D+D on Surface at PAX East!

atiari

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10451247-1.html

Thought it'd be worth showing this off to everyone

Moe Fwacky

Should embed this video for those who don't know what this is. (it's awesome btw)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXsFNPO_gUM

Liger

I just heard about this last night from someone near the PA office (at a bar down the street), but I wasn't sure if it was true. Now I'm excited.

DaNerd

Despite what I said in the other thread, this might make my trip to PAX East. I remember hearing about this after Prime, but I never thought I'd see it anytime in the next 2-3 years.

Delmain

This is definitely going to make my day.

Now to incorporate a small business so I can buy one to play DnD on...

dardor

I want a Surface so badly lol.

David Coffman

dardor wrote: »

I want a Surface so badly lol.

Don't we all. *sigh*

atiari

When my website hits it big and can afford a standalone office, I'm totally buying that and setting up D+D nights with readers XD

(note: my business is incorporated already, but not turning a profit so this won't be happening anytime soon)

ZeroHourHero

I dont play D&D but as this is a cool piece of tech, it is relevant to my interests.

mspencer

First thing that comes to mind . . . why not roll real dice and have Surface read the bottom of each die and show and automatically process the roll?

Second thing: hmm, I'd better reread the article. Sure would be nice if . . . reading . . . hmm . . . ZOMG right there at the bottom it says it's coming to PAX East! Awesome!

Sinkuu

I hope they have it elevated with sewer drain underneath to siphon off all the fanboy drool.

lord knows I'm gonna be one of 'em.

Pax East just keeps getting better and better.

Wormdundee

I remember thinking that that dice roll 'feature' will get really annoying. I echo the idea that it should still be real dice. Or just that it should roll wayyy faster.

mentok1982

I added this information to my thread about the Concerts and Exhibitors but this news really does need its own thread!

I am so excited!

Onmitsu

BADASS. Admittedly, most of the reason I'm excited are the mapping capabilities and not the math capabilities. I find something charming about rolling physical dice.

Bob Jackass

First Wil Wheaton, now this?

I just wonder how many actual Surface tables they'll have, and how long the line will be to try it out. I have a feeling it will be ridonculous.

Darc

I remember reading about SurfaceScapes a few months back, but I didn't think they'd be ready to demo anything by PAX-E. That is quite badass. Too bad it's 4e </getoffmylawn>

Coldbrew

I remember seeing D&D running on surface a while back, and though some of the features seemed cool, there were certain things that just wouldn't work for me. I actually play D&D (two separate campaigns atm), and for example I would always prefer physically rolling a dice rather than touching a screen.

This is looking a bit better though, I'll have to check it out. If anybody wants to get a group together to try it out let me know so I can come in and film it.

atiari

I need to get ahold of the students working on the project to maybe do a feature article and video on it myself

mentok1982

The YouTube video is very crappy. Do you get to actually see your spells in action?
Will a ball of fire fly from my character to a monster when I attack? That would be sweet.

Moe Fwacky

Yes, I believe that is the case.

Sinkuu

I don't think anyone is NEAR expecting this to come close to replacing D&D just yet, but I'm interested to see how far they've come since that first video I saw.

Surface technology is still FAR into its infancy, and way too expensive for it to be in a lot of places.

Arco

It still feels very much like a proof of concept based on the few videos I've seen, but it's definitely coming along. If they threw a more robust development team and a modest amount of money at it, I can see this being REALLY good. It already has some things that just make my jaw drop, and the possibilities that Surface brings to the world of tabletop gaming in general, not just D&D, are quite astounding.

atiari

Arco wrote: »

It still feels very much like a proof of concept based on the few videos I've seen, but it's definitely coming along. If they threw a more robust development team and a modest amount of money at it, I can see this being REALLY good. It already has some things that just make my jaw drop, and the possibilities that Surface brings to the world of tabletop gaming in general, not just D&D, are quite astounding.

They're working on that

The overall goal is for them to have a marketable product at the end, not some simple "proof of concept" piece. Also, the article in quest states there will be a far more advanced version on display at PAX East, so we'll get to see it face to face.

lucazzo

Not a D+D player myself, but this looks amazing.

As long as the software keeps up nicely, I see a bright future for this Surface thing.

RoadBlock

This is one of the things I'm most looking forward to. As an avid D&D player/DM, there are all kinds of possibilities with this. Can't. effin. Wait.

firemage1026

damn I hope that we get to do a quick campagn on these things.

FinAeros

Shiny. I'll probably be haunting this place regularly.

If only Surfaces weren't so blasted expensive.

Uncleangry

It's....soooo...beauuuuutiful.

Ahkhira

This almost wants to make me learn 4e. Almost. If this thing can do 2e, I'll get one in the store. SWEEEEET!!!! Drool...

