Or create their own specialized reader, to access digital books, the compendium, the Dungeons/Dragons magazines. Maybe keep track of digital character sheets. Mini library, maybe even Magic The Gathing card index's for those who play MTG...
I dunno, just an idea.
I'd buy one.....
We have a very heavy hobby. It'd be nice to condense it a little!
I don't use paper anymore.
The only things left analogous on my table are minis, tiles, sheets and cards. Everythig else went digital.
It's a pity latest WotC books didn't make it.
Oh and yes, I would like VERY MUCH to see the books released in watermarked pdf format once more. I did buy the larger and more expensive 10" device instead of the iLiad for D&D especially in 2008, novels can be read on smaller screens. (I do admit it's been handy for my newspaper subscription too though)
On a side note, you could keep even the character sheet and power cards on the DR1000S, since it allows you to write on pdfs with the pen. I'm a DM so I keep monster stat sheets, but I do think a pdf printed from the CB would work just as well.
Perhaps Wizards\Hasbro might look in that direction. D&D relies heavily on its Artwork to sell the product, and having that in full color like they'd get on the iPad would be a real plus. Add to that the possibility of hyperlinking terms back to D&DO or the Builder (though that last one is a pipe dream, with it being so PC-centric) could be a real value-add as well.
Now, I recognize that Wizards got out of the PDF business because of issues with piracy (though that may be a hotly debated position) I would be surprised if access to the eBook versions of the Rulebooks could not in some way be tied to an existing DDO account in much the same way that the Builder or Compendium are. It would naturally be far more exciting to have an eBook version downloadable without DRM, but they (WotC) have a right to be concerned about IP ownership.
I would be flatly astonished if competitors like paizo are not looking at that platform and drooling.
AsmodeusLore gave me this link. Other WOTC books are also coming out on the Kindle. Although that isn't much help for someone using a Nook. :P
I started a similar thread about a month back.
AsmodeusLore gave me this link. Other WOTC books are also coming out on the Kindle. Although that isn't much help for someone using a Nook. :P
I don't actually know what kind of files the nook uses, but if it can take epub files, check out kobobooks.com - it's quickly becoming my favored source and not just because they have both Doom of Kings and Word of Traitors available.
Don
(Sony Reader user)
Don't get me wrong, I'm not biased in favour or against iPad. I do own an iPod and enjoy it thoroughly. But ebook readers use a technology called e-ink. While it cannot reproduce colour (yet), e-ink is very paper-like and easy on your eyes.
The iPad screen on the other hand is backlit and strains eyes just as much as computer monitors do.
That said, I'm probably not fussy, but the lack of colour in my 4E sourcebooks pdfs or in the magazines does not bother me at all when reading on my device. Even the colour coding of powers is not a problem because light green, dark red and dark grey turn to different shades of grey on the device; I just got used to it.
I don't game at my place and I couldn't carry more than one or two physical books on the way to my gaming place. When they stopped selling pdf books, I stopped buying D&D books, it's as simple as that. Now that I'm used to paperless, I don't want to go back ever, despite all the flaws this new technology still has - the most annoying of which are DRMs, lack of standards, and generally a 'wild west' attitude on the publishers' side.
I have to say that Apple's choice of the epub standard will, at least, help.
However, I'm not quite sure epub allows for the graphic-heavy layout we're accustomed to in 4E products. pdf does the job very well, but it's not reflowable the way epub is, which means letter-sized layout files are clumsy to read on smaller (and cheaper) devices.
Right now all my game materials are fully digital. I have these programs open anytime during the games I run:
Masterplan - main adventure planner with all the tactical maps, plots, campaign info, pictures and so on in one neat bundle.
Dungeon Master Battlescreen - a combat manager. It's better than the one built in the Masterplan, though lacks some features Masterplan has (like combat map and nice warnings like - this creature has aura and so on). And all the monster stats are here and it notes HPs. conditions and so on.
Softrope - it's a software for making soundtrack for your game. Allows mixing sounds, easy in use and with nicely looking interface.
Google Chrome - just a web browser with
- Compendium for looking up rules and stuff,
- Hexographer for editing my world map (I use hex maps for this)
Can iPad do it? I doubt it.
No use at all. I'll stick to Windows Tablets, thank you very much.
For Nook readers, B&N has the ability to request books to be made into an eBook format, although I have no idea how long it would actually take to complete the process.
iPad is really useless as gaming device (I mean for tabletop gaming).
Oh really? So how long did you use it for? As far as I know the iPad isn't even out yet. But you must be one of the mythical beta testers Apple NEVER uses that gets to extensively try their pre-release products out. Also, what apps did you use? I would be very interested in knowing what iPad apps had been developed for D&D before the SDK was released.
iPad is not an ebook reader though.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not biased in favour or against iPad. I do own an iPod and enjoy it thoroughly. But ebook readers use a technology called e-ink. While it cannot reproduce colour (yet), e-ink is very paper-like and easy on your eyes.
