Coolest. Gaming Set-up. Evar.

[Boredflak]

One more thing:

If you want to set the mood and help your players visualize the environment, there's nothing like projecting visual aids! My players get all excited when I say "Oh! I have a picture of this..." and project it onto the table.

I use lots of Dungeon Magazine adventures. They have great artwork thats just begging to be scanned and projected. You can also find tons of great art, ready for projection, on the Wizards web site at:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/ag

--

Jans Carton
The Hypertext d20 SRD
http://www.d20srd.org/

 

[Hurtfultater]

*snip*

This is where a large scale collaborative project or a professional third party would come in handy. There's no reason why you couldn't have an entire city mapped out, perhaps with multiple outlying surroundings. Just by ripping off Paris and London in the 17-19th centuries, one can get great general city and street layouts, and while it would be a very large project to do an entire city, 3-5 regular contributors working over a couple months could provide a resource that many people would happily pay for.

Even as it is, publishing campaign notes to some community site could help people start making ever more detailed and robust settings, helping GMs who, like me, are both lazy and perfectionist.

There's no game like one in which your players can truly wander, but it requires a huge amount of preparation. Being able to display or print maps on demand could give players a new sense of setting, scale, and immersion.

 

[Steel_Wind]

EDIT: Robert (Steel Wind), what's the minimum buy in for an acceptable XVG DLP projector? I'm new to this projector scene and filled with a nerdly desire beyond all reckoning.

I'll throw together a primer on the options and costs a little later tonight or tomorrow if I can.

 

[Shadowdancer]

You guys should do a workshop at GenCon.

Or start a consulting business for others who want to do this.

Or a TV series: "Gamer Playroom Makeover."

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Projector costs are coming way down. I work in AV support/video production, and the projectors we're buying right now at around $1800 do a better job than projectors we bought for $7000 just 3-4 years ago. I concur with everything Steel Wind has said, he's done his homework on this subject.

In particular, I agree with his comments regarding an under mounted projector - it sounds like a great idea, but for a number of practical reasons (which he listed) it probably won't work for most people.

 

[S. Baldrick]

Brilliant. Nothing short of brilliant. The plans for the game room have changed dramatically.

 

[A'koss]

That is un-real.

Wait, lemme just wipe this dribble off my chin...

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, that is indeed the coolest gaming setup I've seen yet. Sheer genius guy - kudos +.

 

[Gruns]

Very nice.

Nice setup. I want one!

Makes me want to look into projecting normally, onto a vertical surface, using the NWN editor (or any other program that would work) and completely eliminating miniatures altogether.
This saves a lot of table space, and helps with some of the physical problems such as mirrors, distance, etc... Not to mention I see my wife allowing this kind of "traditional" setup moreso than a portable overhead kind of setup.
If only I had a $1000 to spend on a projector... :\
Later!
Gruns

 

[the Jester]

This is fantastic... far beyond your average visual aid.

Holy crap and a half, mang.

 

[Umbran]

So even if the projected map doesn't help in setting the mood (it does!), and even if you don't use miniatures (they rock!), consider projecting your maps to cut the drudgery and get to the action!

I think the whole map-projection thing is, as we'd say in my business, "technically sweet", but the sales pitches aren't working for me.

What is your time worth? We're talking about on the order of an $800 setup. Even if you say your time is worth $10/hour, you have to get to saving 80 hours of time before this comes up a win. And, of course, the setup is useless if you're a DM who likes to "wing it". If you aren't going to put in hours ahead of time making up maps (which is also cutting into your time saved), this is not a win.