NeoGrognard

Hey all. SRM here with a quick intro to Part 2 at our look at the future of game tables already manifest. I have to admit that my game area is barely constrained chaos. An overflowing and oversized book shelf that’s home to four editions of D&D and a crap-ton of minis (both pre-painted plastic and my own paints), it’s the modern nerdy equivalent of a renaissance madman’s study, or so I like to imagine it. Still, I have all my minis and map tiles arranged by type, and usually I can gather the raw materials for an ad hoc encounter with dizzying speed, but even I was amazed at the pure precision planning of Jeff Sorensen’s projector-driven game table. Sit back; take a virtual step into Jeff’s house, more specifically his den of gaming. You’ll not regret it.

Nine Twenty Four…and a Half

We bought our house in no small part due to the fact that it had a huge, 340 square foot storage room built onto the back of the garage. My roommate, Charlie, and I are both poker junkies and gamer nerds, so our first thought was “GAME ROOM!” Construction began a month before we moved in and, with the conscripted help of our friends, we’ve progressively finished the room over the past three years.

Whiteboard Table

Our poker table is a pool-felt covered round banquet table; so for our gaming table we decided to build the poor man’s version of a Geek Chic table. We started off with Charlie’s old kitchen table and added a layer of particle board which brought the overall dimensions to 6′ long x 5′ wide. This gives us very comfortable seating for six players and a DM.

Centered on the table is laid a 4′ x 3′ whiteboard. The Pale-Riter whiteboard by Best-Rite has silver grid-lines that give us nice 1.25″ squares. (When I first got the board, I was pissed because the website said 1″ squares. But I’ve actually come to appreciate the little extra space it gives our, generally oversized, heroic minis.) Around the whiteboard is foot deep shelving where we keep character sheets, dice, snacks, etc.

For about a year we used the table for what it was… a whiteboard and a big table. Most of the time we just used markers on the table; though we did try a number of analog solutions like dungeon tiles, printed maps from Dundjinni, and even briefly ventured into plaster tiles from Hirst Arts CastleMolds. But then one day I stumbled upon an article on tabletop projection. It was perfect, I had to have it.

Tabletop Projection

Mounting a projector to a ceiling, bouncing it off a mirror onto a table, and trying to get everything lined up is more than tricky. It took a lot of guesswork and a lot of holes in the ceiling to find the right distance and angle for everything. Eventually we found the right combination and strapped everything in place temporarily with tie-down straps. I swore I’d replace them with a proper mount someday, but that day hasn’t arrived.

The projector, a Dell 1409X DLP, functions as a second monitor and projects the player-view of the map. Our original mirror was a standard quality mirror we bought at Lowes, but after a few months we purchased a front surface mirror to prevent the multiple ghost reflections.

If I had to do it all over again, I would spend the extra money and purchase a “short-throw” projector with a power zoom and focus. That would have made it a lot easier to accomplish and would have allowed us to use a much smaller mirror and still get the 60″ diagonal image on the table. Ideally, I would love to get a projector that was designed to project straight down. I’ve been drooling over a new Hitachi Ultra Short Throw projector.

MapTool

There are a number of good mapping software packages available; for my needs MapTool works very well. It is a free, open-source program written by the guys at RPTools.net. I run two copies of the program connected to one another in LAN-mode. The first copy runs in Server-GM mode, which is displayed on the DM’s monitor. The second copy connects to the first as a Player and is displayed full-screen via the projector onto the table.

The program is designed to allow players to each run a networked copy and is fully-capable of hosting a completely internet-based game. It has features like chat, digital miniatures, and an extensive macro system where some have incorporated powers and dice rolls. A coworker of mine has used MapTools to allow his group that has been physically separated to continue to play their regular games.

My group really only uses MapTool to display maps. I make extensive use of the fog-of-war feature and the players will occasionally use the ruler tool to determine distance and line of sight. Simple maps are built in MapTool itself, while more complicated ones are first constructed in Adobe Photoshop. I rely heavily on the Dundjinni Forums and CGTextures websites for map imagery source material.

DM Screen

The far end of the table serves as home to the DM. Along with the usual dice and Post-It notes are an iPad (usually logged in to WotC’s D&D Compendium), a Logitech wireless keyboard & mouse, and a small 15″ ViewSonic monitor which functions as the “DM Screen.” I keep my campaign notes on a wiki hosted by DreamHost. The computer is a Dell Inspiron 530, now running Windows 7, with a dual-monitor NVIDIA graphics card. One monitor out connects to the DM’s screen while the other to the aforementioned projector. I’ve also recently purchased a 3M Privacy Filter which works really well for wandering eyes.

Character Sheets

All of our players use the WotC’s D&D Character Builder to create and maintain their characters; it is by far the best character tool any of us have ever used. Most of the players use the character sheets that it generates to actually play the game.

Two of our players have begun experimenting with i4e on their iPhones. It allows them to keep track of what powers they’ve used as well as HP and Healing Surges. A recent update includes some useful new features to allow their players to run characters from the mobile device exclusively. Personally, I am waiting for the author to create a kick-ass iPad version.

Miniatures

Even though we’ve digitized the maps, we still prefer to use good old-fashion miniatures. The corporeal connection to a miniature is just one we’re not yet ready to break. The players all have hand-painted minis, most from Reaper Miniatures that have been hand-painted by our talented friend, Carmen Cerra. As the DM, I generally use WotC’s plastic minis for most of my monsters; occasionally using one of Carmen’s creations for a recurring NPC or boss.

Condition Markers

We like to use glass gems and necklace stones for condition markers. Each player has their own stylized stone for marks, quarries, etc. We use generic glass gems from WholesalersUSA for $3/lb (~250 stones) instead of Chessex ones for $5/50 in a plastic tube. We have another gaming group that swears by Alea Tools Magnetic Markers.

Initiative / Turn Cards

We use note cards (Avery 5689) for initiative turn cards; using the popular method of turning a card sideways for a delay or held action. The Copy-RTF function from D&D Adventure Tools – Monster Builder works very well when pasted into a narrow-margined Word document. It takes very little tweaking to get these to fit onto the same quarter-sheet note cards.

Dice

We also still prefer to use actual dice (verse digital dice rollers). The brand of dice varies greatly, though most were obtained in bulk from Chessex. I have a particular affinity for dice from GameScience.

Digital Dungeons & Dragons

For some, the talk of using technology to play a roleplaying game elicits comments like “why don’t you just play World of Warcraft?” But for us the technology is background; a tool to be used and nothing more.

At present, we have no desire to replace our minis and dice with their digital counterparts; they are our Shiny Bits. Even if we did go 100% digital, I don’t think it change the core of the experience for us. It would not replace the story of the game, the role of the DM, the interaction of the players, or the simple environment where we gather to tell stories and have fun.