The iPad screen on the other hand is backlit and strains eyes just as much as computer monitors do.
How long are you reading your sourcebooks? I can understand why you would prefer e-ink for your novels, but I don't sit down and read the whole PHB during a game session.
I can imagine an app where you have your charaktersheet (like a printed one) and your powercards in different tabs. But when you need more information on a given topic, you just hit the spot (like a skill) and you get more information about it (what can you do with athletics,...).
If you use a power, it automaticaly marked used. And tracking HP is as easy as it can be.
As a dungeon master you probably want multitasking for your 2000 applications but if a really smart guy spends some of his/her time I'm sure there could be an app which does the work of all the different applications now used.
For my part, I'm really looking forward to get my hands on an iPad.
iPad is really useless as gaming device (I mean for tabletop gaming).
Oh really? So how long did you use it for? As far as I know the iPad isn't even out yet. But you must be one of the mythical beta testers Apple NEVER uses that gets to extensively try their pre-release products out. Also, what apps did you use? I would be very interested in knowing what iPad apps had been developed for D&D before the SDK was released.
This device has no multitasking - that's all I need to know.
Most of the RPG-apps are Windows based. And even with them there is not a single do-it-all app. RPGer are minority. RPGer with Macs are minority of minority. It's unimaginable that there will be an app that does everything I mentioned in my post above.
iPhone is out for how many years? Do we have loads of RPG-apps released?
This device has no multitasking - that's all I need to know.
Most of the RPG-apps are Windows based. And even with them there is not a single do-it-all app. RPGer are minority. RPGer with Macs are minority of minority. It's unimaginable that there will be an app that does everything I mentioned in my post above.
iPhone is out for how many years? Do we have loads of RPG-apps released?
I think you are confusing the iPad with a laptop which it isn't intended to be. That being said, what is so multitasking about the stuff you listed? Seems like you're just switching back and forth between the applications anyway. A well made app should be able to do all that and access the compendium. And you can always play music while using other apps. Plus who's to say that the iPad won't be able to multitask in the future?
I think you've never used an iPhone/iPod touch in your life and when some people hear that they can't multitask they think they're crippled devices.
Besides, no one asked if anyone here hated the iPad, so stop trolling and stick to the thread topic.
who's to say that the iPad won't be able to multitask in the future?
When it will, we'll talk about it.
Besides, no one asked if anyone here hated the iPad, so stop trolling and stick to the thread topic.
Hating? Trolling? Hm you are overreacting a bit. Calm down. I just don't care about it. Nothing else.
who's to say that the iPad won't be able to multitask in the future?
When it will, we'll talk about it.
Apparently you want to talk about it now.
Besides, no one asked if anyone here hated the iPad, so stop trolling and stick to the thread topic.
Hating? Trolling? Hm you are overreacting a bit. Calm down. I just don't care about it. Nothing else.
If you don't care about it, then why do you feel the need to share your opinion about a product that isn't even available yet?
Apparently you want to talk about it now.
Hmm. It seems you want to talk about far and fantastic future when iPad would have multitasking.
If you don't care about it, then why do you feel the need to share your opinion about a product that isn't even available yet?
Do you presume you have the right to tell me if I am allowed to share my opinion or not? It's ain't Soviet Russia, man. That's my opinion, if you don't like it - ignore it. Or try to convince me that I'm wrong. But better make another thread for it. This is not a place for it, so I quit the discussion.
Do you presume you have the right to tell me if I am allowed to share my opinion or not? It's ain't Soviet Russia, man. That's my opinion, if you don't like it - ignore it. Or try to convince me that I'm wrong. But better make another thread for it. This is not a place for it, so I quit the discussion.
That's right this isn't the place for your opinion on the iPad. So why did you feel the need to give it?
I would really, really appreciate it if the snark and sniping disappeared from this thread.
IMO, a good first step in ensuring that WotC is really ready for sourcebooks in an eBook format is to get things right with their issues of Dragon and Dungeon.
Trying to view any issue of Dragon, even after flipping the orientation of the page from portrait to landscape, is near impossible and headache-inducing.
The page doesn't scale or zoom. the images, while still good greyscale quality, are not zoomable. I might want to take a video of the experience and post it so that people get how useless it is at the moment. The method in which the issues are being created in Acrobat removes the ability to read it on anything other than a computer.
Color eInk is here (it's just not mass-production-ready... but it's close).
In terms of whether the iPad is better than a Windows tablet? It's apples and oranges. The iPad is being built off the iPhone SDK, so it currently isn't specced to support multitasking. Still, someone will come out with an app for the iPad that allows you to do all or most of the things you need to do at the table during a game. Heck, iPlay4E does this right now with the iPhone via its built-in web browser (character management, access to the compendium, some dice rolling) and I use it with my Win7 laptop at my regular gaming sessions.
