I just want a dynamic character sheet. Everyone has a tablet with their character sheet. GM can "message" players from his laptop if he wants to give a player a piece of secret information.
That alone would revolutionize most tabletop games.
I just want a dynamic character sheet. Everyone has a tablet with their character sheet. GM can "message" players from his laptop if he wants to give a player a piece of secret information.
That alone would revolutionize most tabletop games.
I just want a dynamic character sheet. Everyone has a tablet with their character sheet. GM can "message" players from his laptop if he wants to give a player a piece of secret information.
That alone would revolutionize most tabletop games.
Make it, or shit-talk.
It's not shit-talk to say you want something. It's shit-talk to say you'll make said thing. I didn't say I'd make it.
I just want a dynamic character sheet. Everyone has a tablet with their character sheet. GM can "message" players from his laptop if he wants to give a player a piece of secret information.
That alone would revolutionize most tabletop games.
As someone who mostly plays thief-y characters, I could dig being able to message the GM every time I need to do a quick roll to pickpocket someone or do something stealthy. It would definitely beat the "I want to do interesting thing X" and having the rest of the table yell out "NO!" and my impulsive decision sparking 10 minutes of conversation...
And yes, I know I took it too far in the conversation. I was really just being goofy and overly tech-centric when I made the suggestions, but I realized shit had gotten real after the Zork response...
I'm hoping to get my friends together this weekend to christen the geek chic table I'm receiving with a good day of tabletop RPGing. Hopefully one of my friends from Charlotte will join in via Skype so he can play. I'm setting up a webcam to display the table, and am planning on sending him a character sheet to print out and use.
Eh. I'll sign up for the play-test. I've been enjoying playing Pathfinder, and I think other RPGs have all surpassed D&D, but if they can get away from the ridiculous broken-ness of 4th edition D&D, then...Yeah.
This does seem bizarre to me. They are using Paizo's methods of listening to the hardcore geeks and giving them what they want, but their number one goal for D&D "5" is to make it a system that can appeal to the casual player and scaffold up to the hardcore when necessary. It sounds like they're just throwing ideas at the wall.
Everything I read sounds vetted by the marketing department. I will start paying more attention when they actually start writing about actual rules, content, and design. Admittedly, I'm already sure I'll buy and play-test any new edition, so they'll get some of my monies.
I would have enjoyed 4th ed more if it didn't have the minnies they really put a dampener on the whole thing. That and more of a role-play element, it really felt that it was a WoW group.
While I could go into extreme detail about the weaknesses of 4e, I also can go into similar detail about the strengths. I am always the devil's advocate in the edition wars. And that people fight so vehemently about such things is extraordinarily silly in and of itself.
The way to win me as a buyer is with an open game license, solid electronic tools (where it can be used to increase my productivity because my time is limited), and well written and designed but modular content (be it adventures, expansions, settings, options, etc). Those are the things I appreciate most. With the exception of the open game license, I think those are things everyone likes to have. The open game license is important to me because I know that no single publisher can build everything I want, and other people always have good ideas to source, so I appreciate the extra variety of products and services.
But which of the designers will have to take up the "Pretentious, condescending, supercilious arrogant pillock" role? I mean, it's not like they can just HIRE Luke Crane...
The way to win me as a buyer is with an open game license, solid electronic tools (where it can be used to increase my productivity because my time is limited), and well written and designed but modular content (be it adventures, expansions, settings, options, etc).
You're never going to get the open product license. But as for your other two points, their electronic tools are okay, but they could certainly stand improvement. They already do an okay job of the latter, but there are a lot of areas they need to improve in regards to it, especially on the "Well written" bit.
You're never going to get the open product license.
It was one of the selling points of 3e. While I think it's unlikely that Hasbro will allow the same degree of freedom, I still happen to think it's whats best for the game as a whole. I consider it unlikely, but possible. They did have a license for 4e, it was just prohibitively restrictive. A compromise between the two seems within reason.
But as for your other two points, their electronic tools are okay, but they could certainly stand improvement. They already do an okay job of the latter, but there are a lot of areas they need to improve in regards to it, especially on the "Well written" bit.
The electronic tools "were" okay. Then they moved my cheese. It's interesting that 3rd party Pathfinder software provides me with a better experience than the 1st party D&DI ever did.
"Well written" is obviously incredibly subjective, but at the very least I can point out that their module series is written like a booklet of encounters. Which, if that's what I was buying, they might stand on their own. However, as something to potentially source for a campaign, it shows where the focus of design and development was at the time... and while valid, it was largely of no use to me.
Obviously I'm more of the home-brew GM in all games, but as I get older and my time gets more and more expensive, I really do appreciate it when a publisher takes the time to create product that I can source to save some time or if I'm lucky happen upon even better ideas than I've ever had.
