D&D Next

[nylanfs]

I bet their license will still exclude electronic tools like the GSL did.

[talsharien]

Originally Posted by lifer4700

I have to admit I'd gotten pretty spoiled by HeroLab while playing Pathfinder.

Not just creating the character, but being able to search for words in the description of feats is a huge benefit. "Which feats deal with sneak attack," you ask? No problem, bring up the feat list, and type sneak attack in the box. Instantly, there's your answer... from a list of nearly 1000 feats from dozens of source books. Spells too.

But aside from that "modern" functionality, I've always liked having a neatly printed character sheet that I could reproduce quickly in case of spill, pet attack, or other emergency. Even back to the days of listening to the high-pitched buzz of my 9-pin dox-matrix printer attached to my Apple ][e.

Having to go back to a hand-written character sheet when 5th Edition came out was quite the trip down nostalgia avenue, and it surprised me that creating a character by hand for even a system so simple as 5e still took almost an hour of reading, writing, cross-referencing, erasing, re-writing, etc.

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have my hands on MagicSN's work!

Especially because of Realm Works.


C'Mon, WotC, don't force us to use YOUR pencils and paper to write our sheets! If your solution is worthwhile, people will use it - but let others have a go also.

You have summed up my own thoughts exactly, it just makes things so much easier to GM

[Dervish]

Talsharien I don't they are suck ups. I think they are gamers just like you and me. they prefer to keep the technology away from the table so its not about who has what tech and more about interactions between players. I say this because I know of group where everyone in it save one person has either a laptop or tablet and invariably one of the guys is salways playing wow barely paying attention. This behavior almost caused my gm to ban all tech at the table because it can be disruptive and he looked at me while saying it.

However our entire group talked him down and i showed him what i was doing while he ran the game. I showed him Herolab, Realmworks, CC3, Fractal mapper and some of the stuff i was working on by way of explaining to him that if i jump on my laptop its because i got an idea and had to flesh it out while its in my mind.

That being said people need to realize that gaming has left the table Fantasy grounds II, D20pro, Maptool ,Screenmonkey, anmd soon Realmworks all allow a group that has had to break up because people moved or were deployed over seas to get together and game combine that with Skype or whatever VOIP you might want to use and its like you really are around the table.

[EberronKnight]

Originally Posted by MagicSN

Big news: mike mearls said in a q&a they have a ogl-like license in the works (i read it on enworld.org, title page). It would still take some months though. If they do a fitting license i will release the 5e datafiles.

Thanks for posting the screenshot link btw

MagicSN

This is big news! I will have to cross fingers tighter!

EK

[talsharien]

Originally Posted by Dervish

Talsharien I don't they are suck ups. I think they are gamers just like you and me. they prefer to keep the technology away from the table so its not about who has what tech and more about interactions between players. I say this because I know of group where everyone in it save one person has either a laptop or tablet and invariably one of the guys is salways playing wow barely paying attention. This behavior almost caused my gm to ban all tech at the table because it can be disruptive and he looked at me while saying it.

However our entire group talked him down and i showed him what i was doing while he ran the game. I showed him Herolab, Realmworks, CC3, Fractal mapper and some of the stuff i was working on by way of explaining to him that if i jump on my laptop its because i got an idea and had to flesh it out while its in my mind.

That being said people need to realize that gaming has left the table Fantasy grounds II, D20pro, Maptool ,Screenmonkey, anmd soon Realmworks all allow a group that has had to break up because people moved or were deployed over seas to get together and game combine that with Skype or whatever VOIP you might want to use and its like you really are around the table.

To be fair my words where possibly to harsh, the frustration I think is that while their are people talking down digital support it makes Wizards less likely to make a decision. I have been Gamesmastering for nearly 30 years and have only got into digital tools for the last 5 or 6. The example that you give has happened to me during a PF session (a player streaming cricket). It is extremely frustrating and I asked the player to leave the session if he could not pay attention. What they struggle to realise over at Wizards is that Digital tools enhance and not hinder gaming. I use voice emulators for demon voices and pre-prepared recordings for lengthy dialogue. All of these things were impossible several years ago.

Lets hope that they can pull their fingers out so that I can utilise RW and HL to the best effect.

[lifer4700]

As a long-time DM and player, in a group of long-time players (several of whom also DM), we DMs have found one way to help curb the table-side distractions, and encourage paying attention, even if it's not currently your "turn".

