TLG Portal

[alcyone]

TLG Portal is here: http://www.tlgportal.com/

What do you think? I haven't decided whether to check it out yet. I am missing very little from RPGNow at the moment.

I remember WoTC moving their content online, and that bugged me a lot because it was in lieu of providing updated PDFs, it changed a lot, so if your players had it and you didn't, you were playing with different rules, and it could be pretty klunky. The upside was it had an open API, so if you had a subscription there were some mobile apps and web apps that could let you do stuff like automate character sheets using up-to-date information.

What would draw me to the portal:

1. An EXCELLENT search engine. There are a lot of good open source ones, if you set them up correctly. If I can find content faster there than I can on my local PDFs, that would be a draw.
2. Ability to cut/paste/print. Not a whole book, but if I need to show a rule to someone online or hand it to someone during character creation, that'd be handy.
3. Pictures that need to be big can be made big. Like maps.
4. Good organization and presentation.

On my end, I'd probably need to be running something that needed more than the core books to need this. I don't think the subscription rate is unreasonable, except that I'd still be buying books, so a discount on PDF or print if I have a year subscription or something would be swell.

If you try it out, let us know what you find.

[ArgoForg]

Honestly, I think it's a great idea, and it's very forward thinking, especially for people who might run at cons and don't want to lug around a backpack full of books. It might really benefit the people who pick up the 5E conversions (stereotypically, later versions of the game seem to draw people who are more inclined toward using tablets/phones/etc at the game table) or play online, where they can quickly open a window to look up a spell effect or the like. And the price is very good. A month for the price of a single PDF from some companies? Yessah.

That said, it's probably not something I'll jump on-- at least at the moment-- as 1) my finances are too fluxxy don't allow for any subscription-based items and 2) I tend to prefer my hard copies to digital. Obviously I can't speak for everyone, but a lot of the people I've personally pushed toward the C&C bandwagon tend to be the grognard types that cling to pen and paper and tabletop, and may or may not be moved by digital, as they tend to have the same mindset as me toward keeping tablets/phones and such away from the table so they don't divide the player's focus.

But that doesn't keep me from thinking it's a pretty savvy move on TLG's part and applauding them for it!

[Treebore]

I liked what I saw at Gary Con, and their plans for it going forward sounded even more awesome, such as putting ALL the adventures online, with separate maps, etc...

[Litzen Tallister]

I like the idea as well, since it looks like digital content for gaming is becoming much more of a thing. However, I have yet to graduate to that and will continue to rely on dead tree editions. It's not a bad idea for new converts to C&C who may not already have the back catalog occupying space on a bookshelf as well, since the cost of entry is so low. And, anything that helps get C&C to more people is a good thing. Well, maybe not anything......

[Tadhg]

It appears to be a great idea . . still investigating.

Is there an association with Steam?

[dachda]

It will definitely be a wait and see for me. I pretty much own all the TLG product line as it is, and don't mind taking what I need to a game session. So I'll wait and see what others say about the features and how well it is working. Intrigued though.

[Treebore]

I like the idea as well, since it looks like digital content for gaming is becoming much more of a thing. However, I have yet to graduate to that and will continue to rely on dead tree editions. It's not a bad idea for new converts to C&C who may not already have the back catalog occupying space on a bookshelf as well, since the cost of entry is so low. And, anything that helps get C&C to more people is a good thing. Well, maybe not anything......

Yeah, this will do me the most good at Conventions.

[pawndream]

No real interest in a monthly subscription service. I opted out of a similar service WotC launched around the time they rolled out 4th edition D&D and will likely not bite on it for C&C either.

I guess it is a relatively inexpensive way to gain access to the entire C&C back catalog, but I'd rather just buy what I want/need, as opposed to paying $72/year to have access to stuff I might never use.

[serleran]

The theory is nice. I likely won't pay, but I don't have any subscriptions to anything, so not very surprising. I do hope there's a "free content" section to offer people to encourage them to consider the payment plan.