How Technology Affected My D&D Table: From Graph Paper to Google Docs (Without Replacing It)

Our most sophisticated tool when I first began playing D&D in 1987 was a photocopier. Character sheets, graph paper maps, and smudged pencil notes that barely made it through spilled soda and oily snacks were all in the binders we carried. Index cards were used to track initiative. A typewriter was used to type the handouts. Asking someone who wasn't drinking that night what went wrong was your best bet if you missed a session.

The situation has evolved. However, not in the manner that people think.

I haven't made the transition to fully virtual tabletop systems. Even if I run my Greyhawk campaign on Roll20, some still use actual dice to roll. We still play in person, or as close as possible, and many of our maps are created by hand.

However, technology has subtly crept into our sessions in ways that are hard to overlook. And truthfully? It has improved the game.

Memory, Meet Machine: Recording and Summarizing Sessions with Fathom

Fathom.video, a platform that was initially created for business meetings but is now used to record and summarize our online D&D sessions, is one of  the most helpful tools we've recently embraced.

It produces precise, searchable summaries of all events. A player only needs to go over the highlights if they miss a session; they don't require a half-hour recap. What happens if someone forgets a name, the reason behind an NPC, or the actual meaning of that mysterious note? The summary contains all of it.

Memory is no longer our only option. We have an objective record of the game thanks to it. That's crucial in a campaign that lasts a long time. The telling of the story is being preserved, not replaced.

Shared documents and cloud notes

The days of searching for the "one notebook" that contained the timeline or party inventory are long gone. We now keep track of campaign history, session notes, and character backgrounds using shared Google Docs. A living journal is kept by one player. A spellbook file is kept up to date by another. My direct message notes are organized into folders and connected to tabs for towns, NPCs, rumors, and previous occurrences.

Players remain involved in between sessions because of the accessibility. When the session concludes, the campaign need not end.

How Memes, Messaging, and Chat Turned Into Game Tools

We communicate in a Telegram group chat. Initially used as a scheduling tool, it soon became a feature of the game. In-character meme sharing, strategy discussions, and even in-world arguments are all done by players.

That area developed into a sort of channel for "downtime roleplay". Occasionally, in between sessions, on the spur of the moment, without dice, the best lines and character development occur.

Technology Enhances Imagination, Not Replaces It

What I love is that these tools don't take over the game. They are in favor of it.

If given the time I continue to hand-draw my dungeon maps. I don't make use of animated tokens or dynamic lighting anymore. However, I would be happy to have a digital archive of the players' wild theories or a searchable transcript of that intense interrogation scene.

Making D&D into a video game is not the goal. Because they won't have to waste mental energy recalling what happened three weeks ago, players will be able to immerse themselves more fully in the world. They are aware of what took place. It is recorded. They can now play.

Looking Ahead 

I'm curious about what will happen next as the game keeps changing, but I'm also cautious. Our sessions have already become more focused and accessible thanks to these tools, and I can already see the allure of additional technology encroaching on the edges.

It's OK to use AI to create NPC portraits that instantly correspond with given descriptions. Or, to cut down on preparation time, write a few impromptu treasure hoards, town gossip, or tavern menus. Or, turn a description into an image for those who have trouble imagining them. 

The problem is that none of that takes the place of what really counts.

At the table, or virtual table, between people, the true magic takes place. When a player befriends the villain or destroys the town you spent hours creating, there are unexpected turns that no algorithm can foresee. The intensity of a tense silence before a dice roll cannot be captured in a transcript.

I will therefore continue to experiment. When technology can assist, I'll let it. However, the essence of the game remains secure as long as the story is shared and the laughter is genuine.

Tell me in the comments what technological aids you use in your games.

A Deep Dive Conversation With Joe Bloch

 Great interview by Joethelawyer to Joe Bloch (Greyhawk Grognard) from BRW Games!

"Joe's been a core member of the OSR since the early blog days. He's a very successful Indy publisher with his own old school ruleset, and he has published one of the largest mega-dungeons ever written."

