DDI Tools - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

DDI Tools

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
tenju
May 31, 2013 13:30:32 It's been many years since I played D&D with friends at a table. We grew up and moved away from one another and I then moved on to D&D video games. I really wanted to get back in to Pen and Paper and after doing some google searches I came across a video of something called Dungeons and Dragons Insider. The video showed two men demonstrating the application from the interactive dungeon builder right on down to the character builder. They went on to talk about text chat and even voice chat.

I went to Wizards of the Coasts website as fast as my fingers could type the address and purchased my DDI subscription. I opened the character builder and thought , pretty cool. I went on to launch the encounter builder and it is nothing like the one they demo'ed in the video. Am I just not looking in the right place or does the new online 4th edition they show in the video not exist yet?
#2
CUBPHILDND
May 31, 2013 14:58:56 It doesn't exist yet, and it never will. They had a lot of high hopes for D&D Insider, but a lot of them turned out to be merely pipe dreams. You could ask customer service for a refund; if you explain nicely they may give it to you. Sorry!
#3
dartanbeck
May 31, 2013 19:55:19 I (sort of) made the same mistake. Only the other way around - I was one of those who had very high hope for DDi. I mean, if you can trust anyone, it's D&D, right? Evidently not so much. I held on for a long time. The only direction they ended up going is backwards. So sad.

I have a thread in this forum area here:
community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...
which is all about the idea of using Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition as a virtual tabletop gaming environment. It has most creatures, animals, classes, prestige classes, feats, skills, DM Tools, Player Tools, Online play with or without one or more DMs, and the 3d models are like animmated miniatures with excellent animations, yet are very low resolution. So they work quickly, even on netbooks and older computers - and you can have literal hordes of them in one area at the same time.

Easy to build custom areas and entire adventures or even whole worlds. Since it began in the year 2,000 and is was built around the ease of community modification, many of our favorite D&D adventures have already been converted into modules that you can download and host as either a DM or a Player. Except for the modules that are designed specifically to only work with a DM present, you don't even need a DM. You can all just play. But even adventures designed for single player can often be DMed and run with a full party. It is really easy to find good games to play - and it's really fun and easy to paint out your own, custom gaming world in the 'building block' style toolset.
Drag and Drop terrain, water, bridges, buildings, trees, etc.,
Drag and Drop Dungeon corridors, rooms and all their dressings
Drag and drop Creatures from NPC's to Corpses to Undead to Deer and other animals, Bugbears, Orcs, Goblins, Mimic chests, Magic Mouths, Dragons, Ooozes, Beholders and Beholder kin, Giants and Giant kin, Wyvern and all Dragon kin. Dragons are available in all races and age categories. Even the Gelotinous Cube! Rangers, Bandits, Gypsies, Genies...

All manner of special visual effects, traps, random encounters, random treasure...

Create any sort of custom weapons and gear in a simple user interface - it's SO SIMPLE TO USE!

As the DM, you are completely invisible and undetectable by default, and much much faster than the fastest hasted PC could ever dream of being - plus you don't have to use area transitions - because you can simply jump from one area to the next with a click. You can also move PCs and NPCs and Monsters with the same ease. You can "posess" any NPC, Animal or Creature and control their motions - control what they do and say - even join the party. You can kill and revive anything that has life capabilities. Move objects, start and put out fires, fog, smoke, visual effects, sound effects, change, add, remove music, change the weather - even the time of day, day of week, even the year - yes you can have your campaign go back and forth through time! Turn something or someone to stone...

Full crafting system - and much more complex versions made by the comuniity lie in wait at the NWVault! Sorry for the rant. But this is just such a perfect way for distant friends to actually play D&D - it's the BEST way to do it on a computer EVER! And it's much better than the sliding static miniatures that the virtual table top was going to be. Sure, it uses the 3.0 rules set. I love the 4th edition stuff. But if you have rules that work, the only thing left to do is to choose a campaign and play! I built a module of the Nentir Vale from the 4th edition DMG that turned out beautifully.
If you want to add powers, you could create them using tokens. The game design, especially that it's made to be flexibly altered to your own liking, is so good that you can really run any kind of game you'd like. Star Wars, Firefly, Urban Arcana, Eberron, Planescape, Forgotten Realms is the default game world, Mystara, Warhammer, Middle Earth... there are samples to complete game modules already made in all of these and more!
#4
paulstrait
Jun 01, 2013 7:14:06 Maptool is 1000 times better than the DDI virtual tabletop and it is free. www.rptools.net is the website. I still find my DDI membership valuable-- for the compendium, character builder (although the online character builder is terrible and whoever came up with the idea should be fired), and the magazines. But really, how could anyone expect (or desire) WOTC to compete with open source software that was a light year ahead of them before they even got started? Why would anyone pay for a VTT when one as versatile and easy to use as maptool is freeyly available?

