Appz. Yo.

[Duke Arioch]

Pfft... destroy her cortical node, and play D&D as it was meant to be played: table, dice, pen, paper and imagination.

 

[Omegaxicor]

I love that the OP says that digital books are the future, aren't most .pdf now?

that digital dice rollers are next, there are thousands on the internet and you can program your own with numerous tutorials

programs that mean you can play together without meeting up, d20 Virtual Table (among other I think) do that...

your future was a few years ago, and yet the next incarnation of D&D will be pen and paper, because people who play these games play them for a reason, World of Warcraft is good but you don't have to grind in D&D for ANYTHING nor can you create a unique character (although most people create similar powerful builds).

I agree with almost everyone else who posted, D&D will be pen and paper (with tech aids for some features) for a while yet

 

[Empath Negative]

I love that the OP says that digital books are the future, aren't most .pdf now?

that digital dice rollers are next, there are thousands on the internet and you can program your own with numerous tutorials

programs that mean you can play together without meeting up, d20 Virtual Table (among other I think) do that...

your future was a few years ago, and yet the next incarnation of D&D will be pen and paper, because people who play these games play them for a reason, World of Warcraft is good but you don't have to grind in D&D for ANYTHING nor can you create a unique character (although most people create similar powerful builds).

I agree with almost everyone else who posted, D&D will be pen and paper (with tech aids for some features) for a while yet

Which will net the game companies more money?

Books, or Apps?

 

[Radiating Gnome]

These games are social affairs. Your phone is not. Neither is a tablet, nor a computer, nor any other electronic device.

My table will always be a table where friends get together and socialize over a game that they all enjoy - not, sit around and text each-other.

A couple of things:

1. I feel like this is being needlessly reductive. As I said above, our game table -- very much exactly what you've described ("friends sitting around a table together and socializing over a game we all enjoy") and yet most of the players at the table are using iPads. We use them to manage characters (rather than pen-and-paper), we use them to look up rules (a quick search on the compendium is a lot faster than flipping through books). Between sessions we use them to build our characters, the DMs in the group use online tools to create maps, monsters, and so on.

None of that digitalization takes anything away from the experience at the table. It's still roleplaying & dick jokes, mostly, like every game table I've sat at for the past 30 years.

The difference is we're using the tools we have available to us to manage the nuts and bolts of the game.

2. I believe wholeheartedly that it's the sort of social experience you describe that is the most critical part of D&D, and it's the one essential ingredient that makes tabletop RPGs a better experience than MMO play (which I also enjoy). It's the one thing that gives me hope that the hobby will survive.

I also believe that to recruit new players -- not keep us old timers happy, but to find new players -- I think it's in the interest of Wizards and the other companies producing game content to do everything they have the resources to do that either facilitates game prep and game play or have a permissive enough license that others who are interested can design their own.

Having said that, in response to,,,

Which will net the game companies more money?

Books, or Apps?

Again, it's not either. But I think it will gradually become more important to think "Content" rather than "Books". Sure, we still get books now, and I'm still buying them, but in the long run the important thing is the words on the pages, not the paper and the binding.

I think the content and the apps are both vital for the future of the game -- again, not for us, because we'll keep playing on paper until the bitter end -- but of the sake of new players, players who were given iPads to do their work on in grade school, who think the angry birds theme song is the national anthem, and who will never know the sweet agony of the paper cut.....

-rg

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

No version of d&d has an expiration date. And I play TABLETOP rpg's like d&d for reasons far beyond just playing the game itself.

I have no doubt that tech will continue to make inroads in the hobby for a variety of reasons and doing a variety of things but it will not BECOME the game.

 

[kitcik]

I see there is an ENWorld app for the iPhone and for the Android.

Would the iPhone app work on an iPad? Is there any way to check ENWorld from an iPad?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Even though I have bought character sheets, 75% of my characters are on home-made sheets.

And even though all of my character sheets since 2003 have been electronic, I can guarantee you that any system that goes substantially electronic only will lose me as a customer in the time it takes a Cray to calculate 2+2.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I see there is an ENWorld app for the iPhone and for the Android.

Would the iPhone app work on an iPad? Is there any way to check ENWorld from an iPad?

I don't use the app, but these days, I check into this site from my iPod Touch & iPad2 probably 70% of the time I'm here.

I'd imagine that the app would work on them- most iPhone apps do- but I don't see the need for a special app to do what I'm already doing.

 

[Umbran]

There is absolutely nothing about this thread that is about "Legacy". Moving to General.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I'd imagine that the app would work on them- most iPhone apps do- but I don't see the need for a special app to do what I'm already doing.

I access ENworld on my iPhone from Tapatalk because it's far easier to read that way than having to play zooming games through Safari.