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Ultimate RPG Gaming Table

Posted by Zonk on from the light-from-above dept.

Nyrath the nearly wise writes "RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons are traditionally played on a tabletop using miniatures. The problem is that the players are only supposed to see those parts of the map that they have explored. Gamemasters are reduced to drawing explored sections of the map on the playing surface with dry-erase markers or using cardboard tiles representing stretches of corridor. Some fellows have an expensive but elegant solution. They map out the playing area in a laptop using software such as Tabletop Mapper, which allows to game master to dynamically hide and reveal sections of the map. The laptop is attached to a 1600 lumen DLP projector mounted on the ceiling and projecting an image of the visible map onto the tabletop. The miniatures can then be moved on a dynamic map. The eye candy factor is vastly increased, gamemaster labor is reduced, and the players have more fun. The elegance is that this is an intuitive enhancement of the traditional gaming experience, instead of an unfamiliar new user interface to be mastered."

5 of 348 comments (clear)

  1. but what about... by eobanb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    a DLP rear-projection system. Doesnt't that make a little more sense, in a way? Then you won't have shadows over everything from people's hands. It'd look a bit better overall anyway.

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    Take off every sig. For great justice.

  2. A better way to do it? by DianeOfTheMoon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wouldn't a better way of doing this (though probably much more expensive) be to mount a projector in the bottom center of the table with a screen, so that reaching across it doesn't blank out the map?

    --
    Problems are like gifts, it's better to give than to receive
  3. Times have changed... by digitalhermit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wow, I remember D&D being an almost pure mind-game. This was back in 1985-90. There were some really good DMs, some who went on to be writers and at least one who went into film production. The most we did was darken the room and clear a spot to throw dice. No lead figurines, no physical maps, just dice and a character sheet. Maybe I'm just being an old fogey, but I think I'd prefer the old way than all these props.

    1. Re:Times have changed... by DerekLyons · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Maybe I'm just being an old fogey, but I think I'd prefer the old way than all these props.
      Those 'props' are the 'old way'. Gamers were using figures and attempting to build various kinds of dedicated tables from very early on.
      Wow, I remember D&D being an almost pure mind-game. This was back in 1985-90.
      By then D&D was an ancient greybeard. Back in the mid-70's, when it started, it was very much a minatures game. By the time I started playing (1979), it has already started the shift to being a game of imagination. (Though /me fondly remembers the old Martian Metals figurine ads on the back of every Dragon.)
  4. Automated table-top gaming by nicophonica · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I'm sure there are people who will make good use of this. But I am reminded of a piece of software that TSR produced in the 80s called the Dungeon Master's Familiar or some such thing. The idea is that you could load the payer's, henchmen, NPC's and monster's statistics into the computer, which would then perform all of the combat dice rolling and computations. How I longed for the program! How I fantasized about how thrilling my games would be when I was freed from the tedium of dice rolling, hit point tallying and round management! How disappointed I was when I actually got the game, lugged my computer to card table where we played and discovered that that the computer actually caused more administrative problems then it solved and worse, became the center of the game, utterly shattering the story-telling element.

    By contrast the best D&D that I played in, I admit to being a fairly mediocre DM, was in a group that played very fast loose with the rules, w/o miniatures, w/o maps. Just you, the DM and your imagination.