D&D 5E What technology do you own that you are willing to bring to the table?

[ForumFerret]

Perigorn, what size TV is that? Looks like you're just laying it flat on the table, with minis on top?



My own usage works like so for now:

Laptop facing me, with a large LCD monitor on the other side facing the players; this functions as DM Screen, and also allows me to use Roll20 to show the players scenery, a campaign Map (which starts out blank, and gradually has more and more detail added as they discover places/things), NPC and important monster portraits, and local minimaps (towns and dungeons), and artifacts like wanted posters, notes, etc.

I run both the DM and Player Roll20 instances from two different browsers, although in most cases I use a single token on the Dungeon maps to indicate the location of the main party. Combat is played out on a physical dry-erase hex or grid map with miniatures.

I use my iPhone to send and receive private notes from my players, and also use www.tabletopaudio.com for aural ambience.

My players seem to like the set up, although I need to keep an eye on woot; my current player-facing monitor is a rather large and clunky 28" LCD, and a thinner/lighter/smaller one would be a less intrusive barrier.

 

[Joe Liker]

Electronics became very popular at gaming tables during 4e -- to some people, they were almost a necessity.

But having seen what that did to the social dynamic of the game, I'm strongly urging all my players to leave their electronics at home. It's just too much of a distraction for some players. And don't even get me started on electronic dice. I always have plenty of extra physical dice that I will kindly force upon anyone I see fumbling with a dice app.

I did vote "windows laptop," but only for the DM. There are a few good applications out there that actually do make combat flow more smoothly -- but even then, you have to be careful not to get too fancy. In most cases, I ignore a lot of the bells and whistles. For example, I don't need or want the program to roll attacks or damage for me, and I certainly don't need it tracking player character hit points. Players can do that themselves, thank you very much.

I mainly use it to display monster stats, track initiative, and track monster hp. Anything more is an annoyance and a distraction that slows everything down again, defeating the whole purpose.

 

[Piratecat]

When I play Shadowrun, a digital dice roller on my iPad is a must. Rolling 21d6 and picking out all 5s and 6s is a pain in the butt without it.

Other than that, I'm mostly analog.

 

[sleypy]

I prefer to use my tablet or phone because I want to keep all my information in the cloud so I don't have to worry about grabbing the wrong notebook or accidently leaving it behind. I use pencil and paper when learning a new system because writing helps me learn things faster. Otherwise pen and paper is the method of last resort.

 

[diaglo]

i don't own any technology at the table.
but i am willing to let others use want they want.

it is the job of the referee to make rulings on the play. it is the job of the players to play their characters.