DDI, 6 months later: changing my mind

[Liminosse]

I tried DDi for one month only, just to see if it was worth the money. At this point i figured it probably has very few useful features and I wouldn't renew my subscription. I expected to be disappointed, at least until the game table comes out ( 42 LCD tv im gonna be using as an in house program as opposed to an online), after finding my way through some of the features like the monster creator and the encounter creator I began to see why DDi was so useful. I still didn't think it was worthy of my 5-7$ a month, then i found the compendium. Nice, i thought, all the rules in one place, then i realized it even contains all the information for pretty much every 4th ed book and magazine published to date, even the ones I have yet to purchase. That sold me on it at that point, a search engine capable of pulling all the resources from all the books together without having to turn a single page or search for a specific book. To be able to see all the feats available to a specific character at a specific level in one easy list, it is a dream come true. Stack that on top of the upcoming completion of the Character Builder and i for one can say that DDi is most defiantly worth more then 5$ a month to me, even without the gametable. It has really improved the quality of the game for myself and my players.


Liminosse Starstone

 

[Fabio Andrea Rossi]

@ SpydersWebbing

Me! Me! Now that I saw the light I have to share it

In the Encounter builder, Build Encounter section (which you access by the button in the tool headline) you can see a list of monster, the one you can scroll up or down. You can see the monster entry by clicking on the eye icon right before the monster name, it's an icon similar do NWN eye.

You can do this also in later stages, always by clicking on the icon.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

*Pats DDI on the head* Good boy, your such a good boy!

Yup, count me amongst the others to adore DDI, especially the Encounter Builder and Compendium. Damn I hardly check my books anymore unless it is specific rules that I need to look up.

Plus Dragon continues to have some really, really kickass stuff in it.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Count me in as having drunk the DDi Kool-Aid - it's fantastic.

Being able to search for monsters, items, feats and character class builds from books I don't own is quite simply, worth the money by itself. Plus the character builder, even in beta, made me drool and in the full version is going to make me geekgasm (although I'm not sure my DM is going to appreciate me coming up with multiple ideas for new characters, heh).

Obviously, as and when the price goes up for my resubscription in October I might change my mind, but right now the money is so, so worth it.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

Let me join in the praise - my internet provider is currently only giving me flaky access to certain american websites - and DDI is among them! The pain, the loss... God, i remember how i copied all the feats i wanted the players to use in my Moonsea campaign out of the books! I mean, by hand! Not using the compendium!

Stone age, thats what it was. Never go back.

 

[Mercurius]

I really wasn't expecting much when I signed on--I thought this must be a hoax, but I was desperate. When I lost 12 pounds in two weeks I knew i was onto something...

Oh wait, wrong topic.

Hey Halivar, how much is Wizards paying you?

 

[darjr]

I love my DDI subscription as well.

Here's the thing, I love books, I love to read them, away from my computer. I didn't really want pdf's of the books... though those would be useful.

What I get in DDI is the material I need for the game (mostly) in electronic format from the books, and then I can get the books, so I can have the BOOK.

Better than having a myriad collection of pdf's.

This is even better than having the books material unlockable by some code with the purchase of the book. Or getting the pdf free with the purchase of the book. Having access to some of the crunch in the other books I have not bought is more than worth the price and very useful. Useful before, during and after the game.

 

[DonAdam]

Good to know those utilities are so... utilitous.

Question:

Does the encounter builder have the stats for the new monsters from Dragon/Dungeon?

I will second the suggestions for printable area maps and a monster modifier. If I was a DM I would pay for that stuff in a heartbeat.

 

[vagabundo]

I'm not big into the encounter builder, but the compendium and character builder - once it goes past level three - are nice. The monster builder seems good too, but I'm enjoying hand crafting them at the moment.

I enjoy reading the Dragon and Dungeon content and the copy and paste makes it easy to put together hand-outs...

 

[timbannock]

I picked up Castle Zagyg: Upper Works and wanted to run it in 4e for my players as a holiday present to them. It didn't end up happening (they actually hung out with their families around the holidays!? Who does that?), but anyway, I had about 1 week to convert over a significant portion of it to 4e. I thought I'd be screwed.

In one week's time, thanks to DDI's ease of use with searching for magic items and monsters, and doing the whole copy/paste thing, I had 90% of CZ: Upper Works converted to 4e. The only book I haven't done (out of 5 books, mind you) is the Storerooms level.

DDI: I think I love you.