November 16th release for Web-based Character Builder

[fanboy2000]

I find it amusing - or curious if you prefer - that a lot of people seem to complain that they will no longer be able to use the CB ... at work...

Me too. Maybe it's just because I work in IT security, but installing unapproved software on a work computer just seems like asking for trouble.

What I find amusing is that I've never heard of iplay4e prior to people complaining that they can't use it anymore.

That doesn't invalidate the complaint, it just amuses me.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I played with paper character sheets for 25 years. I can always go back to that, right? But you can't tell me that the paper sheets are going to improve my experience at the game table. I ain't buying it.

Can't you still use the old CB for iplay4e? That said, I suspect you were waiting for the Dark Sun stuff to come out for the old CB given your work on the setting in the past.

 

[abyssaldeath]

Exporting your character sheet to the .dnd4e format is the highest priority on their list at the moment.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Except that then a different set of people then complain that Wizard's ins't communicating with them.

I think it would largely be the same people.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Yeah, yeah, I know. I played with paper character sheets for 25 years. I can always go back to that, right? But you can't tell me that the paper sheets are going to improve my experience at the game table. I ain't buying it.

--Dave.

Funny, that was always my thought about DDI and electronic sheets.

 

[SteveC]

I just wanted to address one point, as someone who's been a member of DDI for almost as long as he could be. Folks seem to be saying "it's a service? How could you possibly expect to keep a service after you drop it?"

The thing is, that's very much the way they're heading, but that is not the way it was back in the beginning. I know this because I never would have subscribed if that was the pitch. I'm a guy who doesn't subscribe to services where I don't get something real--a purchase to keep--unless it's absolutely necessary.

So when the DDI came along, the thing that ultimately sold me was the character builder. The way they did it was to say, here's a free builder for you to download and try. If you subscribe, you can update it with the latest info. When you walk away, you can no longer update it.

For me, that was an instant sale (a no-brainer!) The magazines and the compendium are things that I have barely touched, mostly because I was not impressed with the first Adventure Path they produced, and the compendium was slow and much harder to use than the features of the character builder. If I want to know about an item, power or feat, it's MUCH faster to use the CB, and I don't need an internet connection to use it. Yes, some of us don't have constant Internet connections. If free wi-fi hadn't been provided at last Gen Con, for instance, no one would have been able to update their characters in the convention hall without an additional costly purchase!

If they had pitched DDI the way they're doing it now to me back then, I never would have subscribed, and I know for certain that I'm not the only one.

For me, the ability to get the CB and something that I could ultimately walk away from if I so chose, made getting a subscription a no-brainer to me. That and the fact that I wanted to show my support for the folks at WotC who were making a darn fine game.

The problem, to me, is that they're changing the rules of the road and then trying to tell me things were never any different. That's garbage. You were always able to download and use the character builder for free with the core rules (and still can now, unless it's been pulled). The only "subscription" you had was to get new material.

Am I stealing from WotC? No. I don't give out my copy of the CB or download PDFs of the books--and I have purchased quite a few books until the Essentials series came along. The net result is that I'm no longer getting something that has any value to me, and as a paying customer I'll tell you that's a poor attitude for any company to take.

Will this new CB prevent piracy? As long as you can log in more than one place at a given time it will not put a dent into the big problem of sharing the CB. If there is a limit to how you can log into it, I daresay this will be a problem when you connection doesn't reset properly and you have to log back on repeatedly.

But all that's ultimately not the point, which to me is: the DDI is becoming something new, and those of us who have subscribed to it under the old rules aren't being gripey whiners for complaining about how it's changing.

--Steve

 

[buddhafrog]

After a 25 year absence from rpg's, I started playing again last Christmas. I chose D&D 4e for various reasons, but I live overseas and getting my hands on books is much more expensive. I ended up downloading a pirated CB (didn't understand at the time that I could just buy a one-month subscription). It was great. I was hooked into D&D. And during this past year, I've spent many hundreds of $$$ on WotC products b/c I really love playing this game - as do my kids and students that I play with. I would be a happy regular subscriber to DDI, but with the change, I'm uncertain. While I'll likely continue, I am also pondering making a jump to another system. I DM around 30 kids, and they will not be able to buy monthly subscriptions. Technically they don't "need" the CB, but in reality, they do - otherwise, it is just too confusing for them. I'm not completely comfortable choosing a rpg game for these students that require your monthly fee to access your character. And while WotC says they are working on letting you extract your character, the fact that this wasn't one of the primary early goals strikes me as odd - and a little troubling. They will completely control access to my characters, and I'm uneasy with this idea. Very.

