"Essentials Only" possible in CB?

[Tony Vargas]

It would not be that difficult to set up a customized 'campaign' for 'Essentials only.' You'll have to uncheck just about everything, but you can do it.

You can't quite do the opposite, though. You can uncheck Essentials, but not the updates that make 4e compatible with Essentials (so you can never have Magic Missle back the way it was, for instance, nor any of the other spells that are getting updated). Well, you can, you just have to have not updated CB in a while, and never update it again...

 

[scylis]

It would not be that difficult to set up a customized 'campaign' for 'Essentials only.' You'll have to uncheck just about everything, but you can do it.

You can't quite do the opposite, though. You can uncheck Essentials, but not the updates that make 4e compatible with Essentials (so you can never have Magic Missle back the way it was, for instance, nor any of the other spells that are getting updated). Well, you can, you just have to have not updated CB in a while, and never update it again...

Aside from Magic Missile, the only changes made to spells "for the Essentials" is to add a spell school keyword to them. Any other change was made to give Wizards in general a little boost, which has nothing to do with the existence of the Essentials line. Well, and to remove an option from Prestidigitation which Mage Hand flat out did better in every respect, mechanically.

And as for Magic Missile, I'm not convinced that the change to it was specifically "for the Essentials line" and not something they haven't felt like doing for a hwhile now (and perhaps due to peer pressure from Gamer in Chiefs [tongue-in-cheek comment, nudge nudge wink wink]).

 

[Plane Sailing]

It might be possible to run "Essentials Only," but that would be a pretty simple game with many, many options left out since you'd have no PH, PH2, etc., etc.

Well, that might be the point of doing it, no?

Certainly something I'd consider.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Aside from Magic Missile, the only changes made to spells "for the Essentials" is to add a spell school keyword to them. Any other change was made to give Wizards in general a little boost, which has nothing to do with the existence of the Essentials line. Well, and to remove an option from Prestidigitation which Mage Hand flat out did better in every respect, mechanically.

And as for Magic Missile, I'm not convinced that the change to it was specifically "for the Essentials line" and not something they haven't felt like doing for a hwhile now (and perhaps due to peer pressure from Gamer in Chiefs [tongue-in-cheek comment, nudge nudge wink wink]).

I'd say that the changes aren't over yet. If we don't get more updates next month when the next book comes out I'll be honestly surprised.

 

[Odhanan]

It might be possible to run "Essentials Only," but that would be a pretty simple game with many, many options left out since you'd have no PH, PH2, etc., etc.

Well, it's the point.

 

[Jhaelen]

I'd just love to have a "uncheck all" button.

This.

I'd like it if they simply grouped all issues of Dragon into a single nest (and likewise with Dungeon). This would make it possible to check or uncheck every issue with a single click, instead of clicking each individual issue.

Even better!

At least you can save your settings and characters created using that file will 'remember' your settings. I've used it to only allow material from the books I own. Works rather well.

However, new material is allowed as a default, so you have to adjust your campaign settings after every update... Changing that default would also be a nice improvement, imho.