Rules Database vs. Core Rulebooks

[Kristian Serrano]

Will a subscription to D&DI mean that I can access the rules database to reference rules such as character leveling, experience points, combat options, and other core rules without having to purchase the books?

Additionally, has WotC has announced whether or not PDFs will be significantly cheaper than hard copies. How soon can we expect to see PDFs of the PHB, DMG, and MM?

 

[mattdm]

Additionally, has WotC has announced whether or not PDFs will be significantly cheaper than hard copies. How soon can we expect to see PDFs of the PHB, DMG, and MM?

They've made various mumblings but I haven't heard anything definite about either price or availability.

I'm hoping for a very reasonable discount for people who purchased the hardcopy books. I'm not terribly interested in D&DI, but find digital copies of the stuff I own indispensible at DM prep time. (I use the hardcopy books during the game itself.)

 

[Mort_Q]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4OFQt3aQTo

 

[Kristian Serrano]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4OFQt3aQTo

I've seen that video, but it doesn't answer my questions.

 

[Vempyre]

- no PDF of the books
- free rules database will have no crunch, paid rules database will have the crunch but not the fluff
- I'd be surprised if it included character leveling and such, but it hasn't been spoken about so nobody knows

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

What was said at DDXP was that there wasn't going to be different prices for PDFs based on whether you owned the hardcover books or not. Due to technical limitations, they got rid of the idea of putting codes in the books entirely, so there is no way for them to know if you own the books or not.

Based on that, it SOUNDED like the prices for PDFs would likely be close to or the same as the physical books.

Although the question of whether or not you'd get the character creation rules and the like from the Rules Database wasn't answered directly, based on what was said at DDXP and all of the screenshots I've seen, I'd have to guess no. The rules database APPEARS to be more of a list of feats, classes, powers, paragon paths, skills, magic items, races, monsters, and epic destinies.

My best guess is you may be able to do a search on all the classes in the game, and if you are paying for DDI, then you will be able to click on a class and get the full text of that class and its powers. However, you likely won't be able to search for any of the "inbetween" text. Which means no character creation rules, no combat rules, no leveling information and so on.

It seems to be designed more to be a tool for helping those who already own the books. If, in 2 years from now there are classes in 6 different books, plus magic items in 4 different books, and paragon paths in another couple of books, this will let you easily see a list of them all and browse for the one you'd like to be in a game. You'd still need a PHB to tell you how to roll up stats, how many powers to choose if you're 10th level and so on.

 

[thalmin]

From the session at GAMA Trade Show, the plan has changed from the DDXP announcement. At GTS they said DDI would not contain complete book content, and I expect it has changed since GTS. The final decision probably mon't be made until DDI actually goes live.

 

[Kristian Serrano]

Thanks for all the replies. What I'm trying to figure out is if D&DI will allow me to buy into 4e at a minimal cost. I'm on a tighter budget these days (time and money) as I have a baby girl coming in three months. Moving to 4e instead of using my existing v3.5 library means less time preparing for game sessions, but more money spent. $20 for Keep on the Shadowfell, $62 on the core rulebooks, and $10-$15 per month on D&DI adds up really quickly. I was hoping that D&DI would allow me to avoid the upfront expense of the core rulebooks, and I at least want to purchase Keep on the Shadowfell so that my players and I can test it out.

 

[Harr]

As I understand it, what's been established is that the DDI rules databse will contain all the *rules* that have been published.

This could go many different ways, I suspect it will be something like, they will not contain any layout, examples, context or explanatory text. Just the rule. Like, instead of the couple pages in a PHB where it explains what skill checks are, why they are rolled the way that they are, when to call for a skill check and when not to, how it should be adjudicated by the DM, some sidebars of the iconic characters doing using some skills on an adventure, etc etc, you would get something like "Skill Check: d20 + modifier vs Difficulty".

It may not even be organized into any kind of logical readable beginning-to-end structure, just maybe a long alphabetical list of topics, or even maybe just a search so you can look for specifically the rules that you want.

Then again, none of this is known... it may turn out to be a faithful visual representation of every book out there, but I really doubt it.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

If you want to buy into 4E at minimal cost, why not skip DDI and go with just the core books? 6 months of DDI subscription is approximately equal to core book cost, so at month seven with DDI you exceed your initial investment ... and if/when you shut off DDI, you're left with little or nothing. Converting existing adventures doesn't look to be that difficult.

Unless they allow download of a pdf of the entire book with a DDI subscription at little/no cost, but that wouldn't make sense because that would encourage not buying the books to begin with, subscribing for a short time, then sutting off subscription with pdf copies of books in hand.