D&D General ARcana -- Augmented TTRPG Platform from Actor Joe Manganiello

Mirrorscape, an augmented reality company which includes actor Joe Manganellio as Creative Director, is a way to view your game's tabletop in AR through a phone or tablet device. It's on Kickstarter now with a planned release at the end of this year.

ARcana: Augmented Reality Platform for TTRPGs

Bringing the table back to tabletop gaming!

www.kickstarter.com

The platform works as an iOS or Android app, and enables you to simulate a full tabletop with models, scenery, and miniatures, anywhere you have a flat surface.

You can purchase additional terrain or miniatures from Mirrorscape's partners, which include Dwaven Forge, Reaper Minis, Hero Forge, and Fat Dragon Games.

If you pledge $30 (or more) in the Kickstarter you get a starter set and a discount on terrain and mini packs; and at higher levels you get beta access (staring at $50) and Kickstarter exclusives.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

Or their eyes.

Jokes aside, a lot of the pushback was about secret and unauthorized recording. It's one thing to have someone whip out their phone and start filming you. That's pretty obvious, and easy enough to ask them to stop, and even, if you're a business and it's disruptive or threatening, kick them out. But if the camera is in their glasses and you have no way of knowing if or when it's on, the situation changes.

But don't forget the cultural context, too. This was the very beginning of the pushback against techbros in the U.S., and Google Glasses were the ultimate techbro accessory (including the fact that they looked awful and had no utility other than surreptitious recording, so they were mainly a warped status symbol). And most of the violent incidents were in places like SF, where the tech giants were just starting to wreck the housing market, clog traffic with their weird fleets of private commuter buses, and generally change the culture in ways that locals found gross.

Not saying it was cool when so-called Glassholes got their goofy eyewear snatched, but given how much worse things have gotten because of the techbro caste, I'm certainly not shedding any tears for them.

 

[ninjayeti]

This looks like it would be awesome to play around with for about 20 minutes, but once the novelty wears off....you're just interacting with the game through a screen. I'm not sure how the illusion that it is on your table adds much to the experience, and having to always hold the screen so you can see the tabletop to interact with the game seems like it would become a PITA real quick. Plus you are relying on a phone or tablet screen, rather than the behemoth TV screens most of us have in our homes already.

 

[GMMichael]

Does it work for theatre of the mind, too?

On the plus side, I bet it makes painting minis and table cleanup extremely easy.

 

[R_J_K75]

Looks cool but I can see it getting expensive really quick. I'm assuming that the KS only offers so much terrain and minis so for it really to be worthwhile it's probably a never-ending investment. Exactly why I never bought into any Dwarven Forge terrain. I'm confused whether (or why) you need a flat surface to set up a scenario? I got a kick out of the scene where everyone's sitting around a blank table starring into tablets, seems like missing the point of playing a cooperative TTRPG face to face IMO.

 

[IvyDragons]

I've never seen Joe Manganellio in any show or movie, but super impressed he scored Sofia Vergara.

As for this... clearly Ryan Reynolds passed on it.

There are 4 primary computers, half-a-dozen laptops, ipad and some other devices, none of which are suitable for this.
I don't think I would want to invite 6 friends around and have everyone installing apps and using a phone to view terrain, except as a one time novelty thing. So yeah don't see this taking off.

 

[Zaukrie]

For me, this stuff will all kick in when its integrated into glasses. Holding up a phone or tablet is a little too awkward for my taste, but it's a step along the road. I imagine that AR glasses will become mainstream in the next few years.

I paid a lot of money never to wear glasses again.....I might wear them for a game, but I can't imagine ever "always" wearing them like some companies think we will....

 

[Zaukrie]

Kidding aside.....I've reviewed most of the 3D VTTs out there (on YouTube) and I can say, this has legs compared to most of them. But, the KS hasn't exactly exploded as fast as Talespire did.....I'll have to spend a lot of time really looking at this to compare it to TS, Wildshape, Realm Engine, Game Master Engine, and The RPG Engine......

Wish I'd seen this soon enough to get in the beta......

 

[Zaukrie]

they really need A LOT more YouTube videos and influencers posting about this.....

 

[AverageMojito]

I was expecting the app to create a 3D view of what I have drawn on paper. Like some of those cards that pop the character alive when you point your phone at them. The app would teach the symbols it reads to pop the dungeon alive and stuff, for example. From the short video, it looks like a VTT with a physical table as a background, which is not really much different from using a VTT I already own. Except it's an app for portable devices, which can appeal to an audience, I suppose.

 

[Zaukrie]

Ok, last post unless people have questions about this compared to the others....

this is pricey compared to all the other 3d VTTs that aren't Talespire. You'll want the $150 level, and that comes with almost no minis, really. Currently, there is no way to import other minis. If they'd even give us a 2.5D standee that we could put pictures on, that would be great (think virtual skinny minis). You can import/use flat/2d images, if I read this correctly.

The art is good, as you'd expect from the companies involved. I find it interesting they've found a way to compress or otherwise lessen the strain on devices with this level of art, which is why you can't currently import things.

They have no videos of anyone actually using the tool, beyond the promos. that's kind of weird to me. Like, we really need to see this in play and use to understand why we'd want this over the other options.

Interactive terrain is great, as is seeing your spells. Some of the others have some of this, but most don't really have spells (The RPG Engine has some).

I'd love to see them really use this with a combo of physical and virtual assets.