Grand List of iPhone Apps for D&D Gaming

[Kragash]

That's the point of the compendium and WotC hawkishly putting a stop to various sites that have sprung up using WotC D&D IP to create competing (even if free and not as good) DDI-esque interfaces.

If that's the case Power Card Viewer on appspot would also be in trouble. It was one reason why I didn't include Power Cards, I wasn't sure how WotC would react to my app simply having a feat/feature/item database let alone power card data. I wasn't going to go through the trouble of manually putting thousands of powers into the database to have WotC tell me to cease and desist. I would have wasted hundreds of hours of my life.

I built the app with the idea that it would make D&D 4E even more accessible to people by allowing them to save time by rapidly filling in all the details for them. My app still very much requires the D&D books. It hardly enforces anything. For example, a heroic tier warlock *could* pick a an epic tier fighter feat. Or a bard could pick a wizard paragon class. The app doesn't show the prerequisites for anything and unless you know the name of the feat or item, you're going to have a hard time building your character by picking them at random.

So technically WotC wins big time. Character4ge users will still need to have the D&D books to look up which feat they can use. If WotC decides that my app crossed the line (IMO it hasn't), it's their loss (and mine I suppose). I'm not robbing them of anything...I'd argue that I'm potentially increasing their customer-base.

 

[Kragash]

I was really worried about IP when I was working on i4e. As a result it really includes nothing and just allows the users to input most anything. I'm currently working on adding the ability to import .dnd4e files from the Character Builder but its frustrating as the files don't contain all the information about a character.

I took a look at it also and, honestly, it's an XML file that was awkwardly laid out. As you've mentionned, it's missing some character information. But the most glaring problem is that it would still rely on the Compendium to fetch certain information. To me, that's a complete turn off. It requires an active internet connection and an account (which the user would have to log onto).

The web services for DDI are severely lacking and don't give you much of anything as far as information about things. The only way you can get good info even with a DDI account is all presented in pre-formatted HTML which is basically what is used by the compendium.

Indeed. It's restrictive and, in most cases, would break the user experience from your app and mine.

On top of this the character builder being windows only basically means that I'm not providing a true import option for any mac users.

This chafes me the most. Here's a huge company with lots of resources and swimming in money and yet they stubbornly create a Windows-only application. If someone wants to provide a solution to Mac, Linux or mobile users, is WotC really going to shake its finger at them and say "NO! We don't want no stinkin' Mac/Linux/iPhone/iPod touch users to play D&D 4E"? I would certainly hope not. It's an opportunity for WotC to grow its customer-base.

I'm pretty sure I could sell a few copies of DDI if I could get a decent web service option for getting info into the app but requiring a DDI account. Seems short sighted in the effort to "protect" their content.

You might be able to embed a WebKit view into your app. Still though, like you said, it requires an account and the user to log in. At this point, the app doesn't really feel like an app anymore but rather a simple website.

What I'm curious to know is where the IP fine line is. I'm still skeptical that WotC could slap my on the wrist for putting "Improved Initiative - +4 to initiative" in my app. Or "Flaming Weapon +4 (Shortsword)". Many of the power/feat/item names are borrowed from other RPGs, at this point I'd be stealing something that has be stolen and stolen and stolen.

edit: I also want to say that I totally respect WotC. I enjoy D&D 4E very much and want others to enjoy it also...that's why I spent the time to develop my application. I'm sure mpattee's reasons are similar. I'm not trying to tread on any of WotC IPs. Character Builder and the D&D books still have their role by giving players insight and details on what they can do and what they can't do with their characters. My app simply does not provide this level of detail.

 

[Mark]

So technically WotC wins big time.

Everyone who ever built a fan site that was shut down for IP violations has said the same thing and it has nothing to do with that. If there is IP being used without authorization, WotC will probably find out and get it shut down. If they feel it is a bigger issue (such as the recent spate of pdf-distribution lawsuits), you run the risk of being sued. One of the guys being sued actually signed up here on EN World so he could 'plead his case to the people' and posted extensively about his reasons and how he felt this and that. The 'I'm helping them through promotiong their stuff' and the 'imagine how much more they will sell because of my efforts' defenses have been trotted out many times before. It doesn't matter. If someone ignores the warnings and is violating IP, nothing I or anyone else posts can save them from themselves. I wish you well but that probably won't help you either.

 

[davethegame]

Character Builder and the D&D books still have their role by giving players insight and details on what they can do and what they can't do with their characters. My app simply does not provide this level of detail.