Similarly, this is why I liked the old print versions of Dungeon magazine. While the wheat to chaff ratio was unpredictable, I still go back to those sometimes and pull just one or two little pieces out for a game because they were interesting and it might save me an hour of prep work. Resources, not restrictions. But the digital version of the magazines I found less utility and more prescription... not to mention I'm lucky enough to have had twenty years experience running games so I often was not the target audience for the advice being dolled out.
Is he that much of a prat? I've never listened to or read anything he's produced outside of actual rulebooks and game material.
He's been on geeknights once or twice, and both times, he's just come off as a complete wanker. Maybe he's better in person, but I can't stand to listen to him in any form I've seen him so far.
The electronic tools "were" okay. Then they moved my cheese. It's interesting that 3rd party Pathfinder software provides me with a better experience than the 1st party D&DI ever did.
I know everyone on these forums seems to pooh-poohs Dungeons and Dragons, but ignoring that for the moment, what would you like to see in the Fifth edition?
Going to run an all-night game of Dragon Age in about two weeks. Should be pretty awesome. I intend to build a little sandbox territory that blends a little bit of the human noble openning, mages tower, and Redcliffe storylines. Maybe with a single werewolf thrown in. And a dragon of some kind possibly... but I'm not decided on that.
I know everyone on these forums seems to pooh-poohs Dungeons and Dragons, but ignoring that for the moment, what would you like to see in the Fifth edition?
-Acknowledge the deep blue ocean of potential buyers, not unlike what Nintendo did (without the fail). And yes, that means no more goddamn chainmail bikinis!
-Embrace the electronic market and avoid print as much as possible - make the "core ruleset" completely free in multiple formats (e-readers, pdf's, standalone apps). Yes, you can still nickle and dime your players, but don't make anything mandatory (like miniatures) and don't pull some stupid garbage like sell people booster packs of random monsters!
-Understand that Gygax made something more profound and more unique than just a board game. Not even D&D fans can agree on why they enjoy D&D. That's a beautiful thing from a design perspective, and an absolute nightmare for business, marketing, and development.
Personally, I would embrace this diversity by making rules customizable and interchangeable. For example, you could have vanilla character rolling using some D6's, or the DM could spend a dollar or two to buy the lifepaths snippet, a way to make more unique characters based on a certain unique storytelling system. Offer snippets for every aspect of the game - combat, world building, skill tests, crafting, and let DM's design games that appeal to their gamers tastes. When the rules are finalized, it is distributed to the players in some electronic format.
For the programmers out there, almost think of it as object oriented game design - different rules are introduced/swapped out, but everything still interacts like one well-designed machine.
Get rid of the minnies and boost some of the role-play elements would suit me. I enjoyed the game and had fun playing it. The problem was that I met to many people who only saw a class not a character, a class which they then sought to brake and to game the system. I guess that might just be a thing that people do in games but its a real pain the in the arse.
Also something that makes it interesting for a warrior to do more than just "shied bash" or the rouges "sly flourish". I know its asking a lot but eventually you end up with mages having dick lazer's and warrior other melee characters stilling very still in very heavy armour whist the cock'o'saurus Rex lets loose with a stream of hot mage love.
... embrace this diversity by making rules customizable and interchangeable. For example, you could have vanilla character rolling using some D6's, or the DM could spend a dollar or two to buy the lifepaths snippet, a way to make more unique characters based on a certain unique storytelling system. Offer snippets for every aspect of the game - combat, world building, skill tests, crafting, and let DM's design games that appeal to their gamers tastes. When the rules are finalized, it is distributed to the players in some electronic format.
For the programmers out there, almost think of it as object oriented game design - different rules are introduced/swapped out, but everything still interacts like one well-designed machine.
Personally, I think this is a terrible idea. There are already genericized, extensible role playing games. The strength of a constrained, collaborative role playing/storytelling system is in its specific limitations. Trying to make modules for every little aspect and build a game out is the game designer's job, not the players' collective job. You play a particular system for (hopefully) a reason.
D&D's strength was that it was a standard system you could rely on all of your potential players knowing. When someone asks you "want to play D&D?", you ask at most "what edition?" Muddy this up not just with silly extensions but outright modular rulesets, and you destroy one of D&D's few advantages.
I never liked the duel specking that cropped up. I could under stand say someone having some points in a rouge when they were a ranger but a fucking mage-warrior cross was bullshit and chips.
If anyone has used online tools for maps and whatnot, could I get a recommendation? I'm having a friend join us via Skype this weekend and I want to be able to have him be as big a part of it as possible.
Right now, I'm planning on setting up a webcam/mic so he can see us and talk to us, but don't have anything else set up.
I also need to come up with a one-shot Star Wars: Saga Edition adventure that should take about 3 hours to run through, for 3 people... but I can figure that one out pretty quick.
