5E online tools.

[Lokiare]

http://www.codenamemorningstar.com/

DDi for 5E. Looks like they might actually be doing something right for a change. I'll have to investigate further though.

[Lokiare]

Seriously no replies to this?

[Callin]

I looked at it a bit ago when you first posted and I honestly dont have an opinion on it yet. Nothing there to comment on.

[Yorrin]

I've been making my own version of this for my 3.5 players for pretty much the entirety of my DMing career, so seeing an "official" version isn't that impactful to me. The could based part looks nice, and what little we've seen of the interface is nice and clean, but ultimately it's not that revolutionary. Just a nicer version of what I already do.

[Felhammer]

http://www.codenamemorningstar.com/

DDi for 5E. Looks like they might actually be doing something right for a change. I'll have to investigate further though.

Looks nice.

[Fwiffo86]

Flagrant waste of resources.

[SpawnOfMorbo]

Seriously no replies to this?

Meh? Yeah, Meh.


Flagrant waste of resources.

This seems about right.

[cobaltstarfire]

This would have been way cooler like 10 years ago when there didn't already exist lots of different easy to use tools to already do these things.

That said I think it looks pretty neat neat, I don't think it'll get used very much though if it ends up having a cost (which it is implied certain things might in the FAQ). There are already websites that exist that do most of these sorts of things for free after all.

It's really hard to judge it though when it isn't really out the door yet, we've got a feature list but who knows what all can be implemented together and how good of a job they'll do.

[da_chicken]

Without knowing what it costs, how quickly updates are available, what exactly is available for the DM, what it looks like, and what platforms are available I don't think there's anything to talk about.

We've found digital character sheets on tablets are fantastic for some players, and one of our DMs loves the DM tools he has. However, I know for sure that there will be one time payment apps, and most everybody would rather do that than a subscription model. After the fun I had with D&D Insider (failure to bring promised features; stopping development on the awesome offline tools; then charging me for 3 months after I closed my account; I had to change my card to get them to stop) I'm extremely unlikely to use any subscription service from them ever again.

[SpawnOfMorbo]

Without knowing what it costs, how quickly updates are available, what exactly is available for the DM, what it looks like, and what platforms are available I don't think there's anything to talk about.

We've found digital character sheets on tablets are fantastic for some players, and one of our DMs loves the DM tools he has. However, I know for sure that there will be one time payment apps, and most everybody would rather do that than a subscription model. After the fun I had with D&D Insider (failure to bring promised features; stopping development on the awesome offline tools; then charging me for 3 months after I closed my account; I had to change my card to get them to stop) I'm extremely unlikely to use any subscription service from them ever again.

Google docs have been fantastic for my D&D games, heck I rigged up a battle map/area in their version of excel.

Crude but effective.

I totally forgot about all the extra features that WotC promised and didn't deliver. Wasn't there a 3d character creator like you see in some video games?

I know I won't do subscriptions with WotC, and I'm hesitant but likely to do a one time payment option. If it is ran by a third party away from their own website I'm more likely but... I'll stick with sending my money to amazon.

[Lokiare]

On second thought, the company looks like a one person startup. Which is pretty much par for the course for WotC. There is no telling if this person will run off or whatever and leave them hanging. You'd have thought they would have learned the last 5 times...

[Psyren]

Judging by all the "we" and "get to know each other" in the FAQ it seems that there is more than one guy behind this. But there is nothing to comment on yet beyond that.

[captpike]

givin how the current character build is well, poor most ways the only reason I would care about the 5e one is when it gets hard to look up feats and powers via dead tree.

[Person_Man]

It's very odd to me that WotC has not been able to get their act together with an online subscription service.