BECMI D&D cover 3D sculpture at Lucca Games & Comics 2024

A wonderful 3D sculpture of Larry Elmore's famous art piece for the cover of the BECMI D&D edition appeared this November atLucca Comics & Games 2024 (Italy) and it was painted live for the audience by artist Silvia Corso.

More pictures of this wonderful rendering can be found in the D&D BECMI Italia page on Facebook.

Familiar Link

I introduced this ability to the magic-user class as a house rule in my AD&D 1e game, in order to give more flavor to the bond between the magic-user and his familiar.

Familiar Link: The magic-user, if he concentrates as when casting a spell, has a 10%/level ability to establish a telepathic connection with the familiar. This percentage is modified by the distance to the familiar (-2% per mile) and the maximum distance to establish the connection is equal to the range of the Find Familiar spell (1 mile/level). The connection will last as long as the magic-user is focused on maintaining it. Through that connection he will be able to feel the same as the familiar feels, and also send simple commands, as long as they do not go against the familiar's survival instinct.

GaryCon XVI Schedule

I finally got my tickets for some games at GaryCon XVI. Not all the games I wanted (diamond, platinum and gold badges got to pick first) but alas.  

On Thursday I'll play "The Sample Dungeon" - Introduced by Dr. J. Eric Holmes in the Basic Edition of Dungeons and Dragons (1977) was the springboard to realms of imagination many of us were first introduced to with that blue book. Come drink from the cup of nostalgia and again venture into the ruined tower of Zenopus.

Nothing better that some old school game to start the convention.

For Friday I got tickets for "The Doom Beneath Welkwood Part One (Greyhawk)" - lways spring and the leaves never change color, corruption has crept in. A mysterious druid who lived in an immense grove of roanwood trees and guarded the forest has vanished. An adventure for 4th level (10,000 XP) characters. 

Being a Greyhawk fan since I started playing D&D back in 1988, I'm really looking forward to it. 

Saturday will be the main course! "Legends of Wargaming: Battle of Brown Hills" - This Chainmail fantasy scenario by Gary Gygax was first played by the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association and the Castle & Crusades Society in 1971. Session will be run at 330 Center St. in the same basement where Gary played it 50 years ago! Test your tactical skills in this exciting miniatures game at the roots of Dungeons & Dragons. 

This would be my first miniature game ever. It's a paid event ($50) but totally worth it to celebrate D&D's 50th Anniversary.

The final game on Sunday will be another miniatures game "Ford Over Troubled Waters" - Orcs/goblins hold Castle Ost! The Civilized Races hold Giant's Keep. Between them is lie the ruins of the old Fordhold, with a dragon living there! Who will take Fordhold? Who will defeat the dragon and claim its hoard? Take one of two sides and fight to the finish using Chaos Wars: a fun set of old school miniatures rules with lots of 25mm Ral Partha figures on the table! Prizes awarded to players!

It is run by Michael "Chgowiz" Shorten a long time online friend who I will finally meet in person at the convention. 

The schedule leaves plenty of room to play pickup games and meet new people and old friends I met at GenCon back in 2014. 

Back to F2F games

Yesterday I ran my first face-to-face game since the Covid-19 pandemic. One of my players, who lives in Mexico, is here in Uruguay for a month, so we're looking forward for more face-to-face games. The common feeling around the table, besides the joy of being gathered together, was "How much I missed rolling real dice!". We had one player remote on Meet on a laptop facing the map and miniatures.

The party (an 8th level Cavalier, a 9th level Magic-User, an 8th level Cleric of St. Cuthbert, a 9th level Thief-Acrobat and a 4th level Bard) is going through "G3 - Halls of the Fire Giant King". So far, they've managed to kill King Snurre, about 20 of his fire giants, as well as many of his hell hound pets. Out of spells and exhausted but alive, accompanied by a charmed gnoll, they've retired to a cave nearby to rest and recover. 

A certain dwarf that witnessed the carnage that party made, decided to grab his gear and treasure, and leave the Halls along with the gnolls. An angry and mourning Queen Frupy will certainly muster the remaining forces and lay some nasty surprises for the intruders...

