EnWorld thread on TTRPG Software Wish Lists

Some actual substantive content coming soon, I promise. Have been backlogged with work (whine, whine, whine, I know) and have some cool posts in the works about going back to 3.5E, as well as the Droid vs. the iPhone as a gaming support device.

For now, check this thread on EnWorld about the community's wishlists for new software to help the table top gaming community.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/277870-what-software-d-d-ttrpg-related-do-you-wish-existed.html

Of particular interest to me was the section on Master Plan game organizing software (http://www.habitualindolence.net/masterplan/). Has anybody used it?

WotC gets the Social Media

Major kudos to WotC for leveraging YouTube to advertise D&D's Wednesday night "D&D Encounters" games. Saw this on the enworld, and add it to their embracing of the Kindle, leveraging Facebook, Twitter, and more, to see how social media and technology are helping the tabletop world, rather than hindering it (which seemed to be the approach from ads and actions say, 5 years ago).

Play by Post Maps - c/o EnWorld's Hussar

Finally found a great post explaining the best possible way to manage maps in Play by Post games, care of EnWorld.org's member, Hussar. Thanks!

For PBP? Maptools is a virtual tabletop program, and it's meant for real time play.

Might I suggest a combo of two things: DungeonForge (a token based mapping program found here - you need to register to download) and something like Paint.net or Gimp (both free art programs) to do the individual pictures with tokens.

Simply place each token on it's own layer and place the battle map on the lowest level, and you can move the tokens around, round by round, and save the maps to display.

En World allows you to attach the images, so, so long as you keep them fairly small, you shouldn't have any problems.

Renewed my EnWorld.org membership

Last year, I signed on as a Community Supporter at EnWorld.org. I just renewed my membership (after gasping upon seeing that I'd become "INACTIVE" and could no longer search the forum archives, today, while trying to find posts about Google Droid applications). For $3/month, I get access to a lot of premium PDF gaming content including Ordo Draconis, search capability, and the knowledge that I'm helping support a thriving online community for gaming. Yes, I may have canceled my World of WarCraft subscription, but for a fraction of that I get a lot more info about the pen and paper community, and get to participate with gamers that share my interests.

And just for giggles, here's a strip from "Bring Dice and Chips" that was forwarded around in this month's DriveThruRPG.com newsletter. Archetypes from many a game I've run are here, in just two panels:

Glorantha...drooool...iPhone apps for gaming...drooool...

While I devour my copy of the RuneQuest II edition of Glorantha: The Second Age (which is awesome!), I wanted to share the below link to a massively brilliant effort by Morrus at EnWorld, indexing the iPhone gaming apps available:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/news/274552-iphone-ipod-applications-rpgs.html

I don't know what Microsoft Surface is, but this makes me want it...

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/playing-dungeons-and-dragons-on-microsoft-surface

iPad and D&D - the enworld thread, and my take

There's a good thread going on at enworld.org right now about using the new iPad in gaming.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/271168-ipad.html

A few good ideas, to be sure, but I'm not sold. The iPad won't make reading PDFs any easier at the gaming table than a 10" net book - if anything things will still be shrunken down too much. Had they made the thing as big as apple's tablet-style laptops oh 5 years ago, this would be a slam dunk of a device. But at the size of a large iPhone, I really don't see this changing things all that much. One idea posted on the thread that was neat was laying the iPad flat and putting minis on it, but in practicality being able to use a real - much larger - actual battlemat seems to be more useful for combat in rooms wider than 5 squares by 7 squares or so... (and if you're playing 3rd or 4th edition d&d, those scenarios will be rare at best...)

No native support for a camera or SD card for PDF's... That's kind of the piece that seals it for me. I like the idea of integrating technology with gaming - heck, that's the point of this blog - but this device seems like form over substance for me, as it relates to my hobby.

Living in a Cloud

Just landed one of them new, cheap as sin Acer D150 Net Books.  The intent being that I can now draft blog postings more easily on the fly while in transit (no, not when driving), and more importantly, spend more time working on my writing (both fiction and the games materials I design).  

All of this is letting me explore technology in some new and interesting ways, and figuring better ways to create content in a mobile world.  I've installed Google docs w/ offline support, Google Calendar and some other google apps that will frankly replace how I'd used MS Office on previous machines.  I've also amped up the way I have the machine configured for speed and security.  Lastly, I've set up Juice and Google Reader (w/ offline support, again - thank you Google Gears) so that I can just fire this puppy up in the AM, download my latest podcasts, and RSS feed articles, and digest them on the way to work or over my morning coffee on the days I'm at home.  

Yes, maybe I've just been drinking a serious amount of Jeff Jarvis' Kool Aid, but I'm excited at diving into the deep end of cloud computing with this 3 pound netbook after a couple of years of finding ways that I can use the world-as-a-platform to help drive the organization of my writing, my ideas about technology, and the way I communicate.  Now, to put all of these tools to good use...

A Week in Gaming and Blogging

I've been trying to get the most out of Blogger, all while I work on upgrading my old website using WordPress.  Blogger's got some nice strengths to it, especially with this week's incorporation of Google's Friend Connect.  (I for one worship our new overlords from the Googleplex...)  Incorporating authentication, commenting and social elements to an off-the-shelf blogging tool - in a way that ties into authentication used by millions - is very compelling.  Sure, I realize Facebook is trying to head towards this with Facebook Connect, but using your gmail login for...well...everything on the internet it seems is nothing to sneeze at.  I've added the Social Bar (see up above), the superfluous-but-why-not ratings box, and noticed that the Followers box has automatically updated to the Friend Connect model.  Hopefully, they'll roll out some new templates to support these widgets a little bit more smoothly, shortly...

So, all the while that I've been farting around with the new Blogger features and widgets, I've also been trying to do less navel gazing and read more of what others are saying on blogs about gaming - 'cuz that's what it's all about, right?  Gnome Stew has been a constant for me, and I'm proud to see them get props from Gamer cum Laude Wil Wheaton, recently.  I've grown quite fond of Grognardia (although I still find the flamewars on the comment threads to be startling and at times bizarre - no fault of the blog owner, and commentary solely on the public square that is the internet), and through seeing my friend Kerry's Adventurer: The Card Game plugged on it, I've started to take note of Back in '81, another great nostalgia site for all things early RPG-ish.  If anyone has any good RPG blog recommendations, feel free to message me or leave them in the comments, below.  I'd like to see what everyone else is reading.  

And outside the confines of my precious computer screen and its 8x11 window on the world?  I've recently picked up the RuneQuest RPG re-releases by Mongoose Publishing (see post, below) and am enjoying those a great deal.  The CoC mechanics mixed with a world that is part Norse myth, part Warhammer fantasy, and part Brothers Grimm is a compelling stew.  I've been adding a good deal of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion on the XBox to my repertoire as well.  One of the best sandbox RPGs I've played on a computer or console.  Good stuff.

Soon spring will be here, and the great outdoors will beckon.  For now, I'm maxxing out the time on the couch, being a loaf, and enjoying some good old nerding.