The Future of Computers in D&D

[TheUltramark]

The only way computers will replace humans is if they don't have to interact with humans - we're a quirky bunch and computers don't handle interactions with us well (like Vulcans and Klingons).

Still, computers have taken up a lot of the hard work of DMing, with the likes of Dungeon Hack (1993), Neverwinter Nights (with the DM tool) and even WoW - the latter no DM is required and you can play with your friends in an immersive world. (Heck, I've got some older software called Realms Overseer that allows you turn Campaign Cartographer maps into 3rd-person-shooter type battlemaps, and even create interactive, scripted 3D adventures - back from the 90's). The fact is, if you want to play D&D without having to have a DM you can already boot up the computer and do that.

I agree with this, I cannot forsee a computer making the dm obsolete. There will be plenty of dm-less games, that area will only continue to expand, but the sit-down-with-your-buddies-and-forget-the-real-world aspect of d&D will never go away.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Well, since for a lot of intents nad purposes the designers making computer games ar the DM,.... I don't see this changing.]

Sure a random dungeon is not hard, but running it is. Doing calcualtions with AI algorithms is not terribly hard, but adjusting to the players, not characters, is very hard. So hard many DMs cannot do it well.

Yes, computers and technology is a choice now, and might be a better choice later, but I cannot see it bering a necessity. At least for a long time.

 

[saskganesh]

If you want to replace the DM you'll need a real AI, not a programmed simulation of one. So, no.

That being said, people already use Computers as aids in many ways. But as pointed out, this hobby is best as a social experience.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

We'll know someone has crossed from mere aids to the next major milestone of computers in tabletop RPGs when someone develops a tabletop game that has handling time issues that can only realistically be handled by the computer--and the game system is designed with this in mind.

For example, you might have an otherwise tabletop game that makes such extensive and complex use of "fog of war" that it can't be effectively modeled by a tabletop system. Perhaps the very premise of the game is built on the uncertainity of not knowing precise placement. So the computer handles precise placement, while the DM and players react to the more vague information available to them.

That is an example that potentially stops short of a more hybrid computer/moderated game, such as what Neverwinter Nights aspired to be. For a good hybrid, you need solid scripting and AI to offload realtime decision making and such. For the tabletop game supported by key computer pieces, you only need pieces complex enough to require the machine. In the example, the game still moves by turns, and the DM still makes all the interesting decisions for the monsters. He just suffers from some of the same gaps in information that the players do, making his monster choices more interesting.

 

[giant.robot]

Computers can add a lot of utility to the hobby and I think could be very enabling. Not every use of the computer needs to be based around replicating a physical tabletop. I think their best use is taking care of the gaming chores so players can get on with their actual gameplay.

In a game with mapless combat, each player might have a digital character sheet. The GM would have a "GM screen" that linked to those of the players. If the player wants to attack the Orc guard the player hits the "attack" button on their app which sends it to the GM. The GM's screen automatically applies some modifiers and handles the Orc's health and the PC's ammo. A networked i4e app would be amazing!

A computer augmented game would also be able to use the sort of mechanics that would be tedious to run by hand. Things like weapon vs armor types, hit locations, 3D space combat, or non-dice probability mechanics. It would also allow games to incorporate a bit more multimedia. Published modules could easily share artwork or things like maps or notes from NPCs.

 

[Mark CMG]

I've been a laptop GM as long as I've been able to bring one to the table. Apps and programs capable of streamlining my game so I can focus on presenting the setting and NPCs to facilitate a more immersive experience are a boon to GMing and I love what they can do for me as tools of the trade. I'm also not adverse to players using laptops, netbooks, or other handheld devices provided they do not become a distraction, do not become a distraction any more so than typical table talk and or other distractions that have been part and parcel of friendly tabletop games since I began back in the early Seventies.

There's no need to think of the tools of today any differently than the tools of yesterday, and if a quick text from someone's father to pick up a gallon of milk on the way home from a game or from a spouse to let a player know their daughter's cough has subsided and the kid is sleeping soundly helps the player to relax and enjoy the evening of gaming, then I have no problem with it at all. So, too, if a player finds it easier to keep track of their character using a laptop, including spells and other setting information they have accumulated, I'm just as happy to accomodate that technological advance. They don't play their character 24/7, they don't really inhabit their skin, and there's no way they can do as efficient a job remembering all of the minutiae as they can if they use a journal, particularly one that is electronic.

However, I'd also caution that the players of today, old and young, can find juggling technology and diversions difficult, at first, and sometimes some parameters need to be set to ensure it is not a table-distraction, a distraction to all players, or even a crutch that causes players to bury themselves in the devices and not remain focused on the moment.

My current final playtest of Griffins & Grottos includes mostly players in their twenties (but some as old as fifty) who are all nearly as tech-savvy as myself (though I generally have the better equipment ). Sometimes, with this group that includes some players I have known for years, there can be some new-shiny that steals focus from the game, but I have found it is just as often a low-tech interference as it is a high-tech distraction. In such cases, I find it is useful to adhere to an old standup comedy adage of calling out the obvious, and I don't mean in a bad way.

There was a standup comedian named Steve Mittleman, who some might remember from the movie Roxanne, who had a decidedly understated chin. When he lowered his head, his chin basically disappeared. You could draw a line as straight as a string from his nostrils to his sternum. Just like with a comedian who wore a loud tie or had some other outstanding feature, he knew that if he didn't call attention to it right away and dispose of the focus on it, it would remain a distraction the rest of his set.

