Laptops at the table - Do you use them?

[Goldmoon]

Perhaps I am just old school (or maybe just old) but no and hell no. As a DM I wont allow my players to use them at the table and as a player I wont play in a game where anyone uses them.

 

[beldar1215]

I only use one when DM'ing. I use DM's Familar. Could someone post a link to Battlegrounds. I went to google but didn't see anything that looked like the proper link.

Thanks

 

[Harmon]

Perhaps I am just old school (or maybe just old) but no and hell no. As a DM I wont allow my players to use them at the table and as a player I wont play in a game where anyone uses them.

Why? Because you think they are distracting? If your players can't keep from playing video games in your setting then mayhaps your campaign is boring, or maybe they are trying to stay entertained while waiting for the GM to finish a solo portion of the campaign. If they can't get away fromt he video games or other distractions during their turn, during the most excellent portion of the campaign then maybe they just have no will power, or would rather play by themselves in the corner then play with others.

The computer is a resource, SRDs are faster to look through then books, GMs don't have to lug fifty pounds of books to the play site, they just need their computer and a couple books that arn't on PDF (few and far between now a days).

Closing your mind to the possibilities is of what something can do for your and your Player's experience is.... narrow minded. Open your mind to the possibilities, look at new theories, and new ideas- closing your mind to the new is- well I suppose I covered that.

 

[Harmon]

opps double post

 

[farscapesg1]

My opinion

We just started using laptops at the game session about a year ago. At that time, almost everyone in the group used them, but it has trickled off since one of the players has now taken the role of DM and I think I am the only one using one (as a player).

I find it much easier to look up rules and keep track of my character information. Compared to the rest of the group that is usually building "dice towers" or reading through the rules books (such as when we got a copy of Tome of Battle), I personally don't find them much of a distraction. I pull up the information when I need it and close the laptop when I don't.

For those that feel that the laptops are too much of a distraction, how do you handle rulebooks and such that are just as much of a distraction at the table? For example, when the player running a Rogue sits on the other side of the table reading through Tome of Battle (which has nothing to do with his character at the moment)? What about the person that continually roles dice on the table or builds towers with them?

 

[Goldmoon]

Why? Because you think they are distracting? If your players can't keep from playing video games in your setting then mayhaps your campaign is boring, or maybe they are trying to stay entertained while waiting for the GM to finish a solo portion of the campaign. If they can't get away fromt he video games or other distractions during their turn, during the most excellent portion of the campaign then maybe they just have no will power, or would rather play by themselves in the corner then play with others.

The computer is a resource, SRDs are faster to look through then books, GMs don't have to lug fifty pounds of books to the play site, they just need their computer and a couple books that arn't on PDF (few and far between now a days).

Closing your mind to the possibilities is of what something can do for your and your Player's experience is.... narrow minded. Open your mind to the possibilities, look at new theories, and new ideas- closing your mind to the new is- well I suppose I covered that.

Nah, Im not concerned with them being distracting, I just feel they have no place at a Pencil and Paper gaming session. I like the old school feel of just books and dice.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

For those that feel that the laptops are too much of a distraction, how do you handle rulebooks and such that are just as much of a distraction at the table? For example, when the player running a Rogue sits on the other side of the table reading through Tome of Battle (which has nothing to do with his character at the moment)? What about the person that continually roles dice on the table or builds towers with them?

Rulebooks and dice aren't distractions at our gaming table. The rulebooks pretty much sit to the side untouched unless the DM (me) requests that a particular player please look up a reference so that we can clarify at the table for the benefit of all, or a specific player decides that he or she needs to look up a particular rule as it relates to something happening at the table in-game. We generally avoid looking up material during play, though. No one thumbs through miscellaneous reading material during play. If books not germaine to that night's session are brought, and sometimes they are, those books make an appearance either in the session's opening get-together social minutes or at the end of the session after we're done playing. I haven't ever seen anyone build a dice tower at the table...which isn't to say that it doesn't go on in other games, but rather that it hasn't in any game in which I've participated as player or DM.

Probably the greatest distraction at the table is food, but as everyone at our table enjoys snacking and is fairly quick about grabbing a snack or having their foodstuffs at the table already, food hasn't merited a request to cease and desist. I can't speak for others, but snacks have always been a cherished and fond part of our weekly game sessions.

Can do without electronic media at the table, though.

 

[Vanye]

In the last couple of threads I have noticed that a few people (players and DM's) use laptops at the table. If you do use one, what do you use it for?

I use one when I DM, at a stand off to the side from the table. I use it for quick reference to status conditions, monster stats, looking up spells/psionics that I don't remember details on. I try not to have it on the table, because I dislike the feeling of "barrier" that it makes between myself and those at the table. Primarly the same reason I no longer use a DM's screen.
If I have a need to roll a die in secret, I cup my hand and do it.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

I ditched my DM's screen early this year, too. I didn't like having it between myself and the players. The screen also was taller than I could comfortably see over to view the battlemat, which ultimately was the primary reason I stopped using it. Rolling in front of everyone has worked out just grand thus far. When I feel the need to be discrete in my DM rolls, I try to pitch the dice more toward the three-high stack of PHB, DMG, and MM books I keep at my left elbow. This seems to work to hide the roll result well enough and non-chalantly when need be.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

I use my laptop (as do ... six of our ten players) when I run and when I play. I keep my characters on the computer on a nice spreadsheet. I keep my pre-game notes and my during-game notes on wordpad (I can type a heck of a lot faster than I can write). We use instant messaging for the occassional note passing that might otherwise take place. It works out just fine.

I don't allow any of the players to engage in WoW or random web-surfing while I am running, but players are often logged in to our gaming group's discussion forum, have a page open to the SRD or other reference site, that sort of thing.

I wouldn't make someone use a computer at the gaming table, nor would I leave a game if forbidden to use my own computer at the table (though I'd have to use it at least long enough to get a hard-copy of my character), but I prefer to do so.

Later
silver