OnlineDM
Adventurer
First, Cerebral Paladin's suggestion is exactly what I was going to say. Provide defaults, and let the DM know which treasures are important to include as-is and which are easily swapped for something of the DM's choice. I'm running War of the Burning Sky right now, and it's become a running joke that I've never picked treasure parcels in advance. "You search the building and find... something that I'll tell you about via email later. But it's awesome, really."
As for the second question, I'm definitely a Character Builder user as are my players, but as long as the theme powers are modular it shouldn't be a problem to include them. Custom feats and items and paragon paths are tougher, but you can try to set them up so that they have analogues in standard Character Builder choices.
For instance, if you have custom feats, you might provide suggestions (if you're allowed to do so) for feats that the players can pick that will remind them of what their special in-world feat is. If you have a special weapon expertise feat, you might suggest that the player take "X Expertise" in the Builder and then note the differences manually on their character sheets (done in a way that makes the attack bonuses calculate correctly). This won't be possible in every case, I'm sure, but where it's practical it would help.
The same could go for magic items and paragon paths. If you're allowed to list CB equivalents ("The Sword of Exploditude is similar to the Flaming Weapon with an extra ability and can be represented by the Flaming Weapon in the Character Builder."), it would help. I'm guessing that this is not kosher under the 4e game license, but if you could at least have an idea of what CB options are similar that still might help players who want to do it themselves.
All of that said, don't let this overly constrain your design. If you have an idea for a really cool feat or item or whatever, but there's nothing like it in the Builder, don't sweat it - design the awesome thing, and if players are so beholden to the Builder that they won't use it, that's just a shame for them.
As for the second question, I'm definitely a Character Builder user as are my players, but as long as the theme powers are modular it shouldn't be a problem to include them. Custom feats and items and paragon paths are tougher, but you can try to set them up so that they have analogues in standard Character Builder choices.
For instance, if you have custom feats, you might provide suggestions (if you're allowed to do so) for feats that the players can pick that will remind them of what their special in-world feat is. If you have a special weapon expertise feat, you might suggest that the player take "X Expertise" in the Builder and then note the differences manually on their character sheets (done in a way that makes the attack bonuses calculate correctly). This won't be possible in every case, I'm sure, but where it's practical it would help.
The same could go for magic items and paragon paths. If you're allowed to list CB equivalents ("The Sword of Exploditude is similar to the Flaming Weapon with an extra ability and can be represented by the Flaming Weapon in the Character Builder."), it would help. I'm guessing that this is not kosher under the 4e game license, but if you could at least have an idea of what CB options are similar that still might help players who want to do it themselves.
All of that said, don't let this overly constrain your design. If you have an idea for a really cool feat or item or whatever, but there's nothing like it in the Builder, don't sweat it - design the awesome thing, and if players are so beholden to the Builder that they won't use it, that's just a shame for them.
