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D&D Next will succeed or die on the basis of its digital apps.
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<blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 6085462" data-attributes="member: 22424"><p>On the subject of electronics at the game table...</p><p></p><p>I played one 4e game where the DM and two of the other players each had a laptop at the table, and I absolutely <em>hated</em> it. It wasn't even the possibility of distraction that was the problem - it was that the screens put barriers up at the table. Of course, the DM's screen has a long pedigree, but barriers between <em>players</em> was a really bad thing. I wouldn't care to repeat that again.</p><p></p><p>However, I genuinely believe that the iPad and iPhone represent game-changers in this area. They're small enough not to take up huge amounts of desktop space, they can be held in a single hand, and they lie flat and so don't create barriers. And a good electronic encyclopedia of the game (such as the DDI Compendium or the 3e SRD) is much quicker to access than a pile of several books. (I can still win the 'lookup' race using my books, but that's only because I don't allow many supplements, and pretty much know the layout of the 3.5e books back to front by now. I certainly wouldn't win in an "anything goes" game, nor any other edition/game but D&D 3.5e.)</p><p></p><p>I don't think every RPG now requires electronic support. But I do think that any <em>big</em> RPG (that is, big in terms of RPGs <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> ) will at the very least need to release everything in PDF and/or eBook formats (probably both), and probably needs to actually go a step further even than that, and make electronic character sheets/managers, "Compendium" apps, and the like available. Too many people now prefer the electronic versions, and they have too many alternative games to play, to manage without, IMO. And that trend will only ever move in one direction.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="delericho, post: 6085462, member: 22424"] On the subject of electronics at the game table... I played one 4e game where the DM and two of the other players each had a laptop at the table, and I absolutely [i]hated[/i] it. It wasn't even the possibility of distraction that was the problem - it was that the screens put barriers up at the table. Of course, the DM's screen has a long pedigree, but barriers between [i]players[/i] was a really bad thing. I wouldn't care to repeat that again. However, I genuinely believe that the iPad and iPhone represent game-changers in this area. They're small enough not to take up huge amounts of desktop space, they can be held in a single hand, and they lie flat and so don't create barriers. And a good electronic encyclopedia of the game (such as the DDI Compendium or the 3e SRD) is much quicker to access than a pile of several books. (I can still win the 'lookup' race using my books, but that's only because I don't allow many supplements, and pretty much know the layout of the 3.5e books back to front by now. I certainly wouldn't win in an "anything goes" game, nor any other edition/game but D&D 3.5e.) I don't think every RPG now requires electronic support. But I do think that any [i]big[/i] RPG (that is, big in terms of RPGs :) ) will at the very least need to release everything in PDF and/or eBook formats (probably both), and probably needs to actually go a step further even than that, and make electronic character sheets/managers, "Compendium" apps, and the like available. Too many people now prefer the electronic versions, and they have too many alternative games to play, to manage without, IMO. And that trend will only ever move in one direction. [/QUOTE]
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