buzz
Adventurer
(I originally posted this on my G+ stream, but it seems relevant to ENWorld, too.)
You know what I want to see in the new edition of D&D?
I want to see a game that is playable using nothing more than dice, paper, a pencil, and your imagination (and maybe some minis as an option).
I don't want any sort of web or app integration. I don't want to see that chargen benefits greatly from the use of software. I don't want to feel compelled to use a laptop at the game table. I don't want the most comprehensive rules reference tool to be a web app. And I don't want to play on a virtual table.
A huge part of my day is spent looking at a monitor, interacting with "pictures under glass", and communicating with people far away from me via tweets, email, and Facebook updates.
I don't want that when I game. I want to sit at a table with live human beings and talk to them face-to-face. I want to use a blank sheet of ruled filler paper as a character sheet. I want to draw maps on graph paper. And I want to roll dice. Lots and lots of dice.
Integrating D&D with online and computer-based tools begs the question of why not just play WoW. It makes the game less distinguishable from my day job. It's more hours sitting in front of a computer. If I use software to enhance my play in some way, I want that to be my choice.
I realize that I am in full cranky old man mode here, but the above has been rolling around my brain the last week or so, long before the WotC announcement. I am expressing it as my own preference, but honestly, I think that D&D (and RPGs in general) has a lot more to gain by differentiating itself from computer-based entertainments that it does by pandering to them.
You know what I want to see in the new edition of D&D?
I want to see a game that is playable using nothing more than dice, paper, a pencil, and your imagination (and maybe some minis as an option).
I don't want any sort of web or app integration. I don't want to see that chargen benefits greatly from the use of software. I don't want to feel compelled to use a laptop at the game table. I don't want the most comprehensive rules reference tool to be a web app. And I don't want to play on a virtual table.
A huge part of my day is spent looking at a monitor, interacting with "pictures under glass", and communicating with people far away from me via tweets, email, and Facebook updates.
I don't want that when I game. I want to sit at a table with live human beings and talk to them face-to-face. I want to use a blank sheet of ruled filler paper as a character sheet. I want to draw maps on graph paper. And I want to roll dice. Lots and lots of dice.
Integrating D&D with online and computer-based tools begs the question of why not just play WoW. It makes the game less distinguishable from my day job. It's more hours sitting in front of a computer. If I use software to enhance my play in some way, I want that to be my choice.
I realize that I am in full cranky old man mode here, but the above has been rolling around my brain the last week or so, long before the WotC announcement. I am expressing it as my own preference, but honestly, I think that D&D (and RPGs in general) has a lot more to gain by differentiating itself from computer-based entertainments that it does by pandering to them.