DaNerd

What will make or break this for me is whether it can different systems (World of Darkness, GURPS, 2e, etc) besides 4e AND if it has a good capacity for house rules and DM intervention.

Themiscyra

I don't think WoD is as miniatures-dependent or as complex as D&D 4e -- miniatures can help determine relative positions, but the combat system isn't built around them, and most actions are 'roll a die and add Attribute and Ability'.

I could see the uses for 2e and 3e/3.5/Pathfinder, though. I'm not terribly familiar with GURPS. Still, if WotC is stepping in to make this into a marketable product to be sold to gaming centers, I doubt they'll be supporting OOP games (especially since they no longer even sell OOP PDFs) or competitors' products.

Ahkhira

I'm sure that this wonderful piece of technology can do ANYTHING that it's programmed to do. Now, who wants to teach this thing about OOP RPG's? I'd be up for some classics like 2e, Cyberpunk, and Paladium!

Lugh Lamfhada

Alright it's now PAX East, where is this. Seriously, I can't find it.

DragonPup

Lugh Lamfhada wrote: »

Alright it's now PAX East, where is this. Seriously, I can't find it.

First floor, near Pandomonium's table in the hallway. It's the tabletop HQ room.

Lugh Lamfhada

Sweet. Thanks.

baelion

damn, completely missed this. just couldn't find it.

so how was it? reviews anyone?

Themiscyra

I saw it, but the line was way too long for me to try it at any point -- too much stuff to do! It looked really interesting, though I didn't get much more out of watching than the stuff I learned from the video.

Natsirt

Played with it.

First, it is still in the very early concept, pre-alpha phase. While it is a damn fine student project, it is still a student project. It played an encounter, not a campaign and there were a number of technical difficulties during my 15 minutes on it, mostly due to the fact that the patterns on the bottom of the control disks had been eroded by extensive use.

That said, it was pretty awesome. Each minature had an optical pattern on the bottom and there were also control disks with an optical pattern on the bottom. The Surface read these patterns to determine where things were placed.

When it was your turn, you tapped the control disk and a radial menu sprung up around it. You then selected which actions you wanted to take. Encounter and Daily Powers that you had already used were grayed out, and the system tracked your Standard, Move, Minor usage. Movement was handled by picking up your character and placing him on another square of the grid. You rolled dice by flicking your hand across the surface when the dice appeared. NPCs were displayed on the screen and moved/acted according to the DM who had a separate computer to control them.

My D&D play experience is limited to a handful of sessions, so I don't really know the pacing. However, an expert across the table from me commented that his combat rounds usually moved faster in his home game. I'm sure that's due to the learning curve and the technical difficulties we were encountering.

Overall, a very cool concept technology. With another 1-2 years of serious development, I could see it becoming an actual product. However, the market is another question. I could see a set of these tables at PAX 2012 to run tournaments or LFR games, but I don't imagine anyone would ever put one in their home. As one DM friend of mine said, "The whole point of D&D is flexibility. I make and break rules for my player all the time. No way would I want a computer telling me what I could and couldn't do."

SirCuddlez

I was wondering around on Sunday trying to think of what to do in my tired state and just happened by the tabletop library. I saw the line up for the surface and, being really short, decided I might as well.

In my opinion it has a great amount of promise. It is definitely still being developed (not all rules are in there, for example we couldn't charge since it hadn't been programed in yet) and had several technical mishaps but that's to be expected.

Things I enjoyed:
1) Based on where the miniatures are standing the program is able to interpret line of sight and reveal appropriate areas of the map.
2) Accessing powers and such was very straight forward
3) Being able to see where you could move or how far you could shoot displayed in front of you was very cool.

Problems:
1) It's definitely buggy, as it is still being developed.
2) While I think this could definitely make playing d&d a much smoother experience the small size of the surface means that if multiple players want to look at their abilities, that's a lot of space on the screen taken up at any one time.
3) This will seem weird but I disliked the dice rolling. I wanted to be able to put my fingers on the dice, pull back and fling them, but really you just touch anywhere and they go flying. It's a weird complaint I know but just struck me wrong for some reason.

The one thing I would say if they had it back for next year or for prime: Put it in a different location. The tabletop library is already a somewhat crowded room and having that in there brought in spectators and filled up the place all the more

thejordan

I walked into the TT library and saw Mike playing on this. It looked pretty sweet.

The question about rolling real dice and having the Surface read them came up. The devs said that they didn't do that because the system can handle only so many unique image identifiers and also I think they said the size would possibly be too small.

daninspiredmedia

i talked to one of the developers at the booth and he said there was an updated surface coming out that will have a multi layered membrane allowing for even greater number of pressure points, and different sensitivities.

I'm so excited about this thing.