The iPad

For a long time, I have resisted the use of electronic devices at the game table. Both because I live my professional life surrounded by electronics and so don't really want them encroaching on my hobbies as well, and also because I like books - that is, real honest-to-goodness books with real pages. Therefore, beyond a bit of background music (and the occasional 'crawl' for Star Wars), I've avoided using such things.

In particular, I've consider the laptop to be a big no-no at the table. Indeed, one of very few things I've found objectionable in our current group occurred in one of Brindy's early 4e games, where not only the DM made use of a laptop, but so did at least two of the five players.

Now, I should hasten to note that I had absolutely no issue with the DM using a laptop. That's really not much different from him using a DM's screen, and while I prefer not to do so, that's very much a personal choice and not one I would seek to impose on others - it's not even something I necessarily recommend to others.

But the players using laptops was problematic, because it significantly changed the dynamic around the table. Suddenly, instead of a congenial free-for-all, most of the players were hunched behind their individual walls, suspiciously peering at one another. It was surprising how much difference it made, and not for the better.

As it happened, the "three laptops" thing happened exactly once. That being the case, I'm rather glad I didn't make an issue of it. However...

Over the last couple of years of "The Eberron Code", I've noted that at least one player (possibly two, or even three) have been making extensive use of either an iPhone or, less often, an iPad at the game. This has typically been to look up spell descriptions, and sometimes rules material, from the SRD (an online reference of the core of the game).

And the key thing to note about this is that it has not had the same effect on the dynamic around the table. Because these devices take up less space than a full-blown laptop and, crucially, because they lie flat while not in use, they have served solely as a convenient way to access lots of data quite quickly. They don't raise physical walls between the players, and so they don't raise metaphorical walls either.

And they have proven to be very convenient. At the moment, it is still marginally quicker for me to look up spells in the PHB than others using the iPhone, but it's a very close-run thing. And it's dependent both on my knowing the layout of the books very well, and also on us using relatively few books. If we were playing an "anything goes" campaign (and if the SRD were complete), then it would be a completely different matter, with technology winning handsomely. There are upwards of 50 3.5e books and they tend to be poorly organised and indexed (if they're indexed at all). I simply couldn't hope to find things faster by hand.

But I've mentioned one of the key elements there: the SRD has to be complete, and it just isn't. This is mostly because it was never actually intended as a reference for gamers while running the game; the purpose of the SRD was actually for third-party publishers doing their own supplements for the game. That being the case, most of the 3.5e material (including all of the setting-specific material) hasn't been opened. Most of it has never been legally available online, and those parts that were were made available as PDFs of the books themselves. (And, of course, the illegal versions exist as PDFs of the books.) There is no complete database containing everything in an indexed and easily searchable manner - and if there were, WotC would promptly stomp on it.

When it comes to viewing PDFs, especially PDFs of gamebooks, the iPad is pretty much an ideal size. The iPhone screen is really too small, and even an ebook reader like the Kindle has a smaller screen than suits the larger format of RPG books. Even so, PDFs don't really help you much over the physical versions - you still have to track down the right book, quite often they can't be searched, and they tend to be graphics-heavy. Basically, what the iPad gets you is a reduction in back strain (which isn't to be sniffed at, but we can do better).

Nonetheless, I'm convinced that the iPhone and, especially, the iPad are game-changers for the RPG industry. And, ironically, although it appears that their DDI initiative failed rather badly, I think WotC actually hit on the right structure. (Sadly, they hit on it five years too early, before the technology to make it really work was widespread.)

Basically, what I think is wanted is a game with relatively few, and relatively simple, core rules. Around these, you then build huge amounts of 'bits' - powers, spells, magic items, monsters, etc... And you want to structure each individual bit so that it can be displayed comfortably on an iPhone screen.

What you then do is publish a single, deluxe "Starter Set", containing the core rulebook of the game plus the usual starter components - pregen characters, dice, adventures, etc. You probably want to sell the core rulebook separately (though I would recommend this be the same core rulebook).

However, your main vector for releasing the game would be online, via a subscription-based service. Here, users who are logged in gain access to an ever-expanding database of all the accumulated 'bits' - all the monsters, spells, etc.

(For the holdouts, you would also want to publish the material in physical form, at least at first. However, I would advise turning the historical release schedule on it's head - do the electronic release first, perform whatever playtesting is required, patch using errata, and then reprint the material in hardcopy form. And, because you expect print runs to be quite small, sell it at a premium as well.)

Oh, and of course, everything that can be released in ebook format should be released in ebook format. Which, quite possibly, means changing the size of RPG books down to something more suitable for use on the Kindle.

(Of course, once you've got people using iPhones and iPads as a matter of course, there's much more you can do than simply offering a Compendium of the 'bits'. That's where you get things like online character sheets and/or character management apps. But then, that's not terribly new - I think the site that did this already was/is called iplay4e or somesuch. Amusingly, the use of such apps would make 3e a vastly better game.)

It will be interesting to see if, and how, the Disney/Lucasfilm thing affects the FFG license for the Star Wars RPG. However, as things stood previously, FFG did not have the ability to publish PDFs of their games, nor to do any sort of supporting software. The way things are now, I suspect that kills their game dead.