L4W Discussion Thread III

[stonegod]

The "two teirs" is not much different than what is going on with any material available from Dragon/Dungeon, as that is not available "in print" as well. So it would be similar to whatever L4W's policy is on that material.

As for the exclusive: I don't care what they say now, I doubt they will "never" see print. Maybe not now, but I wouldn't be surprised in a 1 or so after release.

 

[JoeNotCharles]

I think we need to be a bit more careful with the DDI exclusive stuff... it'll create two-tiered playing field for the members. Maybe it's just me with the sour grapes, but I don't really like one group having access to the super-exclusive race/class, especially if they keep this going.

That was my first reaction, but thinking about it a little more, there's really no difference between requiring people to pay for a DDI membership and requiring them to buy a copy of every new book that's proposed. The only difference is that you can go leaf through a book in the bookstore or borrow it from a friend if you don't have it, but that's really no better than having a friend who can look things up on DDI for you.

And it's only the character judges that are affected here - any player that doesn't want to buy DDI just can't personally use the exclusive stuff. There should be enough info on the character sheet that the DM's can tell how all the exclusive powers, etc. work without needing to have the original source. At least two character judges need access to it to certify that the info on the sheet is correct, and then anyone else can just use that.

I have DDI, and I plan to save a copy of this stuff for my own offline use as soon as it shows up. So if any of the character judges without DDI are evaluating a character with DDI-only content, they can PM me or email me with questions. (For example, I could run down all the powers and class features on a sheet and make sure the text is correct - that wouldn't take long, even if I'm too busy to judge the whole character - and then the other judge can make sure the math is correct.)

 

[renau1g]

The "two teirs" is not much different than what is going on with any material available from Dragon/Dungeon, as that is not available "in print" as well. So it would be similar to whatever L4W's policy is on that material.

As for the exclusive: I don't care what they say now, I doubt they will "never" see print. Maybe not now, but I wouldn't be surprised in a 1 or so after release.

I didn't think anything from the online mags was approved (or proposed) besides the free stuff. Sorry for the ignorance. I do agree with your second point as well. maybe once they do PHB4 and the shadow power source they'll come out.

 

[covaithe]

As with 3rd party content, I think the only restriction is that there have to be enough judges with access to the content to be able to read it and vote yes. This stuff is certainly no more "exclusive" than the 3rd party controller classes that someone proposed a while ago.

 

[JoeNotCharles]

I didn't think anything from the online mags was approved (or proposed) besides the free stuff. Sorry for the ignorance. I do agree with your second point as well. maybe once they do PHB4 and the shadow power source they'll come out.

I don't think we've approved any of the non-free stuff, but that's just because nobody's proposed any yet. There's no bar in the charter. (But maybe there should be?)

 

[elecgraystone]

That was my first reaction, but thinking about it a little more, there's really no difference between requiring people to pay for a DDI membership and requiring them to buy a copy of every new book that's proposed. The only difference is that you can go leaf through a book in the bookstore or borrow it from a friend if you don't have it, but that's really no better than having a friend who can look things up on DDI for you.

Well, this isn't true, at least for me. Ever since DDI went pay, I can't access my account. My password doesn't match now and neither do my replacement ones. I also don't have anyone to 'look' up the info. As such, I don't even have the option of getting DDI. My only hope to see it is an illegal copy/paste from someone's DDI account.

I REALLY hate WOTC online...

 

[JoeNotCharles]

Well, this isn't true, at least for me. Ever since DDI went pay, I can't access my account. My password doesn't match now and neither do my replacement ones. I also don't have anyone to 'look' up the info. As such, I don't even have the option of getting DDI. My only hope to see it is an illegal copy/paste from someone's DDI account.

Your only chance to see it, yes. But why do you need to see it to play or DM an adventure with a character using this material, as long as a character judge who DOES have access has certified the character as being OK? The character sheets are going to have all the powers they use summarized. (Maybe that's an "illegal copy/paste", but we already do that a lot and nobody's complained.)

EDIT: sorry, I thought you were responding to the other part of my post. I guess for you, it's just like approving stuff from a physical book, except that none of the bookstores near you carry it and every single time you try to order it online it gets lost in the mail.

 

[TwoHeadsBarking]

Elec, are you saying that you're currently paying for a DDI account you can't access? Yikes. What does customer service have to say about that?

Alternatively, if the above is not the case, what's stopping you from creating another account?

I don't have any experience with DDI screwing me over (lucky me) so I apologize if the above is not really possible.

 

[elecgraystone]

No, not paying. Never had the chance and now I don't think I ever will. I can't switch my account and without a new e-mail address, I can't make another account. Plus my credit card info is in there someplace and I don't want to get charged twice. I can't even post on the WOTC site since I can't log on.

As far as cust service, they happily send out out new passwords that don't work, then 'they'll have someone look at it', then I get someone new, then I get a new password that doesn't work...

Got them to delete the account once, which worked until I started making another account and it told me that I already had an account. Yep, top notch service I'll be GLAD to pay for...

 

[weldon]

As for re-writing them to be easier, go for it. I don't have time now to work on that myself. I've wanted to get it so that you only answer specific questions and it does all the calculations. No more putting in your Dex Mod 12 times, just enter how much point buy you spend on it and it'll fill in the rest. But I'm afraid programming time is taking a back seat for a while.

OK. I think I'll tackle the companion animal stat block first. I co opted the character summary for the companion animal summary in Finnian's character sheet (Beastmaster) but I think this could be done better. Maybe there is a way to handle familiars as well?

I was going to open a new thread to discuss what should go in the companion animal template and get some feedback about incorporating familiars too (to see if it would save work in the long-term). Just thought I would check in here to get a nod from someone who has been around a while (since I am very new here).

Should I open a "Proposal" thread to discuss the addition of a companion animal / familiar template to be added to the character sheet?