Any time the DM finishes with one player and asks the next player what they're going to do and their response is, "So... what's going on?" The DM simply says, "Ok, your character spends the next few seconds (or minutes, if out of combat) looking around, getting their bearings." And immediately moves on to the next player.

The fist time this technique was used, it garnered a wide-eyed, mouth-agape, palms-up incredulity as the player just realized what happened. They were skipped because they weren't paying attention. Within moments, several commonly offending players put down their phones or half-closed their laptop lids and began listening to the others' interactions with the DM.

Those of us around the table who also take our turns DMing shared a secret look and a smile. We had stumbled upon something! Now, we each use this technique when it's our turn to run a game.

[lifer4700]

I wanted to add an observation to my previous post, but I wanted it to be separate.

Lately, I've been doing remote gaming sessions. And also mixed local & remote sessions where a few are sitting at the table with me, and a few are remote.

For my VTT, I used to use MapTool, but because of the absurdity of Java install and security issues, I've moved to Roll20 (zero install, hooray! Use it on a tablet, hooray!).

The problem is that sometimes I find it hard to know whether or not a "quiet" remote person is just patiently observing or if they're watching a DVD, playing WoW, ebaying, look at pr0n, or just plain sleeping.

I think this problem will only get worse, since I've noticed (I'm sure I'm not the only one) that kids have an even shorter attention span these days, and I'm sure it will only get worse. I wonder if there is anyone under the age of 25 that can sit through even a simple 1.5 hour movie and actually watch it? No texts. No snap chat. Not just listening to it while watching vines, only looking up if something sounds interesting.

I wonder...

[MagicSN]

As to "no digital tools at the game table" arguments, I find this quite funny related to Hero Lab. In many cases Hero Lab
does not mean "digital tools at the game table", it just means "printed sheet vs. handwritten sheet". I have used printed
sheets for many many years and do not want to go back to handwritten sheets. The day (still in playtest) I decided
to give 5e a try I started implementing Hero Lab for 5e (back then nothing about WotC Digital Tool Plans was known) to have decent character sheets, still.

I prefer nicely looking char sheets (my handwriting is terrible!), including printed images of my characters (I usually
pay a computer artist to draw my character).

As to digital tools at the gaming tables asides from character generation - when I was gamemastering people noticed encounters
ran much more smoothly since I am using Initiative/Combat trackers. But I use those ONLY for initiative/hp tracking, no virtual
table, no automatic dice rolling, as the atmosphere in the game is important to me. One other of our gamemasters uses an
Excel Sheet (using the laptop screen as GM Screen, rolling real dice behind it), the last of our gamemasters does not use
anything digital and does everything in true pen and paper.

As to the "your character does nothing" if the player does not hurry up. When it's my turn (as a player) I often wait till
the other guys stopped talking (even if it is "my turn"). If I would be punished for this, I would not appreciate it. It is
just not my way to "enforce" that it is my turn right now.

[SmiteWorks]

While I use Fantasy Grounds at the table as a GM and for online games, I also use Hero Lab as a player in all my face-to-face Pathfinder games and for character building. We publicly endorse HeroLab as a tool to use alongside FG. The fact that Lone Wolf has always been friendly to others in the industry is one of the major reasons.

If we were ever to secure a license for D&D Next, you can be sure that we'll be recommending them as well.

[lifer4700]

As long as you are paying attention to what's going on, and I don't have to repeat everything I just said to the player right before you, especially when I probably had to repeat it to them...

When the scene has been laid out and time has been taken to explain everything, it really goes against the flow for the player to ask for me to explain it all over again just for them, then when they're done with their turn, they go right back to having their head buried into whatever else they were doing so they can ask for a special personal explanation again next time.

This is what us DMs were tired of. This is why we started doing what we did. It has worked very well for us.

I have no problem if you want to do other things at the table, just don't distract others, and don't make me repeat everything just for you.


Anyway, with Pathfinder becoming as complex as it has, I used HeroLab as a living character sheet, making heavy use of the InPlay, Adjust, and Condition tabs to do all the +1, -2, +Str*2, etc, etc.

Especially as a DM, having all of the players' sheets in a portfolio and using the Tactical Console is a blessing. It really helps speed the game along, without it, 2 rounds of combat in Pathfinder could take half the gaming session. Thankfully, 5E combat is very simple and quick, even without any electronic tools.