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1 year ago ::
May 23, 2012 - 1:08AM
#1
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Simple question: When 5e comes along, will the character builder still support 4e?
To give some background. I'm an old gamer who's group doesn't get together that often and we've been through the core rule books from the the old basic box sets through advanced (2e), 3e, 3.5e and now 4e. I honestly don't think we'll bother with 5e on the principal 4e is nicely polished and we've got tons of material left. Addmittedly, 4e came up short on it promises of an online experience but the game itself was far more fluid than 3 or 3.5.
But back to my question. The pessimist in me would suggest not, given a recent email from Wizards support where I requested access to the old character builder and was told it had been taken down from the servers. You see, I like to have two characters on screen and use editable PDF as the whole point of this venture was to be able to use a laptop over pen and paper.
As a business model the original character builder was an awful idea as it allowed multiple downloads and required only one subscriber. However, the shiny silverlight version requires a user account for which, should you want to share, you'd have to give your account details to all in your group. I believe you can't access it at multiple entry points, it has no editable screen features for the character sheet and only displays a single character rendering it pointless when you play multiple characters. A better business model but I digress...
To cut a long story short, the game I've poured 30 years into and love is evolving but where I felt nurtured over the early years, I'm left feeling empty as the game seems to be all about the bottom line and as such it's more likely the 4e character builder will become unsupported as it doesn't sell new rulebooks.... there's the pessimist in me again.
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1 year ago ::
May 23, 2012 - 5:34AM
#2
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nobody knows what will happen but its probably best to go ahead and prepare to be completely screwed over by wizards
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13 months ago ::
May 24, 2012 - 6:34AM
#3
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Date Joined:
Dec 10, 2008
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nobody knows what will happen but its probably best to go ahead and assume that wizards will continue to support the 4e character builder
OD&D, 1E and 2E challenged the player.
3E challenged the character, not the player.
Now 4E takes it a step further by challenging a GROUP OF PLAYERS to work together as a TEAM.
That's why I love 4E.
"Your ability to summon a horde of celestial superbeings at will is making my ... BMX skills look a bit redundant."
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13 months ago ::
May 24, 2012 - 11:19PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Dec 10, 2011
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nobody knows what will happen but its probably best to go ahead and assume that wizards will continue to support the 4e character builder but prepare to be completely screwed over by wizards
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13 months ago ::
May 25, 2012 - 3:25PM
#5
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Boy... you guys are a lot of help  Personally when the new edition comes out, I'd be willing to pay for a "final" character builder with all material included (powers, feats etc.) from all the books, magazines and the like. Something I could keep on my laptop, make characters and access the compendium. Just realease it all on disk or download for sale and I would be SO happy.
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13 months ago ::
May 26, 2012 - 6:51AM
#6
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agreed but i doubt it will ever happen
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13 months ago ::
May 26, 2012 - 9:34AM
#7
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Date Joined:
Apr 11, 2009
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I would honestly pay through the nose to have an offline, non-silverlight version of the Character Builder like we used to have way back when.
Something I could hold onto when they eventually pull the plug on 4e as I'm sure they will given the track record. Sadly, nothing I see currently convinces me that the current design team will ever be able to create any system that I will find better than 4e. So I'm preparing for the worst. This may be my final year of subscription to D&DI.
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13 months ago ::
May 27, 2012 - 7:20AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Apr 12, 2004
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I would honestly pay through the nose to have an offline, non-silverlight version of the Character Builder like we used to have way back when.
Something I could hold onto when they eventually pull the plug on 4e as I'm sure they will given the track record. Sadly, nothing I see currently convinces me that the current design team will ever be able to create any system that I will find better than 4e. So I'm preparing for the worst. This may be my final year of subscription to D&DI.
Id love to be able to buy a standalone builder when 4e gets terminated. Im just not buying into this new edition at all and from what i can see its a step backwards in my opinion. If i wanted to play old versions of D&D id get them out of storage. I personally intend to keep DMing 4e and my players have no interest in playtesting a version they have no intention of getting into.
For those of you with kids please check out the D&D Parents Group.
http://community.wizards.com/dndparents
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13 months ago ::
May 27, 2012 - 5:47PM
#9
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Date Joined:
Jan 27, 2009
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I would honestly pay through the nose to have an offline, non-silverlight version of the Character Builder like we used to have way back when.
Something I could hold onto when they eventually pull the plug on 4e as I'm sure they will given the track record. Sadly, nothing I see currently convinces me that the current design team will ever be able to create any system that I will find better than 4e. So I'm preparing for the worst. This may be my final year of subscription to D&DI.
Id love to be able to buy a standalone builder when 4e gets terminated. Im just not buying into this new edition at all and from what i can see its a step backwards in my opinion. If i wanted to play old versions of D&D id get them out of storage. I personally intend to keep DMing 4e and my players have no interest in playtesting a version they have no intention of getting into.
+1
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13 months ago ::
May 28, 2012 - 9:28AM
#10
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Date Joined:
Dec 10, 2008
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Id love to be able to buy a standalone builder when 4e gets terminated. Im just not buying into this new edition at all and from what i can see its a step backwards in my opinion. If i wanted to play old versions of D&D id get them out of storage. I personally intend to keep DMing 4e and my players have no interest in playtesting a version they have no intention of getting into.
There is a competing product where you pay one time for it but you of course have to have a DDi subscription to get WoTC's latest data. It supports 4e and other games as well and it is an offline tool. The only times you need to be online with it is when you want to download patches or when the D&D data at WoTC changes and in that case you download the D&D data using a utility that comes with that tool. So as long as you use your subscription to grab that data once before it gets taken offline someday, you're good to go.
Now, I own this tool and I happen to think the WotC CB is far easier to use and better, but the point is, it WORKS.
OD&D, 1E and 2E challenged the player.
3E challenged the character, not the player.
Now 4E takes it a step further by challenging a GROUP OF PLAYERS to work together as a TEAM.
That's why I love 4E.
"Your ability to summon a horde of celestial superbeings at will is making my ... BMX skills look a bit redundant."
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