D&D 4e Rules Compendium in online!

[Charwoman Gene]

how do you prevent one from copy/pasting the rules from the Compendium and then canceling the subscription and still not buying the books?

You're kidding right? You aren't aware that there are pirated copies of the PHB that can be cut and pasted from right now?

 

[Bagpuss]

But that would render the core rulebooks obsolete, which is what they are trying to avoid.

Personally, I think they shouldn't. I think the subscription should include the rules, but then how do you prevent one from copy/pasting the rules from the Compendium and then canceling the subscription and still not buying the books?

Not really, as it is presented now each little bit of information is on a separate web page, within a database. Hence is only useful if you know what to search for in the first place.

If you didn't already know about "second wind" for example you wouldn't even think to search for it, and even if you did you would only get the information on that, not on cover, or concealment or anything else.

So in order to render the rulebooks obsolete, not only would you have to know every topic to search for you would have to search for each in turn then copy and paste the information out.

Painstaking and pointless work, especially considering you could get PDFs of the rules of the internet before the books even came out.

If you just want the D&D rules without paying there are much much easier ways to get hold of them.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Umm, I would hope that when I look at the rules database and type in "grapple" I would get something....

But no dice. Not useful at all.

 

[Kristian Serrano]

You're kidding right? You aren't aware that there are pirated copies of the PHB that can be cut and pasted from right now?

Fully aware of that, but that doesn't mean WotC should enable theft of their own material.

Not really, as it is presented now each little bit of information is on a separate web page, within a database. Hence is only useful if you know what to search for in the first place.

If you didn't already know about "second wind" for example you wouldn't even think to search for it, and even if you did you would only get the information on that, not on cover, or concealment or anything else.

So in order to render the rulebooks obsolete, not only would you have to know every topic to search for you would have to search for each in turn then copy and paste the information out.

Painstaking and pointless work, especially considering you could get PDFs of the rules of the internet before the books even came out.

If you just want the D&D rules without paying there are much much easier ways to get hold of them.

That's a very good point. Still, there are some persistent individuals. How many OCR'd books are there floating around on the Internet because someone had the patience to scan and OCR every page of a book I'm only making a case as to why WotC might not want to put all of the rules in the database. As I said before I personally would prefer if they did. I don't want to buy the books, but I'd be partially interested in subscribing to access everything ever published for 4e.

Umm, I would hope that when I look at the rules database and type in "grapple" I would get something....

But no dice. Not useful at all.

Again, it's not a "rules compendium" and it was never intended to be.

 

[Scribble]

Not useful at all.

Thats a bit of a strecth...


So no one else is having that stupid can't change to a new page issue? Grrrr if this is another issue due to my company not using the latest version of IE, I'ma be pissed!

 

[vagabundo]

Looks great, I am impressed.

And I'm sure they can add extra tabs over time, a monster tab will appear in short order.

 

[Bagpuss]

As I said before I personally would prefer if they did. I don't want to buy the books, but I'd be partially interested in subscribing to access everything ever published for 4e.

Don't quote me on this but I think the Database as we are seeing it now is the paid model. The none paid will probably allow the search but the links won't open to none subscribers so it tells you what book to look in but not the actual info. At least that is what was hinted at in the Youtube presentations.

Again, it's not a "rules compendium" and it was never intended to be.

And even if it was (and hopefully will be in the future) it's called "grab" now not grapple, search for grab and you get a range of powers, feats and skills. Which illustrates my point about needing to know the rules already to make use of the database.

 

[Kristian Serrano]

Don't quote me on this but I think the Database as we are seeing it now is the paid model. The none paid will probably allow the search but the links won't open to none subscribers so it tells you what book to look in but not the actual info. At least that is what was hinted at in the Youtube presentations.

That's how I understand it as well. What I was trying to say is that I would be more inclined to switch to 4e and subscribe to DDI if I the subscription included access to all rules beyond just character options without having to buy the books.

 

[Zogmo]

Remember a couple of things when looking at it.

1) This is not the final product. Nothing is final till the DDI becomes subscription based. They are not afraid of showing their growing pains and have said recently that a lot of things will be put up unfinished so that people can comment on it and and help make it the product best for everyone when it goes live.

2) It's freaking free. This format that doesn't have actual rules is going to stay that way so anyone can use it as a reference and it should be a great tool to get people into the game who aren't.

 

[Vendark]

Not really, as it is presented now each little bit of information is on a separate web page, within a database. Hence is only useful if you know what to search for in the first place.

A search for the letter "e" appears to find pretty much everything...