Let's speculate about the future of gaming with the iPad.

[darjr]

Some really great ideas here, funny that to me the larp thing would work better on a iphone/touch than a ipad.

I tried laptops at the table. I wanted to save paper and printing, and it was not working for me. I to didn't like that it blocked users and me from players and it was not cool with me mousing around every once and a while.

The ipad, with a more focused app, would be better.

The delve style really REALLY works well printed out on paper, I can arrange them as needed and have multiple pages right in front of me, then take notes and other pencilings. An app that could do that would be very nice. It might have to be an 'expose' type of thing where I could pick a certain page and expand it for just as long as I need it.

 

[Morrus]

The lack of multi-tasking must be an issue; you can't use a PDF and then rolla dice on a die roller and then check a treasure generation app, then go back to your initiative tracker. It's one of them only.

But the iPhone 4.0 firmware has multitasking, so it can't be far off for the iPad.

 

[Morrus]

There is one thing that a tablet (not necessarily just the iPad) does not bring to the table that a laptop does: a vertical monitor and larger footprint.

I'm all for gadgets at the table. I'm Mr. Projector for Christ's sakes. But the reason I LIKE the projector is because it is not intrusive. It is technology which unites the players - it does not divide them.

When a DM uses a laptop instead of a DM screen, I'm okay with that, but only as it does not introduce a "new" barrier we have not had to live with in the past. Ideally - I'd rather that barrier wasn't there at all, either.

But the more players use laptops at the table, the less I like them. They take up space on the table, with wires everywhere, and above all: create a physcial barrier between the player and the centre of the table where the mini/projected map is and divide the players from one another.

I don't like that. I want people sitting up and playing without barriers between them or their minis. I want everyone focussed and facing one another and ENGAGED in a tabletop RPG.

A laptop screen interferes with that ideal in a way that a tablet which lies flat on the table like a PHB does not.

Added functionality over a laptop? Perhaps not. But more convenient form factor with tangible and real beneifts in terms of social interaction at the gaming table? Yes. I think so.

Plus of course the accelerometer allowing you to quickly flip it over to show someone something without worrying whch way up it is.

 

[Eridanis]

Lots of great points and ideas. I think some of the best game-chaging ideas will come after we play with the devices for a while. All it takes is one person with an innovation, and the best ideas will spread.

For instance: I remember the first time I gamed with Piratecat, and he sat in the middle of the table, rather than at the end, so that he could be closer to all the players. That was a facepalm moment - so obvious, and yet I'd never thought of it before. Who knows what facepalm-type ideas will come as technology evolves?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Consider LARPing.

Each player carries an iTouch

When they get close to each other, they can interact, game-wise

the UI would let them fight, heal, cast spells against each other, track their in-game stats

It will all end in tears when someone gets caught up in the game and throws their iTouch while casting [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oWAb5NVALw"]Magic Missile[/ame]...

In all seriousness, considering that these devices are still pricier than a set of rulebooks, I don't see that becoming the norm for quite some time. If we look at the current costs of CD players and the advancing pace of technological change...lets peg a price level that allows that kind of adoption at...12 years?

Personally, I use my ancient (2004) and dying Palm E2 to carry my current crop of PC designs, including the 3.5 one I'm currently playing and the one I'm designing for a potential 4Ed game...and a host of 3Ed, 3.5, M&M and HERO characters. Its fairly unobtrusive.

I introduced another guy in our group (a mover/shaker in the tech industry, he's considerably more techophillic than I) to the 3.5 SRD, which he now accesses via his smartphone. Again, pretty unobtrusive...and I may follow his lead when I upgrade my phone, which is damn near death. A Droid may well be in my near future.

I can easily foresee guys getting e-readers/tablets or smartphones of some kind with RPG books on them...but I don't see it going far beyond that.

 

[Intrope]

I would love a tablet app that was a well-designed character sheet player--that is, an app that tracks resources, damage, conditions, effect expirations, etc. and lets me switch between my power cards readily. It could also have a die rolling widget, but that's not as necessary.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

With the exception of the dice rolling and automatic parts of that, I've done stuff like that for HERO with spreadsheets- I don't see why you couldn't do the same with other games.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I would love a tablet app that was a well-designed character sheet player--that is, an app that tracks resources, damage, conditions, effect expirations, etc. and lets me switch between my power cards readily. It could also have a die rolling widget, but that's not as necessary.

Last weekend, I tried using dndsheets.net and the Pathfinder SRD while playing a session of Pathfinder. I brought my dice and an Ipod Touch to the session. No laptop and no paper core rules. It worked just fine.

I don't play 4E so have not tried it for that purpose. My guess is that it will probably work great. Give it a try.

I really like the ability to publish your character sheet via dndsheets.net, too. It's available anywhere at any time and if I can't make the session - it's just there "live". Much easier than e-mailing and printing off a character sheet.

Given that an iPad is essentially an iPod Touch with a bigger screen, there is no reason the same approach would not work for you using an iPad - right now.

For the record, I rather liked the minimalist approach to gaming equipment at the game. I did find the small screen of the iPod Touch a little difficult to work with - not prohibitive, but not ideal.

It made me re-examine my desire for an iPad. I might just get one now (or an HP Slate). *shrug*

 

[tenkar]

I've pre-ordered the iPad 3g so I'll give me feedback on it at the end of the month. Mulitasking via the 4.0 software should arrive in September from what I've read for the iPad ("summer" for the iPhone and iTouch)

I've been reading PDFs on both my iPhone and my Kindle DX. The DX has the screen size advantage, the iPgone has the ability to zoom in. I'm really, really looking forward to the iPad, as the vasy majority of my recent RPG purchases have been in PDF format (my old RPGs just take up too much storage space... heh)

I'd love to see a basic Virtual Table Top that would work on the iPad. Hmmm, possibly Screenmonkey from the player's side.

 

[Pseudopsyche]

It kills me that the output of the Character Builder still resembles the paper character sheet, which is more of a worksheet, instead of the compact, colorful documents used by the pregens for D&D Encounters and Game Day. The pregens do omit some information, but an interactive iPad version of those would be perfect: you could tap on an area of the character sheet to see more detail.

Then the DM should have an encounter-running app to execute the output of the future DDI encounter builder. Imagine an iPad version of the magnetic combat tracker from Paizo. The character sheet or stat block of the active character or monster would appear on the left. After you hit with a monster's power, imagine dragging the power from the stat block onto the PC's name in the initiative order, automatically tracking the conditions. If the player has a compatible client, the conditions would be wirelessly transmitted to his or her device.

[Disclaimer: I am an Apple employee who works on the iPhone SDK, but any views I express here are entirely my own.]