The other night one player had a new miniature for use in the game he runs on the weekend, an ettin lich (which he was happy was released in time for him to use it, PFers take note), and another picked up the "chase" card deck for PF. Although the player with the deck wasn't necessarily obsessing over it, I could tell he was wondering how it would be useful to his other games and so I quickly recalled how one player who was away for a couple of weeks had left the in-game group and went "back to the inn" with a chance to collect a wandering gnome. This gnome, an NPC, had succombed to a poison trap that left his mind addled with an opiate. He was wandering the moors and realistically (as much as I dislike handwaving such things) the NPC was off and not going to be recovered but thinking on my feet I asked the player with the deck to break it out. We ran through the rules of how to use it quickly, made a few adjustments for the system to system disparities, and played out if the character who was headed back to town could capture the opium-addled gnome. As it turned out, she did not, but we had fun playing it out and by then we were immersed in the game-world and off to the races.

So, admittedly I am rambling, but I think my point is that I'm not sure a computer will ever manage to replace a GM in quite the way that I think necessary to create the same face-to-face game experience that we generally have week-to-week with our group, let alone any I have known over my near-forty years of gaming and despite my being happily open to using as much technology as I can muster for any game I play, when it can bring about an immersive tabletop roleplaying result.

Hell, I'm all for being tech-friendly but I'm also a steel-driving man and am not sure this John Henry is ready to be replaced by a machine, let alone thinking one could handle it at an impromtu level and produce even close to the same results. Not, at least, for a roleplaying game.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hell, I'm all for being tech-friendly but I'm also a steel-driving man and am not sure this John Henry is ready to be replaced by a machine, let alone thinking one could handle it at an impromtu level and produce even close to the same results. Not, at least, for a roleplaying game.

"I attack the umber hulk. Twenty.
***
Mr. Murch? I'm ready to confront the mind flayer now. Twenty."

(I know, different John Henry. )

I'm currently having to deal with a robo-caller (allegedly) from a home security company. It's first call was in January, and has since called me several times. The voice is very human, but sounded...off...to me. So I asked, "Is this a recording?"

It responded "*laugh*Do I sound like a recording?"

"Yes, you do."

"*clears throat* Well, sorry about that..."

...and it continued its spiel. Eventually, I was sure, so I just started talking over it and it didn't respond appropriately, so I said "You're not listening to me," and hung up.

It has called back several times, each time with slightly better responses to what I'm saying.

Today, though, I gave it a fit. When it asked- as it had so many times before- whether we would be interested in being a showcase for a home security system, I responded, "I have a cat."

"Excuse me, I missed that- could you repeat it?" it replied.

"I have a cat."

It paused and continued its pitch, so I interrupted with "I have a cat" again.

This made it hop to a different part of its script. So I repeated myself.

The next time it calls, I may just start speaking German, just to see what it does.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Focusing on the classical tabletop approach with the players sitting around one table I see two avenues for computer support.

1. Number crunching and data look-up. For crunchy games like 4e this is a big help. Initiative handling, condition tracking, power management; all those little items of information the DM has to - or at least should - remember are perfectly suited for computers. There exist already programs like 4eTurnTracker or CombatManager which do this, but I can imagine even more support easily. Data look-up is a great help, too. Where in my 123 source books is this damn feat? Enter a database and you're ready to go.
   
   The next step would be a round-trip ability. My tracking tool or PDF with the adventure contains links to the database, and from the database I can feed my tracking tool with a single click. Want to soup up the encounter with a fitting monster or change monsters on the fly? Fire up the database app from the tracker, do a neighbourhood search, click once, and the additional monsters is a fully functional part of your modified encounter.
   
2. Intelligent assistance. This lies a bit more in the future. The computer just tracks your groups progress and preferences over the whole campaign. It collates all the information generated when preparing and running the game. It could propose a random encounter fitting to the context, it could propose changes to an existing adventure to make it more fitting to the group. Say an adventure calls for a group of bandits under the lead of a were-rat. Has the group already dealt with bandits in the region? The computer might propose re-skinning the bandits or exchanging their stats for the known version of the bandits. Have former encounters with the bandits hinted at some powerful creatures being in the lead of them? Throw out the were-rat and introduce some fitting critter. All this would have to be proposals for the GM.
   
   One step further I can imagine the computer running the world in the background. Weather generation, information flow, an economic model. Have the players uncovered the plans of a priest gone evil in their last adventure? This would have repercussions in the regions, at least for temples of the same religion. The PCs reach the next town with a priest of the same god and the program asks the GM for the relationship between this priest and the uncovered traitor. According to this information a lot of encounters in town could change, each NSC might automatically receive a keyword describing his reaction to the PCs. Or the knowledge of the PCs deed arrives in town after them. The behaviour of the inhabitants will change while the PCs are already busy with their next adventure. All this might be effortlessly handled in the background by the computer asking informed questions and making proposals.

All this means help for the GM while not changing the game in any way. If techniques like MS Surface surfaces and become affordable, no doubt some new branches of our hobby will appear. Maybe we will see a new form of computer games, maybe hybrids with a computer game and a human GM working in conjunction. Some RPGer will find such a game more attractive than the traditional ones and leave the (traditional) hobby, no doubt. Perhaps new players will be introduced by this sort of games, and maybe this new players bring fresh ideas to the table.

RPGs will continue to evolve and some of us might find themselves on a dead branch of the RPG tree. But I don't see a species-killing asteroid looming in the sky above us.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Comments

Dice4Hire:
You should read a list of obscure monsters instead, or gods. Like that H one, three times.

That's a huecuva good idea...

 

[Jimlock]

When Artificial Intelligence TRULY arrives... a lot of things will change... and RPGs (if the still exist in a somewhat relevant form) will not need a DM no more.... but we are still faaaaar from that...