Computers/Laptops at the gaming table?

[Aristotle]

I, the DM, use a laptop at the table. None of my players do, and I prefer it that way (I like to be able to confirm their die rolls easily by seeing the dice on the table).

I keep rules on my laptop (the SRD updated with material from various other sourcebooks, for my eyes only), and as of lastnight I have everyone's character entered into DM Genie which seems to be a great application for managing character advancement, character inventory, campaign management, etc..

 

[Fieari]

I have all my DM notes on my laptop. All of them. I also keep a copy of the SRD, and I've gotten better and faster at finding what I need in that document than I am with a physical book. A few of my players also have laptops, and keep their characters on them. Additionally, since we're on campus and are WiFi enabled, we can send private messages to each other without having all the drama that note passing entails.

I'm slightly annoyed at one of my players, who, after I describe a monster, goes and looks it up himself in the SRD on his laptop, but I haven't been able to broach the subject. It hasn't been a major concern, but I still find it somewhat disrespectful.

 

[S'mon]

I'd be horrified if players brought laptops to my game. Only seen a GM do this once, it was a disaster. No to computers at the game table.

 

[robberbaron]

When I GM I use a lappy running DMGenie. Fantastic software, makes some areas of GMing so much easier.
Several players also keep their characters electronically and sometimes we have 5 lappys on the table. It doesn't cause any trouble unless we are using a particularly small table.

I do like everyone to roll dice, however, as I don't believe dice rolling routines are completely random and I like everyone to be on the same footing. I roll dice, so they should too.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

I picked "computers used for prep only". That's all I use a comp for game-wise. There's one who sometimes uses his laptop. And even put a dice roller on his PDA but hasn't used it in game. We do have some who do the "pen and paper only" version. I like to be able to READ what's on my sheets.... and writing small enough to fit it in those small spaces precludes that.

 

[SpringPlum]

*Kinda Ranty*

Our DM uses a laptop and that's all well and good. It really helps him keep organized, plus it's also how he does the music for the game.

But two (out of five) of our players also use laptops. And so far we haven't had any problems with web surfing or looking up SRDs to find out monster weaknesses. No, they just use the laptops to take notes. And they do take notes, lots and lots and lots of notes.

Everytime the DM introduces a new piece of information it begins a string of conversation something like this:

DM: You've just arrived at the city Greenhollow. The mayor comes out to greet you. "Hi, I'm Talis Bertram."
Laptop-user 1: Wait, how do you spell Talis. One L or two?"
DM: One
Laptop-user 2: Uhh, is Bertram spelled b-e-r-t-r-A-m or b-e-r-t-r-E-m?
DM: Spell it however you want, there won't be a quiz later.
Laptop-user 1: *typing furiously* Is this important? Is Talis e-s or i-s?
Laptop-user 2: What'd you say the name of the city is again? *typing what sounds like paragraphs of text*
Non-laptop users: *facepalm*
Laptop-user 1: Huh? What's this McAfee virus scan update thing? Is that important?

Seriously, the notes are nice to have for later but when rp stops for everytime something new happens so they can type it all in, it gets very frustrating for the others. Especially since one of the laptops is mine but I was asked to loan it to one of the players during games so he could use it since I wasn't.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

I (GM) use a laptop at the table for all my notes. Initially, I intended to use it for music, as well, but a large group in a large, acoustically-challenged room made that impossible.

I wouldn't mind if players brought laptops for character sheet purposes, especially for more complex options like D&D-style spellcasting. I absolutely insist that players use spell cards to make that at least tolerable.

 

[Shemeska]

I use my computer at home to write all of my notes and such for each game, then print it out and bring it to the game. Of course, half the time I get all my ideas when I'm sitting in my lab or holding office hours. I've got some amusing notes, written from an archfiend's POV, that were written on the back of a photocopy of a 'Cell' article, and some other stuff written on the back of an unused protocol.

But as for computers at the gaming table: everyone at the table has a laptop except me, and I'm the DM. There wasn't an option for that one

 

[Pinotage]

All 7 of us have computers, because, well, it's a PbP game and it wouldn't really work if we didn't. Snail mail sucks big time in this regard, so our computers keep our gaming alive and all of us sane!

Pinotage

 

[Li Shenron]

In all groups I've played except one we simply didn't use anything else than papers and books during the game, while of course everyone was free to use a PC or whatever between games for keeping track of characters, writing sheets and note etc.

In one group where I instead am the DM I've been using a laptop both for the 3.5 SRD and as a DM screen
I really prefer that in the games I run personally the table is as empty as possible, which means that if players only have dice and character sheets, while I handle maps and pictures and keep the laptop as screen, that would be the best.

Books usually sit on a chair beside me. Players don't really need the books themselves during game if they trust me enough (they don't always...). Of course I have never forbidden their books, but when we need to check a rule, this is what often happens:
- I check the SRD and tell the answer in a few second (or adjudicate in a not so longer time, if not covered by SRD)
- players take out their PHB and start browsing, time flies...
- each player announces he has got how the rule works, but each player has a different conclusion
- I have to point out to each of them how they were reading only the sentence they wanted to read, and not the rest of the paragraph
- after 5 minutes instead of 20 seconds, game resumes

Anyway, I don't really need that laptop myself, and I have run so many sessions without it in the past. But I have to say that since Sovelior wrote the SRD in HTML, checking a rule takes a very short time. When I don't use it, it's because we're also playing other adventures in 3.0

Oh and by the way, playing another game or surfing the web on a laptop during D&D is just as an idiot behaviour as reading the PHB (or any other book) while you're playing Warcraft on line. And since you're gaming with others, allmost as unpolite as brushing your teeth while you're still eating your dinner in a restaurant