The Campaign Builder's Guild

For any 4e DMs out there who do lots of homebrewing (basically, all 4e DMs here), have I got something for you!

Another DM and I on the WotC forums have whipped up a little program called the DM's Toolkit that will automatically format (and in places do calculations for) custom 4e material either in plain text for your own records or in forum code to post on any BBcode-based forums (WotC boards, here, ENWorld, etc.)  So far, it does powers, races, classes, paths, and destinies (including making looks-like-they-came-straight-from-the-book power cards), and we're working on monsters, items (including artifacts), rituals, and more for a future release.  Version 1.0.0 was released Saturday, and you can take a look here.  I wanted to get a reaction from the closest thing to "professional DMs" I could find, so if you like it, go ahead and use it; any feedback is appreciated.

Wait...which one are you?  E_L or the one I could never remember well enough to type here without butchering the name that I think starts with an 'R'?  Also, THANK YOU.  You may have noticed me popping into the WotC thread from time to time and I have been following it since the core books came out.  I've been waiting semi-patiently and it has paid off.  Sure, it's not all there and you are bound to take some heat from some ungrateful folk for that, but what is there works nicely and is pretty nifty, even useful.

BUT since I have trouble logging in at WotC half the time and don't know where else to direct feedback, I will tell you this here : When I try to use the Power Creator to make a power and I select 'Area' in the field called 'Area', it doesn't display the spell in any form when I try to view the power.

I downloaded it, and I'm going to take a look at all it can do. Thanks very much.

Are you going to put in the monster guidelines into the system (the average scores and what-not for defenses and attacks and hp)? That would be quite helpful.

Quote from: Kapn XeviatAre you going to put in the monster guidelines into the system (the average scores and what-not for defenses and attacks and hp)? That would be quite helpful.

Yep; there will be an auto-calculate option so you can either put in your own numbers or click the button and get the DMG-guideline numbers.

Quote from: Pair o' Dice Lost

QuoteBUT since I have trouble logging in at WotC half the time and don't know where else to direct feedback, I will tell you this here : When I try to use the Power Creator to make a power and I select 'Area' in the field called 'Area', it doesn't display the spell in any form when I try to view the power.

I don't remember but I'll look more into that tomorrow.  Thanks for that.  

Too bad you guys weren't allowed to release this before half of us that would / will make use of it spent time working on formats for all these things on our own in word processors.  Still, once I get used to it, I think your program will make it a bit faster, especially for powers (doing them in OpenOffice always involved a lot of adding and removing table lines).

QuoteToo bad you guys weren't allowed to release this before half of us that would / will make use of it spent time working on formats for all these things on our own in word processors.

no[/i] idea what we had to go through to even release now.  I wish we could have released earlier, too.

QuoteStill, once I get used to it, I think your program will make it a bit faster, especially for powers (doing them in OpenOffice always involved a lot of adding and removing table lines).

Exactly the point.  The integrated power card creator (and a monster card creator, when the Monster Creator is done) is another nice plus.

Quote from: Pair o' Dice Lost

QuoteToo bad you guys weren't allowed to release this before half of us that would / will make use of it spent time working on formats for all these things on our own in word processors.

no[/i] idea what we had to go through to even release now.  I wish we could have released earlier, too.

No, I don't.  Is that still super-secret?

Quote from: Ninja D!No, I don't.  Is that still super-secret?

Basically, some folks inside WotC wanted to shut it down, so we had to convince Scott Rouse and Linae (the GSL representative) to argue on our behalf.  It almost died a couple times, but they helped us through it.

Quote from: Pair o' Dice Lost

Quote from: Ninja D!No, I don't.  Is that still super-secret?

Basically, some folks inside WotC wanted to shut it down, so we had to convince Scott Rouse and Linae (the GSL representative) to argue on our behalf.  It almost died a couple times, but they helped us through it.

Linae will be missed.  They probably wished they had done this first.

I know you will probably, as in nearly all things, get more negative feedback than positive but I wanted to say, for my part, thank you.  Even if I end up using this only very little, the fact that you went through the trouble of releasing it to the community (AND doing so legally) is really great.  This along with the compendium threads that you yourself created and maintain on the WotC forums makes you a great asset to the community as a whole.  Even if I personally never made use of any of it, I would like to give my thanks as a member of the larger community.  If there is ever anything that I can do for you, you need only ask.

Now getting back to the toolkit; I have two bits of feedback.  The first one is a bigger deal to me but it isn't my program so do with it as you will.  That is that when you select to view something you have made in a format to be posted on a forum, the code uses capital letters (such as [/B]).  Those don't work here so I bet there are other places that they don't.  Here only lower case works.  If that could be changed, that would be great.  If that is too much work, I would understand.  The next thing is a feature request of the lowest priority.  Once you have all of the currently planned creators implemented, I would suggest that in the interest of completeness you add a feat creator.  It is not NEEDED because it is so simple to format them but once everything else is done and you're just ironing things out, it would be a nice thing to make the program more complete.

Quote from: Ninja D!I know you will probably, as in nearly all things, get more negative feedback than positive but I wanted to say, for my part, thank you.  Even if I end up using this only very little, the fact that you went through the trouble of releasing it to the community (AND doing so legally) is really great.  This along with the compendium threads that you yourself created and maintain on the WotC forums makes you a great asset to the community as a whole.  Even if I personally never made use of any of it, I would like to give my thanks as a member of the larger community.  If there is ever anything that I can do for you, you need only ask.

Now getting back to the toolkit; I have two bits of feedback.  The first one is a bigger deal to me but it isn't my program so do with it as you will.  That is that when you select to view something you have made in a format to be posted on a forum, the code uses capital letters (such as [/B]).  Those don't work here so I bet there are other places that they don't.  Here only lower case works.  If that could be changed, that would be great.  If that is too much work, I would understand.[/quote]The next thing is a feature request of the lowest priority.  Once you have all of the currently planned creators implemented, I would suggest that in the interest of completeness you add a feat creator.  It is not NEEDED because it is so simple to format them but once everything else is done and you're just ironing things out, it would be a nice thing to make the program more complete.[/quote]

A Feat Creator, huh?  Take a look between the buttons for the Item Creator and Ritual Creator and tell me what you see. ;)

Quote from: Pair o' Dice Lost

Quote from: Pair o' Dice Lost

QuoteThe next thing is a feature request of the lowest priority.  Once you have all of the currently planned creators implemented, I would suggest that in the interest of completeness you add a feat creator.  It is not NEEDED because it is so simple to format them but once everything else is done and you're just ironing things out, it would be a nice thing to make the program more complete.

We see that classic Patrick Stewart facepalm.jpeg with a ninja painted on his shiny head.

Wow, Great work from what ive seen man. So far i love it (have only dinked around with a race) and ill keep playing around with it and post feedback when i can (Btw, Thank you very much for making this program and letting people use it for free ^_^)

Quote from: Towel NinjaWow, Great work from what ive seen man. So far i love it (have only dinked around with a race) and ill keep playing around with it and post feedback when i can (Btw, Thank you very much for making this program and letting people use it for free ^_^)

probably[/i] would never charge for it. ;))  Let me know what you think about the other Creators when you take a look.

Any idea (even very rough) when you'll have the monster creator in working order?  Not pushing, just curious.

Quote from: Ninja D!Any idea (even very rough) when you'll have the monster creator in working order?  Not pushing, just curious.

I'm planning by late September, early October (I do still have bugs to fix and college to worry about, after all).