Latest acquisitions

 

Last month I backed up Joseph Bloch's latest Kickstarter for the 10th Anniversary of his mega-dungeon "Castle of the Mad Archmage". I chose the digital copy since I already have the original one in print, and it will make a suitable addition to it. Everything that the Greyhawk Grognard has ever published about it, all in one single tome!

This month Robert J. Kuntz, through Three Line Studio, digitally released "The Return of Robilar". A complete guide of this iconic D&D and World of Greyhawk figure; his stats, history, magical items, companions (Otto and Quij), mounts (3 green dragons!) and more. A must have to celebrate the Lord of the Green Dragons 50th birthday!

Old school dice tower

This weekend finally arrived this dice tower inspired and based on the cover art designed by D.A Trampier from the original first edition D&D Player's Handbook. By removing the head topper you can insert the dices to roll. It's a straight chute so the dices come out at considerable speed. Be sure to have a tray to catch them or you'll be crawling looking for them! I would've preferred something like the usual dice towers, where you can hear the dices bump inside the chute. The fire is LED illuminated and has a switch to turn it on and off, but it would have been better if it was a flickering one. Besides those minor improvements it looks great 

Aylen the Black & Fress

Aylen the magic-user and Fress the thief were created for a D&D Holmes game run by Aron Clark. Fist, we played The Lichway (1978) by Abie Fiore taht was published in White Dwarf magazine #9. The rest of the party were:

Tark (dwarf)

Balzon (fighter)

Franz (fighter)

Caspian (magic-user)

Later, after exploring The Lichway we delved into The Halls of Tizun Thane (1980), also by Abie Fiore, from White Dwarf magazine #18. This time the party had some new members:

Rollo (thief)

Chad (fighter)

What follows is a summary I put together after the fall of Aylen & Fress.

"Pressed by the fact that Fress wouldn't be able to control Lokota the demon much longer, Rollo and Aylen agreed to move forward into Thaark's four-story tower. Chad followed with his lantern. The bottom room was a richly furnished dining room with a long table fully dressed with china and glassware occupying the center. On one end of the table, a fireplace big enough to roast a boar with a 12-inch tall figurine of a casting magic user on the mantle and a dragon skull on the wall above it. On the other end he table a big mirror. Rollo checked the fireplace but found nothing. While Lokota waited here the rest went through a door and up a spiral staircase. The room was relaxing lounge with rugs and comfortable chairs, and also a fireplace. Upon inspection the group discovered the fireplaces were connected, so Fress and Rollo decided to climb the chimney while Aylen and Chad went up the spiral stairs. Lokota waited in this room after laboriously navigating the staircase. The thieves, Rollo carrying just his sword and Fress a dagger, a torch and his waterskin, nimbly ascended the sooty shaft into a dark room smelling of wool and parchment. Strange snores and mumbling could be heard from the room above. Rollo opened the heavy door to let Aylen and Chad in, the torchbearer's lantern revealing a library with countless tomes, some opened in wooden stands, with the floor covered by a thick woolen rug. Fress called Lokota to get there too. Aylen cast Detect Magic hoping to find something of interest here but only perceived a strong dweomer emanating from the room above. Lokota started to make a strange keening noise that was reciprocated from above and a thunderous voice could be heard through the fireplace. 'Who dares to enter my dominions unannounced!?'

