GoblinStop

The Apple iPad debuted yesterday to mixed reactions.  While many championed its HD-ready touch screen, feather-weight sleek design, and decidedly reasonable price, much criticism was made claiming that the device is more of an iPhone than a Mac.  Regardless of what my overall opinion of the device is, I had to ask the important question: What can the iPad do for D&D players?

Some fantastic D&D iPhone apps already exist, and have been written about extensively on the web (check out this blog post at DorkandBeans.com for a few great suggestions).  However, most of these apps are designed for use by individuals at a gaming table, and rightfully so; character managing apps can only display one player’s character at a time, and it would be annoying to pass around something as small as an iPhone so everyone could roll their dice on it.  But I think that with the iPad, we will begin to see apps designed around communal use. 

With almost 10 inches of touch screen, so many different possibilities open up.  An app could be developed to use it as a miniatures surface, displaying pre-rendered dungeon tiles for smaller rooms.  DM’s would no longer have to print large poster-sized dungeon rooms, or waste time drawing details onto a dry-erase grid.  A prototype of a program like this was shown in the Microsoft Surface D&D video, but that setup and technology looked super expensive to replicate.  The iPad could make this technology accessible, practical, and somewhat economical.

An app could also be developed to manage the party’s collective inventory, so that items could be removed or added in real time, in front of everyone, instead of forcing one player to keep a micromanaged running tally of what’s in the Bag of Holding.  This would make it a lot easier to keep track of exactly how many potions of healing are left. 

There really is a huge realm of possibility surrounding the tabletop gaming uses of the new Apple iPad.  Do you think we will ever see apps like this developed for the device?  What other ways do you think the iPad could alter the way a group plays D&D?

In my many years as a DM, one of the biggest hurdles I have encountered is a lack of focus on the game, which can stem from any number of causes.  Players sometimes have to arrive at different times, they’ve just come from busy days at work or school, they all want to talk about their Dragon Age: Origins characters or something funny they saw on 4Chan (gag!).  Everybody is glad to be with their friends and understandably wants to chat it up.  There is nothing wrong with this.  However, at some point, everybody needs to reach a consensual focus and start playing the game.

I have seen a lack of focus kill many game sessions.  If you are unable to grab your players’ attention even before the game starts, you will notice your session failing pretty quickly.  Joe will start checking his email on his BlackBerry.  Amanda will text her boyfriend every 3 minutes…THE WHOLE NIGHT.  Robert will pull out his Nintendo DS for some Tetris even though he “swears he’s paying attention.”  Aaron will flip through his sourcebooks making level-up plans during an important encounter.  You will see your entire game session disintegrate in front of you.  So what’s a DM to do?

The key is to do something communication-heavy that everyone must take part in together.

Have dinner together.  Having the whole group share a meal around a table immediately prior to the game encourages everyone to engage each other face to face and focus on a single topic at a time.  Plus everyone likes to eat with their friends.

Play a short board/card game.  Anything under an hour and that requires fairly intense focus will do the trick.  I highly recommend Settlers of Catan, because similar to D&D it has the players cooperating for the greater good while at the same time serving their private motives, which will get them into the correct mindset for D&D.  Tsuro, a Japanese tile game, is also great, because it really forces you to look at both the immediate consequences of your actions, and their possible long term effects as well.

The point is to get everyone into the Game Night frame of mind, which can be difficult without some kind of primer activity.  Whatever you do to foster this focus, it needs to require a lot of attention, and put the players in close physical proximity to one another. 

What tricks do you use to get your gaming group focused on the game?

You’ve been in this scenario before.

You’re at work on Monday morning after an awesome all-day gaming session yesterday.  You head to the coffee machine and your boss greets you while he finishes putting cream and sugar in his little Styrofoam cup.  “So what’d you do this weekend?” he asks.  Uh-oh.  None of your coworkers knows you play D&D, and you don’t want to lie.  Do you brush it off with a witty retort, or do you tell your boss that you spent the day gaming with your buddies?

As acceptable as Dungeons and Dragons has become as a somewhat mainstream pop culture icon in the last decade or so, the fact remains that there are a lot of people who still view the game as some creepy, anti-social fringe hobby that is only played by awkward, comic-convention-attending Star Trek fans living in their parents’ basements.  Unfortunately, many of these people are your bosses, family members, clients, pastors, and others in positions of relative power with whom you want to remain in good standing.  At what point, if ever, should you let these people know about your pastime?

I’ll admit to not telling people right off the bat.  Until I began writing this blog, I usually waited at least a few weeks to even mention it, and even then, it really depended upon the person in question.  Here’s my reasoning:

Because of common preconceived notions about D&D perpetuated by the media over the last few decades, I want to ensure that people I meet get an accurate idea of who I am as a person before I share that information.  I want them to see that I am a pretty cool guy, that I am fairly responsible and industrious, and that I am outgoing and conversational.  Letting someone get to know you reasonably well will help prevent unwarranted comparisons to Screech, or the cast of Freaks and Geeks. 

