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4 years ago ::
Feb 06, 2009 - 4:53PM
#11
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Date Joined:
Jul 16, 2002
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Apart from being a distraction, laptops take up too much table space for most places I've been. Books are easily stashed when not in use, laptops tend to stay out once booted up.
FWIW, I have seen more players that have a bigger gamer footprint at a table than the ones with laptops.  Character binders, dice rolling boxes, dice, pencil box, etc.
Sorry WOTC, you lost me with Essentials. So where I used to buy every book that came out, now I will be very choosy about what I buy. Can we just get back to real 4e? Check out the 4e Conversion Wiki. 1. Wizards fight dirty. They hit their enemies in the NADs. -- Dragon9 2. A barbarian hits people with his axe. A warlord hits people with his barbarian. 3. Boo-freakin'-hoo, ya light-slingin' finger-wigglers. -- MrCelcius in response to the Cleric's Healer's Lore nerf
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4 years ago ::
Feb 06, 2009 - 5:11PM
#12
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Date Joined:
Mar 29, 2001
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Yeah, laptops ON the gaming table irritate me.
If I'm using mine I always have it off to the side, usually sitting on an extra chair. It's accessible when I wanna look something up, but it's out of the way so it doesn't distract me and where the lid doesn't block the view.
I find that it takes up less space than the stack of 7+ books, and being able to search is nice.
-karma
LFR Characters:
Lady Tiana Elinden Kobori Silverwane - Drow Control Wizard
Kro'tak Warscream - Orc Bard
Fulcrum of Gond - Warforged Laser Cleric
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4 years ago ::
Feb 07, 2009 - 12:35AM
#13
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Date Joined:
Oct 19, 2008
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My laptop at a table, no way it's a beast. My netbook, sure thing, it's tiny. I prefer to not dig it out unless I have a very specific need of it though. As far as where I play well, 3 out of 5 have wireless access for home game locations, public locations it has wifi but you pay and I've never bothered to find out how much.
When we play at my house my laptop is nearby if we need to look something up, but usually out of the way.
Blah blah blah
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4 years ago ::
Feb 07, 2009 - 8:33AM
#14
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Date Joined:
Dec 20, 2005
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Our game store has a computer in the back room that we are allowed to use if we ask first. I am not sure if the store has wifi or not because the computer is right next to the RPGA area. Most of the RPGA groups that are playing don't have a laptop. There is one group where the DM has a laptop but that is because is running his own adventures. He use to play music during battles, it was annoying.
I am typing this from my blackberry, I haven't tried to access the compendium yet from it.
UPDATE:
I can access the compendium from my blackberry, but its fickle about it. The website keeps asking me to login, so I do it, then search for something, then when I click to read the details of item/spell/etc... the website asks me to login again.
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4 years ago ::
Feb 07, 2009 - 10:35AM
#15
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Date Joined:
Mar 27, 2008
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There's wi-fi at my two most common game locales (homes, both of them), but no one ever uses it at the table.
At the convention space most commonly used here, I think there's wi-fi, but again, it's so rarely used in my presence, I have no real idea. The subject hadn't ever come up for me before.
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4 years ago ::
Feb 07, 2009 - 10:45PM
#16
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C) Who has a pc/laptop/smartphone/ipod handy they can use to access the Compendium as they play.
I tend to find that, in general, players relying upon these tend to slow down play.
Having books, power cards (or equivalent on the character sheet), printouts of relevant pages for the character, or even photocopies of the needed material works much more smoothly.
Needing to show the judge what you've looked up gets even worse with a laptop vs. other materials.
-James
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4 years ago ::
Feb 08, 2009 - 4:50AM
#17
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Date Joined:
Aug 22, 2007
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Well, my Tuesday night non-LFR game has wireless, which sometimes works. But isn't LFR.
The game store I run LFR and the D&D Delve at doesn't have wifi. I did see an unsecured wireless network that gave out a routered (192.168.x.x) IP address, but my portable was down to 20% ower or less, so I couldn't check to see if it was truly free, or setup like a hotel network.
Add in that on some nights (tonight was a Magic tournament of some sort, so the store was very crowded), it can be difficult to impossible to get access to an outlet....
The "normal" site used by the once-a-month local Game Day has wifi and power (local library), but that is one night out of the 3 I regularly play or run 4th Ed games.
Add that my phone is an antique, and my so-called Internet access through it isn't worth using... Typing in a URL is torture.
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4 years ago ::
Feb 08, 2009 - 4:48PM
#18
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Date Joined:
Sep 23, 2008
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In home games we usually have one laptop open, but that's to run a webcam for the one player now living out of state, so it isn't used for anything else.
As a player in RPGA events I never use a laptop - all it does is get in the way - it takes up a permanent amount of space, restricts my reach to the minis, and effectively creates a barrier between me and my fellow players.
As a DM in RPGA events I use a laptop to read the adventure (along with notes on paper, it works just as well and I don't have to use up as much resources), and as an effectively as a DM screen. I have it sitting off to the side so that I am mainly open to the players, with the option to hide certain things if I need to.
Of the three stores I go to RPGA events at, only one (that I know of) has wireless internet, which you must pay for. I don't bother to use the compendium, both because I can't access it, and it's more tedious and time-consuming than simply looking something up in a book.
In my rapidly growing LFR RPGA group only one other person uses a laptop, also just for reading the module while DMing.
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4 years ago ::
Feb 09, 2009 - 3:10PM
#19
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Date Joined:
Aug 11, 2006
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As a Dm Ihave a laptop but keep it off to the side and only use it for reference, However I do not let players bring laptops after an incident with a particular player who felt it appropriate to play diablo 2 in between his turn. and then when we told them to put away his laptop he proceeded to pull out a nintendo DS, so we made strict rules for what to bring (we even have a rule of only 1 copy of each rule book can be on the table at a time (to prevent another bad habbit of a different player who felt he could read a graphic novel and or work on his next character in between turns, these two players have moved on but we keep the rules in still incase we get new players with the same issues.
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4 years ago ::
Feb 10, 2009 - 5:31AM
#20
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Date Joined:
Mar 16, 2006
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The compendium works pretty well on the iPhone, and I'd guess other similar devices too. Battery life and size are not an issue, and lack of wifi isn't either.
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