The Gaming Den

Everyone sits down, gets out there TrapperKeeper, pulls there fuzzy little bag of dices, and 2-litter of soda. Then, that new guy at the end of the table starts moving around the furniture and bending over trying to find a power outlet to plug in his new Walmart Super Duper 399.99 Laptop. 30 minutes later, he has his character pulled up and we are finally ready to get started.

Does this really bug the shit out of anyone else, or should I start looking into getting a rocking chair and brush up on "Back in my day stories"?

Offer him a printer and tell him to put the PC away.

It's no different than bringing game books ot the table: It's for the GM, the players are there for personal interaction. If everyone has laptops, sure, but it's inappropriate otherwise.

-Crissa

One of my players brings his laptop, but he's usually the first to arrive and has his laptop set up by game time so it is not an issue.

Doesn't bother me at all. As a player or as a DM.

Game On,
fbmf

Wouldn't bother me, as long as I could still see the person's face.

I also don't mind players having game books at the table.

My last group, everyone used laptops extensively. They can be an absolute boon, especally if you don't have an encycopedic memory of conditions, spells, and soforth, and/or would rather carry all your books around in .pdf format than lug around many heavy books*

That said, Laptops can be an endless source of distraction, especally if, as my last group did, you have a wireless network that you let your group use.

If you're a strong GM who knows how to steer your group on topic when they drift too much, or if you trust your group to keep their attention on the game, there is literally no reason to forbid. This can be a tall order however, and so like so many other things, the DM should be free to ban them if they cause too much trouble.

-Desdan

*This is not intended as an endorsement nor a condemnation of piracy, simply that one laptop is more convienent to carry than an increasingly inconveniently large library of books.

If everyone has laptops, you can run a combo IM and face-to-face game that lets you do lots of neat things. No more having to hand out blank notes to everyone but one just to hide that you're telling someone something.

I haven't had good experiences with laptops/computers during our gaming sessions. Most of the time, the players in question are not looking at stuff relevant to game which has resulted in a play-my-character-for-me attitude on at least one player's part.

While I've heard fabulous tales of computers making game easier, I've yet to see any. More often than not, a computer is an excuse to not be organized.

Fighter is in my group, and I can say it does in fact irritate me as well that said player uses a laptop.

However, the fact that it's the player's house we play at, and in fact he allows me to drink his booze, means that I ain't saying shit to him.

Count_Arioch_the_28th at [unixtime wrote:1172261593[/unixtime]]Fighter is in my group, and I can say it does in fact irritate me as well that said player uses a laptop.

However, the fact that it's the player's house we play at, and in fact he allows me to drink his booze, means that I ain't saying shit to him.

Well then, perhaps a small joking admonition to have his laptop plugged in and set up before the game session is in order.

Or you could just get drunk enough that it stops bothering you.

That's not how being drunk works. At least for me.

I've gamed with a guy before that used a laptop. It didn't affect me or the rest of the group as well. However, the guy had it facing away from the rest of the group so that he could interact with the rest of everybody and, well, used it like a character sheet or a rule book - on a reference basis.

If the person has his head hidden behind the laptop screen only paying attention to that alone, then you might have a problem ...

I usually bring my laptop. I have a bunch of stuff on it that I need. I dunno how anyone else feels about it.

Of course, my tendency to fall asleep during the game is probably a bigger concern to the rest of the group...

A funny story.

My brother was helping a new player make a character, and he was using a character-building program. However, he was insisting that they find a printer because

"I don't want to be the asshole with the laptop"

To which my brother replied:

"Yeah, we already got one."

Count_Arioch_the_28th at [unixtime wrote:1172500567[/unixtime]] he was using a character-building program.

Hmm. I could use one of those for my game, since I'm the only one at all familiar with 3.5, does anyone have links to some good ones?

This is one I just ran across. I've never used it (I've got E-Tools), but it seems to be pretty all-encompassing.

http://boards1.wizards.com/leaving.php? ... op_of_form

Oh, that was horrible pww. That guy has a crazy java-script page with tons of images and it's not that encompassing at all. I'm scarred for the next 20 minutes I think, then slowly the images of awfulness will fade away.

I've heard many folks rave about Heroforge (basically a spreadsheet, from what I understand), but never had occasion to use it myself. I usually plot out characters on a spreadsheet I write from scratch.

Upon further investigation (i.e. googled "heroforge" and looked at a couple hits), there are apparently a few different heroforges running about, and umpteen zillion versions of it. Here's links to get you started (the first one is probably all you need).

http://www.nzcomputers.net/heroforge/[b ... dex.php[br]

Meh, to each their own. Heroforge for me looks like spreadsheets/tabs from Hell, and some of those colors in Heroforge blinded me as well. In both cases, you've pretty much got the same argument - you get what you pay for.

I've heard good stuff about Heroforge, but never used it.

I used to use PCGen, but I haven't used it in a couple of years now. So I don't know how good it is any more.

Heroforge is a great little program, and I do use it a lot.

If the DM has 3 flat screens, 7 Keyboards , Live feed from 4 Different DMs giving him advice, & 1 Parrot. That is OK, cause being the DM, it's his job to have every rule at his fingertips. But when a player starts quoting the rules to the DM cause he has every book on .PDF; and the only time he as ever read the books is when he uses the search button for a feat that he saw someone on the WotC Boards. That really burns me up . If you are going to be a rules lawyer, have the dignity to at lease take the time to read the books and maybe give Hasbro alittle more money by buying a real book, before the turn D&D into Clickie Card Game.

I would agree - hopefully the player isn't using the computer just to prove the DM wrong. IMX, when players have used it, it is when a player is trying to help a Dm find a rule that they are wishing to find. It's like when everyone scans their books at once in reference in order to find a rule that is needed at that time during the gaming session - more heads looking for the material usually turns up the information faster.

And, as we all know, if your game session is really DM versus player, then the gaming group probably already has one strike against them.

I'd actually prefer to pack a lappy since lugging around all of my books is bad for my backpack.

And most lappies weigh less than 2 books.

Why do players need books?

-Crissa

Is that a serious question?

Game On,
fbmf

Some players prefer books. There's nothing wrong with that. However, along the same line, some players prefer laptops and there's nothing wrong with that.

After all, except for the booting of the laptop, many of the same things could be said about books. Just like someone could be engrossed with their computer during a gaming session, and player could be reading a rulebook and be completely oblivious to the session. Just like someone could be reading something completely unrelated to D&D on a laptop, a person could be reading a comic book during a gaming session.

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with a laptop - just the behavior some could take part in on the laptop. And, yes, as a DM they should put their foot down when that behavior occurs. However, you could have very similar behavior with rule books as well.