Dungeons & Dragons Brought to Life Using a Microsoft Surface Table

[Uncompetative]

Congratulations. That may be the dumbest misuse of technology I have yet to encounter.

I was once a Dungeon Master, pre-videogames and the reason people liked them then and some still play them now that we have videogames is that they made good use of your imagination. The Dungeon Master had the rules, the map, the secrets, the authority and a responsibility to entertain and create a performance. People would dress up to get into character.

What is up with 3D graphics? That is someone else's idea of that creature.

You are showing the dice? That was up to the Dungeon Master to take care of (if I remember correctly... it has been a while).

This is a total failure. I don't even approve of the models being used to represent the players - just merchandising.

Yuk.

NOTE: This is not a criticism of Microsoft Surface, which could have some interesting applications.

See:

 

[Coldman42]

Damn, something like that would really help me out a lot. Let's face it people, dungeon tiles are nice but they take so damn long to set up... Also I'm sure the system will let you just roll real dice if you want and type the numbers into it. As they said it is still early in development so I'm just gonna sit back and wait to see what comes of it, but i am excited.

On a more realistic note this thing would probably cost several hundred, if not toy with the line of a thousand dollars when it comes out. After a year, two at most it'll probably go down to about the same a game console now a days, $200-$300. Damn PS3 syndrome i call it...

PS: the addition of music, sound effects, and pictures to add are a damn nice touch for ambiance, that got me the most. Little things like that always make or break a good story ^_^

 

[Zer_]

Damn, something like that would really help me out a lot. Let's face it people, dungeon tiles are nice but they take so damn long to set up... Also I'm sure the system will let you just roll real dice if you want and type the numbers into it. As they said it is still early in development so I'm just gonna sit back and wait to see what comes of it, but i am excited.

On a more realistic note this thing would probably cost several hundred, if not toy with the line of a thousand dollars when it comes out. After a year, two at most it'll probably go down to about the same a game console now a days, $200-$300. Damn PS3 syndrome i call it...

PS: the addition of music, sound effects, and pictures to add are a damn nice touch for ambiance, that got me the most. Little things like that always make or break a good story ^_^

Eh, considering the Surface tech costs upwards of 12,000 dollars, I doubt we'd see anything affordable for at least 5 years.

 

[Bigsmith]

Oh my, that is very nice, and as a big D&D player...it's right up my ally.

I hope this gets funding and they adapt it to 3.5 or even older rule sets and even allow custom rules sets for those that are really creative with their house rules.

Thats what i was thinking... My dnd group use custom rules from DND wiki as well almoust every Dnd 3 and 3.5 ed book for our campain.

 

[CommyGingerbreadMan]

Wow such harshness. THIS IS WHY WE CANT HAVE NEW/ORIGINAL THINGS. People criticize, sure it's a dumbed down version, I mean DnD itself is solely imagination, you can't code everything a person will think up (And my friends have come up with the weirdest shit we listen to for 5 min before just staring at him dumbfounded as he rolls for initiative), but the strives this can make for tabletop games, a new wave of them. Hell we could be seeing Holographic images soon.

Albeit RTS and tabletop seem to be the only things that can work here.

 

[Coldman42]

Eh, considering the Surface tech costs upwards of 12,000 dollars, I doubt we'd see anything affordable for at least 5 years.

Well i don't expect to see this thing on store shelves mind you for at least 2-3 years, then 1-2 years min after that being affordable. Right now the cost of making a Surface (being currently cutting edge tech) is probably around $1,000 and after that many years you would be surprised how fast and how far that price can drop when wide-spread commercial applications are found. So yeah, I agree about 4-5 years before that, but...

I STILL WANT IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Zannah]

uldn't it be cool if the very table you were playing Dungeons & Dragons on enabled you to fully visualize your game?

No it wouldn't - it's just that an awful lot of people fail to realize that P&P-rpgs aren't about dice and cobat stats, but about roleplaying and imagination (which always trump rules, if your playing with the right people anyway) - So using a graphical surface would pretty much ruin the thing (In my opinion anyway)

 

[GloatingSwine]

I really would like to see Warhammer work with this.

I can hear the executives drooling over selling their own licensed versions from here*.


(* Not that hard, Warhammer World is next door to where I work)

 

[JohnReaper]

dont trust computers to roll dice...

I lernt that the hard way

 

[DividedUnity]

Um i think that this would ruin why most people play the game. Ive seen strategy games like RUSE work on this computer and they look amazing

 

[JWW]

Oh God, this is gonna become just like the motion sensor revolution uprising.

It looks awesome, but we're gonna have it forced on us.

 

[ironmace2.0]

I have 1 question How hard would this be to set up?

Cause that looks like a freakin awesome way to play D&D. If I got the chance I would buy it.

 

[ShakerSilver]

This looks pretty intersting.

I've also thought of getting into table-top gaming, although now that I'm in Lebanon, I doubt I'll find anywhere that sells D&D, let alone anyone who'd play it.

[sub]Now I'll never be a duel-wield nunchucks as a sorcerer or befriend a dire rat or go to Hogwats or cast FLARE![/sub]

 

[ma55ter_fett]

It would be nice if you could use this to play dnd with people over the internet, kind of like a matchmakeing process.