Email: Why Laptops are great!

By

DM Vincent

– March 15, 2010Posted in: Articles, Emails

Recently, we got an email from a listener named Tom, who supported using laptops during his AD&D 1e game, here is what he had to say:
I am currently running a 1e campaign with a 5 players , 1 of whom ( my nephew) lives over 2000km away from my house. we play using skype video , I position my laptop over the game table so the other players can see yuri & he can see both them & the dungeon tiles/minis. It works better than I could have possibly imagined - conversation is lively & not stilted, - all the players can see & hear what each other is doing. lag is basically a non issue & the "actually there"feel is really achieved. Gotta disagree - laptops can work in a game


Tags: Emails

About DM Vincent

Vincent is originally from Long Island NY, where he was a former Radio Personality, and now lives in the state of Pennsylvania, hosting The Darker Days Podcast in his spare time. Now he is Hosting the RFI Podcast with New found friend Jayson & Nick each week! His DM'ing style is more on the fly, and enjoys the just roll a D6 Method to slow those annoying problems. Vince has been playing AD&D since the '80s.

5 Comments

1. Bill

   Posted March 16, 2010 at 9:53 PM

   meh looks too distracting…too much going on..if only one is being used..then maybe..

2. DM Vincent

   Posted March 16, 2010 at 10:29 PM

   Actually its an awesome idea…

3. Death Metal Nightmare

   Posted April 1, 2010 at 10:45 PM

   thats awesome they have an example where it works very well for them. probably depends on the situation.

   in a “closed” setting (where theyre not needed for external/far away players), i wouldnt mind a DM using one, depending on how its incorporated. i recently used it for my campaign where i created a couple very short animations for each individual player as signifier’s/clues to their origin and ambiguous foreshadowing. seemed to work fine. they were only about 20-30 seconds long. didnt infringe too much on the imagination aspect overall. i wouldnt probably use one all the time but i wanted to try it out.

   players using them, in a closed setting, seems kind of overboard.

4. Greywolf

   Posted May 26, 2010 at 3:37 PM

   I wouldn’t mind the laptop for the DM who needs to make a quick search for something. Even if the DM is using some module on PDF, it seems to be more convenient to print out the sections that he needs.

   I don’t want it for all of the players. Players would tempted to check their email, make bids on ebay, browse the forums, etc.

5. loki44

   Posted July 20, 2010 at 5:43 PM

   Unless they’ve upgraded it recently, the video function with Skype will only work with two way communication, not on a conference call. Great though if you only have one person calling in.

   I also wonder how Tom and his crew are skyping without headphones on. I get horrible feedback if I don’t use headphones.