The sound of heavy footsteps lumbering down the stairs set everyone but Lokota, that stood its ground, into motion. Rollo hid around a corner, Aylen behind a bookstand, while Chad and Fress tied a rope to a metal ring and threw a rope down the chimney. Thaark, an apeish fur-covered brute clad in a purple robe and wizard hat, both too small for its frame, bursted into the room. The group was slow to react but the demon looked confused by what he saw. Rollo and Fress tried to sweet talk the fiend but things didn't turned as expected and the demon started to cast! Rollo swung his sword but missed. Fress emptied his waterskin on Thaark. The demon cast Charm Person on Fress but the thief resisted. Lokota moved in and launched a barrage of attacks (claws, talons and beak). Aylen cast Frost Shroud on the demons, freezing the water and dealing more damage. Rollo took a step back and reached for his bow but with his frostbitten fingers couldn't take a shot. Fress moved next to Aylen, that was casting again, to retrieve some holy water from her back pack. Thaark used his magic again, this time a blast of fire engulfed the room. Aylen, Fress and Chad fell burned to the ground. Rollo dived away just in time avoiding the flames. The room started to burn, wood, parchment and wool feeding the blaze. Lokota, apparently unaffected by the fire, lounged forward and teared Thaark's flesh with claws and talons, killing the demon, but also grazing Rollo with its beak in its charge. The surviving thief, ignoring Lokota now free from its master, grabbed some potion from the shelves and urged the demon to help him. Lokota agreed and rushed to help Aylen and Fress; poor Chad was a charred corpse beyond all hope. Sadly, despite Rollo's bravery and efforts none of them made it through.

There he stood, face to face with a masterless demon that longed for a heart to be free. He offered the hearts of his fallen companions, that the demon gladly accepted. As Rollo escaped, Lokota feasted on the corpses Aylen and Fress before flying away from the inferno of what once were Tizun's Halls.

My son's first D&D game

My first adventure

Last weekend Ivan, my 6 years old son, asked me if he could play with me what I had played the previous weekend with his cousin Mat. "I want to explore a labyrinth too!" he said. Of course I obliged and brought out the 1983 D&D Players Manual to run the solo adventure. I printed a character sheet for him and then he rolled some 3d6 for the stats. He added the numbers (with little a help) and wrote down the results. Since he wanted a miniature, I took out a box with some 3.x era plastic ones and he spend some time choosing one. He finally selected an orc raider. "Now you have to give it a name and write it down on the character sheet. What's his name?" I asked him. "It's Monster, his name is Monster." he said. OK, it was character after all.

Monster

I let him choose a d20 and a d6 from the die coffer and let him know one was to roll attacks and the other to roll for damage. "How many lives does Monster has?" he asked. "Well, he has only one." I replied. "Only one!?" he complained and looked a bit dismayed. "But he has 8 hit points!" I added quickly and that seemed to be alright for him so we carried on. 

Dungeon entrance

Monster was ready to investigate a labyrinth that was near the town where he lived. I showed him the Elmore drawing of the entrance. "This is the way of the dungeon. Do you dare to explore it?" I asked him in a theatrical voice. "YES!" he said excitedly.

I described him the room with the statue and three exits, and then gave him three choices (listen carefully, explore the room or go through one of the exits). He decided to go down one of the exits...and found two goblins! Combat unfolded with various hits and misses, near tears when Monster got hit and loud cheers when Monster hit the goblins, until he decided to flee back to town. "Because his health bar was too low." he explained. 

Monster didn't find any treasure on his first foray into the dungeon, but he was alive to go adventuring another day! 

Drawing my first dungeon!

After that, he decided that he wanted to run and adventure for me. So, while he drew his dungeon and chose miniatures to populate it, I rolled my character. Then I chose a miniature, named it Marshal and was ready to play. The first room of his labyrinth also had a statue in the center and several exits. I stopped to listen and he told me I could hear a conversation in hushed tones. When I decided to investigate, two statues (that weren't there in the initial room description!) lowered their swords blocking the passage, and a couple of orcs appeared and attacked! I was lucky to defeat both of them. I asked him if they had any treasure on them but there was none, so I took their weapons and went back to town to heal and sell the loot. 

Soon I was ready for another delve into his dungeon. This time I found a room with a "yeti monkey and a dread guard guarding a big chest" that attacked immediately. I lost initiative and the monkey went first. He rolled a natural 20 and grabbed a d10+d4 for damage! 

He TPK'd me on his first game as a DM. I couldn't be more proud.

Playing D&D with my nephew

The first time I played D&D with my nephew Mat was more than a year ago. You can read about that here. After that, we played again on a couple more occasions but I forgot to blog about them and I don't remember when they were. Then we played again last weekend.

D&D next generetion

Let's do some recap...

