on my hard drive. It's a tradeoff of less updated but less headache and money.

If it were free you would be right. But instead you're condescending and wrong.

You don't have to throw those old characters away, because you will still have them saved on your off-line Character Builder. It's only new or current characters that need leveling up that will bring you up against the cap possibly. All those other saved characters can just remain on your hard drive until you need them.

At which point you will have to delete one of the new characters, re-entering its data later when you need it. Headache.

 

[mudbunny]

Anyone know what time it goes live tomorrow? I'm assuming somethimg in the afternoon (EST) to match up to PST's start of day...

My guess would be that it will be about the same time as the normal tool updates go live.