I just want a dynamic character sheet. Everyone has a tablet with their character sheet. GM can "message" players from his laptop if he wants to give a player a piece of secret information.
That alone would revolutionize most tabletop games.
I missed this comment somehow, but I've been saying this since the first time I role-played. A web app for this sort of thing wouldn't be difficult, but I assume people would only bother if it were an actual app, right? Cross-device compatibility is an issue, as every player needs to have the device.
One of the one-shot con games I may run this year is an RPG in which the players play characters that are in turn playing characters inside an MMORPG. So-far my initial experiments have been totally awesome, but within the confines of a group I know well and that is open to bizarre ideas. If you've ever read "Ready Player One" you might see some resemblance, though the idea dates back to before I read the book.
The language I use at the moment is that a player (me or you) plays a proxy (the character within the far-off future setting where the economic ephemeralization has pushed them into lives of "farming gold") who in turn has a roster of characters to play.
It has a bit of a paranoia like mechanic in that when your characters get killed, they are permanently dead, but you can just "buy" a replacement off the character market at any given time. So sometimes the game just keeps rolling and rolling until you have a mountain of dead bards.
Comments
That alone would revolutionize most tabletop games.
And yes, I know I took it too far in the conversation. I was really just being goofy and overly tech-centric when I made the suggestions, but I realized shit had gotten real after the Zork response...
The way to win me as a buyer is with an open game license, solid electronic tools (where it can be used to increase my productivity because my time is limited), and well written and designed but modular content (be it adventures, expansions, settings, options, etc). Those are the things I appreciate most. With the exception of the open game license, I think those are things everyone likes to have. The open game license is important to me because I know that no single publisher can build everything I want, and other people always have good ideas to source, so I appreciate the extra variety of products and services.
"Well written" is obviously incredibly subjective, but at the very least I can point out that their module series is written like a booklet of encounters. Which, if that's what I was buying, they might stand on their own. However, as something to potentially source for a campaign, it shows where the focus of design and development was at the time... and while valid, it was largely of no use to me.
Obviously I'm more of the home-brew GM in all games, but as I get older and my time gets more and more expensive, I really do appreciate it when a publisher takes the time to create product that I can source to save some time or if I'm lucky happen upon even better ideas than I've ever had.
Similarly, this is why I liked the old print versions of Dungeon magazine. While the wheat to chaff ratio was unpredictable, I still go back to those sometimes and pull just one or two little pieces out for a game because they were interesting and it might save me an hour of prep work. Resources, not restrictions. But the digital version of the magazines I found less utility and more prescription... not to mention I'm lucky enough to have had twenty years experience running games so I often was not the target audience for the advice being dolled out.
-Embrace the electronic market and avoid print as much as possible - make the "core ruleset" completely free in multiple formats (e-readers, pdf's, standalone apps). Yes, you can still nickle and dime your players, but don't make anything mandatory (like miniatures) and don't pull some stupid garbage like sell people booster packs of random monsters!
-Understand that Gygax made something more profound and more unique than just a board game. Not even D&D fans can agree on why they enjoy D&D. That's a beautiful thing from a design perspective, and an absolute nightmare for business, marketing, and development.
Personally, I would embrace this diversity by making rules customizable and interchangeable. For example, you could have vanilla character rolling using some D6's, or the DM could spend a dollar or two to buy the lifepaths snippet, a way to make more unique characters based on a certain unique storytelling system. Offer snippets for every aspect of the game - combat, world building, skill tests, crafting, and let DM's design games that appeal to their gamers tastes. When the rules are finalized, it is distributed to the players in some electronic format.
For the programmers out there, almost think of it as object oriented game design - different rules are introduced/swapped out, but everything still interacts like one well-designed machine.
Also something that makes it interesting for a warrior to do more than just "shied bash" or the rouges "sly flourish". I know its asking a lot but eventually you end up with mages having dick lazer's and warrior other melee characters stilling very still in very heavy armour whist the cock'o'saurus Rex lets loose with a stream of hot mage love.
D&D's strength was that it was a standard system you could rely on all of your potential players knowing. When someone asks you "want to play D&D?", you ask at most "what edition?" Muddy this up not just with silly extensions but outright modular rulesets, and you destroy one of D&D's few advantages.
Right now, I'm planning on setting up a webcam/mic so he can see us and talk to us, but don't have anything else set up.
I also need to come up with a one-shot Star Wars: Saga Edition adventure that should take about 3 hours to run through, for 3 people... but I can figure that one out pretty quick.
The language I use at the moment is that a player (me or you) plays a proxy (the character within the far-off future setting where the economic ephemeralization has pushed them into lives of "farming gold") who in turn has a roster of characters to play.
It has a bit of a paranoia like mechanic in that when your characters get killed, they are permanently dead, but you can just "buy" a replacement off the character market at any given time. So sometimes the game just keeps rolling and rolling until you have a mountain of dead bards.