Lots of stuff to talk about this week … I’m just going to dive into the updates in no particular order:
Compendium Update
Within the next week, hopefully by Gen Con and possibly before you read this, we’ll be pushing live an update to the D&D Compendium. The two highlights, in my opinion, are the addition of the Monsters tab and the inclusion of data from Dragon and Dungeon Magazines. In addition there are now more search options plus a “show all” button, both of which should make browsing the data easier. (Look for full patch notes to show up in the forums once the update is live.)
With this update, the Compendium now provides a convenient way to look up all of the following rules elements: Races, Class, Powers, Feats, Items, Skills, Rituals, Paragon Paths, Epic Destinies, and Monsters. The functionality is still pretty basic at this point and we have lots of our own ideas about how to continue to improve things, but we’re also very interested in hearing your ideas about what we could do to make things even better, The current Free Trial is designed both to allow you guys to see whether Insider is worth paying for and also for us to get feedback from you about what else you would like to see. We’ve started this thread in our forums in order to centralize this conversation.
As far as the data that feeds the D&D Compendium goes, here’s the plan: Once we are charging for Insider subscriptions we will be updating the Compendium once per month. Near the beginning of the month we will add in all of the relevant rules elements from whatever physical products went on sale the previous month (typically one book during the third week) plus all the rules elements from the just-released full-issue compilations of Dragon and Dungeon Magazines.
In the mean time, during the Free Trial of Insider, we’ll be updating the Compendium data as we find it convenient and appropriate. For example, there are currently no monsters from the Monster Manual in it. They will definitely be there when we start charging and we’ll probably have at least one data update which includes them between now and then.
Gen Con
I will be at Gen Con all weekend – feel free to look me up and say hi. Among other things I will be conducting the D&D Insider seminar at 6pm on Friday evening. We’ve got the room for two hours, but I know a lot of folks will want to leave early to go to the Ennies so I’ll make sure we get through all the prepared stuff (slides and demos) and into the Q&A period within the first hour.
As I mentioned last week, we’ll be showing off Insider (including the Character Builder and Visualizer) at kiosks both in our booth and also in the Sagamore Ballroom. If you can’t make it to Gen Con you can look for coverage of the event online or you can visit us at PAX in Seattle in two weeks.
Pricing Questions
Most of the questions generated by last week’s Digital Insider column seemed to center around the pricing structure that I announced there. I’ll do my best to clarify some things:
What happens to my year-long subscription when the price goes up?
The $4.95 / month price covers Web content only (Dragon and Dungeon Magazines, the D&D Compendium, and the Bonus Tools). We will be charging more for access to the Character Builder, Character Visualizer, Game Table, etc. Our previously announced pricing for the full package (including both Web content and client applications) is $9.95 if you sign up for a full year (going up to $14.95 if you pay one month at a time).
The details of how transitions from one subscription package to another will work will be announced later, but you can safely assume that a) we will honor the terms of the package you signed up for and b) you won’t be charged more unless you choose to pay for more services.
What about free trials of client applications?
We will be making demo versions of the Character Builder and Character Visualizer available so that folks can sample those applications for free. Our plan for the demo version is to have full functionality, but only a small amount of data. So, for example, you might only have access to levels 1 - 3 or you might only be able to build a human. These demo’s will be a permanent fixture of the D&DI website (in other words: the free trial never ends).
How long will the free trial of the Web content last?
At least one more month.
Bonus Tools
We cleaned up some aspects of our D&D Insider webpage last week and pushed live the first two Bonus Tools. They are Flash applications, which means they should work whether you’re on a Mac or a PC, but you will need to have Adobe Flash Player installed. We’ve got a third Bonus Tool halfway built right now and have also decided what the fourth one will be. Look for more information as those projects as they near completion.
If you have any questions, comments, or even just the need jump onto our forums and discuss this article, head right here. I’ll be back next week with tales of Indianapolis and answers to more of your questions.
Randy Buehler
Vice President of Digital Gaming
Wizards of the Coast