If You Had an Unlimited Budget How Would Enhance The D&D Experience

[Conaill]

1 - We have a majorly kick-butt overhead digital projection system already
2 - We have more miniatures of every make and description than we could ever use already
3 - We have about 8 laptops and auto this that and the other thing already
4 - We have a pretty decent gaming room with overstuffed leather couches circling the table already.

Let me guess... "but our DM sucks"?

Seriously, I'm with MavrickWeirdo: Give me a great DM and great people to play with, and I don't really care if I'm sitting on a metal fold-out chair, pushing around different color dice on a map drawn in pencil on a piece of scrap paper...


PS: No offense intended to whomever your DM is, Steel_Wind. Could be the best DM ever to walk this earth, for all I know.

 

[jgbrowning]

If I had an unlimited budget I'd buy Dungeons and Dragons from WoTC.


joe "thinking inside the bigger box" b.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Let me guess... "but our DM sucks"?

Seriously, I'm with MavrickWeirdo: Give me a great DM and great people to play with, and I don't really care if I'm sitting on a metal fold-out chair, pushing around different color dice on a map drawn in pencil on a piece of scrap paper...


PS: No offense intended to whomever your DM is, Steel_Wind. Could be the best DM ever to walk this earth, for all I know.

The DM would be me

While I may not be the greatest DM that ever was - I don't suck!

 

[pogre]

I'm very satisfied with our current set-up, but I would make a few changes if I had an unlimited budget.

1st I would win almost every high quality painted miniature auction on ebay. I love painting my own miniatures, but I cannot keep up. I also would have a few staff painters.

2nd I would have a gaming club house built. All the amenities, including a service staff, a custodial staff - perfect table, etc.

3rd I would have a staff of writers and artists. We would have a meeting once or twice per week where I would bounce ideas off of them and have them develop things further. My handouts and props would be numerous and custom made - and fresh every adventure!

4th Two staff members would be devoted to casting Hirst Arts bricks. They would be responsible for getting maps from the art department and having the models ready to go. Check that - I get to look at the maps first and decide if there are anyspecific rooms I would like to build myself.

5th I would have game facilitators who would have all props, hirst arts dungeon pieces, master maze, and miniatures prepared for each encounter.

6th A webmaster to handle all of the campaign materials would be a must too!

7th A staff sculptor for special monsters needs to be part of the plan. It would also require a spincaster and the equipment for making the pewter replicas.

I would run games at least three times a week instead of one.

 

[Meloncov]

In addition to what has been mentioned before:

A full-time composer to create theme music for the campaign
A DJ to handle the playing of the music, keeping the mood right, ect.
A secretary to take notes for the DM.
Assistant DM on hand for split party situations.
A team of geologists, historians, writers, and artists to help in campaign world creation.
Full time game designers and playtest crew to create new mechanical aspects of the game.
A seperate gaming room for split party situations.

 

[Bryon_Soulweaver]

Four copies of all D20 books, a map for every landscape my imagination can create, chairs made for kings and queens, a HUGE computer/sterio system with every song in the world (for any setting), a 7' by 7' table with a mechanical arm (which I could work in my sleep thanks to my 8th grade teacher) to move hard to reach peices, landscape pieces, every mini there is plus some, ect., ect.

I think that covers it.

 

[Galethorn]

Unlimited budget, eh?

Life-sized 'miniatures'; make monsters using serious plastic surgery on people and various monsters, and then have actors to play the PCs and humanoid NPCs...and then have them fight to the death, based on how the dice fall.

But seriously, I think the answer would be to have a world-class composer and artist make mood music and visuals for every adventure.

 

[wingsandsword]

Step 1. The Ultimate Gaming Room:
A large room with hardwood floors, and wood panel walls lined with tapestries, shields and other medieval items for atmosphere. The light fixtures would be styled like lanterns, with actual oil lamps also distributed around the room for extra effects when neccesary. A big table, with room for at least 8, with 8 leather "executive" style chairs. Refrigerator/Freezer, microwave in one corner (possibly behind a small curtain to preserve the motif), well stocked with soft drinks and snack foods. Bookshelves with a complete D&D library: everything official for 3.x and 1e, and the most significant 2e books. The cream of the crop in d20 too is also there. A large library of scenery/terrain/battlemats also in the shelves (like plenty of that wonderful MasterMaze stuff from Dwarven Forge), and a huge minis library, all categorized and sorted for easy access. A wireless router also behind the curtain and concealed electrical outlets so my laptop can stay plugged in and online at the table, and have a giant soundtrack library in that laptop as well as experience calculators, treasure generators, and other useful utilities, and the laptop broadcasts from a good sound system with speakers concealed throughout the room. A coatrack with a small library of costume pieces like hats, cloaks and the like to help PC's get in character as well. Abundant dice, of course, along with notepads and pencils, and a well organized filing system for character sheets and DM notes. No projection systems for me, I'd like to keep the medieval ambiance of the room going as much as possible, the laptop is already pushing it, maybe keeping that behind an oversized wooden DM screen would be a possibility.

Step 2. The Ultimate Gaming Group:
It might be fun to game for once with Gary Gygax or Monte Cook, and if I had the money I'd probably try to do it a few times. However, at heart I love to game with friends. The biggest problem I've always had with gaming with friends is finding a time when everybody is free, because largely of work schedules. Most of my friends have low wage jobs, and I coudl use my fortune to arrange for more rewarding jobs with evenings and weekends free for gaming and other socialization.

Step 3. The Ultimate Game:
I know the types of changes I'd like to make to D&D, what I don't like and what I'd like to see, and I'd hire some first-rate game designers to take my notes and concepts and work with them to create a perfect (for me) D&D/d20 Fantasy game and setting. Then, thanks to the glory of the OGL I'd share this wonder with the world for free. Free .PDF's of my personal custom rules set and setting for everybody who wants it.

 

[dvvega]

I think you are all still limiting yourself ....

I would put all the money into full time research on a new technological advancement ... full hardware/wetware integration.

The system would be completely sensory input via wetware connections in an enclosed capsule per player with mutli-directional flooring. As you walked up hills, the floor would add resistance and your nerves/muscles would be acted upon by the wetware to give you the full experience.

There would be complete immersion. You would see people in inns, either constructs or other people paid to live out the inn person's life. Or it would be a combination of both so that person could "jack in for work" and then the system extrapolates in their downtime. Or multiple people play a role and the system overlays their image into the wetware.

A skinny geeky roleplayer could start life "training" as a fighter and begin as 1st level, buff, capable of wearing plate, etc etc.

What about food? Drink? To encourage you to keep playing, food will be a highly balanced and nutritous paste fed to you via tubes. But the wetware would be making you think it was that mutton leg, or you are drinking the best ale of the house. Along with drunkeness and so forth.

What about other bodily functions I hear? Let us not go into details but it will be provided for. In fact everything will be provided for.

The biggest problem with the concept is pain. Different people react to pain differently. The problem is sending them into shock when they get raked with claws or they see the gaping holes in their chest. So I'm not sure how that would be handled right now, perhaps some kind of sliding tolerance level determined by the character creation module of the system.

Character creation module? Yes! When you step inside you are tested through a gamut of things. This is used to adjust factors such as pain thresholds and physical capacities. As you get stronger and healthier in the game, your online profile is updated.

Yep ... that's what I would do with the money.

D

 

[Bryon_Soulweaver]

Oh yeah, I'd also turn anything I played into a computer game if I could. Plus: I'd buy a lot of ENWorlds products, just to make sure I had a character want to play something different from any settings.


PS: I'd go buy a Circle-K or 7/11 out for its snacks and drinks.