Session I (14/11/15)

At the end of our first session his group, composed by a fighter, an archer and a magic-user, saved their village from the attack of a necromancer and his skeletal minions. It was a bitter victory because the magic-user died, so they were to go into a quest to revive him. 

Session II (??/??/??)

The session begun at a near town where the local cleric revived the magic-user, but in exchange asked the group to retrieve a holy relic from the ruins of a nearby abbey. The group searched the ruins and found a flight of stairs going down. Mat decided that the group would go downstairs to explore, so I took out a sewer's battle mat from Dragon magazine. Since I wanted to introduce the concept of resource management, I told Mat to write down that each of his guys carried three torches and, as he explored,  I would ask him to cross one out from time to time. He quickly realized he needed to leave some for the way back to the surface or be forced to navigate the place in total darkness.

WoG Cultists

The group set forward to explore a series of abandoned rooms, corridors and sewer tunnels. First they fought and killed a giant rat that thought they were an easy meal. Then some black tentacles with purple suckers emerged from the stagnant water and tried to grab them. Finally they found a couple of identically clad cultists. While one hold them off blocking the walkway, the other fell back to their lair. After defeating the first cultist, Mat came with the brilliant idea of having one of his guys to pose as the dead cultist! 

At that point I asked him to check his torches and he realized he had about half left. He had to decide to press forward or go back. After pondering the situation for a moment Mat decided to stay. The fake cultist moved to find the lair while the rest followed a bit far behind. He managed to trick the remaining cultist into opening the door and they stormed the place. With the last cultist defeated they searched the room and found, not after the thief narrowly avoided a poison needle trap, the relic along with some treasure. 

With that they made their way back to the surface with the risk of running out of light sources.

Session III (??/??/??)

I decided to start this session by rolling stats for the characters and make character sheets for them. I used the 1983 D&D Basic Rules and ran the adventure that comes in the Dungeon Masters rulebook. This was a huge step for Mat since we haven't used any sheet or stats for the party. We used just a d20 to roll the attacks and saves, and to roll damage a d4, d6 and d8  for the magic-user, thief, and fighter respectively. He was really excited about it, because the game took a whole new dimension for him.

I ran the adventure almost 'as is'. In the combat with the carrion crawler, the thief got paralyzed and Mat kept asking if he was dead, but I wouldn't tell until the end of the combat. After the thief recovered, the group went to check the entrance to the ruins and found it was guarded by some kobolds, which Mat renamed as 'dog-men'. The kobolds, sorry, dog-men, were defeated without much effort and their bodies looted. He's a quick learner.

The group then went to explore inside the castle ruins. I was glad to see that Mat remembered the light sources drill from previous sessions. While exploring a bedchamber some zombies emerged from the closet and the cleric attempted to turn them but failed. By that time he had to go so we left the battle for next time.

Session IV (20/05/17)

Braaains!

Last weekend we picked up where we left last time, so we just rolled initiative! The group didn't have much trouble getting past the zombies. After the combat Mat asked 'Where's the treasure?'. 'If there's any treasure, you have to find it.' I replied. 'This is not like a tablet or cell phone game where the gold coins are floating on mid-air.You have to search, you have to tell me you search, otherwise I'll assume you do nothing.' I added. He chew on my words for a bit before he decided to search the place where the zombies came from. He was delighted to found some treasure there (I didn't put it there, it was in the adventure).

After that they came to a room full of crates and boxes with a lonely large box in the center. Mat sent the thief to open the large crate, only to be surprised by another zombie! The cleric failed the turn check again, so the fighter closed in to end the threat.

Exploring further they encountered more dog-men (kobolds) and Mat wanted them to follow him. I secretly made a reaction roll (uncertain). 'They look hesitant. What do you do?' I asked him. 'The fighter will put down his sword and shield, and motion them to come closer.' he said. 'The  kobolds look at each other and slowly get near you.' I told him. Being an evil DM, I was planning to surprise the party (hey, the strongest member have put down his weapons!) when Mat said 'I give them some meat!' That did it. 'They eat the meat hungrily. You now have a group of five kobold following you!'. Looking forward to play again!