dataset/

[drakahn]

a couple questions. first i was one of them that got the free key during the weeks of thanksgiving.

thanks a ton. also i would like to know if there has been talk of pricing on the toolkit to build our own dataset? im realy interested in this as that i play alot of games from lesser known publishers, and some tools to make a character gen creation easier would help out alot on my end. will the world of darkness adiitional sets (mage, werewolf ect) cost aditional than the base set or is it a one time fee for the system? if thats not the case would you consider offering bundle to include atleast the 4 main systems, (mortal, vampire, werewolf and mage)?

lastly are there any plans in the works for a repository of data sets created by users? of course i realise that this would be something that would need policed by someone at your end to make sure that copyrighted materials arent uploaded and distributed, but im thinking say for example a skeleton, no spells but having the dataset have the fields set up so the individual gm/storyteller ect would only need to plug in the spells from his or her own books, same with feats and any descriptive things that would be copyrighted or intilectual property? i ask this as it might be beneficial for all the 3rd party things out there as well as the ton of d20 systems and worlds. also i was wondering if there are any plans for a d20 modern srd data set? im probably wrong bit isnt there a d20 modern srd rule set?


thanks

[drakahn]

dangit i posted this to the wrong sub forum it should be in the general herolab forum... moderator please move it over there...

[rob]

At 01:12 AM 11/26/2007, you wrote:

thanks a ton. also i would like to know if there has been talk of pricing on the toolkit to build our own dataset? im realy interested in this as that i play alot of games from lesser known publishers, and some tools to make a character gen creation easier would help out alot on my end. will the world of darkness adiitional sets (mage, werewolf ect) cost aditional than the base set or is it a one time fee for the system? if thats not the case would you consider offering bundle to include atleast the 4 main systems, (mortal, vampire, werewolf and mage)?

There have been no discussions yet regarding pricing for the toolkit. It's possible that the toolkit will be free, but nothing's been decided yet.

The WoD data files will be bundled up in various ways. The initial release will be WoD and VtR. Plans call for having separate options for WoD combined with MtA, WtF, CtL, etc. Users who have purchased one of these bundles will be able purchase access to the other components, but the pricing has not been approved by White Wolf yet. Our intent is to have the price of adding new components be at a reduced price.

We've structured things such that we can readily have a bundle consisting of all the core WoD settings. White Wolf has indicated that they would support this model. However, nothing has been nailed down for this yet, so I can't give you anything definitive at this time. Suffice to say that our intent is to have something along the lines you propose, and we're working towards that objective.

lastly are there any plans in the works for a repository of data sets created by users? of course i realise that this would be something that would need policed by someone at your end to make sure that copyrighted materials arent uploaded and distributed, but im thinking say for example a skeleton, no spells but having the dataset have the fields set up so the individual gm/storyteller ect would only need to plug in the spells from his or her own books, same with feats and any descriptive things that would be copyrighted or intilectual property? i ask this as it might be beneficial for all the 3rd party things out there as well as the ton of d20 systems and worlds. also i was wondering if there are any plans for a d20 modern srd data set? im probably wrong bit isnt there a d20 modern srd rule set?

We lack the resources (read: time) to police something like this. Consequently, this would need to be something spearheaded by one or more users. A repository like this was developed by a user for our Army Builder and Card Vault products, but that won't work well for HL. So a new repository would need to be created for HL. Perhaps someone here on the forums will volunteer to organize such an effort, with a few others helping out as well.

There are definitely plans for d20 Modern, since there is an SRD for it. However, we wouldn't be able to get it done until 4th Edition is upon us. So we're holding off on d20 Modern until we see what the impact of 4th Edition will have on the system, which will hopefully be just a matter of months.

[drakahn]

one more question if they (wizards/tsr) does that mean that if they make an srd for 4th edition that there wont be a 3.5/3.0 srd for modern? personally i dont intend on moving over to 4th edtion though not for the reasons many are compaining about, personaly i feel if its not broke dont fix it. doesnt mean that i wont be stealing ideas if any thing i like comes from 4th edition, i would rather stick to what i have and im not really interested in learning yet another version of the system again. unless of course all the pepole around here adopt the 4th edtion set and im forced to switch but here itl be kicking and screaming.

thanks i look forward to seeing how things progress.

[rob]

At 03:12 AM 11/28/2007, you wrote:

one more question if they (wizards/tsr) does that mean that if they make an srd for 4th edition that there wont be a 3.5/3.0 srd for modern? personally i dont intend on moving over to 4th edtion though not for the reasons many are compaining about, personaly i feel if its not broke dont fix it.

We have no way of knowing how much 4th Edition will deviate from 3.5 at this point. Lots of folks have been asking whether 4th Edition support for fantasy will be the same set of data files or a separate one. We can't say at this point. But there's obviously a desire for a single set of data files that can support both - if that's possible. We have to assume the same desire exists for Modern.

With regards to Modern, if we start on the files now, its highly likely that we'll need to have two different sets of data files. If we wait to find out what the differences are going to be, then we can potentially design a single set of data files to work for both. The odds of being able to do that dramatically increase if we start the design after knowing the differences.

There is also the question of how many people will switch to 4th and how many will stick with 3.5. If we have two sets of data files, that's lots more work for a split user-base. The bottom line is that it would not be prudent to put together Modern files until we have some clarity on the differences, at which point we can minimize the extra work on our end to support both versions.

That being said, if the differences are huge and 90% of folks switch to 4th Edition, the odds of 3.5 support greatly diminish. The inverse applies as well. If the differences are huge and most stick with 3.5, the odds of 4th support diminish. Here's hoping that the differences are not huge and that we can develop a single set of data files for both editions... :-)