Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 aljovin Mar 02, 2009 9:13:22	Now that I've played a bit with the Character Builder, I realized that there is significant customization that you can do with the Character sheet. Would it be possible to get a user manual with all the possibilities for the Character sheet? I loved the customization of the Damage Workspace and the Attack workspace. There is a great deal of work done for the CB sheet, and it would be great if we'd be made aware of all the possibilities to customize it!
#2 Myztek Mar 03, 2009 17:54:19	With something like this, a manual would probably be a bad idea. By the time they finished it, it would be out of date. People using it would be confused as to why it didn't match the product. My company just wasted tens of thousands of dollars building a manual for proprietary software that is already obsolete. Further, the time/funds taken to write it is time/funds that could be devoted to the product. I'd rather see them add more features than see them write a manual. For a product like this that is constantly evolving, the best bet is to maintain intuitive functionality and accept that many users will miss out on some functions that are less obvious. An occasional article might be the best way to pass along tidbits that seem to be overlooked.
#3 Webster Mar 03, 2009 22:12:15	I've actually been working on something like that. (No, nobody asked me to.) It's almost done but.... It's for the previous build. I'm going to have to go through and change all the screen shots and update some texts. I'm not sure if I have time for it- a few screen shots to change okay but rebuild the whole thing from scratch? Not so much.
#4 TheBouncyPherret Mar 03, 2009 22:12:46	Posts like this one are about the best you can hope for. And, really, are all that is needed, IMHO. TBP
#5 tildewave Mar 04, 2009 9:50:55	Well.. Wizards could set up a wiki-based manual on the site and either allow moderated user generated content or add the content themselves. It solves the obsolescence problem by allowing revisions to existing content. Another advantage is that a web-page based system could be converted relatively easily to a compiled HTML (.chm) help file that could be released with version updates(where features are changed - not just content updates).
#6 carbon_dragon Jun 01, 2009 12:12:23	I love the mathematical nature of working a complex system to produce the best character I can given the rules and without a system this complex it wouldn't be possible (Champions has a similar ability to min/max). That said though, lots of folks just want to produce the best character they can without the desire or ability to work the system over again and again till they maximize the capability of the character. The same character done by an expert and a beginner, despite having nominally the same "level" can be radically different in power -- so much so that they would either dominate or die horribly in an encounter of that same level. I guess I'm saying it works for me, but maybe there should be some kind of user manual to teach beginners to build good (or at least average) characters within the builder? That reminds me of a friend of mine, Walter Baas who in the distant past used to love adventures which used pathetic characters on the theory that they were both more interesting to play and had better role-playing potential. I guess he'd want to MIN on the min/max