Laptops at the gaming table

[Steel_Wind]

I am looking for hte tablet to fill the gap between laptop and pen and paper notebook; I'll most liekly be purchasing a slate if I cna get over the fact it won't have a keyboard built in. I'll take a bit for me to figure out how I work with the tablet best but I think it will definitely cut down on the amount of stuff I have to lug around to the game.

Having used a slate at work - I can only say that I found it frustrating at times. Given a choice of having a convertible - especially at the prices being offered now - I would never get a pure tablet.

 

[JDragon]

Well lets see I've used mine in multiple ways.

I have Excel sheets that I've designed for character generation, that allow live changes or to print a hard copy in a normal CS format.

I've also used Excel to develope sheets for tracking monster/NPC's in game, live. The upside of this is it familiarizes me with the stats as I enter and they are all in the same format when I'm looking for info.

I've looked at a lot of the gaming programs out for laptops, but none of them have evver fit what I've been looking for.

I also recently got a projector that I'm setting up and will be running it off of for maps.

I've been eyeing a tablet PC for 2 or 3 years now and hope to get one in a few months with my bonus assuming Taxes don't screw me.

Along with most here I agree laptops can be helpful if set up properly and not distracting or used improperly.

 

[scrubkai]

We sometimes use laptops in our games and have found them to be very useful and not distracting. However there is one simple rule we use in our game. "You shut yours down if the other players think you are being distracted." But then that's the same as our rule with the TV and such too.

To be honest at low levels they are only used for reference.
At High levels they become much more useful... Some examples:
1) A few of the players have created an excel character sheet that auto-calcs your stats realtime based on the effect of your charactes. At high level that includes the whole set of our 5-10 common buffs. If you set up an excel sheet that calcs this for you it saves time at the table.
2) As a DM I would much rather use dice, but sometimes it just takes too much time. With huge groups of mooks or a Wurm level dragon, it's much easier to use the random number generator of excel to roll up all the attacks at once, again taking into account buffs, and power attack, etc. So rather then rolling 25 dice, I find it makes the game flow better if I just have to click one key and to be able to say you get hit by a bit, claw, two wings... Take 89 damage from 4 hits.

Oh one more thing. We normally set up tray tables next to the table and put laptops on the tray table... That way it doesn't block our sight lines to each other.

 

[Marchen]

I can certainly see how they might be useful for the DM, or even players with high level characters, but I prefer to keep track of things with pencil and paper at the gaming table.

 

[Tarek]

There's a "laptop" computer out there that is smaller than a paperback book. Full featured. Look up OQO on the web.

There's also the notebook computer I used to use, primarily to reference my character sheet; the Toshiba Libretto 110 CT. The most recent US model was the U100. Both of these computers are, in a word, tiny. Take a typical paperback book, add one and a half inches in length and one inch in width, and you have the approximate size.

No one ever found it distracting, since I still used dice and paper to track the important things, and we could use it to reference the entire Dragon Magazine archives, plus all the PDF versions of the 1st edition rulebooks.

So, the giant screen blocking people's view of what's going on wasn't an issue.

 

[Fedifensor]

There's a "laptop" computer out there that is smaller than a paperback book. Full featured. Look up OQO on the web.

Oh, there's no way I could function on something with that small of a screen. While portability is very important, readibility should not be sacrificed.

My current laptop is great for preparation, but way too big for easy use at the gaming table - a HP Pavilion zd8000. It's screen is bigger than many desktop screens, and it has all the power of the desktop. But it's something like 10 pounds with less than 2 hours of battery life, making it more of a desktop replacement than a real laptop. However, it's easy enough to walk over to the laptop and print out a few pages that I can then refer to during the game. During a recent game session, I forgot to prep the stats for a particular creature. I just walked over to the laptop, brought up d20srd.org, found the creature, and printed it out. No need to keep open my monster manual to that page - it's a lot easier working with a few printed pages.

I'm currently saving up and trying to convince my wife to let me purchase the Sony VAIO VGN-TXN15P/W for my birthday. With a battery life of 9+ hours, there's no need to seek out an outlet during most gaming sessions. As an ultraportable that weighs under 3 lbs, it's a great way to travel to a friend's house or a convention without carrying an entire library with me.I checked it out at a computer store, and found the keyboard to actually be comfortable to type on. It's definately not something for a person on a tight budget, but it has virtually everything I need for a tabletop game.

