4th & Dragon : Dungeons and Dragons...and stuff

Hmmm its an interesting test. Wonder if they will become as bad as the Evil empire GW? I mean they tried to sue NASA for use of the word space (as they came up for it first in Space Marines, and they invented wargamming etc.) lol Its a good generator

I remember this guy’s generators from 3E.  It was nice to have it be browser based, but the page design annoys me.

I doubt it will be up for long, but we’ll have to see.  Funny that this guy got a CG up before WotC and he’s only had about a month to do it.  How long has WotC had? 

This is exactly the type of thing WotC should be creating as part of D&D Insider, but with full descriptions of feats, powers, rituals, etc. and a full printable character sheet. And it should be (as this is) completely browser-based and Javascript, so that all platforms with modern browsers can access it. Add that to DDI and I’ll promise to subscribe.

This is a great tool which I really hope WotC doesn’t shut down. It does them no harm (IMO), you still need the books to use it. It just makes creating a character easier/faster, which only helps D&D.

The fact that this guy has created this on his own and in a short time is awesome. Perhaps WotC can hire him to work on DDI?

Well, to be fair to WotC, I think they’re aiming for a character generator that is a little smarter.  While this one does check for eligibility, and marks what you’re eligible for, it still displays all available feats, powers, etc. at once, even the stuff you can’t take.

Oh, and I expect that WotC will pounce on this given that it will intrude on their D&D Insider subscription content.

Oh I’m sure WoTC will make him take it down eventually.  But, Kalex nailed it on the head.  They’ve had how long?  Granted it’s a simple design, but they’ve had how long, with how many people and how many dollars?  Let this not be just a shot over the bow, but one that strikes solidly doing little damage.  Let the damage come in the form of the fact that this guy got this out so soon and there is still nothing from WoTC. 

I’m still getting the feeling that this turned out to be one of those items that went from control of upper-mgmt to departmental and filed under, when you get to it, because HEY our books sold like crazy.

I have no doubts that WoTC/Hasbro will try to bully him to take down the generator based on some sort of trademark/copyright argument.  He shouldn’t cave in and why: 
1) Game rules are not copyrightable.  The idea for a game is not protected by copyright. The same is true of the name or title given to the game and of the method or methods for playing it....Copyright protection does not extend to any idea, system, method, device, or trademark material involved in the development, merchandising, or playing of a game.  See http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html
2) A character generator is fair use.  Why?  Because the very game itself requires you to generate your own character!  Automating that process by a computer program is therefore fair use, so long as you don’t steal WoTC computer code. 
3) So while The Player’s handbook, which is a particular expression of game rules might be able to be restricted by copyright, the rules themselves may not be. If there is only one reasonable way of describing a rule, even that particular expression cannot be restricted by copyright.

Historically WotC and TSR before them have been able to defend IP successfully regardless of what the copyright law might say.  Maybe it isn’t a copyright issue at all, but one of trademark or intellectual property rights as Jim suggested.

Trademark law is where you’d hit the wall, Jim.  Which is why there are games like Dogopoly and Catopoly, etc.  They aren’t made by Parker Bros.  Copyright law doesn’t apply at all.  Trademark law applies, but has something about recognizability in the law, ie if you could mistake Dogopoly for the official Monopoly, Parker Bros might be able to stop your production of Dogopoly.  But since that’s a ludicrous assessment (no one would ever look at Dogopoly and think it was plain-old monopoly), people are free to make as many Monopoly-style games as they wish.

I mean, just look at how many unlicensed monopoly games exist - dog, cat, dino, wild animal, KISS, horse, make-your-own, Toronto-opoly, etc.

You could make a game that follows the same mechanics as D&D - as long as everything is rewritten and nothing is a literal copy and paste - and then call it Donjons and Dragons, Keeps and Killers, Oubliettes and Orcs.  Despite popular assumption, you could even use a beholder in your game, and despite legal rulings in TSR’s favor, you technically don’t even need to change it’s name, unless they trademarked it.