It needs:

A virtual tabletop (dice roller, ability to share map views that you can move stuff around on, share electronic documents, webcam, skype, and chat functionality). Each player needs their own paid account in order to participate.
Character, spellbook, and monster builders.
A Campaign Builder: Sample encounters, sample NPCs, map building tool, artwork, and a way of tagging and organizing your files together.
I assume that they're not doing an OGL. So this service should give you access to an internal easy to navigate SRD.
The ability to buy pdf versions of all D&D books. Buying a supplement automatically adds the new options from it to your Builders and SRD.
A weekly Dragon/Dungeon magazine-like article, giving you a reason to login and read something once a week even if you're not gaming that week.


All of the technology to do all of these things above currently exists. None of them would even require a significant up front development costs either. They'd just need to cobble them together. If the game is any good, I'd gladly pay $10 a month for this service so that I could more easily play actual D&D with my friends across the country on a simple unified platform.

[Felhammer]

Flagrant waste of resources.

There is a market for things kinds of apps.

[Psyren]

The ability to buy pdf versions of all D&D books. Buying a supplement automatically adds the new options from it to your Builders and SRD.

I would add to this - include a one-time use code in the dead tree editions that does the same thing so people aren't forced to buy both. This also discourages second-hand sales, driving traffic away from Amazon and back to the FLGS.



All of the technology to do all of these things above currently exists. None of them would even require a significant up front development costs either. They'd just need to cobble them together. If the game is any good, I'd gladly pay $10 a month for this service so that I could more easily play actual D&D with my friends across the country on a simple unified platform.

Indeed, and the builder would even be useful in person. Instant character audit/validation for DMs, who can simply say "run your character through the builder first before I approve it." You don't even need everyone to buy a license; one guy could presumably create multiple characters for people at the table (which is what tends to happen in groups anyway)

A track changes function would be great as well. "According to your sheet last session, you had Toughness, now that is gone and replaced with Multiattack, did you make a mistake?" "According to last session's sheet you had 2000 gp worth of gear, now you have 6500, but we only got 3000 as loot in the last session, can I check your math?"

[1337 b4k4]

Indeed, and the builder would even be useful in person. Instant character audit/validation for DMs, who can simply say "run your character through the builder first before I approve it." You don't even need everyone to buy a license; one guy could presumably create multiple characters for people at the table (which is what tends to happen in groups anyway)

A track changes function would be great as well. "According to your sheet last session, you had Toughness, now that is gone and replaced with Multiattack, did you make a mistake?" "According to last session's sheet you had 2000 gp worth of gear, now you have 6500, but we only got 3000 as loot in the last session, can I check your math?"

I can't help but feel like if you as a DM feel like you need to both audit and change track your players character sheets, that you have much larger issues that need to be resolved.

[Kurald Galain]

It's very odd to me that WotC has not been able to get their act together with an online subscription service.

Actually yes. They did promise an online tabletop for 4E, and they know that players complained that this never surfaced...

[Psyren]

I can't help but feel like if you as a DM feel like you need to both audit and change track your players character sheets, that you have much larger issues that need to be resolved.

That would only be the case if people are intentionally cheating, which is pretty rare by my understanding (despite my examples, which were more along the lines of "worst-case-scenario.") Mistakes however are common and can cause just as many problems, particularly if two classes in the same tier with the same wealth are performing vastly differently due to an erroneous advantage being used by one (or conversely, an erroneous disadvantage holding back the other.)

[Stubbazubba]

What is this Story Machine (http://www.codenamemorningstar.com/faq/) the website refers to at the bottom of the FAQ here?

It's not this (http://scottmccloud.com/4-inventions/machine/index.html), is it?

[Yorrin]

What is this Story Machine (http://www.codenamemorningstar.com/faq/) the website refers to at the bottom of the FAQ here?

It's not this (http://scottmccloud.com/4-inventions/machine/index.html), is it?

No, I believe it's what Cris Perkins and his minions put together when writing the Tyranny of Dragons plot that they're using as a guideline for future campaigns. Basically it's a "how to write a good official DnD plot" manual that they're using to create consistency in quality not only between adventures, but also with all their third party associates like the Neverwinter people and, apparently, the Morningstar people.