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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bargle0" data-source="post: 5366620" data-attributes="member: 76212">The DM's Kit is the only Essentials resource that has rules for things like encounter and skill challenge construction.  It is no less a requirement than the DMG.  In many ways, it is inferior to the DMG.  That Essentials is cheaper than the core material is an illusion.  It is easier to get in to, but that's only because the Essentials characters are much easier to play.  It's an overall positive move for the game, but don't let the marketing lies fool you.Let me put it to you this way: three years ago, I bought my nephews the core set plus a 1" circle die punch so they could play D&D 4e.  In total, I spent $98 retail.  To achieve the same breadth of functionality, I'd have to spend $130 retail on two Heroes books, the RC, the DM Kit, and the Monster Vault.  If you suppose that I only needed to buy them one Heroes book, then I'd be at $110 retail.  It's not a terrible deal because the enclosed adventures and tokens are actually pretty nice.  However, it's not any cheaper.You've been screwed by them.  Wizards has spent the last 6-9 months using our subscription money to replicate functionality that we already had.  They could have designed the CB to operate in an off-line mode with Silverlight using the downloaded database, but they did not.  The last six months of Dragon content has done little more than contribute to feat- and background-bloat.  For instance, take that Wilden article today.  The flavor of the article makes no sense.  The feats contained therein are grotesquely situational.  This article is of no use to anyone.  It might be one thing if this article were an outlier, but garbage like this shows up in Dragon every single week.  It's telling that the most interesting things on the Wizards website last week were the free previews of Essentials material.  Outside of DDI, our books have been rendered nigh-worthless by updates, including updates for books released in the very same month as the book itself.  At this point, it's clear that Wizards isn't play-testing their games very well.  I don't think they even have a good grasp on how their own game works.  I don't know about you, but if I spend $30 on a RPG book, I expect a certain standard of quality that simply isn't met by Wizards.I suppose it's all right, though, if you think that sort of treatment from Wizards is acceptable.  I, for one, am beginning to grow weary.Whether some people have been screwing Wizards by subscribing for a month, downloading everything and then cancelling is a separate issue entirely.Your analogy works as long as no bus is runs the light.  I merely think we should keep our eyes on the oncoming traffic while we cross the road.To make the analogy ridiculous, there is a bus: it's the subscription-only character builder.  Hopefully it will stop at the light.  Maybe it won't.  My point is that we should be aware of the bus.  Instead, you insist that it will always stop at the light.It's also irrational to mindlessly apologize for an entity that does not have one's interests in mind.We are at an impasse.  Where you see no evidence of moving to a subscription-only model, I see them making a CB that works on a subscription-only model.  Where you see continued support for physical products, I see them flailing about in desperation because the old splatbook treadmill no longer works.  I don't think further discourse between us on this topic will be productive.</blockquote>

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