Computers Face To Face games

[Beowulf]

Anyone ever have a good experience in a face to face game where computers were heavily used by some or all as a part of the game?

Ideally I get visions of instant messages flashing from player to player, being logged for all to enjoy later, combate being resolved in 10 minutes with great and exciting visual effects.

Beautifully detailed scenes flashing before players eyes, sound effects and music queing at just the right moment.

In practice I wasted 15 minutes of game time fiddling with my laptop before I closed the cover, put it aside and started gaming.

What are the other experiences out there?

[Old Man]

Back in the old days I used to think gaming in a language lab would be pretty cool.

Having an integrated game with mass laptops kind of requires that everybody have a laptop and some form of connection with the others. Then comes the programming...ick.

[keithcurtis]

I just use mine to handle combat and display game notes. It has become essential for all the GMs. Much better than thumbing through multiple character sheets/notes/timelines. I also access the worldbook often during the game.
I think it would be a distraction to do Instant Messaging during the game, though.

Keith "Have Laptop, will GM" Curtis

[Dynamo]

Thus far, I have used my laptop only as an automated GM screen. I task-switch between a plot screen and a combat screen. The plot screen has links to NPC write-ups and persona summaries, plot flowchart, encounter summaries, graphics I'd like the players to see, and occassional soundbytes. The combat screen has links to frequently used tables, initiative charts, and NPC stat summaries.

I don't think that sufficient additional utility can be had from networking more computers into the system to justify the additional cost and PitA factor.

The only other thing I'd really like to computerize would be prohibitively expensive, combat mapping. I'd really like to have a projection monitor and some software that would let me drag and drop tactical icons and templates onto a custom map. The software is easy; a simple macromedia shockwave program would do the job for any platform, but projection monitors are still couple kilobucks for anything decent.

[Agent X]

They have been mainly an annoyance in the games I have played.

[Jerry A!]

Originally posted by Agent X
They have been mainly an annoyance in the games I have played.

Fanboy advertisement time. I've dragged my laptop with Hero Designer to a few games. It does make my bookkeeping easier. And with the prefabs for the various sourcebooks, it also cuts down on how many books I lug around with me.

I can't recommend it enough for anyone running a Hero-based game.

[Agent X]

Originally posted by Jerry A!
Fanboy advertisement time. I've dragged my laptop with Hero Designer to a few games. It does make my bookkeeping easier. And with the prefabs for the various sourcebooks, it also cuts down on how many books I lug around with me.

I can't recommend it enough for anyone running a Hero-based game.

It's just that the players in my group tend to have "problems" with their laptop and - don't bring a hardcopy of their character for when they can't use their laptop! Grrr! Very annoying.

[Aroooo]

We've managed to achieve the 'paperless' game environment with laptops. Being a network admin, I've got a lot of cabling, hubs, wireless access points, etc. at my house where we do most of our gaming. We use IM for private chats between players or the GM, character sheets are all on a database, combat is run through another database, dice are all computer rolled. Its heaven. Now if only I could get a PDF version of the Hero books, I'd be really happy.

Oh, and last Christmas one of my friends gave me a 4x6 white board. I thought, oh great, what am I going to do with that! But its actually turned out to be great. Its on the wall so everyone can see it, and does not clutter the table. Now I just have to figure out how to get mini's to stick sideways... (isn't it always something )

Aroooo

[Jerry A!]

Originally posted by Agent X
It's just that the players in my group tend to have "problems" with their laptop and - don't bring a hardcopy of their character for when they can't use their laptop! Grrr! Very annoying.

This is where I get lucky that my players are a bunch o' bumbling idiots. I don't trust them. So, I keep copies of all their characters. I also print them out and bring those copies to the games.

It's maybe 5 minutes of extra work on my part but it greatly reduces the chance of fisticuffs.

[MarkusDark]

I am currently reviewing my scripting abilities to creat a lovely PDA companion for Hero games. All I want to create is something that you can input character names, spd's, dex/ego and let it tell you who goes next. The current parameters are:

-Ability to save and load multiple groups into the program (Set A is the PC's Set B is standard Thugs and Set C is the Villian - all can be loaded into one set).

-The distinction between Ego and Dex for mentalists.

-Random determination for tied Dex

Display should include:

Primary Screen for input of data and a Start, Resume and New button

Action Screen with Phase, Dex (or Ego) and character name Next, Back and Main Screen button.

A lovely "Post Phase 12 Recovery" screen after the last Dex on segment 12.

I figure something like this would be invaluable. I had also thought about an automatic damage calculator but besides programming all variables aside, I actually think that players get something out of the actual physical roll, initial glance of "Wow there's alot of 1's/6's" and the buildup as you count the damage.

I know that a real coder of C++ could probably have this done in about two hours - however as my last programming was in Pascal nearly a decade ago, it'll take me a bit longer.

[Aroooo]

Sounds cool! I'd be game for an app like that.

I've got a friend who just started learning how to program a Palm. He says its a pain, but he's trying to convert a big desktop app to PDA app, so he's in a unique boat.

Let me know if you want help testing what you come up with.

Aroooo

[Rage]

I ran a couple of games over ICQ, MSN, etc. Worked well. had a die rollign program etc. it was good

[Chaosliege]

I love the concept, but only for the comunication/orginization part of the game. In reality, it's hard to implement unless the place you game has several computers already networked together. The setup is time consuming(especialy since I'm the only one not using a desktop comp), and we still like to roll our own dice. So for anything other than sorting who goes when, it's more hastle than it's worth.

[JSenecal]

I am currently reviewing my scripting abilities to creat a lovely PDA companion for Hero games. All I want to create is something that you can input character names, spd's, dex/ego and let it tell you who goes next. The current parameters are:

I have a program that does that for the HP 48GX calculator. It includes a hero dice roller, but I usually roll actual dice.

It does not track stats, I tried that and found that paper was faster. It doesn't do the split Dex/Ego because that's not in the rules anymore, but you could enter the character twice.

[Boll Weevil]

Alas, I have a laptop and no gaming group. Pity me.

For about 15 years, I set up my old Texas Instruments 994A computer to run To-Hit and damage rolls in BASIC during our games. It did about everything Herodice does now. I know, to a lot of people, rolling the dice is half the fun but I always hated counting Stun on up to 20 dice and trying to keep the game running. Perhaps if I ever find a gaming group I will forsake high-tech and dust off my trusty TI.