Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Insanely Cool

I just noticed this post on Defending Humanity. Surfacescapes is by far one of the coolest gaming aids I've ever seen. Check it out:


Surfacescapes Demo Walkthrough from Surfacescapes on Vimeo.

3 comments:

  1. Yeah, visually cool.

    It also looks as though it is entirely inflexible as a game aid. Nothing is mentioned of designing one's own maps, or alternate layouts for the battlemap (hexmap, anyone?). Random algorithms haven't changed, so you're still stuck with the computer ultimately making patterns with the d20. And what if you don't play 4e?

    Expensive piece of equipment without the adaptability that any hardcore DM would want.
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  2. I think it is cool as a alternative platform, as a gaming aid not so much, but any way cool enough to make drool for it.
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  3. As a gaming aid, I guess the deal breaker would be how much work the DM has to put into the board ahead of time. I'm a big fan of only preparing the bare bones of a story and just seeing where the players take it... this doesn't seem like it would lend itself to much improvisation.

    However, if you're running a module and you can get said module preprogrammed (or had the spare time to program it, but who does?), holy crap... A-mazing.

    I would imagine that the tools that accompany this thing are similar to the many computer game editing programs. They often take a while to get used to, but once you've familiarized yourself with them, throwing something together isn't TOO tough.
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