Jon Peterson, D&D historian and Author of Playing At the World, redit AMA

[darjr]

Jon Peterson, D&D historian and Author of Playing At the World, redit AMA

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1w7x3r/i_am_games_historian_jon_peterson_author_playing/

I'm very interested in the early history of D&D and think it's important to learn and record it now.

Though I'm also very interested in the Braunsteins and think it could make a great large group game for conventions.

 

[Mercurius]

"What I guess I'd like to see most is an integration of technology with the tabletop in a way that keeps tabletop gaming a personal experience shared by people sitting around the table, but takes care of the mechanics and the busywork of adjudicating combat. I know a lot of companies are trying to find the sweet spot there. I want computers to know what dice I role, to know where my character is in a room, to render results on a table, and to have it just work. In a decade, we could have that."

I like this - *if* by "keeps tabletop gaming a personal experience shared by people sitting around the table" he means a game of imagination focused on theater-of-mind rather than theater-of-screen. What I don't get is why it will take a decade to get there. This should have happened by now - its 20-freakin-14!

 

[Dungeoneer]

"What I guess I'd like to see most is an integration of technology with the tabletop in a way that keeps tabletop gaming a personal experience shared by people sitting around the table, but takes care of the mechanics and the busywork of adjudicating combat. I know a lot of companies are trying to find the sweet spot there. I want computers to know what dice I role, to know where my character is in a room, to render results on a table, and to have it just work. In a decade, we could have that."

I like this - *if* by "keeps tabletop gaming a personal experience shared by people sitting around the table" he means a game of imagination focused on theater-of-mind rather than theater-of-screen. What I don't get is why it will take a decade to get there. This should have happened by now - its 20-freakin-14!

I hoped for this in Fourth Edition, but it didn't happen. I don't think the problem is a technological one so much as WotC simply not having much experience managing technology projects. But there's no reason that there couldn't be software tools to automate the fiddly bits of running the game.

 

[adamc]

I hoped for this in Fourth Edition, but it didn't happen. I don't think the problem is a technological one so much as WotC simply not having much experience managing technology projects. But there's no reason that there couldn't be software tools to automate the fiddly bits of running the game.

I think it would be more likely if Wizards would license the material at reasonable rates and let people who know what they are doing write the software. Wizard's software is irreplaceable because of the content, but the implementation isn't very good.

 

[Alzrius]

I'm sad I missed this. Playing at the World blew me away when I read it early last year, and I still follow Jon's blog now.