The Essential Knight

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Uhm. "Duh", as the kids say. It's not a big deal if everything is automatically fixed for you and you don't even use your printed copy. If you don't use DDI, you're still making the old stuff (or you're working off a printed piece of errata). And if you show up with old stuff at a new stuff game, a) you look silly, and b) it's no longer viable.

Well "duh" yourself. If you wish to play in an officially snactioned game it is assumed you will keep up on errata. That is a major draw for alot of people that join the RPGA, to have consistency from table to table.

 

[mkill]

uhm. "duh", as the kids say. It's not a big deal if everything is automatically fixed for you and you don't even use your printed copy. If you don't use ddi, you're still making the old stuff (or you're working off a printed piece of errata). And if you show up with old stuff at a new stuff game, a) you look silly, and b) it's no longer viable. quickly print out the relevant changes, update your sheet and you're ready to go.

Here, FTFY.

Mod Note: Folks, FTFY and FIFY are snarky responses. Great if you want to annoy people, but lousy if you want to actually communicate with them. Since you should be here to actually communicate, please don't use such tactics. Thanks. ~Umbran

 

[Old Gumphrey]

Except this hypothetical person still doesn't have DDI. I know it's crazy, but not everyone has DDI.

 

[mkill]

Except this hypothetical person still doesn't have DDI. I know it's crazy, but not everyone has DDI.

Well, if the DM insists on updates, he probably has DDI. Is it really that hard to spend the 15 minutes before the game, while everyone discusses the latest movies etc., to access an Internet-connected PC and update the charsheet?

Usually, you'll talk to the DM anyway before joining a new group, at which point you could ask whether he uses updates or not. This would allow you to arrive with a fully updated character, even. You don't even need DDI to get the updates.
Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Official D&D Updates Archive)

 

[MrMyth]

Uhm. "Duh", as the kids say. It's not a big deal if everything is automatically fixed for you and you don't even use your printed copy. If you don't use DDI, you're still making the old stuff (or you're working off a printed piece of errata). And if you show up with old stuff at a new stuff game, a) you look silly, and b) it's no longer viable.

I get that fear. But I've never seen it actually happen. Any time I've seen someone show up with a character that has had elements changed for them, one of the following things have happened:

1) The DM doesn't think it worth worrying about, let's him play his character as it is, and offers to help tell him what has changed after the game.

2) The rest of the table quickly and easily brings him up to speed and gets his character up to date, and play moves on.

This is how it has gone, both in 3rd Edition Living Greyhawk and 4E Living Forgotten Realms. I've just... never run into a place where people were mocked or exiled for having out-of-date characters.

I mean, even outside of errata, I've seen simply flat-out incorrect characters much more often - from small mistakes, to huge misunderstandings of how the game works, to things written on a character sheet that haven't existed for multiple editions. That's the nature of the game - and unless it is extremely disruptive, the rest of the table tends to figure out a way to either get the character working right, or leave it as it is and let the game move on nonetheless.

And this is in the public arena of the RPGA. In a home game, I imagine it is even easier to figure out a solution - either ignoring errata, or sharing it as needed. Is it any trickier than having the DM share whatever house rules they might have? House rules that might be much more abundant if the designers allowed broken elements to remain in the game, that each DM had to address on their own when they come up, or simply get taken by surprise and have the game suffer in that fashion?

There is no perfect solution, certainly. But the errata is useful, and if someone is genuinely gaming in a place where not being completely up-to-date results in them being laughed at or kicked out, I suggest the problem is with the other gamers, and not the errata at all.