D&D 5E What does this photo say to you? [Project: Morningstar)

[Morrus]

As an example of how it would be used in-game, what is your initial reaction to this image? A group sitting round a table, a battlemap in the middle, each has a tablet rather than a character sheet.

 

[Melkor]

That I am getting too old for this #$%^, since I prefer a paper character sheet and #2 pencil.

 

[Blackwarder]

Welcome to the future!

Warder

 

[Nagol]

Man what a waste of money is my first reaction.

Unless and until there is a use for the tablet that actually uses the capability of the machine, what's the point?

 

[Nagol]

My second reaction is oh great another attention divider

 

[Halivar]

I'm a grog who uses a #2 pencil and a sheet of paper... but that paper is printed by PCGen or DDI Adventure Tools. This is the next step in the evolution. It is inevitable. We can shake our fists and rage impotently against the terrible march of progress, but this is the future of gaming.

 

[TwoSix]

Looks a lot like my current table, honestly.

 

[MartyW]

I use a tablet in my game from time to time, but my players don't at all. Some occasionally have a PDF loaded on a smart phone, but that's more the exception than the rule. We do use tools like Character Builder, but for us the tools are an "out of game" phenomena.

On the other hand, the younger generation has grown up with hand held media of multiple varieties. At some point, tablets will truly be ubiquitous and the generation who is used to "there's an app for that" will likely adopt this kind of play without batting an eye.

For the future of the hobby, this will not be considered a "feature" but more a "requirement" going forward. We old guys will still use pencils and college rule paper.


EDIT: One last note... My iPad always seems to sleep at the most inopportune moments. That is one checkmark in the Pro column for paper.

 

[the Jester]

I find devices at the table somewhat distracting, and find that most players end up with their focus split because of them.

I'm looking forward to a "no devices allowed" rule for 5e- use them before play if you must, but print that stuff out on paper.

 

[Talath]

I use a kindle for rule book stuff, I guess isn't much of a stretch to use it for character management. Looks like they're having a good time doing what they're doing.