DDI + Microsoft Surface

[Chuangel]

Check out this link here:
www.microsoft.com/surface/

Now imagine that this technology takes off and all of our coffee tables turn into computers with a surface touch interface. Imagine the possibilities for great D&D software that could be put on it! You could have your character sheets right there (and re-sizable), a battle grid that you can reveal as you go along, zoom in and out, and change as you need it. You could just touch a part on the character sheet and it would roll an attack roll for you and give you the result. You could use normal miniatures and put them on the battle grid or use virtual miniatures that are generated from the software. You could pull up the core books to look up rules at the touch of a button, the DM could have his own interface behind the DM's screen with monster stats popping up and disappearing as he needs them, tracking initiative and hp. Oh the greatness it would be!

Of course, it will be a good ten years before this is even realistic, but I'll still be playing D&D then... software engineers, get on it!

 

[Xyl]

Of course, it will be a good ten years before this is even realistic, but I'll still be playing D&D then... software engineers, get on it!

I wouldn't be so sure about it taking ten years... there are do-it-yourself versions of Surface that are quite reasonable price-wise, IIRC. They should only get cheaper with mass production.

What would make Surface really cool would be using it with real minis with special tags on the bottom. Then you could pick up and move the physical minis, and the software would automatically be able to track line of sight and so on....

 

[Dizlag]

But you can do this right now!

P&P Tabletop Projection



Dizlag

 

[N0Man]

Haha, I have been thinking about the same thing recently. I was talking to someone about Surface last weekend, and brought up D&D and tabletop gaming in general.

I think that if Surface can gain ground in the home market, that it could really change the flavor of a lot of computer gaming. There might be a lot more emphasis on multiplayer, maybe some gimmicky prop items that the Surface computer can recognize, and such.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

What would make Surface really cool would be using it with real minis with special tags on the bottom. Then you could pick up and move the physical minis, and the software would automatically be able to track line of sight and so on....

It would be cool, but it would really slow down combat when every time you move your mini a window pops up asking if you are sure you want to move it.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

It would be cool, but it would really slow down combat when every time you move your mini a window pops up asking if you are sure you want to move it.

I am more concerned about the blue screen of death occurring in the middle of a big fight.

 

[Chuangel]

I haven't seen the blue screen of death in over 5 years, and I've been gaming that whole time. I thought they got rid of that problem, maybe I'm just lucky

 

[Moon-Lancer]

I haven't seen the blue screen of death in over 5 years, and I've been gaming that whole time. I thought they got rid of that problem, maybe I'm just lucky

The blue screen of death still happens, But with win98, it seemed to just happen, where with xp, if it happens, Your computer has real issues that need to be worked out.

 

[MindWanderer]

My wife will probably be getting a Surface for her office within a few years. There's a good chance we'll all gather there to game.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I haven't seen the blue screen of death in over 5 years, and I've been gaming that whole time. I thought they got rid of that problem, maybe I'm just lucky

The last time I saw it (under Windows Vista) it was apparently a serious problem with the graphics driver on my co-workers PC. But otherwise, I haven't seen it in ages.

Isn't WotC seated in Seattle? That should give them best access to new Micro$oft Technologies!
And I would also be very happy to send them my resume (and move from Germany to the US) in case they need an experienced .Net developer to create an WPF interface!