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D&D or Board Game Fans

Madaras
Expert Protege
:idea: So I was just thinking after reading the "Gambling" thread. About table top gaming, such as my favorite D&D. Now my first thought in D&D was to pretty much LARP in a created world. However, I have another alternative (though I would still absolutely love LARPing in the Rift :!: ) that is to have a table top setting in the rift where you can connect with your friends across the country/world and sit at a virtual table with your virtual character sheets passing hidden messages to the DM/PCs (which is more of a challenge in person) with a virtually updated Character sheet (YAY no more erasing and rewriting all over your favorite character!). I believe the same method could be used for board games with not much of a difference.

What do you think, if you are a D&D or board game fan does this seem like something you'd like :?:
50 REPLIES 50

raidho36
Explorer
There's really awesome game called Desperate Gods. It's basically a generic roll-the-dice and move-the-pieces game, but it's open source (you'd have to ask for the source though) and can be reworked into anything. It's also not one of those games that forcibly impose rules, and you play it like you play IRL board game - it's a free for all, anything goes, and rules are only in people's heads, noting to stop you from flipping the batshit up carnage. So actually reworking it should be as easy as adding new models and textures.

Gardener
Honored Guest
This is such a great idea!

I want one that has a meta game set in 1979 where you and all your friends have gathered in the basement of your mom's house. You're all drinking pop and sitting around a folding table. You have a meta avatar that's a 1970s nerd and an in game player character. As you switch focus to the table top game, you can see your nerdy friends morph into cool rogues and wizards. It would be nice to have motion tracking on your arms so that you could physically manipulate the table top pieces and maybe periodically pick up your asthma inhaler to take a puff. The wood paneled walls would morph into a nighttime fantasy scene as the game progressed, so your surroundings sort of match the game being played on the table top. Mist and spells on the tabletop could sort of overflow into your lap. Dragons could hover over the table and fly around your head.

So fun!

sneakypoo
Honored Guest
Do I count as fan if I just love watching "Rollplay: Solum"? 😄

Gardener
Honored Guest
"Madaras" wrote:


Pretty much the idea. I'm also thinking of the power the DM would have in the world. Changing your surroundings, background music, popping up 3D models of monsters and NPCs to speak with you, there is just so much of an experience that DMs love to share with their players that I believe the Rift can help solve.



OMG! The possiblities for a nice DM toolset are so cool! I love the idea of music cues etc.... You could have weather and lighting cues also.... "A dark fog surrounds you and lightning flashes in the distance" cue fog, cue lightning, cue Inseption trailer horn sound effect.

vrfanboy37
Explorer
I used to play D&D on http://www.rpgtableonline.com/
basically a chat room with D&D tools. it worked, but something was missing. This sounds very promising.

fingerflinger
Honored Guest
I personally would love a DnD telepresence app! Especially since my gaming friends live about 2000 miles away.

raidho36
Explorer
It's not exactly a DnD, but it's a board game. I've decided to actually fork Desperate Gods and deploy Oculus Rift support. I've decided not to implement Razer Hydra support, although very helpful and obvious thing to do, for compatibility reasons - this is a subject to change though, once I find out how to carve it in without breaking compatibility with vanilla game.

Gablar
Honored Guest
I think this is a great idea but there are some pitfalls. Games like neverwinter nights are direct adaptations of pen and paper rule sets, but the experience is not even close to being the same. The experience in neverwinter nights is limited to the objects,location and actions programmed into the game. In a pen and paper game the experience is limited only to the imagination. To put it another way, the more visual cues you give the player, the less it becomes a game of the imagination.

I think that a virtual tabletop is a great idea, but room for the imagination is the most important thing to consider when playing DnD. The challenge is then to create a framework that facilitates Roleplaying without removing the freedoms of an imaginary world.

Calanar
Honored Guest
"Gablar" wrote:
I think this is a great idea but there are some pitfalls. Games like neverwinter nights are direct adaptations of pen and paper rule sets, but the experience is not even close to being the same. The experience in neverwinter nights is limited to the objects,location and actions programmed into the game. In a pen and paper game the experience is limited only to the imagination. To put it another way, the more visual cues you give the player, the less it becomes a game of the imagination.

I think that a virtual tabletop is a great idea, but room for the imagination is the most important thing to consider when playing DnD. The challenge is then to create a framework that facilitates Roleplaying without removing the freedoms of an imaginary world.


That's why you don't implement NWN or some other MMO. You implement a table top and avatars sitting around it with a GM screen. You make PDF readers attached to books with picture covers, playing pieces and player sheets and maps with 3d pop ups. But even flat maps would work to start. You create a hand out system and a private text message system and rolling of the dice and you and your friends wherever they are can play any system that exists.

That will be an RPG Renaissance like no other. You said it right. Nothing can replace the imagination that is in the player's heads. So don't try. Give them the props to be able to play the VR game like a table top game and you are there with far less work than a traditional MMO.
Michael Tenery, Software, RPG and Game Developer. Imagine Role Playing: http://www.role-playing.com

willste
Explorer
D&D will be hard but one day possible. I think what you really need to make a D&D app take off will be a strong sense of player avatar presence to facilitate the kind of back room social kickback that makes D&D awesome. This would at a minimum require the following:

1) Rock solid voice communication
2) Some form of animation on your avatar that communicates your emotions and possibly physical movements of lips and upper body. This is important to maintain the perks of face to face interaction. Without that you are just in a dressed up chat room.
3) Hand gesture control over a physical board and any materials.


I think until those things exist maybe a better place to start would be board games that are less focused on human interaction and more focused on game play strategy like hex war games and maybe warhammer 40k style games.