D&D Insider News

[Nightchilde-2]

That makes me a sad panda. I was looking forward to playing with some old buddies right after release.

In the meantime, there's always programs like OpenRPG.

But, i agree, I was looking forward to kicking the tires on the DDI VTT.

 

[Drkfathr1]

I know he had to distinguish between regular "print" books and the DDI material, but man, I think the word "analog" has become my new LEAST-FAVORITE word.

 

[EricNoah]

The Analog Grognard. Sounds like a cover band...

 

[Jer]

That's probably true. I can see room for early Eberron support (it was promised that this would happen soon), but beyond FR and Eberron, there doesn't seem to be any really important settings supported by WotC.

Yeah, I'll bet we'll see some early Eberron support - which will be nice to see even if I'm not planning an Eberron campaign in the near future. I think comparing Eberron support to FR support will give a nice gauge of what Wizards is trying to "hit" with the DDI setting support. It won't be perfect - I doubt that we'll still be in the free beta when the Eberron books hit the shelves next year - but at least it will be an indication. I fully expect FR to be "over-supported" compared to other settings just because the Realms are both HUGE and OLD - they've been around for a long time, have a huge geographic area to cover, and a lot of potential source material out there that can be easily mined for updates. I'm not going to assume that DDI coverage for an updated Ravenloft or Planescape is going to be as extensive as what the Realms gets, but I might believe that they'll do as much for them as they will for Eberron. So seeing what they do for it will hopefully give me a good idea of "future performance".

Maybe you'll be in a more suitable point of life when the interesting supports comes out.

Geez, I hope it doesn't take that long for the "interesting support" - I've got probably 22 years or so until my kid graduates college - that's a long time to wait

Seriously, a year and a half from now I should be done with my dissertation and have a job somewhere that pays something beyond a graduate student stipend. THEN I'll have money to think about a DDI sub.

 

[Kaffis]

In the meantime, there's always programs like OpenRPG.

But, i agree, I was looking forward to kicking the tires on the DDI VTT.

This will be interesting, now.. One of the big things the DI had going for it was that it would release simultaneously with 4e. The VTT is now going to be giving 3rd party applications that cover similar stuff time to get 4e specific tools and aids written in, in order to better compete.

In other words, a year ago, we thought the VTT could kick butt because it was rules-complete and official, with the inside info on 4e fueling its development to make it ready to roar out the gates fully featured on 6/6. Now, it's giving its competitors time to be more competitive, and losing its insider edge.

 

[Scribble]

This will be interesting, now.. One of the big things the DI had going for it was that it would release simultaneously with 4e. The VTT is now going to be giving 3rd party applications that cover similar stuff time to get 4e specific tools and aids written in, in order to better compete.

In other words, a year ago, we thought the VTT could kick butt because it was rules-complete and official, with the inside info on 4e fueling its development to make it ready to roar out the gates fully featured on 6/6. Now, it's giving its competitors time to be more competitive, and losing its insider edge.

Eh not so much. Depends on what the other can actually offer. Remember they said the SRD is being redesigned to work against just "repackaging the rules." So the other game tables might not really be able to offer rules integration right out of the box.

Also game table no matter when it starts has the added bonus of being directly tied to the rest of DDI. (Which means tossing stuff back andforth through the different things will make life much easier...)

 

[Nikosandros]

This will be interesting, now.. One of the big things the DI had going for it was that it would release simultaneously with 4e. The VTT is now going to be giving 3rd party applications that cover similar stuff time to get 4e specific tools and aids written in, in order to better compete.

I believe that the GSL doesn't allow any kind of software support. It's one of the restrictions that it will inherit form the d20 STL.

 

[keterys]

I really want to see if adventures released in Dungeon can come prepped to run, or you can get prepped stuff for published modules.

That would be an incredible added value.

 

[Ghaerdon Fain]

....

....

ROFLMAO!!!

Exactly! LOL Won't this move just give p2p / torrents all the more incentive and headway? DDI needs to have made a move to provide something more attractive than the alternative. Waiting may be detrimental. This should have been foreseen and prevented.

 

[jelmore]

I believe that the GSL doesn't allow any kind of software support. It's one of the restrictions that it will inherit form the d20 STL.

Doesn't mean that we can't write our own, though. I've been bashing PCGen around trying to see if I can get it to work with what we've seen of 4th Edition, and I'm somewhat satisfied with the results so far.