Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 4057473" data-attributes="member: 20741">Once more, let me clarify.Of course I use a laptop for digital projection. It's great. It makes the game run more smoothly and makes it more fun. It centers the attention of the players at the table. It is technology which unites players over a common purpose and point of attention - it is not technology that divides.If you use a laptop at your gaming session - and it's working for you and makes things go more smoothly - you should use it.The point is this: DMs who fumble through rulebooks are distracting themselves  - and their players - from the game. That's not the preferable way to run a session.  That's sub-optimal.Fumbling through rulebooks is bad. That assessment does not change when you are fumbling through files on a laptop. In fact, it's usually much worse.If you can use your technology to make the game run more smoothly, do it. Work on that aspect of your game between sessions to make it work. But don't put your players in the position during the game where you are trying to learn the programs and tech and make all of this work for you during the actual game session. There is nothing worse than having a game come to a grinding halt. The cause of that halt can be: fumbling through the rulebooks for grappling rules, say, or having someone call on a cell phone at the wrong moment, ... or twittering with a .pdf file or some other program that ostensibly is there to "assist" but, frankly,  just isn't making things go more smoothly for you - or anybody else.Learn your tools between sessions - not AT the session.  It's there to help move the game along. When you find yourself straining to make the laptop useful during the session - that's the time to close the lid and pay attention to your game and your players - and not your new toy.</blockquote>

Verification