Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
It plays just fine in the back of flying cars, but if you drop a die while using your jetpack just forget it -- it's gone.
D&D 5E How will DnD / RPGs adapt to future technologies?
It plays just fine in the back of flying cars, but if you drop a die while using your jetpack just forget it -- it's gone.
Swarmkeeper
Hero
Seriously, keep that thing on the table! I'm not accepting a die roll that has dropped 500 ft and smashed on the pavement with the only readable piece left reading "20".
Yes, but nobody plays it without the *option* of changing it. That fundamental choice has been the core of the hobby for 40 years. You can choose not to home brew it, but that’s always a choice.
That’s not just a definition of D&D. It’s a definition of tabletop roleplaying games.
Lord_Blacksteel
Adventurer
A fun question - I think the answer is "Not as much as people have been trying to sell us on for the last 25 years"
People have been doing D&D things on computers since the very early days. A lot of us were writing character generators, sheet generators, or encounter tables in BASIC on Apples II's, Vic-20's, and Atari 400's back in the early 80's, as people were doing on college mainframes in the 70's. Technology (in my view) will always be an aid to, not a replacement for, the tabletop experience.
I'm not so sure about the curve here. We've had consumer web for over 20 years and we've had it in our pockets for 10. We've had a generation or two grow up with it in that time.
First, It will never replace miniatures. It will be an upgrade option perhaps, and an expensive one for the near future. Dwarven forge hasn't replaced wet-erase mats, dry-erase boards, or simple graph paper, and neither has the VTT. I think increased prevalence of 3D printing will make miniatures easier to acquire and customize for this week's run.
Second, by the time it becomes almost ubiquitous, the appeal of physical miniatures will become a factor. There's a tactile element there, particularly if you're all going to be gathering together anyway, that will always carry some weight.
Third, let's not forget that not all RPGs need miniatures and that even some D&D games are not miniatures-based.
I'm going to reject "verbal storytelling" as a direct replacement for "roleplaying game" but technology can be a great aid even now. Sound effects, recorded segments (I used a pre-recorded distress call in a Star Wars game earlier this year and it was great!), and to a point music can all be much easier to include with a laptop or a tablet or even your phone these days than was possible 20 years ago. Pulling up an image of a character or monster or vehicle or building can help enforce a certain flavor in a game.
I think the biggest thing is what we're seeing now - a real ability to run games online to allow groups to connect regardless of location. That's significant in that it means if someone moves away from their group they can still play together in some way. That's causing some new technology to be developed that could be used for traditional tabletop games, changing them up in some interesting ways.
I think VR is not going to have much of an impact anytime soon. We had Unlimited Adventures and two Neverwinter Nights games that were toolkits to allow users to build their own content and while they were cool they never really turned into a big thing. This kind of option still takes all of the creative drive and the time to put it together and adds another layer of technical on top of that. Even AR has a similar problem so i think it will be a long time before that becomes a big player in face to face RPGs.
AI - What's World of Warcraft if not a DM-less RPG? Neverwinter has adventures themed to the last few years of WOTC D&D stories and DDO has old school modules in its virtual world. I'd say we already have a good start on AI-managed adventures. If you want something more tabletop-related then check out FFG's apps for running Descent and Imperial Assault without a "DM" for those games.
As far as an AI creating new material, well, I think humans will be required for that for a very long time.
The biggest obstacle to innovation here is that technological solutions require money and there's just not that much money in RPG's compared to many other areas so what we get will mostly continue to be adaptations of products developed for another purpose or labor of love type solutions like Combat Manager for PF or the character generator for FFG's Star Wars game that a fan created and only a few professional efforts like Beyond.
Regardless, tt should still be an interesting ride.
Now that does seem like a great alternative for distributed gaming. You’re sitting around a virtual tabletop and I would go one better and have the GM be able to situate the table in different environments to enhance the mood. Wilderness, castle, dungeon etc so the visuals and the sounds amplify the mood. But it’s still our brains and voices doing the heavy lifting.
This is a legitimate concern. Especially early on in the AR / VR "revolution". Develeopers won't be able to make as many interesting animations and that will limit their effectiveness and our options in-game.
This is an occurring sentiment from my experience. I haven't thought alot about why I love physical RPGs, but this is definitely part of it.
On a side note, removing my social from the twitter space and politics helped a lot too
.Sometimes we can imagine it, but it's almost always perceived as a "crazy" vision. I'm always surprised at how quickly people can be to ignore a futuristic possibility because they can't see it now.
Personally, once people are able to have cheap AR glasses, or something similar, I think we'll see some interesting miniature HUD mechanics. Some company will enhance this technology and that will be the new norm for keeping track of combat statistics for RPGs.
That's a great point and something I hadn't considered. The GMs know how to play on the emotions of the room. That is very challenging for computers to do. They would need to understand human emotions and how they are unique to each person at the table.
Jacob Lewis
Ye Olde GM
Look at what Fantasy Flight Games is doing with their new software development branch, FF Interactive. They've already experimented with converting some of their games to playable electonic formats, developed dice apps specifically for their unique RPG systems, and introduced companion software that interacts and enhances several of their board games, like Descent and Imperial Assault. The latter, most notably, are designed to work in conjunction with the existing boardgames at the table rather than replacing them. This is the kind of experience I enjoy best: utilizing technology that enhances the original experince instead of replacing it entirely as a simulation of one.
MichaelSomething
Legend
ad_hoc
(they/them)
Put me in the camp of people who have no interest in using electronics in my D&D. A big allure for me is that it is unplugged.
Technological advancement that does interest me is lowered cost of miniatures and terrain as 3D printing becomes cheaper.
The biggest technological jump in my gaming has been typing up and printing out game material rather than just writing it all down by hand. That was a game changer.
Technological advancement that does interest me is lowered cost of miniatures and terrain as 3D printing becomes cheaper.
The biggest technological jump in my gaming has been typing up and printing out game material rather than just writing it all down by hand. That was a game changer.
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