Surfacescapes uses new technology to integrate playing surfaces with digital information, and data from players as well as Dungeon Masters. Check out the video below for a better look see...

This is a pretty cool idea.

I still like my old battlemat, and I am a huge fan of miniatures and terrain, but I can see this will be another natural evolution of the game. I have seen a lot over the past few years with regards to this new technology, and I am excited to see where this will go in the future.


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Looks a little slow right now, but that's got tons of potential. CMU is working on some pretty cool stuff technology, it's cool to see it applied to D&D. Some lucky Grad Student is working on this for their thesis . . . .

Clearly I squandered my research topics on less useful subjects.

More information on the TOUCH applications for D&D being tested by CMU.
Click here: http://news.cnet.com/...

I'm not sold yet, but it's coming along. Huge improvements over the last video.

impressive. the key would be the ability to modify how it operates so it would support other rule systems. and hex. for the love of god, who still uses square graph paper?

== stanton

Anyone using a wotc product (which is a lot of people). Most of the Mongoose Traveller stuff is done on a square grid (I know because I have most of that stuff). The square grid is a lot more prevalent than hex if you ask me. Of course I did find a company that makes hex tiles for terrain casting in the vein of Hirst Arts.

I would say everyone playing 4E uses them, as movement and combat resolution in the 4E engine directly reference squares.

"FACING" while a common element in other games, does not come into play in D&D 3.5 & 4.0

If "FACING" were an issue, I would think they would probably change the geometric reference, but as long as a mini is "threatening" 360 degrees the hexes are not a necessity.

Hexes do look cooler though.

hexes also are better for LoS and distance calculation, no need to fudge fractions and stuff. because lets face it, the diagonal of a square is NOT 1.5 the distance of the edge. once you hit 10+ squares, the round off factor does become appreciable.

the one thing i have to hand to steve jackson, using hexes over squares in the fantasy trip was a real eye opener and changed how i looked at combat.

my general point though is i hope they develop this system "rule agnostic" so that if a GM wanted to plug in hexes versus squares, or custom rules, it wouldnt require a several years of reverse engineering.... because not everyone plays d20. ;-)

== stanton

Very true, I don't play any d20 product at this point in time. The majority still use the square grid though. I am considering using a hex grid for my Villains and Vigilantes group though, especially since the combat rules do take "facing" into consideration. Of course I am going to have to tape some sort of strict facing template to the bottom of my miniatures I think, just to head off any arguments about which direction the character is facing before they can crop up.