Comments on: My DDI Experience http://newbiedm.com/2009/07/16/my-ddi-experience/ An Ennie Nominated D&D Blog & Podcast. Home of tutorials, advice, and downloads for new DM's Wed, 30 May 2012 18:10:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Todd http://newbiedm.com/2009/07/16/my-ddi-experience/#comment-1054 Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:28:54 +0000 http://newbiedm.com/?p=911#comment-1054 I have thought about it actually. Just bought a friend an AvatarArt gift certificate for his birthday, so I know they do good work. It’s just that I’d want to go all out and I’m not up for dropping the money on another top-of-the-line portrait just yet.

]]> By: Noumenon http://newbiedm.com/2009/07/16/my-ddi-experience/#comment-1053 Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:14:08 +0000 http://newbiedm.com/?p=911#comment-1053 Todd, regarding your razorclaw shifter monk, have you considered getting a picture drawn by AvatarArt?

]]> By: Will http://newbiedm.com/2009/07/16/my-ddi-experience/#comment-1052 Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:35:15 +0000 http://newbiedm.com/?p=911#comment-1052 D&DI seems like a fine concept, but I dislike the PC-only aspects of it. Of course, my games haven’t been running 4E, so it is much less useful in that respect.

]]> By: Peter http://newbiedm.com/2009/07/16/my-ddi-experience/#comment-1051 Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:27:49 +0000 http://newbiedm.com/?p=911#comment-1051 As a new DM I LOVE the Compendium. Any downtime at work and I can look up possible threats for my next encounter. They even have all the monsters from the RPGA modules (which are usually just regular monsters with alternate levels or flavors).

The encounter builder needs a bit of work, but that is also a nice feature to help keep things organized.

]]> By: Mike http://newbiedm.com/2009/07/16/my-ddi-experience/#comment-1050 Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:21:36 +0000 http://newbiedm.com/?p=911#comment-1050 I’d have to agree with NewbiDM here, the way me and my players look at it is that we’ve saved money. There is at least one new book that comes out a month at $40, we now have the benefit of said book without having to buy it. roughly $100 for a year. the compendium has been invaluable to all my games. the character builder is great for players. the new tools coming out look to help DM’s run the game even smother.

If you buy 1 book a month from WotC its worth it to change your buying habits and go digital. Sure its not the same thing but there comes a point in your life were your just tired of the same thing.

]]> By: Sean Brady http://newbiedm.com/2009/07/16/my-ddi-experience/#comment-1049 Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:51:16 +0000 http://newbiedm.com/?p=911#comment-1049 I agree totally on the value of DDI. I am in a similar situation to NewbieDM in that a) I am a newbie and b) I have no time to prep much less play games with work and kids. Characters builder is just an awesome way to play around with character builds. I recently built a Half Orc Beastmaster Ranger and was kinda eh about him until I played around with adding some Druid to him and now he has become my favorite character. I just would never have time to do that kind of playing w/o the character builder.

Compendium is open anytime I play (but I tend to flip through books for many things still – I bought them after all). I mess around with encounter builds in the encounter builder to get a rough idea of how powerful a group of monsters is, and if I am building from all standard monsters I copy the encounter direct from the builder.

Suffice it to say, I am a big fan.

]]> By: Nibelung http://newbiedm.com/2009/07/16/my-ddi-experience/#comment-1048 Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:43:51 +0000 http://newbiedm.com/?p=911#comment-1048 Only to give an extra pov to you all, I’m brazilian, and very happy with my DDI subscription. Why? Let me give you a hint: Monster Manual 1 will be released here now, July 26. Player’s Handbook got released on the same event you guys get MM2 (good thing: errata included). And we have no idea when we will get all the other books, except DMG (August).

Amazon is a nice place to buy books too, but except if I want to pay 15 bucks per book, plus 30 buck of shipping, my book will arrive one month after it’s release. I still buy some crucial books I like to read (Eberron and adventures), but most crunch-heavy books, like the powers, I stay with my DDI acess and be happy about it.

So, to me, DDI isn’t only “magazines, official wiki and explendid builder”, but too “early acess to D&D books that would take a lot of time to get an eye over it, or that i need to buy before even see what would be inside it”.

]]> By: Doug Daulton http://newbiedm.com/2009/07/16/my-ddi-experience/#comment-1047 Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:14:57 +0000 http://newbiedm.com/?p=911#comment-1047 I am a big fan of DDI. My only complaint is that they should include legacy content as well.

]]> By: Gary Jackson http://newbiedm.com/2009/07/16/my-ddi-experience/#comment-1046 Fri, 17 Jul 2009 05:43:32 +0000 http://newbiedm.com/?p=911#comment-1046 The compendium rocks. I can either spend twenty minutes sorting through a dozen or more books looking for something, or I can spend fifteen seconds on the compendium looking for it. I only wish they had more categories: templates and things like companions and familiars.

@Wyatt, re: Mono

The cake is a lie.

]]> By: Wyatt http://newbiedm.com/2009/07/16/my-ddi-experience/#comment-1045 Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:41:39 +0000 http://newbiedm.com/?p=911#comment-1045 There are things like Mono being developed which make it sort of possible to use .Net stuff on Mac/Linux. I say sort of because every time I try it fails. But other people, reportedly, have gotten it to work. So if you like playing with the witch’s brew of open-source package-install stuffies, it may work for you. If it feels like it.

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