[Character Builder] Will it every be customizable?

[Mercurius]

I love the Character Builder but it has one major flaw: You can only use canonical races, classes, feats, powers, etc. How hard would it be to add in custom/homebrew stuff? A nice little tab under races, for instance, that says "Create New" with guidelines for keeping them balanced. Does anyone know or think that Wizards of the Coast will ever provide this?

 

[UngainlyTitan]

At the moment the character builder is providing the same network effect that Office supplied to Windows back in the old days of Window 1.x - 3.x. Of course the analogy is not exact since you could use office on the Mac.

However, the prevalence of office was a big part of why Linux and other os never took off in home or even office desktops. (IMHO and all that)

The point is that similarly to Microsoft there is no incentive for WoTC to spend resource to facilitate third parties.

It might be possible to presuade WoTC to document the API so that a third party would be able to produce an addon that would give the required functionality and I could see this being done as it could increase the sales of core WoTC books since this additional functionality could attract people that are very third party orientated to buy in to D&D.

However, in order of priorities, I would see it as down the list after the campaing management tools, the VTT and the pickup game server.

It might be feasible to hack the datafile to fool the CB into adding custom content up the way one wants it but there are a lot of issues in that.
Mainly the datafile format is possibly subject to change and evolution.

On the other hand, it is possible that WoTC's R&D department could cause the necessary code to be written anyway if the evolution of the game requires non standard power structures in future classes.

Of course all the above is pure speculation based my own observations.

 

[Baumi]

Just wanted to point out that you can already homebrew a few things like Items and Feats. While they have no Mechanical functions (no automatic Bonuses, etc.), they still work fine for most small changes.

 

[Scribble]

My GUESS is if they do, they plan to tie it into the DM Adventure tools. The DM would create whatever needs creating in the adventure tools, then import his "Campaign Settings" into the CB.

I don't think the push to do this would have anything to do with 3pp, but instead the actual players of the game who want to fiddle with stuff.

 

[catsclaw227]

The second this happens, I am creating a generic "ToHit" feat that gives +1/+2/+3 to all attacks and then make all the expertise feats illegal.

It will still be considered a "feat tax" for those of you that prefer that moniker, but it would solve the multiple item dependency some classes have for how they hit thier opponents.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

I'm not sure it ever will be customizeable, mainly because I'm not sure how hard it would be to create a user interface that let's people make up any power/race/feat/ability they like.

 

[Khairn]

The point is that ... there is no incentive for WoTC to spend resource to facilitate third parties.

Agreed.

IMHO 3PP for 4E is viewed by WotC as a necessary evil rather than a true enhancement for the game or their customers. With the DDI in full swing, 3PP's have a niche area where they are able to support without really competing against WotC products.

So as to the OP's question, I really don't see why WotC would ever want to spend the resources to make any part of the DDI "customizable". It just doesn't make any financial sense.

 

[wedgeski]

I genuinely couldn't hazard a guess at this. I can see compelling reasons for allowing 3PP in, and I can see compelling reasons for keeping them the hell away. It's not a technological barrier, so ultimately it'll come down to timing and economics.

 

[kenmarable]

However, it's not just an issue of 3PP, but DMs themselves. The nature of the game encourages DM and player creativity which often carries over to creating or altering mechanics. The 3PP market is nothing compared to the 3.0 one (although it might get a boost from a customizable CB), and my gut feeling is that any customization options would be used far more by DMs for their own changes rather than entering 3PP.

So I think it's more of a matter of whether the extra work is worth the added benefit for the customers than the 3PP. If it helps a third party sell 500 copies of a PDF rather than 50, I don't think WotC will be impacted. However, if it helps more DMs who use plenty of house rules sign themselves and their players up for DDI, that would most certainly have a significant positive impact on WotC.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I'm not sure it ever will be customizeable, mainly because I'm not sure how hard it would be to create a user interface that let's people make up any power/race/feat/ability they like.

Hard is not the right word, from certain presprctives all programming tasks are hard It is just that the existance of libraries/APIs that facilitate certain developments.
A customisable CB would be much easier than creating Sharepoint for instance. It is really a wizard and some meta data to track what the user is creating and how it interacts with rules and the character sheet.
It is not trivial either, but the big issue is the bottom line. Right now, I would see the DM tools and such to be a higher priority than a customisable CB.
Mainly because such tools make DDI more valuable.