Character Generator

[Kae'Yoss]

This is true (as far as I can tell) ONLY if you subscribe to D&DI AND also buy e-books.

I'd think that if you bought the e-Version, you could use all those feats and whatnots as full text in the character generator (the one you can use for free)

Also, making us buy e-books is a horrible idea imo that I can't begin to fathom...what is so difficult with registering a hard-copy?

That eBook does cost money. They could either add that to the book's cost directly or make it payable if and when you want the electronic version.

Those eBooks will probably be quite cheap, a couple of dollars at most. Compare that to 3e eBooks - they cost the same as the paper versions, and if you want both, you have to pay twice.

 

[Ahrimon]

Keep in mind that "purchasing" the ebook will likely only cost you $1-$2 + the key from your hardcopy. They've stated the cost is simply to keep people from taking codes from books in the store and getting the E-book.

 

[jontherev]

I expect that free character generators will be easy to find for 4e, just as they are for 3e. Given that, I don't see what the source of concern is.

Um, maybe because I want a GOOD generator that is updated without ME having to spend hours upon hours of doing it myself? I use an excel spread sheet I found online, and I'm quite good at excel...but I don't WANT to spend this time. I want to spend my money on a generator and use that customizing spread sheets time for other things.

 

[jontherev]

Keep in mind that "purchasing" the ebook will likely only cost you $1-$2 + the key from your hardcopy. They've stated the cost is simply to keep people from taking codes from books in the store and getting the E-book.

While this is good news that I wasn't aware of...it still doesn't solve the problem of me spending X amount of dollars per month to play a game I've already bought. WotC...charge me X amount of dollars for a character generator (and you figure how much that should be, which includes maintenance of the program and future updates), and let me play my game without being billed each month. Sheesh. Everyone at my table agrees with me 100%, and that's a grand total of 8 people who have played D&D for an average of 25 years. If they have polls telling them otherwise, I'd like to know who they polled. Again, I'll pay upwards of $75 or more for a really good program that includes complete 100% upgrades for ALL supplemental material. For this price, I expect a really good product and supplements to be added within say a month of it's release, if not simultaneously. Anything less than this is not even remotely interesting to me, and I will look online for a free excel spread sheet and make my own updates.

 

[jontherev]

I'm with you and you are not alone. D&D will get a new audience with on-line content, but I fear many people will abandon the game or stick with older versions because they don't want to look at e-books or pay monthly for a game they already bought. Stick to your guns.

I doubt I will be able to stay away from at least buying the PHB. Based on how that is, our group will decide what to do. Mainly, I'm just voicing my opinion about what I've heard so far about the (lack of a useful) character generator. It sounds like WotC is pandering more to the online gaming crowd, and that bothers me. I think it's a great option to have for those of us not lucky enough to live near gamers, but that's all it should be...an OPTION. If we wait to voice our opinions until the game is released, it won't help much. I just hope someone from WotC is reading this.

 

[jontherev]

Oh, and check out DM Genie at www.dmgenie.com
It is not perfect, but you can try it out for 30 days and you can alter things in the program yourself to fit your needs, including making your own classes, feat, skills, etc.

For 95% of your needs, it will be perfect.

Thanks, but I'll wait and see what happens...as for now, I use a pretty good excel sheet I nabbed online, and customized it myself. It's not perfect, but it works well. It just takes oodles of time to make complex npcs with prestige classes or templates. I'm too lazy to switch elsewhere now that a version will be out somewhat soon.