There are several pieces of software that are essential for a gaming laptop. A die-rolling program capable enough to handle any type of die, and multiple dice at once (ideally with a way to print out rolls. A mapping program (Dungeon Crafter is free but no longer supported, and I just bought Dundjinni) really helps in the preparation of modules. Character creation software is very helpful, but it's hard to find truly quality software that doesn't require a ton of tweaking - HERO Designer (for the HERO system) is about the only one I've tried that fits this bill. There's also online play - I've used AIM and Gametable several times to play tabletop sessions online. Gametable is better but harder to set up, while AIM is available to virtually everyone but rather basic in features. Finally, get your rules in electronic format. I purchased a subscription to d20srd.org so I could get the downloadable version of the site, and it's amazingly easy to browse. In addition, I play Living Arcanis, and the main 'crunch' books are available in PDF format. They give both a nornal and a print-friendly version of the book in PDF when you purchase it - the print-friendly is significantly faster to browse. Don't go overboard, and use the free SRD options when you can - most RPG publishers (including WotC) haven't caught on to the fact that a PDF should be significantly cheaper than the print product.

If you're a player using a laptop at a game, the main thing to remember is to be considerate. Turn the volume of your laptop OFF, so you don't bug other players with clicking sounds. Don't browse the web unless your character is completely sidelined (unconsicous, in a different location from the rest of the party, etc). If you are browsing the web instead of paying attention to the game...it could be a sign that the game isn't that interesting.

There have been a lot of interesting comments in this thread, and I will definately be checking out some of the programs suggested. Keep the ideas flowing!

 

[SiderisAnon]

Computer Good, Laptop Bad

As a DM, I find the computer to be an essential tool. I DM at my house, so I have access to all of my files, plus the library of books on my shelves. If I were DMing somewhere else, I know I would want to bring the laptop along. Copious notes are the only way I can keep track of everything in the game. Plus, I'm lousy with names so tracking them (and generating them) are more tasks for the computer.

As for players, there are a number of reasons that make me very wary of laptops. While I did have a player in a game who too great notes and so could share them with players who missed a session, that was the only time I saw laptops as a benefit in the game. I've had all the typical problems of video games, web surfing, distracting other players by showing them multimedia stuff, and screens blocking people's faces. My biggest peeve was that the laptop allowed the players to look stuff up without my being able to see the book they were using. I had one player who would make sure he had copies of every resource I was using for the game. He had the money to buy a lot of gaming books, so if he knew I'd bought a PDF to use, he'd go get a copy. So, he'd be looking up all the details of the monster or whatever while we were playing, and the only reason I found out was because another player called him on it.

While I can't say I'd always ban laptops in my game, I do know several players who have had their laptop rights revokes.

 

[Tarek]

Oh, there's no way I could function on something with that small of a screen. While portability is very important, readibility should not be sacrificed.

I'm currently saving up and trying to convince my wife to let me purchase the Sony VAIO VGN-TXN15P/W for my birthday. With a battery life of 9+ hours, there's no need to seek out an outlet during most gaming sessions. As an ultraportable that weighs under 3 lbs, it's a great way to travel to a friend's house or a convention without carrying an entire library with me.I checked it out at a computer store, and found the keyboard to actually be comfortable to type on. It's definately not something for a person on a tight budget, but it has virtually everything I need for a tabletop game.

There have been a lot of interesting comments in this thread, and I will definately be checking out some of the programs suggested. Keep the ideas flowing!

I also have a Sony Vaio VGN-TX670P that I'll probably be selling soon. I really shouldn't have bought it in the first place and it's not as useful for my work as I thought it would be.

I had Dundjinni, E-tools, and a couple other programs loaded on it, but found I was still using paper character sheets and forgetting to bring it along, so overall, I found it wasn't as useful as my little Libretto.

Still, they're both nice machines. The TX670 has a remarkably long battery life.

 

[Corsair]

As for players, there are a number of reasons that make me very wary of laptops. While I did have a player in a game who too great notes and so could share them with players who missed a session, that was the only time I saw laptops as a benefit in the game. I've had all the typical problems of video games, web surfing, distracting other players by showing them multimedia stuff, and screens blocking people's faces. My biggest peeve was that the laptop allowed the players to look stuff up without my being able to see the book they were using. I had one player who would make sure he had copies of every resource I was using for the game. He had the money to buy a lot of gaming books, so if he knew I'd bought a PDF to use, he'd go get a copy. So, he'd be looking up all the details of the monster or whatever while we were playing, and the only reason I found out was because another player called him on it.

While I can't say I'd always ban laptops in my game, I do know several players who have had their laptop rights revokes.

Sounds like (and that you would agree) the problem wasn't the laptops, but the players.

 

[Dragon Vindaloo]

I like to use the LT to share artwork with the players at the table, its good to be able to just bring a picture up and say "this is what you see."