If I didn't start playing rpg's last Christmas but instead started this year, I wouldn't be choosing D&D b/c of the monthly costs involved. I would have chosen one of the many other options (likely a AD&D modern version).

I understand the reasons WotC is doing this and I think this does provide some opportunities for them to produce a better product (more control, regular updates, better mobile options, interesting sharing of info, more tools). But I do sense that this will begin an ever-increasing need for the web-based tools. This increasing necessity to use DDI and the monthly costs involved (or you lose everything) has me worried that it will make entry harder - that is not a good thing for rpg's which tend to be hard to enter to start with.

I do think two things might happen: 1) a playing group will share one account, or 2) players might only sign up for when they need to level-up. While the first would be against the ToC and, I see this as minor and a way to make it easier (yes cheaper) to play for those that otherwise wouldn't subscribe at all. I don't think it would drain a lot of income from WotC - actually, I would hope that it draws in the players and provides greater longterm income. If I subscribe to the new DDI, I will certainly do this. I will have my account, and my 20-30 students will make their characters on my account to play in my game. WotC will not be loosing any money b/c either way these kids won't be sending money to WotC. But hopefully, it will eventually bring income to WotC b/c I'll be buying more of their products as we play, and the kids will grow up and start their own games, etc. etc. Many of these kids have told me that D&D is their favorite game ever. I hope these kids stay in the hobby and eventually make their wives angry at how much they are giving to WotC.

 

[darjr]

http://community.wizards.com/go/thr...you_would_like_answered&post_num=39#472980797

Hey guys. I don't have answers to all the questions yet, but I wanted to hop back in here with a few that I do have.
Different paper sizes? Letter is common in NA, but Europe uses A4. They are *almost* identical, but not quite.


This should adjust to your page size. The print option links to your printer(s) and allows you to choose the preferences. I personally printed it out on a few different page sizes and it seemed to adjust just fine, but I didn’t have an A4 paper size to check this out on.


Copy To Clipboard/Import from Clipboard have been very useful to me for discussing characters. Is this functionality still going to be available?


The web-based CB allows you to copy and paste text into text fields that you could normally type into, but it does not allow you to copy the text of other areas of the builder or character sheet.


I have a lot of characters at any given time – How many characters can I save to the web-based Character Builder?
Currently, the limit for saved characters is set to 20. This is something we may increase in the future.


How much can I house rule my character?
Currently you can set your stats beyond the normal point buy thresholds like you could in the older versions of the character builder, so you can have alternate point buys. However, you’re not able to add or create additional feats, create magic items or new powers, or add more trained skills. We’ll be adding this level of customization in future updates.


Can we add and buy uncommon and rare items from the Character Builder? This functionality isn’t in the current version of the CB, but it should be in the CB if the DM wants to allow it.
You can add an uncommon item to a characters inventory or you can buy it and have it placed in the inventory. Currently there are no rare items in the CB or the Compendium, but when they are added, you should be able to add and purchase them as well.


I'll bring some more answers/questions as I get them, and I'm also putting together a larger post that focuses on the two different character sheet options in the updated CB, and some other cool features.

No rare items in the current cb

 

[garyh]

20 saved characters? 20? That'd horrendous. All this talk of "the cloud" and they only are giving us about 2 MB to actually store our PC's. That's absolutely ridiculous and an insult. Hell, the last time I played WoW you could have 50 characters (max 10 per server).

20!

 

[Obryn]

Wow - a 20 character limit is ridiculous, if it's kept for any length of time. I hope WotC's using this limit as a stress test of sorts, to see if the system can keep up. I fear that it's a way to cut down on account sharing. Regardless, once the Export function is up, I'm not sure how much I'll care...

I'm most disappointed at the poor house-rule support.

I'm hoping the rest of the product is pretty bang-up awesome, because so far, the internet requirements (when I prep behind a firewall at work), lack of houseruling, and character limits sound like a pretty raw deal compared to what we already had.

-O

 

[malraux]

20 saved characters? 20? That'd horrendous. All this talk of "the cloud" and they only are giving us about 2 MB to actually store our PC's. That's absolutely ridiculous and an insult. Hell, the last time I played WoW you could have 50 characters (max 10 per server).

20!

Yeah, that is insultingly small.