Quick video demonstrating how an issue of Dragon (383 in this case) displays on the Kindle.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdlfmUeVaFk
This is after updating to the February firmware.
Note, however, that the results are readable on the device after using the new "Convert" option (is that new? I just found it tonight, but I've only had my Kindle since December '09) to send the PDF to a designated email account and retrieve it as an .AZW file.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwvVWQgbShY
So... not great, but it's doable. I suppose I can't have my cake and eat it too. It would be added value to DDI subscriptions if issues were formatted in such a way that they were formatted for eReaders.
Hmm. It seems you want to talk about far and fantastic future when iPad would have multitasking.
Actually, not to be a downer, but the iPad does actually do multitasking, its just only enabled, on the OS, for "core" apps like mail, music, et cetera. iPad runs iPhone OS, and the fact that you can listen to music while you are reading your e-mail, and get push-notified by Mint... that would be multitasking... however gimped you want to call it, the hardware is capable of it.
Its not at all outside the bounds of possibility that the "no-multitasking" issue could be addressed in a software update.
As far as 4E-centric apps in iPhone OS, there are no many, but with iPlay4E.com, you don't NEED it. There are plenty of web-side non-flash vtt's and game management sites that would be useful to have on a tablet, and with the fact that much of it is written so that any multitasking required is done on the server-side, they seem like really good fits for a tablet-based Tabletop experience.
Having said that, some of the other e-book readers and tablets that are entering the game this year looks very nice, including the one that was originally developed by Crunchgear, whose name eludes me...
But that's not really the OP topic... the question really is, barring any issues with the HARDWARE, does Apple's iBookstore have a sweet enough deal to make it worth Wizard's time to use it as a distribution node? I read today that they were planning on\considering reviving the DRM that had been used in iTunes to limit the number of platforms that you could copy a file to, in order to alleviate publisher's concerns about piracy.
Anyhow...
Seeing the ipad and what it is going to do towards "ebooks" really makes me think how much more it can do for the D&D books. Not just for reading what the books say but having embedded videos, or interactive demos within the books themselves could make for a much deeper experience. Essentially you could have character creators next to each class in the players handbook, and so much more. Videos for specific rules, audio for the words you aren't sure how to pronounce, bookmarks galore. If they do make it to the ipad, will they take advantage of all this? Not sure, but I'd be willing to pay a premium for it.
Seeing the ipad and what it is going to do towards "ebooks" really makes me think how much more it can do for the D&D books. Not just for reading what the books say but having embedded videos, or interactive demos within the books themselves could make for a much deeper experience. Essentially you could have character creators next to each class in the players handbook, and so much more. Videos for specific rules, audio for the words you aren't sure how to pronounce, bookmarks galore. If they do make it to the ipad, will they take advantage of all this? Not sure, but I'd be willing to pay a premium for it.
This is being done already, and being done in an iPhone/iPod Touch-friendly format, although WotC is not participating (yet?)
vook.com/
Seeing the ipad and what it is going to do towards "ebooks" really makes me think how much more it can do for the D&D books. Not just for reading what the books say but having embedded videos, or interactive demos within the books themselves could make for a much deeper experience. Essentially you could have character creators next to each class in the players handbook, and so much more. Videos for specific rules, audio for the words you aren't sure how to pronounce, bookmarks galore. If they do make it to the ipad, will they take advantage of all this? Not sure, but I'd be willing to pay a premium for it.
This is being done already, and being done in an iPhone/iPod Touch-friendly format, although WotC is not participating (yet?)
vook.com/
Vook looks pretty cool, although it seems to be more video oriented, than application oriented.
I really like thebrianexp's ideas. It would be cool if you had a Player's Handbook where you could generate a character at each step of the process in the book. So for example, you could roll stats (or distribute points) in the section that talks about stats. And check off feats for your character in that section. And it could be done so that you could go through the process for making multiple characters at once, making any level character, turn it off when not needed, etc.. They could also include a stand alone version of the character generator at the end of the book.
I hope that devices like the iPad bring about some new ways of combining books with applications that we haven't really seen yet. It would be awesome if Hasbro/wotc took the lead in developing this new technology since RPG's are tailor made for this sort of thing.
IMO, we'd see a win if we could just get the books in eBook format. Combine that with the Character Builder and tools/sites like iPlay4e and you've got a great experience on laptops and tablet PCs.
Efforts would need to be made to make them good eBooks, though. There are plenty of crappy eBook publishers out there who don't bother with formatting, TOCs, links, footnotes, etc.
Living in the UK I unfortunately haven't been able to. But looking at reviews I think that the iPad is the perfect vehicle for Wizards to use to digitally sell it's books. Osprey is an interesting example of how a publisher has ported their book based product to a digital platform.
