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Just thought I'd post an inquiry about the increasing abundance of technology and its uses. I have a D&D Manager application for my computer that was rather lackluster.
However, I've found that Tech has been invaluable to me as a gamer. I carry a USB Western Digital Passport Drive 320 GB that, among other things, houses my entire gaming library.
I use a 17 inch Macbook Pro as my personal computer, through which I download and display rulebooks, graphics, etc that I may need.
I use both Quicktime and the laptop's internal microphone as well as my iphone's recorder App to record my game sessions, which I playback and integrate into my itunes and manually transcribe the events of the sessions for recap purposes. I may choose to publish this as a podcast at some point.
I will be incorporating House, Trance and traditional indian music for background and setting purposes to "set the mood" for certain encounters, locales and NPC's.
My players work with die-rolling programs alongside manual dice. I may even be having a player remote-access in from long distance and play using an AIM/iChat Video-Chat option.
I've heard some scoff at all this as perversions of the game, and I never agreed until I saw WotC's integration of the Table into their "virtual dungeon" promotion for online D&D 4th edition. Having been utterly disappointed with the promise of Neverwinter Nights and Online D&Ding, I have to say my suspicions and skepticism was confirmed.
I have seen the WoW generation (I've played myself, before the haters and flaming starts) alter the face of D&D, both to benefit and to detriment.
I was wondering what "Silicon Sorcery" other DM's and Players out there use, and to what effect? Do you feel it a drawback or a benefit?
(Before a bunch of "purists" replies, this is directed specifically at people who DO employ technology for a purpose in gaming. No, your PS3 or XBOX probably doesn't count, I am speaking strictly of Tabletop play)
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I've been very curious to implement some sort of Tech at my games, but we've only gone so far as a dice roller for the iPhone. I'd like to bring my laptop to games, as my 'dm screen', but i'm afraid of how the players will react. It sure would cut down on the amount of space all my physical gaming books require, and make it quicker to look up rules/spells/feats/etc. on the fly. I'm definitely thinking about 'upgrading' my gaming table, and implementing more Tech in our games. However, as i said, i fear the players reactions.
EDIT: By the way, I really thought the iPhone recorder app idea was genius. Perhaps i'll start doing something similar, as i have a tendency of forgetting previous sessions.
In my own campaign... none. Books, pencils, paper, dice, battle mat and some minis. That's it.
One of my players runs another campaign where he runs it off of a laptop, and its not really that intrusive.
The same player has copies of most of the books on it too which we use for cabin weekends so we are not carting a ton of books with us (even here I personally have everything I need written down on my character sheet that is not in the PHB (i.e. feat discriptions)).
I'm not anti-tech (almost the opposite), but I'm just a creature of habit and 20+ years of play is enough to create some pretty strong habits.
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EDIT: By the way, I really thought the iPhone recorder app idea was genius. Perhaps i'll start doing something similar, as i have a tendency of forgetting previous sessions.
While it is ingenious, it kills the battery FAST. Better solution IMHO is (provided a laptop with a full installation of Quicktim Pro) set up a "New Audio Recording" and using the laptop's built-in microphone, record. Laptops tend to hold more power, and plugging it in will not interfere with the microphone (unlike the iPhone, which still has a tendency to absorb power and die while recording, EVEN when plugged in).
Another fix I found was using an iPod with a Belkin recorder and plugging THAT in to a socket or computer, which doesn't interfere with the audio recording.
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No problem.
As an additional notation, I've used various resources to make character depictions and renderings.
One was the Soul Calibur III and IV character building engines (I've unlocked most of the Equipment) which allows me to tweake this way and that and render a character 'just-so'. Another option could be the Mortal Kombat Karacter Kreator engines from the last few games ... but who has the time to unlock all that, right? Swell if you're going to anyways but otherwise a PITA.
I then feed my PS3 data into my Mac using EyeTV composite to Digital Signal converter and take a screenshot. (also can be used to play video games live on your mac .. no delay or lag!)
Another method I've seen a fellow player use is a WoW Character Modeller (I forget the Name) which has every item and monster in the game.
Printing color copies, or editting these in photoshop and then printing really adds some depth and vibrancy to character portraits!
Anymore, I have my laptop with the hypertext d20 and my friend's Pathfinder OCG site up so I can look things up a lot faster than paging through the books. I still would rather have the books to read through initially, but when looking up individual rules, its much faster to access them this way, especially when an adventure calls for a "standard" monster from the SRD.
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Skype for video and audio for the player that is 200 miles away.
Various dice roller tools.
All the PDF books indexed and searchable on the laptop.
On-line map-tool to replace battlemat and minis at the next session.
I also use a journal program on the laptop to both write the adventures and keep track of notes taken during the session.
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Mortal Kombat and Soul Calibur use the latest games of those franchises, are built into the games themselves. You have to play and unlock costume bits, etc for your custom characters ... then find a method of screen capturing them for use completely separately with Roleplay.
As stated before, I use EyeTV which allows me to play and screenshot footage from my PS3 on my Mac.
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As a brief addendum:
We have begun using Quicktime Pro to record Audio & Video from Sessions.
In addition to this, I have begun using iChat to Video-Chat in a member who lives halfway upstate and thus an unrealistic communting distance away. It's worked out pretty well thus far, despite a few setting glitches that are giving us some issues.
In short, good stuff! Am considering using iChat exclusively in the future to handle an all long-distance game in the interests of being equitable and fair to some of my more far flung-friends whom have been itching to game with me since forever.
I attempted to use Screenium Screencasting/Video Capture utility to cycle between programs, but it has proven HIGHLY buggy and inefficient.
Having seen that iLife '09 has a recording feature in the new iChat, I have purchased that and am awaiting delivery. We will see how compatible/easy to use the new version is.
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In reference to the above. iChat proved highly glitchy in the long run, for several reasons. Eventually we switched over to Skype, save for the fact that apparently either my long distance player's camera or his computer or both are pieces of crap.
This is evidenced over several occasions where fresh installs of the driver have "fixed" whatever problem was occurring only to have it repeat the following week. This is compounded with now that solution not even working.
Overall however, Skype has provided a much crisper picture quality and more fluid streaming rate.