The Terrible Quickbuilder

**for those that are confused, this post is in response to the video they just posted for the next-gen quickbuilder**

Don't you guys ever learn?  You needed a Virtual Tabletop, so you made something flashy, focusing on graphics and animation that nobody wanted.  And so Sigil was born and died, in short order, because you made a product for the wrong audience.  It wasn't what your players wanted. 

So now your redoing your character builder, and I guess you learned NOTHING from Sigil.  Your players do not want this crap.  They don't want giant images, animations, and endless hand holding.  You are once again making a product for the wrong (non-existent) audience. 

And the worst part is, I know what your thinking.  We want new customers.  New customers don't know DnD, they will love all the flash and style.  But you just don't get it.  DnD never starts with a newbie making a character on their own.  DnD starts with the Dungeon Master, who invariably walks a new player through making a character, doing the very hand holding that you are forcing into the web experience. Nothing your introducing will somehow get you more players.  It will just push away the ones you have.  And less players means less DM's, and less DM's means less new players.  

Make the product more functional.  Make it work better.  Make it able to support the actual rules in the actual books. Make your DM's happy.  They, and only they, will make DnD a bigger, better thing in the future, because without them, and their support, DnD doesn't happen.

Quote from Rickard_the_Black>>

Don't you guys ever learn?  You needed a Virtual Tabletop, so you made something flashy, focusing on graphics and animation that nobody wanted.  And so Sigil was born and died, in short order, because you made a product for the wrong audience.  It wasn't what your players wanted. 

So now your redoing your character builder, and I guess you learned NOTHING from Sigil.  Your players do not want this crap.  They don't want giant images, animations, and endless hand holding.  You are once again making a product for the wrong (non-existent) audience. 

And the worst part is, I know what your thinking.  We want new customers.  New customers don't know DnD, they will love all the flash and style.  But you just don't get it.  DnD never starts with a newbie making a character on their own.  DnD starts with the Dungeon Master, who invariably walks a new player through making a character, doing the very hand holding that you are forcing into the web experience. Nothing your introducing will somehow get you more players.  It will just push away the ones you have.  And less players means less DM's, and less DM's means less new players. 

Make the product more functional.  Make it work better.  Make it able to support the actual rules in the actual books. Make your DM's happy.  They, and only they, will make DnD a bigger, better thing in the future, because without them, and their support, DnD doesn't happen.

 This is all stuff that is coming down the pipeline. The quick builder is the first step, it literally says so in the first sentence of the changelog:

Quickbuilder is our first step toward improving character creation—focused on helping new players quickly create a level 1 character while we test new approaches with minimal disruption to existing games.

Sure, you may not need or want this, but don't try and speak for the whole community. There are people who like this new approach to the quickbuilder (which isn't a new feature, just a new approach)

"You needed a Virtual Tabletop" - They made Maps and people love it.

"Your players do not want this crap" - I like it and want it, guess i am not a player? I like the quick builder, faster than when I had to make random one shot characters before. Is it flashy, yes. Is that a down side.... no? I'm not sure why it being visually nice is a down side.

First you say players don't want endless hand holding, then you call out new players, the exact group that NEEDS handholding and less choice when it comes to making a character - which is why their road map has onboarding tools on it. The Quick builder is literally NOT meant for new players, or advanced PC making. It is meant for the "I can't be bothered with choices" person, and it does that wonderfully.

"Make the product more functional.  Make it work better.  Make it able to support the actual rules in the actual books. Make your DM's happy.  They, and only they, will make DnD a bigger, better thing in the future, because without them, and their support, DnD doesn't happen." - If you are an invested person you say you are, you would know that the roadmap SHOWS them working on all that. But they need to fix a LOT of backend stuff. So they can't have new content while working on that?

If you think what you saw was clear and accessible, then I feel you and I watched two different videos, because that's not what I saw.

They did make maps, which is what people wanted.  They also made sigil, which people clearly did not want.  I'd argue the new quickbuilder video is all Sigil, zero Maps.

Have you even bothered trying to use it? Or is this all from a video that this reaction is coming from?

Quote from Rickard_the_Black >>

If you think what you saw was clear and accessible, then I feel you and I watched two different videos, because that's not what I saw.

 I didn't watch the video, I used the actual tool to make several characters and get a feel for it.

I wouldn't be so brash as to pass judgement on a tool I haven't actually tried to use......

I'm referring to the quickbuilder they showed off today.  It's just a preview looking for feedback, its not useable yet.

Its a video of the new tool where they are inviting feedback.  I'm actually doing the think they asked us to do.  Maybe you should check out the video yourself before you pass judgement.

Quote from Rickard_the_Black >>

They also made sigil, which people clearly did not want.

I did. I just didn't want the tire fire that it turned into. I was super excited to play in a highly detailed 3D Virtual Table Top that could do everything a current VTT like Roll20 could do, but better. Sadly that didn't happen 😭

Quote from Rickard_the_Black >>

I'm referring to the quickbuilder they showed off today.  It's just a preview looking for feedback, its not useable yet.

 You are quite incorrect

If you go to the Changelog, it literally says:

Quickbuilder Launch

Quickbuilder is our first step toward improving character creation—focused on helping new players quickly create a level 1 character while we test new approaches with minimal disruption to existing games.

You can learn more about this new approach in our blog post—or try it for yourself in the Character Builder.

And in the video it says

"I'm gonna show off something really that my friends over on the character sheet team just released"

So it seems like you didn't watch the video, at least not properly.

I find this take really strange. The new Quickbuilder is perhaps the first time in my time on the forum that the majority agrees it's a very good innovation. Is it perfect? ​​No, but the community feedback is overwhelmingly positive.

I agree. I've been very critical of D&D Beyond since Hasbro bought it, but this looks excellent!