@ j_king
What you suggest is the next logical step. With all the conditions that are present in 4e a way to track and automate the process will speed game play up. This holds especially true with epic tier play.

@ Stuart
I think you miss the point of what I’m suggesting and how technology has assisted my group in playing. I’m by no means suggesting that Computer RPGs or MMO’s are the next step, far from it. They are a different beast. What I see technology doing is assisting and streamlining game play. In my gaming groups example we’ve had a long time member of the group move four hours away, because of MapTools he can still log in and play.

@ The Recursion King
You’re experience with the computer at the table echo’s the first uses my group had several years ago. Since then our usage and need for the computer to allow our whole group to game together has increased. I don’t believe that the tabletop game will die, in fact I think the introduction of certain technology will allow it to grow as I mention in the article. The title may be a misnomer, but it serves to draw people into the dicussion.

@ Wyatt
Agreed, techonology allows us to start on the fly at any time. One of our group members recently had an idea for a new campaign. He decided to run it on Tuesday nights at 8pm. If you could make it you’d log in and play. Imagine having a desire to play a LFR module, checking the WotC servers for a game and logging in and playing using the proposed virtual tabletop. This is how I imagine technology has the ability to advance the game and make it more accessable to new and old players alike.

Wyatt’s last blog post..Monsters of Eden I: Muikara

My own gamer group is growing, I started with only one player six months ago and now there are six others and myself. None of them use laptops, although there was a point when one of them brought one in for a couple of sessions, he soon fell back on pen and paper. I myself, as the DM, use a netbook and (being a programmer) a number of computer programs I have made to do such things as generate a full encounter, with treasure, distance, reaction and so on, at the click of a button. I use the computer only to get instant answers and keep the action moving – very useful for the sandbox campaign I’m running. I also use a custom initiative program I created for our house ruled ‘four phase initiative system’ and do searches in pdf’s to find answers to rules questions.

Everyone else, though, is using pen and paper and dice rolled in front of the rest of the group. We use minis in combat, too.

So, computers will not kill the tabletop game like your headline states. They’re just another tool.

The Recursion King’s last blog post..Low ability scores

If I want to play an RPG on a computer… like I did with Vampire back in the 90s… I’d do it. If I want to meet up with my friends, roll some dice and have fun – then I don’t need (or want) a computer for that.

Stuart’s last blog post..4eroes of Falconcrest – Part 1

I’m a programmer myself and am working on more tools to enhance the table top game. I want to create tools which can manage my campaign notes both geographically and textually and can hyper-link in encounters and dungeons of my creation and run them as we play. The problem I have been having and witnessing is “rules chatter.” Any sufficiently long battle will start off with embellishing descriptions of actions and creative decisions but certainly devolves into long chains of modifiers, statuses, and kills the excitement. It’s my hope that a computer tool can remove the need for monitoring all those statuses, modifiers, initiative orders, readied actions, and so forth from the table so that we can focus on smiting ogres and bull-rushing mind-flayers down wells.

The rules make the game a game, but computers are so much better at keeping track of them. Why not exploit that? I’m sure it will make my games much more fun and feel more like story-telling than knit-picking.