-=- I?ve written about gamer etiquette. I?ve also written about electronic devices at the game table as related to etiquette. What I haven?t talked about was how these devices *can* improve the gaming experience when used properly and with courtesy to others.
-=- First, game books can take up lots of space even if each person only has one stack. The longer a game is out the worse this can be. Many games have ten or even more books, games like GURPS 3rd Ed, D&D 3.x/d20 system, Mongoose Traveller, Runequest/Gloranthia, and all the White Wolf ?New World of Darkness? books (core set, Hunter, Vampire, etc). Space can be saved at the table by having all the books you wish as PDFs. Now days you can add your own bookmarks to a PDF, make notes just like writing on a Post-It-Note and slapping it on the page, you can have several books opened at once flipping between them, and all without a single book taking up space on the table.? Now the device can be a laptop, tablet, even smart phone. The GM could use for the monitor & keyboard from his desktop if the game is at their home and the game is held near the computer.
-=- Then there is the GM managing information in the game. Setting notes, the current scenario, a copy of each character sheets, tracking combat/status?/actions etc. Many products have been made over the years specifically to help GMs handle all this info and there is a nice selection of both free and paid software solutions available. Having to switch between programs on a computer versus having to track all that paper is a great time and space saver, letting the GM focus on the game at hand. It also means not having to print out everything the GM needs saving paper and ink/toner.
-=- There is an added benefit of options not effectively available without computers. Sound files for background and events, visuals to help convey a room or place the group just entered, even short videos showing certain monsters in an animated fashion.
-=- One thing some groups do is, if everyone has a laptop and an Ethernet cable, they have a low cost router they all plug into and the GM hosts an ?online? game sing Virtual Table Top software (VTT) like iTabletop, OpenRPG, MapTools etc. They get the benefit of electronically exchanging information, seeing the shared map, sending private messages etc. without cluttering up the table. The map of the VTT can even hold tokens for all the PCs, NPCs, monsters, etc. so there is no worry about something getting knocked over or the hosts cat jumping up on the table sending everything scattering around the table.
-=- Today many groups are building their own under-projection gaming table, where a projector hooked to a computer is underneath the table and projects the map or whatever the GM wishes to display on the underside of a frosted piece of glass/Plexiglas. Properly calibrated this can serve as the battle mat for combat as well as showing maps of areas and the images I mentioned above. Using VTT software the group has the benefit of a playing area much bigger than any laptop/desktop screen that can be effectively utilized at the table and without anyone but the GM needing a computer at the game.
-=- Some groups take this a step further building an UV Light Pen (instructions available on the internet) to control this map table as if it were a touch computer screen ? giving players control over their own ?miniatures? just as if they were minis sitting on the table.
-=- It is clear electronic devices can save space at a game table and make things more efficient there is the pit fall of distraction, rudeness, etc. if people don?t, can?t, won?t discipline themselves to stay focused on the game instead of surfing the web, texting, playing computer games, etc.
NOTE: The title is a kind of homage to: ?I Sing to the Body Electric? from ?Fame ? Original Soundtrack From The Motion Picture? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG-wl2qqD7Y?
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Source: http://theviewfrommygameshelves.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/the-electronic-gaming-table/
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