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In need of advice: laptop vs ipad for tabletop gaming!
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<blockquote data-quote="Arravis" data-source="post: 6118569" data-attributes="member: 327"><p>So I'm a DM for a 4th edition D&D group and I'm considering either buying a ipad or a laptop to assist my DM'ng during games. I have a budget of $600-ish (USD) for this.</p><p></p><p>The ipad, from what I've read seems very handy and there seem to be many apps that could be helpful. Unfortunately it's limited in the programs I can use (can you even use Word on it?, or something that will act as it?) and the storage space seems very limited. Lastly, I'm not sure if the Character Builder and other 4th ed tools run on an ipad? The other nice thing would be all the cool other benefits of owning an ipad, but that's not the main reason I'd be getting it.</p><p></p><p>A laptop would would run all the apps I already run at home, but its larger and much clumsier than an ipad would be. Of course, $600-ish wouldn't get you much of a laptop at all, so it may not run much of anything beyond word and few other basic programs (I can't imagine it would run an Adobe suite of products very well). The last thing with a laptop would be that the wife and I would be able to do some co-op PC games on it (she's a big-time gamer), but at $600-ish, again, its not likely to be able to run much game wise either.</p><p></p><p>Some facts about my group and I that my be useful:</p><p></p><p>• I have 7 players (plus me), we all use the online Character Builder from WotC.</p><p></p><p>• I run a Forgotten Realms campaign, but its highly customized to our group (its sent in 1379 DR and events from previous campaigns affect the current campaign, so it diverges somewhat from canon because of it).</p><p></p><p>• The bulk of my work that I would need on game-days is done in Microsoft Word (some is done in Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc but not stuff I would need on game-day).</p><p></p><p>• I currently run a low-tech game, as far as DM's aids are concerned. We whiteboards for notes, GameMastery's initiative counters, and TactTiles for the maps (love TactTiles, those things rock).</p><p></p><p>• I am a professional graphic designer and do my own graphics for all my work. I make maps, illustrate NPCs, make props, etc. I'm very savvy on the standard desktop tech-end of things, but I don't own a cellphone (on purpose) nor any kind of laptop or standard pad.</p><p></p><p>• I own a Kindle Fire, which I use as a reference library. I keep many of the rulebooks I have at home as PDFs on there, but due to its limited storage I can't have many on there (ie: the entire run of all FR books, which I own, like I said, I've been DM'ing since 81, I'm old <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite7" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue :p" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":p" />).</p><p></p><p>Well guys, any assistance, advice, or general comments are welcome. Thanks!!</p><p></p><p>-Arravis</p><p></p><p>P.S.: To the other old timers that know me on ENWorld, yeah... I hadn't posted in forever. Sorry... I've been thinking of publishing some of my material and I didn't want the temptation to post it here <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite7" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue :p" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":p" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Arravis, post: 6118569, member: 327"] So I'm a DM for a 4th edition D&D group and I'm considering either buying a ipad or a laptop to assist my DM'ng during games. I have a budget of $600-ish (USD) for this. The ipad, from what I've read seems very handy and there seem to be many apps that could be helpful. Unfortunately it's limited in the programs I can use (can you even use Word on it?, or something that will act as it?) and the storage space seems very limited. Lastly, I'm not sure if the Character Builder and other 4th ed tools run on an ipad? The other nice thing would be all the cool other benefits of owning an ipad, but that's not the main reason I'd be getting it. A laptop would would run all the apps I already run at home, but its larger and much clumsier than an ipad would be. Of course, $600-ish wouldn't get you much of a laptop at all, so it may not run much of anything beyond word and few other basic programs (I can't imagine it would run an Adobe suite of products very well). The last thing with a laptop would be that the wife and I would be able to do some co-op PC games on it (she's a big-time gamer), but at $600-ish, again, its not likely to be able to run much game wise either. Some facts about my group and I that my be useful: • I have 7 players (plus me), we all use the online Character Builder from WotC. • I run a Forgotten Realms campaign, but its highly customized to our group (its sent in 1379 DR and events from previous campaigns affect the current campaign, so it diverges somewhat from canon because of it). • The bulk of my work that I would need on game-days is done in Microsoft Word (some is done in Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc but not stuff I would need on game-day). • I currently run a low-tech game, as far as DM's aids are concerned. We whiteboards for notes, GameMastery's initiative counters, and TactTiles for the maps (love TactTiles, those things rock). • I am a professional graphic designer and do my own graphics for all my work. I make maps, illustrate NPCs, make props, etc. I'm very savvy on the standard desktop tech-end of things, but I don't own a cellphone (on purpose) nor any kind of laptop or standard pad. • I own a Kindle Fire, which I use as a reference library. I keep many of the rulebooks I have at home as PDFs on there, but due to its limited storage I can't have many on there (ie: the entire run of all FR books, which I own, like I said, I've been DM'ing since 81, I'm old :P). Well guys, any assistance, advice, or general comments are welcome. Thanks!! -Arravis P.S.: To the other old timers that know me on ENWorld, yeah... I hadn't posted in forever. Sorry... I've been thinking of publishing some of my material and I didn't want the temptation to post it here :P [/QUOTE]
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