UngeheuerLich
Legend
I do, because i want to support the hobby. And even though there were months with not so much content, I still believe it is worth my money.
Why do you subscribe to DDI?
- Thread starter UngeheuerLich
- Start date
Thistonius
First Post
I stay subscribed because the CB alone is a god send and a lot of the articles in Dragon and Dungeon genuinely interest me.
Ryujin
Legend
Originally I subscribed exclusively for the updates, to the offline Character Builder. When that went away, I convinced myself that it was worth it, just for the compiled Dragon and Dungeon PDFs, after all of the articles had been individually released and in hopes that the online builder would be brought up to snuff (or simply abandoned as a bad idea). Now I simply don't know why, but I had re-upped for a year last February.
Stumblewyk
Adventurer
CB and Compendium. The Monster Builder will be nice when it's complete (Hey, I can hope!), and I still have high hopes for the Virtual Game Table.
AbdulAlhazred
Legend
Compendium alone is worth it. My books can stay on my shelf unless I want to grab one to read through some fluff. I can cut and paste a monster stat block directly into the stat block importer macro on my 4e maptool macro set, bam I've got all the stats and powers, now I can track everything. That's 20 minutes or more per monster type saved. As for MB I can still use the old MB, it works fine. CB is gold too. I can run every player's character through and have a standard PDF character sheet I can bring up on my screen instantly? Yes please! We haven't even gotten to the magazine content, that's just gravy.
Ajar
Explorer
I originally subscribed for the Compendium. The glossary is incredibly useful, and even though I now have a physical Rules Compendium, I rarely reference it when I'm the DM. The online Compendium is even better than a searchable PDF. It also means I rarely buy player splatbooks that are mostly crunch. I tend to stick to DM stuff: the DMGs, the MMs/MV, the Shadowfell box set. AV2 for vehicle and alchemy rules.
There was also a long period where I at least skimmed most of the Dragon and Dungeon content. That's fallen by the wayside a little bit, but there's still a fair amount of content that interests me, particularly fluff stuff like the history of Nerath and Bael Turath that I can adapt for my own games. I've been reading more lately, and it's great to be able to pillage the archives for whatever tickles my fancy. The only thing I'd like to see there is better search capability.
Now I'm also a heavy Character Builder user. It's a lot easier to make a quick character as an experiment to see if the concept is even workable using the CB, and when getting ready to play in a new game I generally make 2-3 characters and then pick one. The CB is great for this. In the game my girlfriend DMs, I also maintain the characters for the entire party, since the other players aren't D&DI subscribers.
Looking ahead, I've tried the VTT, and can see myself using it in the future if it becomes more flexible -- a lot more flexibility is needed on the mapping front. The voice chat is also buggy.
The Monster Builder will hopefully be nice one day, but for now I'm sticking with Power2ool for my monster adaptation needs. I also like Power2ool for building custom monsters and items. I'll probably still use Power2ool for live games even after WotC's suite of stuff is complete, simply because Power2ool has a fantastic interface for use at the table.
So right now, I'm subscribed for the Compendium and CB.
There was also a long period where I at least skimmed most of the Dragon and Dungeon content. That's fallen by the wayside a little bit, but there's still a fair amount of content that interests me, particularly fluff stuff like the history of Nerath and Bael Turath that I can adapt for my own games. I've been reading more lately, and it's great to be able to pillage the archives for whatever tickles my fancy. The only thing I'd like to see there is better search capability.
Now I'm also a heavy Character Builder user. It's a lot easier to make a quick character as an experiment to see if the concept is even workable using the CB, and when getting ready to play in a new game I generally make 2-3 characters and then pick one. The CB is great for this. In the game my girlfriend DMs, I also maintain the characters for the entire party, since the other players aren't D&DI subscribers.
Looking ahead, I've tried the VTT, and can see myself using it in the future if it becomes more flexible -- a lot more flexibility is needed on the mapping front. The voice chat is also buggy.
The Monster Builder will hopefully be nice one day, but for now I'm sticking with Power2ool for my monster adaptation needs. I also like Power2ool for building custom monsters and items. I'll probably still use Power2ool for live games even after WotC's suite of stuff is complete, simply because Power2ool has a fantastic interface for use at the table.
So right now, I'm subscribed for the Compendium and CB.
WalterKovacs
First Post
A - The character builder
B - The compendium
The other stuff (DM stuff I can use, and the articles in general) are gravy, but really, the character builder and the compendium are things I use frequently as both a player and a DM. Even though I buy the various books, the updating in terms of errata that takes place in the CB and Compendium is something I wouldn't want to track myself. I used to be involved with CCGs and had to lug around a printed out copy of errata ... I'd rather it just be baked in for the most part.
B - The compendium
The other stuff (DM stuff I can use, and the articles in general) are gravy, but really, the character builder and the compendium are things I use frequently as both a player and a DM. Even though I buy the various books, the updating in terms of errata that takes place in the CB and Compendium is something I wouldn't want to track myself. I used to be involved with CCGs and had to lug around a printed out copy of errata ... I'd rather it just be baked in for the most part.
1) Compendium - for the same reasons the other folks have said.
2) Maps of modules - I use many of the 4E modules that WotC has put out and love using the maps from them in my game. I download and save them from the website, open them in Paint to erase the white dot monster starting locations, then expand the maps using Excel to get up to 1 inch squares for printing. They use a bit of colored ink, but I just print using the draft setting which helps a lot. And the maps look much, much better than what I would draw using a battlemap.
2) Maps of modules - I use many of the 4E modules that WotC has put out and love using the maps from them in my game. I download and save them from the website, open them in Paint to erase the white dot monster starting locations, then expand the maps using Excel to get up to 1 inch squares for printing. They use a bit of colored ink, but I just print using the draft setting which helps a lot. And the maps look much, much better than what I would draw using a battlemap.
It is wholly, entirely about the Character Builder. I've never bought a lot of books because I never used most of the content. With DDI, I get all the content (with errata) at the price of about 2 books a year. Definitely worth it for that alone from my point of view.
A few other things make it extra useful:
1) D & D articles
2) Access anywhere with a computer
3) The compendium
But I would pay for it just for the CB.
A few other things make it extra useful:
1) D & D articles
2) Access anywhere with a computer
3) The compendium
But I would pay for it just for the CB.
OnlineDM
Adventurer
I'm pretty much the same as everyone else:
1. Compendium
2. Character Builder (now if I could just store more characters and customize the sheets...)
3. Magazines (to a much lesser extent)
4. Maps (haven't used them much yet in MapTool, but I only just discovered them)
5. Support the game
6. Maybe someday the Virtual Table if it surpasses MapTool for my needs
1. Compendium
2. Character Builder (now if I could just store more characters and customize the sheets...)
3. Magazines (to a much lesser extent)
4. Maps (haven't used them much yet in MapTool, but I only just discovered them)
5. Support the game
6. Maybe someday the Virtual Table if it surpasses MapTool for my needs
