Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com Joystiq http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://www.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com en-us Copyright 2013 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[D&D rolls with the changes, ported to Microsoft Surface]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/20/dandd-rolls-with-the-changes-ported-to-microsoft-surface/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/20/dandd-rolls-with-the-changes-ported-to-microsoft-surface/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/20/dandd-rolls-with-the-changes-ported-to-microsoft-surface/#comments By the time your average Dungeons and Dragons player has failed his third death save and gone off to that great dungeon in the sky, he or she's spent nearly $800,000 on miniatures and various-sided dice. (Trust us, it adds up.) Keeping that number in mind, we'd like to turn your attention to an alternative to tangible tabletop gaming: Surfacescapes, an in-development application for the Microsoft Surface, which attempts to recreate the D&D experience on an outrageously large touch screen. As the Surface currently costs $12,500, the lifetime savings would be abundant.

Sure, there's a few kinks to work out -- the dice roll a little slow for our tastes, though this would make saving throws infinitely more dramatic. There's also the small matter of how introducing this technology into the game might diminish the whole "role-playing" element. If used just for combat encounters, it could be a powerful streamlining tool. For everything else, it would need to be fitted with an Imagination Manifestation Drive[TM], and those don't exist yet.

Check out a demo of Surfacescape's proof of concept in the video after the jump.

[Via Engadget]

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JoystiqD&D rolls with the changes, ported to Microsoft Surface originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>d-and-ddungeons-and-dragons-onlinemicrosoftMicrosoft-SurfaceRolePlayingrpgsurfacesurfacescapestabletoptabletop-gamingwizards-of-the-coastTue, 20 Oct 2009 11:05:00 EST<![CDATA[D&D creator Gary Gygax passes away at 69]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2008/03/04/dandd-creator-gary-gygax-passes-away-at-69/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/03/04/dandd-creator-gary-gygax-passes-away-at-69/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/03/04/dandd-creator-gary-gygax-passes-away-at-69/#commentsFiled under:

The man known as the "founding father of the modern role playing game," Gary Gygax passed away this morning , March 4, at 69 years-old. Gygax, known for creating the massively popular pen-and-paper series Dungeon & Dragons, was a staple in the miniature war game scene in the late '60s and helped propel fantasy writing and creativity into what it has become today.

Although Gygax had been in poor health, suffering multiple strokes and a near-fatal heart attack, he was a mainstay on fantasy forums and gaming sites before his passing at his studio home at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin .

"I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else.," Gygax once described himself during a 2004 interview with GameSpy.

Ernest Gary Gygax is survived by his wife, six children and seven grandchildren.

JoystiqD&D creator Gary Gygax passes away at 69 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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