The laptop, the new DM screen

As I work on the Wiki-Mage project to make DMing from a laptop more possible,  I thought about dice online too.

Now, there are several dice rolling apps online and able to be installed.

However,  I found one at Wizards.com that runs in a web browser AND is able to be downloaded and run locally within a web browser.  AWESOME!!!

This makes it just fine for use regardless of what Operating System you use.  (I use Linux, thank you very much.)

I created a new page here on this blog just for special apps and files that you can use also.  Don't forget about Dragonsfoot.com though.  They have a truly incredible assembly of files, docs and modules available for "classic" AD&D gamers.

Anyway, my goal is to be able to take my laptop anywhere and have all my AD&D 1st Edition books in one spot, able to be searched and find tables instantly.  Not only that,  I can have multiple tabs open to the pages/tables used most frequently.  oooh yeah.

Having that nice dice roll app is going to be a big help,  especially on those rolls where you don't want players seeing the results.  Just keep it open in another browser tab.

As the world becomes more online and computer enabled,  I can see a bunch of players sitting with their netbooks, laptops, etc in  a room or even in a video conference and playing the game together.  How cool is that?

Create characters and keep their sheets in a file on your computer.  Shoot a copy of your character to the DM so he can keep track of who's who in the game.

AD&D is a social game, it requires people to interact.  To talk to each other and use their imaginations.  They have to problem solve and work as a team quite often.

What better venue for such a social game than using social network tools and computers.

I have always believed that computers technology wasn't meant to replace interaction, but to enhance it, automate dull, repetitive tasks so that the "meat" of the thing could be more focused on.

Not only am I excited to be back into AD&D after all this time, but to implement it with all the new tools and technology we just didn't have then.