Knowing that there are a few D&D players here, myself included I thought I would share an awesome youtube video of a new surface demo just released... Created by a team at Carnegie Mellon University, it's an implementation of Dungeons & Dragons in 3D, something that has of course been done dozens and dozens of times before, but this is different. Way different. It brilliantly brings the tabletop style of play to Surface, with players moving real figurines over virtual battlefields, rolling virtual d20s and d6s to deal real damage against digital dire wolves and the like, opponents who can move and attack automatically. Sure, it takes some of the imagination out of the experience, but it'll also make re-rolling your character a heck of a lot easier -- not to mention eliminating the dungeonmaster's folder of magic, mystery, and crudely drawn maps.
I saw this when Kotaku picked it up a couple days ago and forwarded it to the guy who owns the comic shop I play at. His response- "Wow, looks awesome, think it will be OK with everyone if I raise the price to play D&D here to $240 a session to cover the cost of a couple of these?" I suppose the real question is, will this insane Microsoft Surface setup cost more or less than one of these Geek Chic game tables- http://www.geekchichq.com/Co_Store/The_Showroom/The_Showroom.html
Well seeing as how the Surface currently goes for around 10K I would say your better off ponying up the extra 2.5k and getting the interactive table over the Sultan gaming table (Which is awesome BTW!)....
They had those things set up at the Penny Arcade Expo, that's the kind of gaming table that will be passed down to your great grandchildren to play D&D on.
For sure! The $1500 Emissary table actually is a good deal, especially with the dropped surface with lexan to cover your maps, no more laminating! B U T SERIOUSLY?! You have to be hardcore, with some serious pocket cash for any of those setups, but if you ask me and I had the money? I'm going MS Surface FTW!...
Also I don't see support for critical failure tables in this software, that's the best part of D&D!!!
