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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Keldryn" data-source="post: 5087572" data-attributes="member: 11999">I never want to see D&D change into an entirely electronic format.Part of it is the tradition/nostalgia angle:  I like my shelves full of D&D hardcovers.  I like taking my books camping or on a road trip and being able to play a quick game (okay, haven't done that in years, but still...).  I want to grab a D&D book and read a few pages while sitting on the can.Reading a book always feels different to me than reading off a computer screen.  I hate reading long passages of text off of computer screens.  I like to relax on the couch with my books.  There is something psychologically different about reading a book and experiencing the physical aspect of holding it and turning the pages than looking up something on the computer.  Books have a unique smell too.Another part of it is practical:  I'm a software engineer, and I spend 7-8 hours a day working on the computer (not like the frequent 12-16 hour days that I had to put in as a video game designer, but still long enough).  I suffer from repetitive strain injuries in my arms and back from excessive computer use and eye strain from looking at the screen all day.  I've started spending less time playing video/computer games in my free time so that I can spend more time with social, non-electronic gaming.  I want a hobby where I don't have to spend more time on the computer than I already do.  I can't stand being "plugged in" all of the time, and part of the appeal of D&D is escaping the real world.  Suddenly, it's a lot harder to escape the real world when I'm looking up rules on my computer during the game, when I'm doing most of my adventure prep work on the computer, if I'm using a computer program to manage complex combat encounters in-game, when players are busy reading and responding to text messages during the game, and when players insist on building their characters exclusively with the CB program because writing with pencil on a character sheet is "too much work."  I've had players wanting to just use a laptop computer at the table, with their character loaded up in the character-building program, instead of using a paper character sheet at all (which of course inevitably means that they'll be surfing the web and checking e-mail instead of paying attention).I've been a big computer geek for 25+ years, but I have very strong feelings about keeping all of these electronic "conveniences" out of my game.  Obviously, a lot of people are comfortable with them being part of the game, but I prefer keeping the electronic aspects entirely confined to specific parts of out-of-game prep work involving the creation of:  player handouts, dungeon tiles/cardstock terrain, counters, blank character sheets/adventure logs, maps.  And a lot of that is simply because I can't draw to save my life, and my handwriting is extremely messy.If the D&D rules are ever only available in electronic format, then I'll simply be left behind, content with my archaic physical books.Errata is a bit of a different issue.  With the advent of widespread Internet access (and the fact that a huge section of the D&D audience is pretty tech-savvy), it is very trivial for WOTC to publish regular (and extensive) rules updates. Older editions of (A)D&D were full of errors too, and contained a great number of poorly-explained rules that were in dire need of clarification.  Dragon Magazine published the most important errata and clarifications, although it didn't reach nearly the same size audience as today.  But they did manage to keep the updates to mostly just the essential bits.  I really don't need to see a 3-line entry in a huge file of updates that basically tells me that there should be a "the" in the description of a power.  They're more or less publishing the entire list of corrections/revisions that will be made to the next print run of the books, and that's way more than we need.  The comparisions to updates for WoW and other MMORPGs is apt, and that's precisely where D&D should not go.  Ever.  If a rule is truly broken and has a significant negative effect on play or needs clarification because a large number of players don't understand it, then by all means publish an update.  If an Epic-level monster was printed with an attack that does 3d8+6 damage, but the designers intended it to be 3d8+7, then just leave it alone.  The cognitive friction of having to learn, remember, and incorporate revisions needs to be weighed against how much impact it actually has on the game.</blockquote>

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