How Do Mobile Devices Affect Your Game?

How does mobile technology affect your game? On the one hand, it provides access to resources - dice rollers, looking up rules, character managers, game-specific apps; on the other hand phones provide the distraction of Facebook, email, and text. I've been in many situations where a fellow player is just randomly showing another one a (hilarious?) YouTube video rather than playing the tabletop game in progress. Of course, it's far from a gaming-specific question; I've sat in pubs and liked around at tables of 3-4 people where all of them were looking at their phones rather than each other, and I'm far from innocent of that particular transgression myself. So, when gaming, how do you adopt technology? Do you have rules or restrictions, or are you lucky enough that your game is so captivating that it overrides the impulse to check Facebook?

One thing I've seen happening in London is that diners at a restaurant put their phones in the centre of the table. Anyone who touches their phone buys (depending on the strictness of the rules) a round of drinks, or everybody's dinner - and the result is that everybody engages with each other the whole time, as though mobile phones had never existed.

That doesn't translate easily to a roleplaying game scenario (unless you're ordering pizza for the group). But some groups, I've heard, enact in-game penalties. Touching your phone negates your next crit, for example.

On the flip side, there are many mobile applications which enhance games. A mere browser allows for instant rules lookups; dice rollers and character managers abound, as do initiative trackers and GM helper applications.

What are your mobile device policies at the game table?

 

[EthanSental]

I have been using my ipad, placed off to the side of the table, adding background atmosphere with the nicely done Syrinscape app.

 

[Umbran]

I have found that a distracted player is a distracted player

There are two cases:

1) the game itself is not engaging to the player. In this case, you are correct, the electronics are not the cause of the issue, and the player's mind will wander and they'll disengage and flip through a rulebook, or even just sit and stare off into space if the electronics are not present.

2) The electronics are an "attractive nuisance". Humans are what they are - and modern electronics, and the applications upon them, are built to take advantage of human foibles and short-term reward systems, and modern electronics do this better than anything else in history, and better than any GM I have ever met. Much as we like to claim otherwise, we really aren't all that different from the rat who finds they get a snack-reward when they push a button. Those who are apt to fall prey to such stimuli can be distracted by electronics, where they'd pay attention and engage with the game if those electronics are not present.

Both of these things happen. To solve a particular problem of "player playign with their phone, and not the game", you must know which it is. The simplest way is to remove the electronics, and then see if the player or players are *still* disengaged.

So it is easy to blame the technology, but I don't find that to be the actual problem, just an easily spotted symptom.

My wife is allergic to strawberries. I don't *blame* the strawberries for this. Nor do I *blame* my wife. But, regardless, the berries don't appear at my table, as the interaction is undesired.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Our group runs a very informal, beer & pretzel game, so distractions abound whether we're using technology or not.

What I'd like though is for our group to use them more efficiently. I'm still waiting for a decent spell manager app for Pathfinder and I wish that the player that *hates* the tediousness of leveling and general managing of his character options could/would use some app to simplify his (and our) life...

AR

 

[Nytmare]

I'm very much on the end of the "it's not the toys, it's the people playing with them" end of the spectrum.

I tend to run with a lot of technology at the table. I'm using a laptop as a DM screen, I've got either a monitor or a projector set up to show players maps, and pictures. I'm running with music and sound effects and a host of tools to make the game run more smoothly.

I tend to have a lot of players with tech jobs who are tied to pagers and emergency work calls. Even on nights with a lot of crises, it never seems to cause a lot of problems with the game.

Die rollers feel like they usually waste more time and are more fiddly than just rolling real dice. I also think that most of the die rollers I've seen in play are kinda anticlimactic. That being said, most of my D&D campaigns have used a DM tool that rolls and organizes initiative and pops it up on a monitor so that the players can see it.

But, I know a handful of people (who I usually avoid playing with) who can't sit at a table without updating their FB page, or grinding levels and gear on a Freemium RPG. For me, the solution has just been to either not play with them, or to only play games where their inattention isn't ruining things for everyone else at the table. That being said, I think that it's hardly a new problem, it's something I've seen with Gameboys, newspapers, needlepoint, and stacked dice towers for 30+ years. It used to be that you might luck out and the person who was bored didn't have anything better to divert their attention; now, no one leaves the house without an ADD machine.

 

[Janx]

I agree with Nytmare on dice rollers. just pick up the real things...

That said, I run my PC off a spreadsheet on a tablet. Works great. But i"m also not one of those to sit and endlessly surf the web or facebook during a game.

 

[Mallus]

I've been running my games off of an iPad, with my phone as a dice-roller for a few years now. Everyone else at the table has some form of tech out: phones, tablets, laptops. It's not an issue for us.

Distracted players are my cue to a) create a new NPC with a funny name & a funny accent on the spot or b) attack the party with something. Or maybe just shift my attention to the distracted person for a while.

 

[Dahak]

Absolutely allowed at my table. I only play with adults and adults have responsibilities other than gaming. If something requires an interruption, it requires an interruption. Everyone can check social media while someone takes a call from his wife. It's simply not that big a deal. If it is, you're very lucky to not have other things happening in your life.

I won't even consider playing with someone that disallows the use of electronic devices, and have walked out of a game for just that reason. That case had more to do with the GM being a luddite than the devices being a distraction though.

 

[pickin_grinnin]

I don't allow unnecessary electronics at the table as a general rule. They are too much of a distraction. If people can't set them aside for a couple of hours each week, they aren't invested enough in the game to warrant a seat at my table.

Players can have their electronics nearby, in case a family member needs to reach them, but can't sit and browse on them constantly. That's the real issue - people checking social media and email and ignoring what other people are doing in the game.

 

[WizarDru]

We've had mobile devices and not so mobile devices (i.e laptops and even a desktop for me, since it's my house) for a long, long time. Do they distract us? Sometimes, sure. That's our environment. We're very social and informal, so we're not above breaking for a minute to watch a funny video or check the score of an in-progress sports event.

That said, when we're in the moment, we're pretty focused on it. When a serious RP moment happens, the devices are ignored. When we're in 'tactical' mode, the devices may be the way we check rules, do quick calculations, reference characters sheets or maps and so on. We may even experiment with virtual spaces.

 

[Greybird]

If it is necessary, I have no problem with it. I'm an adult. Most of my players are also adults, and have jobs, families, and responsibilities. Sometimes those responsibilities themselves don't cooperate with gaming time, regardless of the players' wishes. Our society has adapted to being constantly in touch. Twenty years ago it was the norm for people to be unreachable for a hours or a day at a time, but our society took that into account. It no longer does, and that isn't something the players can be blamed for or expected to ignore. Babysitters, employers, partners, and significant others no longer have the workarounds in place to allow people to 'go dark' for a full day of gaming. If I insisted that everyone shut down their contact, or penalized them every time the babysitter texted them or their mother-in-law called to ask about dinner on Tuesday, I would be forcing my players to choose between their responsibilities and my game. I would lose most of my players before I could bat an eye.

There is a big difference, however, between that and watching YouTube videos or checking Facebook. If they do that, I stop the game and wait for them to finish. This invariably results in everybody at the table looking at them while they goof off - which results in them not doing it anymore. It does help that I call a break every couple of hours for people to stretch their feet and socialize, and that we take a little while when we first get together (a half hour or so) to just catch up and chat with each other.

Besides, every caster in both of the groups I run uses a tablet or a phone to keep track of spells (as do I.)