The biggest issue is that you're not competing against Character Builder or the books, you're competing against iplay4e.com, which includes everything with my character by uploading a single file and does most of what I'd want an iPhone app with 4e to do already. Inputting my character by hand into an app doubles my work after I've already made it. Today, I'm playing a level 27 character in a one shot, and there's no way I'd enter all that data using an iPhone.

 

[jkohlhepp]

If you are interested in this thread, you might be interested in something I threw together - an iPhone-compatible website for searching the D&D compendium from the iPhone. It is currently a work in progress but it is functional, at least for searching creatures. Details are on this thread:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan...1-d-d-insider-compendium-searcher-iphone.html

 

[Kragash]

Everyone who ever built a fan site that was shut down for IP violations has said the same thing and it has nothing to do with that. If there is IP being used without authorization, WotC will probably find out and get it shut down. If they feel it is a bigger issue (such as the recent spate of pdf-distribution lawsuits), you run the risk of being sued. One of the guys being sued actually signed up here on EN World so he could 'plead his case to the people' and posted extensively about his reasons and how he felt this and that. The 'I'm helping them through promotiong their stuff' and the 'imagine how much more they will sell because of my efforts' defenses have been trotted out many times before. It doesn't matter. If someone ignores the warnings and is violating IP, nothing I or anyone else posts can save them from themselves. I wish you well but that probably won't help you either.

We'll see. Like I said, I could simply scrap my whole database and either let players enter everything by hand (which would displease people like davethegame) or at very worse just stop selling the app and everyone loses. I'll keep using my app for my games but everyone else will not have that chance.

 

[Kragash]

The biggest issue is that you're not competing against Character Builder or the books, you're competing against iplay4e.com, which includes everything with my character by uploading a single file and does most of what I'd want an iPhone app with 4e to do already. Inputting my character by hand into an app doubles my work after I've already made it. Today, I'm playing a level 27 character in a one shot, and there's no way I'd enter all that data using an iPhone.

My app doesn't compete with iplay4e either. At least not directly. iplay4e requires people to have Character Builder, requires people to upload their file to a server, and then view it on the iPhone. Character4ge isn't a read-only character sheet...it allows a player to change things on-the-fly. Leveling up recalculates everything that uses half levels in its calculations. Whenever there's a choice to be made (such as gaining +1 to two abilities or reaching the paragon tier or epic tier), then the player gets control over his choice. But when there's no choice to be made, everything is auto-calculated.

On the battle sheet portion of my app, the player can easily keep track of temporary bonuses, temporary hit points, death saves, second wind usage...most of this stuff does not exist in iplay4e. My app does not require an active internet connection so you do not need to be near a wireless router to view your character profile.

 

[davethegame]

My app doesn't compete with iplay4e either. At least not directly. iplay4e requires people to have Character Builder, requires people to upload their file to a server, and then view it on the iPhone. Character4ge isn't a read-only character sheet...it allows a player to change things on-the-fly. Leveling up recalculates everything that uses half levels in its calculations. Whenever there's a choice to be made (such as gaining +1 to two abilities or reaching the paragon tier or epic tier), then the player gets control over his choice. But when there's no choice to be made, everything is auto-calculated.

On the battle sheet portion of my app, the player can easily keep track of temporary bonuses, temporary hit points, death saves, second wind usage...most of this stuff does not exist in iplay4e. My app does not require an active internet connection so you do not need to be near a wireless router to view your character profile.

Looking forward to seeing it and adding it to our 4e Accessories page:
Critical Hits » Guide to 4e Accessories
(and watching this thread closely for others, of course)

 

[bryanlo]

My app doesn't compete with iplay4e either. At least not directly. iplay4e requires people to have Character Builder, requires people to upload their file to a server, and then view it on the iPhone. Character4ge isn't a read-only character sheet...it allows a player to change things on-the-fly. Leveling up recalculates everything that uses half levels in its calculations. Whenever there's a choice to be made (such as gaining +1 to two abilities or reaching the paragon tier or epic tier), then the player gets control over his choice. But when there's no choice to be made, everything is auto-calculated.

On the battle sheet portion of my app, the player can easily keep track of temporary bonuses, temporary hit points, death saves, second wind usage...most of this stuff does not exist in iplay4e. My app does not require an active internet connection so you do not need to be near a wireless router to view your character profile.

I certainly am looking forward to it!

 

[Felonious Ham]

Updates to the Player's Companion

I've posted an update to the Character Manager (now called Player's Companion). It's now spell-complete, has better log keeping, can load character data, and accounts for language data.

D&D Player's Companion

As may be obvious, I am not a web designer (most of what I know I've learned doing this), so I'm open to ideas on how to improve the UI.

Also, since the spell (and all other static) data is stored in a TaffyDB format, it's very easy to parse and munge to use in other projects.