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 tenju May 31, 2013 13:30:32	It's been many years since I played D&D with friends at a table. We grew up and moved away from one another and I then moved on to D&D video games. I really wanted to get back in to Pen and Paper and after doing some google searches I came across a video of something called Dungeons and Dragons Insider. The video showed two men demonstrating the application from the interactive dungeon builder right on down to the character builder. They went on to talk about text chat and even voice chat. I went to Wizards of the Coasts website as fast as my fingers could type the address and purchased my DDI subscription. I opened the character builder and thought , pretty cool. I went on to launch the encounter builder and it is nothing like the one they demo'ed in the video. Am I just not looking in the right place or does the new online 4th edition they show in the video not exist yet?
#2 CUBPHILDND May 31, 2013 14:58:56	It doesn't exist yet, and it never will. They had a lot of high hopes for D&D Insider, but a lot of them turned out to be merely pipe dreams. You could ask customer service for a refund; if you explain nicely they may give it to you. Sorry!
#3 dartanbeck May 31, 2013 19:55:19	I (sort of) made the same mistake. Only the other way around - I was one of those who had very high hope for DDi. I mean, if you can trust anyone, it's D&D, right? Evidently not so much. I held on for a long time. The only direction they ended up going is backwards. So sad. I have a thread in this forum area here: community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758... which is all about the idea of using Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition as a virtual tabletop gaming environment. It has most creatures, animals, classes, prestige classes, feats, skills, DM Tools, Player Tools, Online play with or without one or more DMs, and the 3d models are like animmated miniatures with excellent animations, yet are very low resolution. So they work quickly, even on netbooks and older computers - and you can have literal hordes of them in one area at the same time. Easy to build custom areas and entire adventures or even whole worlds. Since it began in the year 2,000 and is was built around the ease of community modification, many of our favorite D&D adventures have already been converted into modules that you can download and host as either a DM or a Player. Except for the modules that are designed specifically to only work with a DM present, you don't even need a DM. You can all just play. But even adventures designed for single player can often be DMed and run with a full party. It is really easy to find good games to play - and it's really fun and easy to paint out your own, custom gaming world in the 'building block' style toolset. Drag and Drop terrain, water, bridges, buildings, trees, etc., Drag and Drop Dungeon corridors, rooms and all their dressings Drag and drop Creatures from NPC's to Corpses to Undead to Deer and other animals, Bugbears, Orcs, Goblins, Mimic chests, Magic Mouths, Dragons, Ooozes, Beholders and Beholder kin, Giants and Giant kin, Wyvern and all Dragon kin. Dragons are available in all races and age categories. Even the Gelotinous Cube! Rangers, Bandits, Gypsies, Genies... All manner of special visual effects, traps, random encounters, random treasure... Create any sort of custom weapons and gear in a simple user interface - it's SO SIMPLE TO USE! As the DM, you are completely invisible and undetectable by default, and much much faster than the fastest hasted PC could ever dream of being - plus you don't have to use area transitions - because you can simply jump from one area to the next with a click. You can also move PCs and NPCs and Monsters with the same ease. You can "posess" any NPC, Animal or Creature and control their motions - control what they do and say - even join the party. You can kill and revive anything that has life capabilities. Move objects, start and put out fires, fog, smoke, visual effects, sound effects, change, add, remove music, change the weather - even the time of day, day of week, even the year - yes you can have your campaign go back and forth through time! Turn something or someone to stone... Full crafting system - and much more complex versions made by the comuniity lie in wait at the NWVault! Sorry for the rant. But this is just such a perfect way for distant friends to actually play D&D - it's the BEST way to do it on a computer EVER! And it's much better than the sliding static miniatures that the virtual table top was going to be. Sure, it uses the 3.0 rules set. I love the 4th edition stuff. But if you have rules that work, the only thing left to do is to choose a campaign and play! I built a module of the Nentir Vale from the 4th edition DMG that turned out beautifully. If you want to add powers, you could create them using tokens. The game design, especially that it's made to be flexibly altered to your own liking, is so good that you can really run any kind of game you'd like. Star Wars, Firefly, Urban Arcana, Eberron, Planescape, Forgotten Realms is the default game world, Mystara, Warhammer, Middle Earth... there are samples to complete game modules already made in all of these and more!
#4 paulstrait Jun 01, 2013 7:14:06	Maptool is 1000 times better than the DDI virtual tabletop and it is free. www.rptools.net is the website. I still find my DDI membership valuable-- for the compendium, character builder (although the online character builder is terrible and whoever came up with the idea should be fired), and the magazines. But really, how could anyone expect (or desire) WOTC to compete with open source software that was a light year ahead of them before they even got started? Why would anyone pay for a VTT when one as versatile and easy to use as maptool is freeyly available?