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Message: <blockquote data-quote="00Machado" data-source="post: 3482731" data-attributes="member: 23690">Regarding Chris' question of what I'd like to see...Here it is. Probably not everything that I'd like. But at least the stuff that first comes to mind.Make the game easier to play, not harder. Right now the crunch makes it one of the harder games for me to play. Create tools that make it one of, if not the easiest. I'm not talking about just a forum where I can meet people who play (because this is the largest gaming brand), I mean specifically create tools that literally make it more time consuming to play anything else, and then content that inspires me to want to play. Do that, and you'll have 1) justified the online format in my mind, and 2) hooked me as a GM.Open things up with options, but don't go crunch crazy. Any new mechanic is a thing to remember. Every thing to remember needs to be worth that mental weight, book lookup time when you can't remember it, etc.The game needs mysteries that aren't always explained, and magic that PCs can't always replicate, or can't fully replicate. There is no sense of mystery when literally everything a villain might use, a location (even a long forgotten tomb!) might have, just turns into something the PCs can repeat ad nauseum.Maps. Floor plans and miniature scale. The fantastic location products can become part of the service, combined with the below idea to make up "adventure builder components", or "adventure builder kits".Encounter locations and adversary tactics that you can build larger adventures around. Instead of always making everything a full adventure, make a few pieces that I can interpret in multiple ways. I will flesh out the details from there. Ease of use, without making me read too much, or really memorize more than an isolated encounter or two. It's easier for me to remember (and to adapt on the fly) something that I've made up, rather than something you've made up and I've read.Start making the downloadable 3D terrain products again. Make them more than just buildings. Trees, walls, furniture, all the good stuff. Make them so that you can have matching miniature scale maps for encounters. Make fold up card stock counters that you can print out too, because I don't have a bunch of miniature, and don't have money to buy them all, or room to store them all.Put up archives of all the old Dungeoncraft articles.Put up other things that are pivotal to strong and efficient GM sills - the relevant opening section of DMG II, the AD&D DM Design Kit, maybe 2e Campaign Sourcebook & Catacomb Guide, or Complete Book of Villains. Content that builds all the various GM skills that are needed to plan and execute at the table. And write more of it. GM skill development is a woefully underdeveloped topic in gaming.Build in a mechanism for subscribers to review "everything". Every article should get ratings by those who have read it. Even a response thread/blog where it can be discussed, expanded upon, and authors can chime in to clarify if they wish. Or a link to the message board thread for any content that ends up prompting an online discussion.Provide a mechanism to preview the ideas that are going into future products, and to help shape the content of those products. I don't want any more products that feel like modern pop albums - with one or two good songs, chapters, etc. I want products that are stuffed with page after page of excellence and stuff I can't wait to use. I want the classic rock albums of gaming products. Hero executes on the idea via their 'What would you like to see?' threads when development of new products begins. I want the subscribers to be able to send ideas that no one is interested in to the cutting room floor, to make more for the stuff people want.I'd like expansion of content from other books that was too lengthy for the printed product. For example, the Stronghold Builders Guide is said to have a system for building something from the ground up, but not for expanding, taking over something that's ben abandoned, and so on. So, a system like that which can make the print product more useful, or stand on it's own, would be welcome.I might like playtesting options. The chance to test out rules before they're finalized. I probably wouldn't use it much, but I think others might like it.This may sound weird, but I'd also like the type of content that will go away with 3.5e to be weighted toward the online service as much as possible. I don't want a bunch of obsolete books when 4e comes out. I'd rather have printed content that's still relevant, and online content that can be replaced. Books that support a mechanic that's gone are just shelfware at that point.Greyhawk please.Offer some benefits that are simply not possible in a printer format. Examples include the following two ideas.Something to make NPC creation fast. I'm talking drag and drop fast. Type in stats. Drag and drop feats. Auto calculate bonuses. Fill in a character sheet/encounter sheet I can use. One format for encounters, and one fully detailed. Let me login and drag and drop modifiers onto the NPCs during play. Post an encounter cheat sheet that tells me which condictions apply to whom.I want to plug in any two locations from a WotC setting, and have a menu option of travel methods/routes to select that are relevant, weather conditions to overlay on top of that, and have it auto calculate travel times, identify common stopping points like inns, camp sites, Portals/shortcuts, or note any conspicuous absence of safe places to rest. As GM, I'll pick the place my PCs decide to stay, and the service will display a few possible encounters related to that location that I might want to throw in. An inn might have a fight, and a link to rumors to overhear - ideally targeted at the area (that might pull in info from a column like the Eberron news dispatches). Bring things that are useful at that moment in the game right to my finger tips. And hopefully those things spark creativity for instant use in the game.The service should have vast (and fast) search capabilities. I should be able to mark things as favorites, and tie them to 'buckets'. Maybe one campaign uses this article, and another this other one, so I create groups, and tag things as relevant for one of more (or all groups), so that when I go to those buckets, it only brings up the content I've put there. It might suggest new stuff that's similar as well.Also, hurry up on the timeline. The longer this takes to become available, the more I lose interest, get distracted by other hobbies, and will find my gaming fix via other products. Not a dig. I'm just saying.</blockquote>

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