D&D Character Builder Changes

Today in my e-mail, I received an announcement from D&D Insider about the upcoming changes to their Character Builder software. While most of these changes seem like a great step in the right direction, I do have a few questions that were not answered in the brief message.

First though, a quick summary of the cool stuff to look forward to. The new version will be online and keep your character in "the cloud" so you can access it from anywhere with an Internet connection. The new version will include material from Dark Sun and Essentials. Also, users of the current downloadable program can import their saved character files into the online version.

However, I have a few concerns. First of all, is there a way to export PDFs of the character sheets? Sometimes I end up playing at locations with spotty Internet access and it is useful to have an offline copy of role-playing materials. If not, is there at least a print option in the web-based edition? A paper copy is better than no copy when a router dies.

Also, my primary computer runs Linux, and – at least from how I read the announcement – this will not run under Linux. Although, in fairness, the old version did not either; it would be nice though, if WotC recognized that many geeks (and, admit it, who else plays D&D) run Linux and catered to them as well as Windows and Mac users. Oh well, I guess that’s why I still have a laptop running Windows. 🙂