Tablet PCs

[WingOver]

Has anyone used a tablet computer (slate or convertible) at the table during a game? It seems like this type of computer would be much more convenient than using a notebook pc. In fact the DM could get up, walk around the table, reference the tablet, move minis around, and write notes without being stuck in his chair.

Does anyone have any experience with this device? And if so, do you think it would be more convenient than a notebook pc?

 

[herald]

Has anyone used a tablet computer (slate or convertible) at the table during a game? It seems like this type of computer would be much more convenient than using a notebook pc. In fact the DM could get up, walk around the table, reference the tablet, move minis around, and write notes without being stuck in his chair.

Does anyone have any experience with this device? And if so, do you think it would be more convenient than a notebook pc?

My experiance is that they are tow heavy to effectily move around with. Plus there is a glare issue. Not to my taste.

 

[Mercule]

I've played with one at the Franklin-Covey store and it seemed pretty nice. I absolutely hate having a laptop at the table during games (I used to use one and it was not a good tool), but I have the feeling that a tablet PC wouldn't strike me the same way. It'd be like another book at the table.

Now, I'm trying to justify to myself why I should buy a $1700 tablet PC when I could get a better laptop for $1000. I'm thinking that a dedicated D&D computer is going to have to wait until after I get a Cadillac.

 

[WingOver]

I've played with one at the Franklin-Covey store and it seemed pretty nice. I absolutely hate having a laptop at the table during games (I used to use one and it was not a good tool), but I have the feeling that a tablet PC wouldn't strike me the same way. It'd be like another book at the table.

Now, I'm trying to justify to myself why I should buy a $1700 tablet PC when I could get a better laptop for $1000. I'm thinking that a dedicated D&D computer is going to have to wait until after I get a Cadillac.

True... new technology at a premium price. I think the price will drop after it matures a little bit like most pc technology. Currently I use my work-supplied notebook at the table when I DM, but its a little bulky. It seems like the tablet pc would be more natural like a book, like you said. Also they're more appropriate for players to display their character sheets.

With wi-fi the tablet could be more than a dedicated D&D machine... you could browse the internet from the couch and have IM access at your fingertips. One day IM is going to proliferate across all devices. But other than that I admit I can't think of any real advantages tablets have over notebooks. I just think they're darn neat.

Thanks for the feedback! Maybe one day I'll be able to afford one (cheaper than a cadillac anyway).

 

[Mercule]

With wi-fi the tablet could be more than a dedicated D&D machine... you could browse the internet from the couch and have IM access at your fingertips. One day IM is going to proliferate across all devices. But other than that I admit I can't think of any real advantages tablets have over notebooks. I just think they're darn neat.

If you could tell me how well it would work for programming in .NET, I might be a taker. My office is on the third floor of our house and I'm sure my wife would be tickled at the idea of me being somewhere near her while I work. Still, that could be done with a cheaper laptop, rather than a tablet.

If only I could find one noteworthy advantage to the tablet PC that would justify the cost more than "$700 on recreation".

 

[Fulcan]

I used one for a little while

I picked up an older Viewsonic V1000 so that I could have something to browse the net with while wandering around the house (ok really sitting in front of the TV or lying in bed). This was a very early tablet pc that runs Win 2000 because it was out before MS released Windows for the tablet pc.

I was using an HTML version of the SRD and a bunch of PDF's that I had bought as reference. That worked really well. My biggest problem was that I needed something better to act as a character sheet. PCGen was great for generating the character, but for keeping track of things such as hitpoints ,temp enchantment bonuses, easy to get to memorized spell lists, etc. It just didn't work. Plus with only a 800 X 600 resolution it wasn't a friendly space to work with. The Viewsonic was also very noisy (the fan) and warm (too warm to comfortably hold on my lap).

I think a newer tablet and a 'runtime' player sheet could be a great setup. I talked to the PCGen crew about creating a new interface for it. The response was that I should wait till the recode the engine to work with xml datasets because they were going to do a lot of work to make the engine more seperate from GUI and improve the object oriented abstractions. That was about 6 months ago and I just haven't gotten the time to try again.