The iPhone Will Kill D&D

[JoeGKushner]

Thought I'd post this bit as something to "toss out there." On the old Necromancer boards, Clark was talking about how he'd like his daughter to play D&D as it is today (i.e. pen/paper).

But here's the thing... and I could be completely smoking the deep stuff.

D&D will not survive as a table top RPG.

It won't.

Now I'm not saying it'll go away or even become an online MMO.

But things like iPhone, Sony's eReader, Amazon's Kindle, and other phones will get to the point, along with software companies using the internet as the OS, where people will be using the DDI online from their phone, rolling their dice from their phone, and updating their characters in real time action, from their phone.

Not in the next five years or anything but ten? Twenty?

When you take the math away from the actual sitting of the rules and don't have to keep track of all the crazy stuff that players can do and how it impacts with everything around them, then yeah, the MMO experience of the rules being fully in the background will be realized.

And this was before the whole WoTC PDF thing happened.

Opinions?

 

[Mark]

My regular group games with four or five laptops on the tabletop, and a battlemat and minis and scenery and many other things. One player has an iPhone with a dice app we use for really big numbers of dice, like his 17th-level wizard's meteor swarm.

 

[JoeGKushner]

My regular group games with four or five laptops on the tabletop, and a battlemat and minis and scenery and many other things. One player has an iPhone with a dice app we use for really big numbers of dice, like his 17th-level wizard's meteor swarm.

That's the biggest stumbling block to my theory.

The minis and terrain. Still, as Microsoft continues to come out with big old toys that are table sized and touch screen... that too may change.

 

[Nightson]

Well, extrapolate out far enough and paper will cease to be a widespread medium, but that's still probably a ways off (depending on how exponential technological change in areas is), and more importantly, how long it takes for those technological changes to become cheap. Paper has a lot of advantages, it'll last for awhile longer.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

I think Mark has it roughly where the future of gaming is.

I play extensively online compared to real life gaming, but I vastly perfer the real life gaming, as does everyone I know. Online gaming is what people do when they can't game in real life. There's just too much you can do in real life that you won't be able to do online, and real life games are always smoother and faster moving.

The toys we bring to the table will be different, but the table will still be there.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I think Mark has it roughly where the future of gaming is.

I play extensively online compared to real life gaming, but I vastly perfer the real life gaming, as does everyone I know. Online gaming is what people do when they can't game in real life. There's just too much you can do in real life that you won't be able to do online, and real life games are always smoother and faster moving.

The toys we bring to the table will be different, but the table will still be there.

But will the books?

If you and five buddies have iPhone tyle devices and each one can 'link' via bluetooth/wi-fi/etc... to each other... do you really need to have a book to let you know what your powers are? Do you need counters to let you know to use an action point? Second Wind? That you're weakened?

 

[Tinker Gnome]

I do not know about the rest of you, but I like playing TTRPGs because they do not require anything electronic to play. At least electronic stuff is not absoluetely necessary. I love my computer, but I also just like sitting at a table with some books, a battlemat, and minis and not have to worry about anything electronic. Electricty goes out? Then break out the candles.

Yeah I know Laptops and iPhones have battery power, but it is still nice not to have to worry about how much power you have left if your electricity were to go out.

I am not really sure if I addressed the OPs question.

Well, in the end, I just like books and minis.

 

[fissionessence]

When you take the math away from the actual sitting of the rules and don't have to keep track of all the crazy stuff that players can do and how it impacts with everything around them, then yeah, the MMO experience of the rules being fully in the background will be realized.

Forgive the blasphemy, but a tabletop 'pen & paper' RPG with intense mechanics based on powerful and complicated algorithms sounds very intriguing.

Now find a way to simulate a fast-paced non-turn-based combat system and you can combine the raw power of MMO game mechanics with the vast creativity and expandability of traditional RPGs.

~

 

[kenmarable]

But will the books?

If you and five buddies have iPhone tyle devices and each one can 'link' via bluetooth/wi-fi/etc... to each other... do you really need to have a book to let you know what your powers are? Do you need counters to let you know to use an action point? Second Wind? That you're weakened?

I agree with this - books are an outdated technology. In most arenas, they will disappear. Something as reference heavy as RPGs will certainly not be book based within our lifetimes if they are to thrive.

However, I disagree strongly with the thread title. Having so much of the rules and math automated as well as so many rules well-organized at your fingertips, I think it will actually lead to an increase in D&D and RPGs in general.

Increase the technological aspects of tabletop play and you can largely get the best of both worlds between tabletop and MMO. Important thing is whether tabletop will be able to incorporate the technology before the MMO's incorporate near DM-level AI. I'm thinking the tabletop industry has the advantage there of less distance to travel, they just need the will to do it.

 

[Morrus]

Nah, the phone's too small. Even the dice app I abandoned because real dice were more convenient. A character sheet on an iPhone would be horribly fiddly - either a million pages, or you'd be zoomed in scrolling all over the place on fewer big pages.