Wizards of the Coast has announced that the D&D Insider Character Builder online version is now live at the Wizards website.
- New Design: Completely redesigned from top to bottom in Microsoft Silverlight as a robust character creation wizard.
- No Download: The Character Builder is served from the D&D site.
- PC and Mac Compatible: Requires an Internet connection and Silverlight plug-in.
- Access is easy: Just enter the D&D site, log in, and launch the Character Builder from the Tool Box or the Character Builder tools page.
- Characters in the Cloud: All characters you create are saved on our database. No need to save Character Builder files on your hard drive anymore.
- File Import: You can easily import your characters created in the previous version to the new Character Builder.
- Previous Data: Includes all character-building data you enjoyed in the previous versions.
- New Data Releases: Dark Sun and D&D Essentials data debuts in the new version.
The launch doesn’t come without a lot of controversy and questions for gamers. There is already a list of known issues…
6 Comments
So…glitchy… I had to reload over a dozen times as they added hotfixes.
A great thing though…they have a RECOVER tool that allows you to regain your work if if it crashes.
It failed to recognize quite a few of the D&D insider things as Essential’s content. I sent in a few notes on things that need to be fixed.
Cannot wait until they have an export feature….
Good, now they can hold your characters ransom.
I was all for it until i realised it used silverlight. Why on earth would you change from a downloadable app to a web app if its not even going to work on mobile devices.
Poor Form Wizards Poor Form.
I am really excited to have the Essentials stuff. I’ve been teaching my son to play with the Red Box and I just updated his character to third level. I wish it worked more consistently since I’m paying for it.
This is probably because previously you could pay for one month of the insider and get the full download of the character builder. It was essentially a rules “freeze” (no updates) but worked just fine for the vast majority of stuf. Now you’ll have to have an account all the time — can’t do the one month thing.
Also, any characters that you create on their site are their sole property to use at their discretion. I’m not saying that they’re going to take your guy Bumblefutz and make a whole series of books after him and make him the new Drizzt and you get nothing out of it, but still if they wanted to, they could.