I have never been one to think of using "computers" (boo hiss) in my roleplaying games - that's what warcraft is for right? Well as I type I'm eating humble pie... with cream.

I'm involved in a new group (DM + 3 players) giving 4e a bash. Two of the people have never played 4e and one never an RPG full stop.

4e has bloated in classes/races (well mainly classes) SO much that getting the books out to present all the choices is a fools game. Unfortunately some of the "expansion" books have fun classes so we wanted to offer them all the choices. Out comes my laptop and Character Builder (boo hiss).

Well 15 minutes later we have two shiny new 1st level 4e characters. The new players then took some time to read over the fluff in the printed book(s) and had start writing their backgrounds. Nice. I had envisioned 6 hours of flipping through page after page of numerous books. The other great thing is the "maths" was done on their printed character sheets! Took about 10 minutes to explain the "d20 rules" (i.e. roll and add something), and we were playing.

Perhaps if a tool like this had existed in 2e/3e I wouldn't have banned ALL books other than PHB/DMG/MM?

Who knows,
S.

i love the character generator. it makes characters really easy, i can keep all the characters in one place (all players have made their characters on my computer).

its the best computer character generator of any roleplaying game. plus, its all official!! score.

i love it.

Character Builder really won me over from a very skeptical position myself. I love books (I own a bookstore) but this program is just too well done to ignore. Once you use it you can't figure out how you ever survived without it.

Character Builder really won me over from a very skeptical position myself. I love books (I own a bookstore) but this program is just too well done to ignore. Once you use it you can't figure out how you ever survived without it.

My only concern will be I'll forget how to make a character up using a pen and a piece of paper...

So far the character gen. is why I've kept up the DDI subscription. No offense to the authors of the Dungeon adventures but they are really hit or miss and some of the skill-challenges presented bring tears to my eyes they are so badly thought out.

S.

Just wait until you give the Compendium a shot as a DM. I don't know if I'll ever be okay with going back to those barbarian days where I didn't have a laptop behind my DM screen. I can have every monster stat block I need open in individual tabs in my browser, and switching between them is as difficult as pressing an arrow key. Flipping through bookmarked Monster Manuals is a thing of the past for me.

EDIT: By the way, I don't suppose you noticed that all the errata that came out Tuesday was incorporated into the Character Builder update that came out the same day? So awesome.

Just wait until you give the Compendium a shot as a DM. I don't know if I'll ever be okay with going back to those barbarian days where I didn't have a laptop behind my DM screen. I can have every monster stat block I need open in individual tabs in my browser, and switching between them is as difficult as pressing an arrow key. Flipping through bookmarked Monster Manuals is a thing of the past for me.

EDIT: By the way, I don't suppose you noticed that all the errata that came out Tuesday was incorporated into the Character Builder update that came out the same day? So awesome.

Why yes Scott I did. Say what you like but WotC are really on top of things.

I haven't used the character builder (mostly because I use a mac), but my players love it, and as DM I fully agree with Scott- the compendium rocks! Even for a player the compendium is really useful. The compendium alone is worth the price of DDI for me.

If I'll give 4th ed a try (which I am seriously considering), I am actually thinking of buying a really cheap and/or second-hand PC (I also just use Mac) just so that I can use the various Builder appllications. Which others are there, again? Encounter builder? Monster builder? Plus various reference materials?

Add up power cards for all classes, it might be an expensive game to run. Better be fun, then!

I do love the character builder. With all the errata and source material built in, it makes character generation easy.

The monster builder also saves a lot of time, especially since I convert a lot of older material from previous editions and level up current monsters.

We have fully embraced the inclusion of laptops at the table. Our current set up is the DM running maptool on one, one plugged into a projector that projects the map onto the wall (the DM laptop and the map laptop are networked so we all see the "player version" of the map and the DM see's the "DM version" which has his notes, hidden monsters etc)

Two of the other players use their laptop for their character sheets and one uses an iPhone. Only me and another player actually use paper character sheets :D. We do have a rule that we put in a few months ago meaning that all dice have to be rolled rather than using online/computer based dice rollers.

having instant access to the compendium at the game table is awesome. no more hunting through books for rules.

If I'll give 4th ed a try (which I am seriously considering), I am actually thinking of buying a really cheap and/or second-hand PC (I also just use Mac) just so that I can use the various Builder appllications. Which others are there, again? Encounter builder? Monster builder? Plus various reference materials?

Add up power cards for all classes, it might be an expensive game to run. Better be fun, then!

There is a Character Builder and a Monster Builder, both of which are standalone applications, updated monthly.

