WotC's Electronic Thingy

[Nightfall]

Imrup,

I agree it can be done. I just don't believe WotC is the one to do it. Nor do have they proven, through their history, they can adjust to accommodate their audience.

 

[KB9JMQ]

What still amazes me nearly 10 years later was that TSR was able to SUCCESSFULLY introduce the Core Rules electronic chargen for 2E that was customisable and functional despite the lack of a consistent mechanic in 2E. It was the excellence of the Core Rules programme that really caused me to be upset with the abominable travesty of a product that was eTools. Heck, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights et al also prove it can be done successfully!

In other words, I am 1,000% sure that a customisable and functional chargen (and monster generator) can be created for 3.5E that, putting it bluntly, does not suck.

I also believe it can be done but I have very little faith it will come from WoTC.

 

[Nightfall]

KB,

With the current people involved? You are probably 100% right.

 

[naturaltwenty]

For those that are tech savvy enough to do it for free that's all fine and well. For the majority of the gaming populace the amount of work that you have to do for free game (loading Python and hoping it works, cutting and pasting images and uploading to photobucket, signing up for multiple accounts, maintaining those accounts, getting content in the form of maps - which may require another program, etc, etc) is just not worth their time.

If WotC produces a product that has:

- a virtual-tabletop software that is not client based, i.e. no downloadable software
- requires no router, ip, firewall config or setup
- integrated voice-chat
- utilizes there rules-set
- has access to all of their art, images, maps, etc
- provides character creation with PrC's based upon their IP (Forgotten Realms, The Complete Books, Eberron, d20 Modern/Future/Past
- electronic mini's/figs
- customizable plugins

I forsee that will kick the out of any d20 based competition. Furthermore if in fact 4th edition will not be OGL then they will be the only player in the game that you could play 4th edition online with.

I sometimes wonder what happened to GhostOrb.com?

Later,

Greg Volz

As far as this digtal initiative thing goes, I think there really is a way to keep it down to 5 or 10 bucks a month.

Online gaming. Not in the MMORPG mode, but in the OpenRPG mode. My group has 6 weekly players plus a DM. That's 35 bucks a month if we all subscribe. Give me a decent online platform and tools that are in far excess to what I can get for free and that's pretty decent change for WOTC.

But, the trick is, the competetion is very steep. The Hypertext SRD covers pretty much all my rules needs, OpenRPG is free, Photobucket covers the art, and Web Profiler (of various stripes) provides online character storage. Add in a Proboards account and you can run a very high quality campaign filled with sound and art for free.

There's a reason I won't use Fantasy Grounds. Despite having a much prettier interface, I won't shell out money for that. FG offers nothing that I can't already get for free. For WOTC to get me to subscribe will take a heck of a lot of bennies over free.

 

[Nightfall]

Natural,

Maybe by 2050...if we ever get there.

Ghostorb died the same way this is going to. Slowly but surely.

 

[KB9JMQ]

Natural,
Yeah that would be nice but mainly for a group who is playing online. I am not really interested in this avenue but I will agree that it would probably be a winner for Wizards if it does all the things you want it to.

Basically I want a standalone character generator/manager that can handle all the rules, is update able with both new data and custom data and prints out character sheets.
What I want is Heroforge (fully supported) with the friendly GUI of the 2E program. I also want it to be cross platform so I am not stuck with Excel if I don't want to be.

 

[naturaltwenty]

Yeah - I knew about GhostOrb. I think 2050 will come much quicker than anyone else thinks. If the online character generator allows you to print out your character - which I think it will, then the toolset will also be of use to the non-online gamer.

I'd invite you to play in an online game with me and see just how far this stuff has come along.

That's open to anyone. I'll even run an adventure from Dungeon Magazine using their online content that even they started to produce in the last 25 issues or so.

Send me an IM and I'll send the requirements.

Natural,

Maybe by 2050...if we ever get there.

Ghostorb died the same way this is going to. Slowly but surely.

 

[naturaltwenty]

Yeah - I think that's why they killed off the CodeMonkey license. Part of the online intiative will be character creation software that you can use to save your characters and print off for game use.

Later,

Greg Volz

Natural,
Yeah that would be nice but mainly for a group who is playing online. I am not really interested in this avenue but I will agree that it would probably be a winner for Wizards if it does all the things you want it to.

Basically I want a standalone character generator/manager that can handle all the rules, is update able with both new data and custom data and prints out character sheets.
What I want is Heroforge (fully supported) with the friendly GUI of the 2E program. I also want it to be cross platform so I am not stuck with Excel if I don't want to be.