Hey all,
At a future meeting, I am looking to do a short presentation about using tech at the gaming table. This can include note taking apps, digital maps, digital character sheets, etc.
While I don't want this to be about full fledged Virtual Table Tops (VTTs) such as Roll20, Foundry, etc. If you use those applications for in-person play, I'd love to hear about it.
Please reply to this post with some of tools you use (as a player or GM), tools you've considered using, and/or tools you've tried and discarded. Pretty much anything about digital tools.
I will take all your input into account when building the presentation.
Randy (Joxxo)
I've tried recording a session and running it through one of the online tools. Mixed results. I'm interested in that. As a GM, I have trouble keeping notes mid-game...and something like this might help. I would be interested in each of the topics you mentioned.
The most effective use I've had for technology at the table has been a player-facing display hooked up to a laptop as a sedond display (not mirrored.) I have used such for scene-establishing images, NPC pictures, information amd notes for players to read off screen.
The most effective mapping display I've used was a projector that top-projected a terrain image onto a table top. The software I wrote for it (in BASIC) simply displayed or hid each area based on a click of each square of area. We used physical minis with the display.
For notes, Google Docs or NotePad++.
For Traveller subsector map generation, I use software I wrote in Modula-2 for CP/M, which I still use when I'm not running in the Official Traveller Universe. In that case I use Travellermap.com (with a player-facing display.)
As to my own Traveller Map generator, it gives me information beyond that in the online generators I've found. It establishes X-boat routes, standard trade routes, and more comprehensive world trade codes than the standard ones.
For Traveller trade, I wrote a trade generator program for the Vic-20 that I need to port to modern hardware. Given the world information, it generates available cargos, buy & sell prices for all cargos, adjusts for market availability, and will track a ship's current cargos and net income/loss on trades. I used to take it to our Traveller games so that the folks heavy into trading could use the Vic-20 as if it were the starport trading computer while players who couldn't give a fig went and did things around the port in meatspace.
The most effective mapping display I've used was a projector that top-projected a terrain image onto a table top. The software I wrote for it (in BASIC) simply displayed or hid each area based on a click of each square of area. We used physical minis with the display.
For notes, Google Docs or NotePad++.
For Traveller subsector map generation, I use software I wrote in Modula-2 for CP/M, which I still use when I'm not running in the Official Traveller Universe. In that case I use Travellermap.com (with a player-facing display.)
As to my own Traveller Map generator, it gives me information beyond that in the online generators I've found. It establishes X-boat routes, standard trade routes, and more comprehensive world trade codes than the standard ones.
For Traveller trade, I wrote a trade generator program for the Vic-20 that I need to port to modern hardware. Given the world information, it generates available cargos, buy & sell prices for all cargos, adjusts for market availability, and will track a ship's current cargos and net income/loss on trades. I used to take it to our Traveller games so that the folks heavy into trading could use the Vic-20 as if it were the starport trading computer while players who couldn't give a fig went and did things around the port in meatspace.