I certainly would not recommend actively hiding your gamer status or lying about it.  I just think there is no reason to mention it too early if nobody asks.  So what are your thoughts?  Do you shout it from the rooftops?  Do you actively try to keep it secret?  I’m interested in other opinions.

Let me start off by saying that I realize that this video is a tech demo for Microsoft Surface’s gaming applications, and that this program is not necessarily under development for the consumer market.  Now watch this video.  WARNING: Have a change of pants nearby!  Yours might become soiled.

 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-BTwHAEECs&hl=en&fs=1&]

When I see this video I get super giddy with excitement. 

And not just at the pretty animations and Minority Report-esque menu control.  I, as a lover of the art of DMing, get crazy excited about the game-enhancing capabilities of such a setup.  Or maybe I should say game-streamlining capabilities.  Either way, I know what I mean.

No more waiting for players to sit there figuring out what the range on their powers is.  No more triple-tracing my monsters steps to make sure they successfully avoid all hazards and opportunity attacks.  Players can see all regular options for movement, powers, magic items, skills, etc. right there on their gorgeous little touch screen menu wheel. 

And not to mention the incredible possibilities for downloadable published adventures: professional quality audio narration, video and artwork with background music to introduce NPC’s and set the tone and mood, and dungeon grids from which the DM can hide details and reveal them at his discretion.  Supplemental functions would be limited by the imaginations of the programmers.

And that’s where the giddiness stops.

When I see all this fantastic technology melding with the realms of RPG’s, from MMO games, to real-time Twitter campaigns, to playing D&D online through the Insider, I can’t help but wonder if all this is actually stunting our imaginations a bit.  Occasionally it feels a little like these various tools and programs are giving us less incentive to think outside the box, simply because they make thinking inside the box so much easier. 

Technology like this raises questions.  How will house rules be incorporated?  To what extent will the applications support user-generated content, like monsters, paragon paths, and magic items?  Will the DM have the option to override the programming to bend the rules a bit in certain situations?  For a moment, I get a little concerned about things like this.

Then I go back to squealing with glee.  Thoughts?  Opinions?

So you play in a regular D&D game, and you love it, and you’re also a bit web savvy.   So here’s the big thought you might be thinking: “Should I start a website for my D&D group/campaign setting?”  Your motivations and preparation will largely affect the success of your venture.  Without thinking too carefully about the who’s, what’s, and why’s of your site, you may find your traffic as low as a kobold’s bite mark.

If you’ve ever done a Google search for anything D&D-related, you’ve undoubtedly come across a website dedicated to someone’s D&D campaign setting.  Oftentimes, these are full of maps of overland terrain and dungeons, statistics sheets and biographies for any number of non-player characters, and pages of site descriptions and historical information for major locales in the world.  The things that separate a successful campaign site from a failure are a focused demographic, good presentation, and diligent marketing efforts.

Here are a few questions you should ask yourself before deciding to spend your valuable time and energy (and even money) on a D&D-related website:

1.       What type(s) of content will I share?  Do you want to share geographic and flavor information specific to your campaign?  If so, make sure your materials are well organized and at least of decent quality.  Any world/dungeon maps should be clearly comprehensible, with features all labeled in legible, clean handwriting.  Color maps help, although not always necessary.  NPC descriptions should be free of statistics errors.  Or perhaps you want to provide a running blog of your party’s adventures, or even of your group’s experiences in a metagame context.  Remember that this requires regular updates and a bit of guerilla social marketing if you want to build traffic.  Consider offering a podcast of your game sessions available for free download.

2.       Who do I want to visit my site?  Figuring out your target demographic will help you decide how to present your content, as well as what level of depth and complexity to aim for.  15-22 year old boys who just found out about D&D 4^th Ed. from a guildmate on World of Warcraft are going to respond better to different diction, media forms, and setting styles than will 35-45 year old men who have been playing since the days of Advanced D&D 1^st Edition.

3.       What is the clear purpose of my site, and how will I market it?  If your site is just an information hub for your players to use internally, your job is easy; since you don’t care much if anyone outside the immediate group uses the site, you really don’t have to do any marketing at all.  However, if you are looking to build up an excited user base for your campaign world, and eventually publish and sell it, you will have to generate some buzz.  Join message boards, link to other D&D sites you enjoy, and some will return the favor with links to you (as long as your content is up to snuff).  Even join social bookmarking sites like Digg or Delicious, make sure you bookmark lots of interesting related-content, and occasionally bookmark something on your own site.  There is nothing wrong with this as long as you are participating in the dialogue in other ways as well.

What other tips would you give someone wanting to start a D&D or gaming website?  Disagree with any of these?