New CB and security

[BobTheNob]

I read through the sections pointed out. Now, Im certainly not a lawyer ( I think that stuff sits on my brains "dead" side) but I couldnt find anything that said another person was not allowed to use your account.

Cant download material, cant distribute, cant on-sell yada yada, but not that other people couldnt use the account (as long as they are within the current guidelines)

It does raise an interesting question, because I imagine that just about every group out there operates on a "account per group" basis, and what does the online version mean for that...

 

[the Jester]

I read through the sections pointed out. Now, Im certainly not a lawyer ( I think that stuff sits on my brains "dead" side) but I couldnt find anything that said another person was not allowed to use your account.

Cant download material, cant distribute, cant on-sell yada yada, but not that other people couldnt use the account (as long as they are within the current guidelines)

It does raise an interesting question, because I imagine that just about every group out there operates on a "account per group" basis, and what does the online version mean for that...

My guess is that the practical meaning is that fewer people will use their electronic versions of their character sheets at the table, since (I believe) only one person at a time will be able to be logged in.

 

[Caerin]

The Terms of Use for the software are different from the Terms of Use for the Website. I haven't found a copy of them online- they're what you get whenever you install or update the Character Builder. They do restrict use of the software to one individual. They also restrict use of the software to one computer. The latter does go counter to some advice given on the WotC forums, so I don't quite know what to make of it.

 

[BobTheNob]

The Terms of Use for the software are different from the Terms of Use for the Website. I haven't found a copy of them online- they're what you get whenever you install or update the Character Builder. They do restrict use of the software to one individual. They also restrict use of the software to one computer. The latter does go counter to some advice given on the WotC forums, so I don't quite know what to make of it.

Probably wotc's marketing department saying "You can put it on 5 computers!" while there legal department is saying you can put it on one...

Even if we cant legally do the multi user scenario, I still reckon they should be allowing read only versions of the character sheets online. We have a fully computerised setup included laptops, projectors and tablets...even over the internet play occasionally. It would be fantastic if we had a central means of just being able to view characters online, rather than us having to cope with it.

 

[Vaslov]

Beyond the Terms stuff the OP brings up a good point. I hope on the future feature list there is a way for players in a campaign to have their accounts interact. This could go as far as having a Facebook like connection between accounts to show who was playing or watching a game. Perhaps there is even a marketing opportunity here if WotC has some first class monitoring metrics in the site (i.e. we noticed you seem to have an undead themed campaign. Have you looked at these products)

I think there is some lower hanging fruit they should get to before this like providing some basic flexibility for to tailor to home made campaigns, but as a long term vision it would be nice to see. It will be interesting to see where it heads.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

D&D Insider Security Hole

In other changes, Wizards finally updated whatever tracks links between unpaid accounts and full access to the compendium and CB. The true freeloaders have been stopped.

 

[WalterKovacs]

From their known issues list:

Editing the same character from two different locations can cause unexpected changes.

They presumaby know it's going to happen, and may not try too hard to stop it from happening, but they can't outright condone it, because that would make it difficult for them in case they ever have to go to court over say ... a free program that allows everyone access via some guys account, to the info in the compendium, or something like that.

 

[Jhaelen]

From their known issues list:

Editing the same character from two different locations can cause unexpected changes.

Wow, that's pathetic ^^

 

[Katana_Geldar]

ToS issues aside, your concern seems awfully adversarial. Do you have that little trust in your players that you need a master copy?

It's a matter of keeping on the same page as the players as far as their charaxcters go and being able to refer to them if necessary.

And it is a quite important back up. If a player happens to lose their sheet for whatever reason, they know the DM has a copy.

 

[Pseudonym]

It's a matter of keeping on the same page as the players as far as their charaxcters go and being able to refer to them if necessary.

And it is a quite important back up. If a player happens to lose their sheet for whatever reason, they know the DM has a copy.

Granted being able to print out a character sheet if it gets forgotten is important, but the concern seems to be in controling items and feats.

This allows me to control things like
1) Ill conceived Dragon Magazine feats and powers
2) Items I just plum dont want in my campaign (for balance or fluff reasons)
3) Things that may be at odds with our groups house rules
4) ... the list goes on

If the concern is not allowing certain feats or items, then why not say so up front and trust your players not to take then rather on insisting on keeping a master copy to make sure the players don't take them? Seems that if you canlt get people to follow the house rules without policing them there are bigger issues beyond character builder functionality.