You also gain access to the Compendium, which is a searchable, full-rules-text database of just about everything that WotC's put out for 4e.

More applications are planned for the future, but we haven't yet heard what the next one will be.

If I'll give 4th ed a try (which I am seriously considering), I am actually thinking of buying a really cheap and/or second-hand PC (I also just use Mac) just so that I can use the various Builder appllications. Which others are there, again? Encounter builder? Monster builder? Plus various reference materials?

Add up power cards for all classes, it might be an expensive game to run. Better be fun, then!

If you are ok with computer use my advice would be.

Buy a SINGLE copy of the PHB & DMG for the whole group.
Buy a SINGLE subscription to DDI.

You now have the all the "written rules" you need and access to every class/race/monster in 4e.

Actually very cheap, remembering the character gen prints out "power cards". That and given errata power cards are a very silly item to purchase.

So in some ways 4e is the cheapest D&D to date!

S.

If I'll give 4th ed a try (which I am seriously considering), I am actually thinking of buying a really cheap and/or second-hand PC (I also just use Mac) just so that I can use the various Builder appllications. Which others are there, again? Encounter builder? Monster builder? Plus various reference materials?

Add up power cards for all classes, it might be an expensive game to run. Better be fun, then!

Definitly go for a cheap PC if your going to go down that route - DDI is hardly graphics intensive after all. Also I hear that there are emulators you can buy for the Mac that might work but I'm not a ac owner so I don't know the details.

has anybody heard what the other moduals to the adventure tools are going to be? i really hope that there is a treasure generator. something that will print out the magic item cards, and help fill in the treasure stuff.

the character drawer thing will be cool also once it comes out. have pics of your npcs, etc. i love ddi.

Parallels for mac is supposed to be a top PC emulator, and I think you can toggle back and forth between your regular mac interface and your windows stuff. I'm not sure if you need to buy a copy of windows as well.

You can basically print magic item cards from the compendium. Just look it up on the compendium and then either print it directly from the compendium or cut and past the item into a word document and print it. The character generator also gives you print outs of power cards for any magic item powers you have.

has anybody heard what the other moduals to the adventure tools are going to be? i really hope that there is a treasure generator. something that will print out the magic item cards, and help fill in the treasure stuff.

the character drawer thing will be cool also once it comes out. have pics of your npcs, etc. i love ddi.

If you are ok with computer use my advice would be.

Buy a SINGLE copy of the PHB & DMG for the whole group.
Buy a SINGLE subscription to DDI.

You now have the all the "written rules" you need and access to every class/race/monster in 4e.

Actually very cheap, remembering the character gen prints out "power cards". That and given errata power cards are a very silly item to purchase.

So in some ways 4e is the cheapest D&D to date!

S.

For the DM, I'd have to add DMG 2 and Manual of the Planes.

Otherwise...this.

yes, i can cut and paste all day long, but i want them like the cards that print out with character sheet. without doing the work.

so, does anybody know what is next with the adventure tools program?

yes, i can cut and paste all day long, but i want them like the cards that print out with character sheet. without doing the work.

so, does anybody know what is next with the adventure tools program?

No one outside WotC knows yet. It hasn't been announced.

trellian wrote:

If I'll give 4th ed a try (which I am seriously considering), I am actually thinking of buying a really cheap and/or second-hand PC (I also just use Mac) just so that I can use the various Builder appllications. Which others are there, again? Encounter builder? Monster builder? Plus various reference materials?

Add up power cards for all classes, it might be an expensive game to run. Better be fun, then!

There is a Character Builder and a Monster Builder, both of which are standalone applications, updated monthly.

You also gain access to the Compendium, which is a searchable, full-rules-text database of just about everything that WotC's put out for 4e.

More applications are planned for the future, but we haven't yet heard what the next one will be.

I got to say that I was dubious about subscribing but after having a go with character builder I was impressed enough to take a chance and wasn't disappointed.

Monster builder gives me EVERY monster available (via updates)as they come out whether its from Monster Manuals or Dungeon Magazine, the Compendium gives you access to ALL material available from EVERY WOTC book and the character builder gives you all the PC options from all the books.

Plus you get Dragon and Dungeon mag availability on PDF which for me is fantastic because I can cut and paste stuff to my own style,add Skill challenges if the adventures are a bit light in those area's.

I would suggest DMG2 though, Its content was stuff I already do plus a hell of a lot more but for a newbe DM a must.

i really hope that there is a treasure generator. something that will print out the magic item cards, and help fill in the treasure stuff.

I'd love to see this as well. For me what I really want is a random treasure generator. I can't stand wish lists, even as a player I hate wish lists.