Sooooooo ... What Is Going To Happen With Your DDI Subcription?

The DnD DDI subscription model has always been controversial. The idea of having to pay a monthly fee for content was something new. The original DnD 4E character builder was a downloadable tool, and then switched to an on-line version based on MS-Silverlight so there was no tablet compatible version when new platforms came available, promised tools such as the character visualizer never materialized, and the tabletop tool was put out for beta testing and then cancelled. With the new 5E getting ready to roll-out next year (likely, anyway) ... well, I guess it can't get any worse.

Rise of the Runelords – At the Half-Way Point

With the completion of our last Pathfinder session we have now closed out Chapter Three of Pathfinder’s Rise of the Runelords adventure path. There are a total of six chapters, with each chapter having 5-8 modules, so we are essentially at the halfway point. The reviews are in and everybody is really enjoying it. The adventure is extremely well-written, gives the DM the flexibility to mix and match and to make adjustments along the way, and best of all it really keeps the players guessing as to what is coming next. Not all encounters require fighting, and not all fighting requires killing, all in all a good mix that challenges all involved.

May DDI Update Released

The May update of the DDI tools was pushed out today (read here). There was the usual smattering of new data and bug fixes, but unless you were looking for a specific bug to be resolved I'm not sure there was much there. The new session of DnD Encounters started tonight with their character building session (game play will start next week), so it was certainly just in time for that.

DDI Character Builder - Lessons Learned

Sometimes in the evening when I really don't want to read anything and when there is nothing on television worth watching I have semi-regularly accessed the DDI Character Builder (CB) tool and kind of randomly started test building characters just to see what I could come up with. In general this gave me an opportunity to explore some of the different classes and races, pick different combinations, and then see how the powers, feats, and items could be meshed together into a fun, and hopefully useful, character. I still haven't built a Bard or a Druid character that I like yet, but trying is half the fun.

March DDI Tools Update Released (Updated)

Wizards announced the monthly release of the DDI tools were available today (here). You might notice in the announcement that they identified the release as the "February update"instead of the "March update," so that link might be invalidated at some point.

Amazon, Borders, and Barnes & Noble

As I have always freely admitted I buy too many books. I don't get crazy with it - I consider my options, get the best price, and I read everything I buy. I like to go in a bookstore, walk around, poke through the stacks, read the cover blurbs, and every once in awhile I'll just take a chance on something that looks interesting. Sometimes I make a mistake, but for the most part I'm happy with my purchases.

Character Builder Update ... Not So Fast There Partner

Wizards is releasing The Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond boxed set tomorrow (05/17). There was a DDI CB update scheduled for tomorrow as well, one that would coordinate the latest tool updates and fixes with the release of the new material from the boxed set. As of last month Wizards finally gotten caught up by being able to provide updates to the CB tool in coordination with releases of new products and after several false starts appeared to finally be back on something resembling an actual release schedule.

Heroes of Shadow and DDI Update

Heroes of Shadow is due to be released this coming Tuesday (04/19/2011). The book goes back to the original hard cover and 8.5 x 11 size format of the DnD core books, but the content is to be a mix of original 4E and Essentials data. The next update for the on-line DDI Character Builder (CB) is to be released the same day and is supposed to include all of the data provided in Heroes of Shadow (read here). I have not seen any news concerning updates to the Adventure Tools and the monster builder tool. The next release of a new monster book, Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale, is due to be released in June, so hopefully we'll see significant updates and fixes before then.

New DDI Monster Builder Tool Released

As promised Wizards officially released the new web-based Adventure Tools yesterday, which specifically meant the new Monster Builder tool (the announcement can be read here). The announcement seemed to include as much text about what the new tool wasn't as opposed to what it was. Regardless, you can find the link to the new tool - and to the still available to be downloaded but never to be updated Adventure Tools - here.

Character Builder Updated (03/15)

Wizards announced today that the updated character builder tool was released. I had posted previously (here) that the update was to have been released a week ago, but apparently Wizards found a serious printing problem and opted to hold it back for another week. The Wizards formal release announcement can be read here.

Google Blogger Tool

I also wanted to talk about Google Blogger, the tool I use to host my blog entries. I've been using Blogger for a year plus now I wanted to give a review of it as a tool. I am doing this in a separate post from my Post-Mortem note because it really is a different enough of a topic.

Character Builder(s) - Updated

When Wizards released their new web based character builder (CB) tool last fall I played a little with it the first day it came out, but I suspect that most of the DnD world was doing the same. Basic network performance and system overload seemed to be the order of the day, it since it wasn't a necessary tool for me at the time I arbitrarily decided to just let it sit for a month or so. This would allow the initial surge to die down, allow Wizards to fix whatever bugs did come up, and then once things calmed down a little I would try it again.

The New Character Builder Tool

Wizards of the Coast made their announcement about the new version of the character builder here. For more information Wizards has also posted this FAQ. The first link includes screen shots as well if you keep moving to the bottom of the page.

Maps, Maps, Maps

The weather is lovely in South Haven MI this week, albeit a little on the warm side. We had dinner with the Ohnsman's Sunday night, old friends from AT&T/Lucent who several of the DnD group are familiar with. They were happy to hear everyone is doing well, as are they, and Steve expressed his disbelief that this group has been playing DnD together for 30+ years. Steve's daughter roleplays so he is as least vaguely familiar with the concept of what we do. I told him it's just like playing APBA baseball – the social aspect of the games are the highlight, the game itself is just the mechanic that brings the group together.

Wizards DnD Updates & Magic MIssile Changes

Wizards has released another set of updates and corrections (here). Most of the changes pertain the newly released PHB3 and the new races included therein. The usual set of wording tweaks and clarifications that have necessary with earlier releases continues to need to be applied here as well.

DDI Tool Update

The latest version of the Character Builder tool is available for download. There are couple of new things added this month and hopefully some bug fixes so Mark's on again/off again bonus is back on this month. I downloaded it and made sure it started up properly, but haven't really run any real testing on it yet.

Character Builder Update Available

Mark had previously reported that he had encountered some problems when trying to level up his Cleric after he had installed the March 2, 2010, Character Builder (CB) upgrade. He had looked online and saw that the problem had also been seen by other users and had already been reported back to Wizards. I expected a bug fix upgrade at some point soon, but hadn't checked for a couple of days, and as I said it's available now. I downloaded the upgrade successfully and left Mark a text that the upgrade is available, figuring he could test it some time over the weekend.

New Purchases

I acquired a Seagate 1 Terrabyte external hard drive this week. It was on sale at Best Buy. There are many different versions of portable/external hard drives on the market, and if a smaller size or a unique color was important than I could pay more for less space. And besides, if I was willing to pay $80 for 500 MB I might as well pay the extra $20 and get a whole terrabyte anyway.

Video Connection Issues

One of our charter group members moved to North Carolina several years ago but has been able to continue gaming with us. Once he was settled into his new digs Mark signed up for a free phone service so that he could listen in and play along for three hours every Sunday night. However, all the group members are computer geeks to some extent, so an effort was made to see if we could get establish a video link with Mark as well. We tend to play at only two locations, so camera's and microphone's were purchased and off we went.