Let's speculate about the future of gaming with the iPad.

[BASHMAN]

Well my mom got an iPad, and after playing around on it for a few hours (including writing this message) I am about 90% sure I will be getting one. Seems like it will be great not only for reading PDFs on, but for the apps that will let you run games on it, or use it as a character sheet that rolls dice for you, etc. Iplay4e seems like it will be the tip of the iceberg- there will doubtless be many more apps and web apps that make the iPad just too useful to pass up.

Aside from what we've already seen- what sorts of things do you imagine people will be able to do with the iPad in gaming?
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[Janx]

I have a concern about battery life as a book reader, seems like its activly lit screen will draw more power, compared to the e-paper books.

Otherwise, as an ebook reader, it already has an advantage in that it can run iBooks from Apple, Kindle books from Amazon, open format ebooks with Stanza (an iPod ebook reader app). Since all Sony books are now epub, there should be a reader app to handle it.

That means your one product will be able to bridge the gap for ebook suppliers. There's already issues with books not coming out or releasing at the same time on the different ebook publishers (Sony, Amazon, Nook), so that's actually useful.

As for gaming, character sheet management and rules lookup should be easier with a bigger screen.

I would not use one as a battlemat, once again, battery life would be limited, plus it would keep shutting off with the screen saver (happens now on iPhone). Plus, it's just too small for everyone to see.

None of this is exactly imaginative, but that's the most obvious outcome

 

[abetterway]

I have a concern about battery life as a book reader, seems like its activly lit screen will draw more power, compared to the e-paper books.

With its 10+ hours of battery life, you should be ok. I have been using mine for 2 days at a time between charges and its doing really well. I think the battery life is one of the most impressive features.

I am looking forward to finding or writing a nice DM application for it. I want one application that can track initiative, character states, HP etc. along with being able to look up data in the compendium, open PDF documents and take notes. I'm sure I can think of 100 more things the app should do.

I tried using an existing iPhone Initiative tracker Sunday. I liked it, but it was a little cumbersome to enter the data. Since it was written for the iPhone you had to visit multiple screens to set it up. I think an ideal solution would be to have a nice application that runs on your main computer for editing all the adventure data. Then upload the data (XML) to google docs and have an iPad or even iPhone application consume the data from there. Similar to iPlay4e, but I want a native application.

-abw

 

[amysrevenge]

I think the iPad is a step in an interesting direction, but is still not the Next Big Thing that will change the way we play.

Regarding battery life, the Next Big Thing in display tech, combining the energy efficiency and direct sunlight readability of e-paper with the vivid colour and fast refresh rate of LCDs, actually isn't too far away either, from what I've read in some of the professional journals (in electrical engineering) that I get.

 

[Relique du Madde]

Personally, I think this discussion should not be limited to one propriety gimmick device. It should be about what tablet computers will bring to gaming. Though honestly, I don't see what they bring to gaming that Laptops and webbooks don't already offer (with or without touch screen monitors).

 

[Janx]

well, I might as well give away an idea here, maybe an ipod dev will pick it up, and someone may have some enhancements to it.

I'll call the iPhone,iPad,iPod Touch as iTouch. It could be any device with the basic "internet anywhere and very portable" product.

Consider LARPing.

Each player carries an iTouch

When they get close to each other, they can interact, game-wise

the UI would let them fight, heal, cast spells against each other, track their in-game stats


Existing products that have elements of this:
Loopt, Google Lattitude has friend tracking via GPS
Parallel Kingdom has a virtual world overlaying our real world, via GPS and google Maps
there's a gun app that actually identifies targets by shirt color via the camera, and lets you play 'tag' with others

 

[Janx]

some add-ons to the "LARP" idea, was that it could run in a couple different modes, perhaps tied to specific game sessions.

One mode was fast, where like the hitman/gunman/assassin game it was meant to be fast paced. Presumably run like a shooter

Another mode, more appropriate for a convention would be slow paced (you want to minimize running and other dangerous laser-tag behavior in a crowded convention hall/hotel/college campus building, this would run more like an RPG

Another mode would be where it would translate your location or "what's on screen" to some in-game threat or opportunity. Thus, you and your friends could wander around fighting orcs and dragons while walking your dog in a park.

Bear in mind, the GPSr on cellular devices is not that accurate. Full fledged GPSr are only accurate to 30 feet. So you're not going to get precision, just proximity.

Also worthy of note, HTML /HTTP protocols for mobile devices has been extended such that your GPS location can be sent back to the server via the web page. Google Lattitude works this way on iPhone (it is not a true application, as it is on BlackBerry).


I'd expect a simple combat resolution system. d20's mechanics are probably good enough. Some healing and magic system that would work well with hitting single opponents, and having effects have a duration in minutes. I'd be wary of "area of effect" stuff, because the GPS isn't that accurate. I'm assuming people playing together or against would be standing fairly close, talking while they played (presumably like a pokemon duel on gameboy).

Parallel Kingdom already has aspects of this, though you are contrained to their game mechanic and their single game world. Which operates at a higher map scale, allowing you to wander on the game map for several blocks, without having to physicall move.

I'm not interested in making people have to go to physical places just to meet up, so much as turning a physical place that you happen to be at into a game space

 

[darjr]

I remember playing 'guns' as a kid. A larp of us playing hide n seek and pretending to shoot up. Always ended in arguments of who shot who. Killer rules helped but was a bit... messy some times.

An app to manage that on my phone would be very cool.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Personally, I think this discussion should not be limited to one propriety gimmick device. It should be about what tablet computers will bring to gaming. Though honestly, I don't see what they bring to gaming that Laptops and webbooks don't already offer (with or without touch screen monitors).

There is one thing that a tablet (not necessarily just the iPad) does not bring to the table that a laptop does: a vertical monitor and larger footprint.

I'm all for gadgets at the table. I'm Mr. Projector for Christ's sakes. But the reason I LIKE the projector is because it is not intrusive. It is technology which unites the players - it does not divide them.

When a DM uses a laptop instead of a DM screen, I'm okay with that, but only as it does not introduce a "new" barrier we have not had to live with in the past. Ideally - I'd rather that barrier wasn't there at all, either.

But the more players use laptops at the table, the less I like them. They take up space on the table, with wires everywhere, and above all: create a physcial barrier between the player and the centre of the table where the mini/projected map is and divide the players from one another.

I don't like that. I want people sitting up and playing without barriers between them or their minis. I want everyone focussed and facing one another and ENGAGED in a tabletop RPG.

A laptop screen interferes with that ideal in a way that a tablet which lies flat on the table like a PHB does not.

Added functionality over a laptop? Perhaps not. But more convenient form factor with tangible and real beneifts in terms of social interaction at the gaming table? Yes. I think so.

 

[Janx]

I remember playing 'guns' as a kid. A larp of us playing hide n seek and pretending to shoot up. Always ended in arguments of who shot who. Killer rules helped but was a bit... messy some times.

An app to manage that on my phone would be very cool.

Killer would be another mode. I got that game after college, no chance to use it...

Another inspiration for this, is GeoHack. The concept was based on GeoCaching, you'd go to a cache, open it, and find GeoHack cards that indicate the monster present and the treasure card. You'd fight the monster, then take the treasure. it all relied on scout's honor, and the cards not getting wet in the woods.

If instead, I can travel to a location, turn on the itouch, and PLACE a game treasure or game threat, I can use an existing locale as the game space, for my friends to experience later.

Basically, transform an area in a LARP game space.