D&D 5E How will DnD / RPGs adapt to future technologies?

[vikeen12]

[FONT=&quot]Hello, everyone. I’ve been thinking about how about the future roleplaying games lately. Primarily, how will technology such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, or virtual reality alter the roleplaying experience as we know it?
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[FONT=&quot]Here are some of my initial thoughts:
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[FONT=&quot]* Knowledge and social learning will increase as people become more connected with technology
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[FONT=&quot]* Augmented reality will replace miniatures and we could see battle scenes interacted as a cinematic experience
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[FONT=&quot]* Verbal storytelling won’t go away, but it will be exponentially enhanced by technology
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[FONT=&quot]* GM demand will continue to increase
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[FONT=&quot]How do you see the industry changing over the next decade or two?
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[Warmaster Horus]

Someday. I've been involved with computerized tools since the mid-80s on a Mac Classic. Now we've got networked availability for simultaneous multiplayer, which is much more in line with the D&D experience. The big thing to consider is how much prep will be required by a DM to run a game. I take about an hour a week to prep for a 4 hour game. If it gets any more than that my interest in running goes down drastically. Nothing worse than doing hours of prep for an event that either isn't played out or just appears for a couple of minutes. That's one thing when you write up something, bring along props, et al and is something entirely else when you've pieced together a bunch of virtual items which can easily take more time to set up.

I also think that virtual environments, like using miniatures, will limit the play space. People will confine their imaginations to the capabilities of the space they're playing in. Spontaneity also suffers when the players choose a round path and you have prepped/presented a square environment.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Maybe I'm old school, but I prefer sitting around a table with the players with paper and pencil and real dice and our limitless imaginations. I spend enough time in front of my devices during the week (including prepping for my campaign, mind you). But I truly enjoy the escape that a live D&D session provides from electronics.

That said, if technology innovations bring more people into the hobby, that's truly great. Just don't take away my hand-written character sheet!

 

[Krachek]

4ed was build in order to support technology innovation.
It has been a commercial flop.

For now DnD has taken the paper & pencil way.
DnD can't compete on Augmented reality. People will ask for professional result, that only major studio can afford.

 

[Morrus]

VR would be amazing, but it's got a long way to go before it can really do D&D well yet. And it would kill the home-brew side of it, as people won't be able to develop their own VR games. Unless they develop some super easy to use VR tools that a DM can actually use on the fly.

Who foresaw live streaming becoming a major form of entertainment? I imagine what will happen is something we haven't even imagined.

 

[Arilyn]

Maybe I'm old school, but I prefer sitting around a table with the players with paper and pencil and real dice and our limitless imaginations. I spend enough time in front of my devices during the week (including prepping for my campaign, mind you). But I truly enjoy the escape that a live D&D session provides from electronics.

That said, if technology innovations bring more people into the hobby, that's truly great. Just don't take away my hand-written character sheet!

Maybe roleplaying with just paper and pencils will become prescribed therapy for people addicted to their tech.

 

[zedturtle]

VR would be amazing, but it's got a long way to go before it can really do D&D well yet. And it would kill the home-brew side of it, as people won't be able to develop their own VR games. Unless they develop some super easy to use VR tools that a DM can actually use on the fly.

A friend of mine, who would tell he’s not computer savvy at all (a small-town doctor in real life), spends time building complete sets of board games in Tabletop Simulator. If VR technology was mature (ie worked like we were promised in the 80s) I could easily see playing that way.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I see the kinds of things you are talking about maybe having more of an effect on the LARP (live-action role-play) community than on the tabletop role-play community. VR and similar technologies right now look like they would work better the less game mechanics have to be programmed into the system.

 

[robus]

Well in the future when we're all supported by guaranteed basic income and access to ridiculous amounts of computing hardware I guess a GMs job could well become "full time VR world builder". But I'm not sure I'd welcome it. The problem with a pre-built structure is that it's impossible to think of everything and then everyone sees the gaps and the seams and it all feels a bit constricted.

I'm not sure there's a point where D&D in a virtual environment will ever be able to surpass the IR (Imaginary Reality) we construct every time we sit around a table.

As for augmented reality I think nothing beats a good sound board. The perfect atmospheric sound track + some well timed noises is the perfect way to set the stage for an epic session.

 

[Oofta]

I think the difficulty of VR would be setting up the environments. As a DM, I rarely spend a lot of time designing the environments ahead of time so there would have to be a library of environments. NPCs? I make half of them up as I go along. I also customize monsters a lot, so I would hit an issue there as well.

Maybe other people are more organized than I am, but setting up scenes would have to be a lot easier for me to run an immersive game.

In addition, I prefer getting together physically because of the social aspects. That may change as technology improves and there are facial readers being built in to computer games now (your avatar's expressions are controlled by your facial expression). That could improve to the point it feels like you are there, I just don't see it happening any time soon.

So I expect incremental improvements over what we have but it's going to be a long time (at least 6-9 months) before we have anything revolutionary.