Pen, Paper, & Pixel Launched

[Boredflak]

The popularity of computer and video games is at an all time high. Millions of gamers are attracted to the ease of involvement and play, along with the visceral thrill of rich, intense graphics and sounds.

But to me, compared to face-to-face tabletop gaming, video games can't compete. Too often, they're all shiny fluff with little substance. For many years I've enjoyed the social interaction, depth of game experience, and sheer entertainment value that only a pen and paper game can deliver.

That doesn't mean, however, that we can't improve on the pen and paper gaming experience. It doesn't mean that we can't make it more compelling and fun to play. Most of all, it doesn't mean that we can't benefit from intelligently incorporating technology into our game sessions.

With those principles in mind, the purpose of this website is to explore, promote, and support the smart integration of technology into the face-to-face gaming experience.

[Big Mac]

What sort of limits are you going to have on Pen, Paper, & Pixel?

I know you have spoken about using data projectors during games, but are you also going to cover IT-RPG that helps people prepare for games?

Game suppliements on PDF allow people to search for rules. However, most PDFs are fixed documents. Are you going to concentrate only on PDFs with interactive features or would you cover anything that can be found on the Internet and downloaded?

Automated forms, like you are starting to put up here are also helpful. Are you going to concentrate on hosting forms or are you also going to link to forms that are hosted elsewhere?

If I can think of a way to get the Hypertext d20 SRD onto my Palm m500 (which has no Internet capability), I could use it as a portable gamebook. Would you cover that sort of thing or should people wanting to do stuff like that look for a Palm user forum instead? (Mind you that sort of thing could undermine your subscriber deal for a downloadable version of the SRD.)

Software like Teamspeak is helpful for people playing MMORPG, but I would guess that if someone could find some sort of shared "whiteboard" that could be used for moving figures, people could run a RPG with players from several locations. So are you going to concentrate on physical technology that can help a game session or open the subject out to any technology even stuff that will be used outside a game session. If a programmer could rip the game engine out of a computer game and let people use it for virtual tabletop games then maybe we could have gaming groups where the players live in different countries. (That would certainly make Living Greyhawk's region restrictions seem a bit outdated.) So will you cover things that only exist as ideas or stick to things that are available now?

[Boredflak]

What sort of limits are you going to have on Pen, Paper, & Pixel?

Well the site is about integrating technology into face-to-face tabletop gaming. That's a pretty focused purpose, but can cover a lot of ground.

I know you have spoken about using data projectors during games, but are you also going to cover IT-RPG that helps people prepare for games?

Sure. Game preparation is a huge opportunity to take advantage of tech.

Game suppliements on PDF allow people to search for rules. However, most PDFs are fixed documents. Are you going to concentrate only on PDFs with interactive features or would you cover anything that can be found on the Internet and downloaded?

Both applications of PDF technology are equally relevant as far as I'm concerned.

Automated forms, like you are starting to put up here are also helpful. Are you going to concentrate on hosting forms or are you also going to link to forms that are hosted elsewhere?

Are you talking about the PDF forms or the HTML forms?

In either case, the answer is basically the same. I'd love to provide space for online tools and downloadable resources developed by contributors. I'm also planning on developing a directory of online resources hosted elsewhere.

If I can think of a way to get the Hypertext d20 SRD onto my Palm m500 (which has no Internet capability), I could use it as a portable gamebook. Would you cover that sort of thing or should people wanting to do stuff like that look for a Palm user forum instead? (Mind you that sort of thing could undermine your subscriber deal for a downloadable version of the SRD.)

That sounds like a great tutorial. Wanna write it?

As for undermining d20srd.org subscriptions, I don't quite follow. I'd hope that's the first step in the tutorial.

Software like Teamspeak is helpful for people playing MMORPG, but I would guess that if someone could find some sort of shared "whiteboard" that could be used for moving figures, people could run a RPG with players from several locations. So are you going to concentrate on physical technology that can help a game session or open the subject out to any technology even stuff that will be used outside a game session. If a programmer could rip the game engine out of a computer game and let people use it for virtual tabletop games then maybe we could have gaming groups where the players live in different countries. (That would certainly make Living Greyhawk's region restrictions seem a bit outdated.) So will you cover things that only exist as ideas or stick to things that are available now?

The only grey area that gives me some concern is the topic of tabletop gaming emulation. I don't suppose it's too off-topic since the whole point is to try to reproduce the tabletop experience, but I want the site to primarily be a resource for face-to-face gamers.

All this being said, the site is still in it's infancy. I'm not quite ready to accept submissions yet. Soon...