E-Tools Preview

[Charwoman Gene]

First, there is at least one area of the core rules that is not really supported by Etools -- and that is monster templates. There is no one-click templating, and that's definitely a weakness. You can "sort of" do it by opening an existing .rac file and tweaking it, that works pretty well except that some templates (notably Vampire) also change your type, and you can't do that when editing a .rac file. But I used it to make fiendish stirges of Xvim (two templates there) for my campaign, for instance, and that worked out fairly well.

I can't just vampirify a character?
That sucks.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

It totally depends on the campaign. I seldom if ever use prestige classes, but I often use tweaked or advanced monsters as well as monsters with character classes. For me it is a must-have.

Yes!

BUt does is support alternate cube role methods?

 

[EricNoah]

By the way is the NDA on the beta testers lifted or are you answering based on the Gen Con preview?

Uh, neither?

 

[EricNoah]

Eric, could you clarify one thing pleace: The customizing you talked about, was that what's possible INSIDE the program or did you do the customising in the data files using Access (I understand Access is used to contain the main data base ?)

The customizing I talked about was inside the program.

I did do some experimenting with the Access database and was actually able to create the Red Wizard prestige class with it. Unfortunately I never did figure out how to do the "+1 spellcaster level" thing so it didn't work out. So I think there will be some ways to tweak things even more outside the program by manipulating the database.

 

[EricNoah]

I can't just vampirify a character?
That sucks.

Agreed! It would certainly be near the top of the list of things I'd want to see in an expansion or patch.

 

[Sayburr]

I have a question for you all...

Lets say I take my Kalamar Player's Guide and I enter all of the new classes and races and feats and spell... ect.

OK, that is great for me, but can I get this information to the players without having to build it all over again?

I must admit, I don't know alot about this program, but I am assuming since you can edit the database it can just be sent to you players so they can build their characters, right?

So, if this is possible can a person just post a modified database on the web for everyone to use?

 

[EricNoah]

a) there isn't an in-program way to add new classes. You'd have to do that through the database and I'm not even sure it's totally possible.

b) If your whole group were going to want the same data, then yes it would make sense for you to make a copy of your custom database and just replace the one that ships with MT on the other users' computers. I don't know that posting it on a website would be legal/fair use but I think sharing the DB with your group (assuming they'd each paid for a legal copy of E-Tools) would be fine. As I mentioned above, Etools doesn't ship with an import-export feature. Someone else above thinks there's someone working on a fan-created tool for doing that, though.

 

[Sayburr]

Well, as a Core Rules character generator it sounds great and if it came out two years ago with the core books it would have been a huge seller. I am afraid my games have moved away from the core rules over the last two years and it doesn't look like there is a valid reason to buy this.

I am using feats and spells from other sources and in one case a class from another source...

I will, however, reserve judgement for when the product is actually released and I hear more about it. A lot can change between a Bata and an actual release.

Thanks, Eric, for the reply.

 

[talmar]

Yes Eric,

Thank you very much. This is exactly what I have been waiting for. Some sort of concrete information about E-Tools.

This has solidified my resolve to purchasing this product.

I look forward to its release.

 

[Davin]

Lets say I take my Kalamar Player's Guide and I enter all of the new classes and races and feats and spell... ect.

OK, that is great for me, but can I get this information to the players without having to build it all over again?

Actually, I'm working on something to do that. I worked out the following concept for it almost two years ago:

When you add information to the database, it would be marked as customized (non-core) changes. My program would allow you to go through and find all those changes (even with some selection and "naming" options) and write just those changes to an XML file. You could then ship that file to anyone you wanted (or just post it openly) because it didn't contain any of the core information. (Warning: There can still be copyright issues involved if you just type in something out of a purchased book!) Then, anyone that wanted your changes could just import the file you sent them (again with my program) and it'd be ready to use. You can also use this technique on your own machine to import a particular rules set (say, F.R.) for a campaign and then delete it again for a different campaign that doesn't use those rules.

Would that make you happy?