Greetings!
So, the main debate here is:
How far should one add technology to their pen & paper gaming experience?
Now, years ago, when I was 7, I came across a cozy coffee shop in the outskirts of Beaverton, OR. Upon entering the store, I glanced over to my left and saw five very different people sitting by the window. They were different genders, age, and race, yet here they were; a testament of what D&D and other P&P games are all about. War, politics, everything really; it didn't matter. These strangers found something that the rest of the world didn't seem to understand, or forgot about.
It's been 16 years since then, and I don't know if it was because of the pretty dice, or the strange and haunting tales the DM told, or the complexity of this strange game that I became interested, but I do remember one thing about that night that will forever be burned in my mind; they were all smiling. Smiling and laughing together though they didn't seem to know one another personally. And that ladies and gentlemen is what I see envisioned within every story I write.
Now it may be because of this that I disregard technology at the table as "rude" or "improper", but I know the less visuals you have to destroy what little imagination reality has burned and scraped away from us day-by-day, the better. Ever wonder why movies are never like the book? This to me is a large portion of it. Our imagination is what's left of our childhood, and I'll be d@/V\l7ed if I lose it.
Miniatures, artwork, pictures of exotic places (fantasy or real); all of these to me are fine visuals and take enough time to search the web for. iPhones, laptops, iPads, etc. are all beyond useful when placed in the right hands, however there are just as many possible distractions. Should a DM declare "No electronic devices at the table", a player must resort to either the rulebooks, planning, fantasizing, or drawing. None of these options sound too bad in comparison to the alternative.
These are just my opinions. Please tell me yours!
I want one of these. This is perhaps the closest thing anyone can explain as to what a perfect harmony between D&D pen and paper with futuristic technology.
My group plays using the virtual tabletop program maptool. We live on two different coasts, along with a play living in the midwest and this technology has been essential for keeping our games running.
Even for games that take place, face to face, VTT programs are big part of how we play. In one of the last games we played face to face, we used maptool through a projector, casted onto a table and it was amazing. We almost had a bluetooth setup that allowed people to move their tokens using a Wiimote (but alas we angered the machine spirits and they punished us by dropping a soda on the DM's laptop).
This IS the direction games are going, not just because you can connect to more players via the interwebs, but also because a good user interface enhances the game rather than detracting from it. Evil Lincoln (our DM) might have a screenshot or two to show you what I mean. While we could always revert to using hand-drawn maps or whiteboards in a face to face game, I don't think we will because VTTs just make it look that much nicer.
I think this is one of those things of "whatever works best for you and your group." The most important thing is to be sure that if you do use technology, it is a help, not a hindrance or a distraction.
In my current gaming group, as GM I use a laptop for quick rules reference via the PRD (and probably should use the laptop even more than I do--I have yet to figure out if it's easier/faster to flip through stuff on a screen or flip through pages in a book/printed out notes). While I have the laptop running, I also have it play playlists of music to help add ambiance to the game (but if players ever found that distracting, I would stop using it). If I could get .pdfs of all the books I use (which isn't that many) I'd probably save myself some aching shoulders by just bringing the laptop to game and forgoing the books entirely.
None of my players use laptops (one friend maintains his character sheet electronically, then prints it out and brings it to game. I almost wish he would just use a laptop, as he constantly loses his character sheet and I imagine he'd be less likely to lose a computer).
The only players I've ever had who did use laptops were blind and needed the laptops to have their screenreading software read their character sheets to them and to reference rules easily (even then they memorized the most important things they needed to know).
The only time I've ever had to say, "Please shut that off" was when a player decided to turn on his iPod, stuck his earphones in, and tuned out the entire game. We had a little chat about respect and paying attention, and I told him that if he was bored, he needed to tell me so I could keep him engaged (and asked him then for some details about what he would like to see in upcoming sessions)--and that if he didn't want to play, nothing was forcing him to come to sessions. He never did it again.
I have to say, as far as I'm concerned it should go without saying that if you do have your laptop with you, as a player or gamer, you are using it as a game aid and not as a means to check email/slack off while you are playing. The fact that apparently people have to actually make that it clear that that isn't allowed... well it doesn't surprise me, but it does appall me that some people have that little courtesy or common sense.
|
We have long fantasized about having a projector shining the map/battle grid for our games. You could have virtual templates that took up no battle mat space, no storage space, and were easily movable without messing up the battlefield.
That's not to mention the map reveals, photoshop tricks, and other shiny new things you could do with such a setup. At a water-world-sea-scape engineering/architecture exhibit at MoMA, they have a spectacular topographical map covering a whole seafront table. From overhead, they projected the details...buildings, water, current patterns, heights and depths, everything. Move your hand to eclipse the bulb, and it's white pieces of paper stacked on top of one another.
Something like that, or something like that SurfaceScapes project upthread, would be worth it's weight in GP.
As is, we usually have at least 2 laptops at our table...mostly netbooks, which take up less table space. They are invaluable resources for searching, pfsrd stuff, art, and having extra copies of the books laying around (thank you paizo for subscribers getting free pdf's!!!!)
We also have at least one of them, or someone's phone, running Pandora with groomed DnD stations (titles like "Fightin' Time" "Spooky Background Music" "Operatic DnD") through the house stereo system.
So long as everyone stays focused on the table itself, be it projected, Surface, or traditional pen & paper, I'm happy. It's the players, not the toys, which make the game after all.
-t