Most of the new smartphones are now better than the i-phone, though it took the other some time to make good copies and improve on it.
As is i-pad looks cool except for no Flash, no multitasking for non apple stuff. No WOTC tools (since they are based on Microsoft). Also I don't know it it supports java well enough or not. That would throw it out of concideration for me if it did not have it.
Having said that, I think a really killer-app addition to getting books into a richer, multimedia format would be things like rules explanations, especially for things like illustrating concepts like Opportunity Actions and other sticky wickets. I know most\many of us, this is old hat, but to have a step-by-step illustration of how some of the rules work, nested into the book where the current "static" illustrations are, would be really helpful in teaching the game to new players.
Linking into the Builder would be a good move, but I think that the builder is, as previously mentioned, a good app already. Adding it as a background layer is probably a bad idea, even ignoring the "its never going to get re-written for iPhone OS" argument.
- The current pace and scope of errata from wizards has made me stop buying their books. I miss the fluff and all the added advice and inspiration from the actual text, but the fact that I can't depend on the crunch being anywhere near usable as-written drives me insane, which leads to number...
- I would love if wizards made a simple Wizards Publishing app for the iPad with an in-app store for buying pdf's. The development cost of the client app would be negligible (it could be made with the inherent pdf-viewing capability of the iPhone OS and some encrypted pdfs in local storage) and the server side should also be perfectly doable. I see a couple of killer features:
- Rules updates pushed through new versions of pdfs ("There is a new version available of Player's Handbook, would you like to update?")
- All the e-book perks of portability, search, annotations, distribution and instant gratification purchases
- Interactive Character Viewer with an iPhone and iPad universal version
- Interactive DM Screen with a cached compendium connection and all he good stuff from the different init trackers floating around.
- Connecting the DM Screen on the DM's iPad with the player's iPhone or iPad character viewers for interactive condition and damage management and init tracking would probably lead to a collective nerdgasm!
- Some sort of premium d&d insider account with full access to all d&d ebooks. Perhaps somewhere in the $30-40/month range?
- The whole interactive book shebang with video tutorials, minigames, applets and so on. Adventures with built-in soundtracks with different mood music for different parts of the adventure, slideshows of monsters, interactive maps to show players, handouts, voice acting, dancing unicorns covered in fairy dust...
All this could be done on just about any tablet device (of which there aren't that many yet, but I guess they will come), but it could be done easily using standard libraries in the iPhone OS and the iPad seems to be flying off the shelves, so there will most probably be a market for this. Just a thought...
Anybody who doesn't think an iPad would be useful for tabletop gaming just hasn't tried one yet.
I think the iPad has e-Readers beat on a bunch of fronts:
1) Full colour
2) Snappy response when moving from page to page
3) Full browser so you can access to the Wizards compendium from your D&D Insider account
4) Page for page match to the dead tree versions (this is important because many times I've got a page reference that I'm looking up)
Now if only Wizards would make PDFs available for purchase again! If Wizards is thinking about any other format besides PDF (for example ePub), then they should reconsider. There are just two many times when my players who have the physical books want me to look something up and they give me a page number. These are reference books, guys. Don't choose a format that is going to re-paginate the books.
Regards,
Rob
1. Having the books as PDFs is awesome. Being able to search a book saves a bunch of time and effort. I have been using a laptop for this so far and I am really looking forward to using the smaller form factor of the iPad at the game table. It will be much less obtrusive and distracting for myself and others.
2. I think that using iplay4e on my iPad will be awesome. Sure it could be better (maybe someday there will be a character builder for my ipad or something) So far I have used printed 4e Character sheets at the game table in plastic sheet protectors. This is 4 pieces of paper. Having that down to a single device will be nice.
I don't need digital dice or anything like that, just reference and records keeping.
I really think it is going to work very well.
Now... if only Wizards would get on the ePub bandwagon, I might buy more books.
Iplay4e works flawlessly with an Ipad.. so it makes a great (albiet pricy) electronic character sheet.
Compendium i believe works fine ( I think i tried it, but i dont remember what i looked up heh ).
Incombat being a flash app does not work at all. So theres definitely a need for a ipad friendly init manager out there..
(for those of you who don't follow the war, Apple will not rest until the scourge of flash apps is wiped forever from the peaceful realm of Interwebia...)
All in all, for a PDF library of books, Iplay4e, and portable internet, im going to pick one up tomorrow. I know i SHOULD wait for a decent Windows7 tablet, and if i was smart or mature or patient. I would. But im a sucker for new toys and i HATE waiting... especially without a firm due date on a decent w7 tablet.
all this is IMHO, your mileage may vary. Opinions in this post are closer than they appear. And do not ness. reflect those of Apple, Wizards of the Coast, Hasbro, Microsoft, or your Mom.