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ePawn to Merge Gaming & Virtual Reality?
January 20, 2012 by brennon
There have been attempts in the past to merge the worlds of wargaming and board games with the virtual world, but most have not got further than the white board. Wizards of the Coasts at one point were trying to run out the virtual table top, but that didn't get too far. So what about ePawn?
ePawn as the trailer shows above, allows you to use real world pieces with their online and mobile games. Pretty impressive to think that you could forgo the pain of using dungeon tiles and just swipe the last encounter away to make room for a new one. Or even play your board games all on one tablet?
Is this something you would ever use, or is it more of a luxury item?
Gimmick. I’ll stick to my traditional floor plans, gaming tables and wonderfully made boardgames.
They still work without a power supply, or when dropped on the floor by accident.
If you need to lash out hundreds of pounds on an iPad or similar you can forget it … 🙂
Gimmicky products like that can’t replace real physical thing.
“gimmick” was what people said about camera phones and smartphones with touchscreens… Now, not only is it all the rage, but people find them useful in a myriad of ways.
Time will tell if this is the future for our hobby, but I’m sure eager to see one !
I agree – this example may not be quite right, but the possibilities are huge. No I’m not rushing out to get one, but will keep a keen eye on this.
this particular style of device is a dead end, however it is increasingly likely that tabletop surface computers will be a commercially viable product in about 5 years or so – once you’re got an entire interactive table surface to play with it’ll be worthwhile.
Romain. That’s a bit of a stretch to compare a useful daily piece of hardware like a phone to a luxury and entirely niche item like using a touch tablet for roleplay gaming.
Also, I’d rather support the entire traditional wargames hobby and roleplaying manufacturers by buying resin scenery, mdf scenery and the other myriad of real companies supporting our hobby than line the pockets of another software developer trying to elbow thier product into another commercial arena.
When did mobile phones cease to be a luxury? Sure, they’re ubiquitous, but only because they’re cheap.
In much the same way that tablet computers are taking off, there’s now a big push on touchscreen tech. Microsoft want to have their Surface computer helping you to order food at restaurants, and show off your digital photo album on an electronic coffee table at home, which is going to have all the every-day uses of a real computer.
I don’t think it’s any stretch of the imagination to think that when this type of technology becomes a common sight that we use it often enough to cease considering it a luxury.
Precisely the problem “it’s all the rage” like hula hoops used to be …. 🙂
I agree. The idea itself is not a gimmick, but I think this example is. The guys doing the same thing with the Microsoft table put a lot more thought and work into theirs than these guys did with this. This looks like an attempt to cash in on another “I” device.
The table tech is coming, I agree. With the development of things like gorilla glass 2 plus some of the coming advances in microprocessors and software, we may start looking down on our screens more than looking up at them.
This vid looks like someones college project.
not useful for wargames, damn useful for “rpg” games, which these days seem to be less abour ROLE playing and more about skirmish-gaming with your characters instead. Gimmicky if you don’t have a tablet now, but in 2-3 years most people will probably have some form of smartphone so it won’t be a gimmic anymore.
I like far more their screenLess Arena , you can put your own terrain and use another device ( cellphone, tv, PC or whatever ) to make the process and showing of effects.
With a webcam well placed in the top and a computer connected to the arena it can take care of all the rule process and result of your actions while you just have to decide what you want to do.
That is what for me is a really big improvement that take the best of both worlds, virtualize the processing of rules and outcomes and add some awesome effects while you keep your terrain and miniatures as it use to be :).
See the screenLess Arena (they need to make them bigger surface…):
http://youtu.be/_Kvk2YzMInA
http://www.epawn.fr/products/
Definitely the best example theyve shown. Means the iPad could be the DM enabling solo play or co-op with 2 players (eg me and the wife).
I think this is a terrific concept and really interesting and i have no problem with the advancement of our hobby in any form but i do feel its impact would have more of a detrimental than positive effect on the hobby. For me, one of the things i enjoy the most about wargaming is the tangible aspect of the hobby, having something to show for your efforts, hard work, creativity and time. I enjoy supporting indepentent product suppliers of terrain and miniatures, building wargaming table and terrain and having something exciting to play on where i can stand back and admire my work and say ‘i made this’. For me, its what separates our hobby from the video gaming community, the pratical application of artistic skill. Whilst a truly neat idea, its not something i will be exploring because it would eliminate a key part of the hobby that i find most enjoyable. Owning a fantastic piece of terrain or gaming board thats been made by you and you gaming group is just as wonderful as owning a prized painted miniature and the reduction of that kind of activity takes away a key communal aspect of the hobby as well as the potential for independent manufacturers to make a profit in an industry they are devoted to for probably not much profit. Im sure this type of virtual gaming display will find its way into some collections but it wont be included in mine. Still, excellent innovation. Just not in keeping with the true spirit of the hobby and for that reason above all others, im saying no.
Read the comment and video that put up there, i feel the same way and the screenLess Arena that they produce is the solution (and even more cheaper! ). I don’t know why they show the other one that is not terrain friendly -.-
I agree, the screenless arena does look better. Saves a heck of a lot of time and confusion resolving combat, special abilities, etc.
For once I’m going to stand up for a new idea like this. The reason, because this can open the door for people that could care less about the making of a table or terrain. Doing traditional games takes lots of resorces and time to make that really I don’t have ether. I see this as a stepping stone to what could be.
Think of this. Infinity is one of the best games out these days. One of the main hinderinces of the game is it’s need for lots of terrain. (Most of my gamer friends point that out as the reason to not invest into it) Can you imagine having a interactive table with a map and all its terrain on it like this in a birds eye view. You can place your minis on it just like this. Each person has an pad wired up to your table that can take you from BEV to second or first person point of view. Now that can really make gaming a lot more apealing to the average Joe.
What I like about the ePawn itself is the puck idea. From the looks of it, if you place your mini faceing the front of the puck you got a front arc that can give you the options that you would have as in game. No more debates about that slight angle that you say is in and he says its out.
Totally agree, there are games that need a lot of terrain and some players just want to buy 1 or 2 starter sets and play the game !
if you roleplay , and use fantasy grounds, it really enables the players to visualise the game , so I can see this working for tabletops…
Looks great and anything that advertises itself using AT43 gets my vote
No need to mix, pour, glue and paint millions of Hirst Arts molds for RPG’s. Easy play for 4th ed ADnD, AT43 game play etc all look good. Issue will be price, games support and does it have mains power
You get my thumbs up for pointing out the heady goodness of the ePawn team for using AT43.
Given the rise of the large screen internet capable TV combined with kinect style control interfaces I’d say the future was 50″ LCD/LED shaped rather than pokey screened tablets or table style screens …. what would you prefer to play on …. an iPad sized device or a 40″ Sony internet TV – very similar price points at the minute …
lugging a 40″ telly round to your mates might be a problem plus it need to be touch screen capable. Also I thought the ipad/iphone plugged into the ePawn. Im looking forward to a roll up table screen that you can pop out of a carry tube, roll over the table, plug in your iphone/ipad/android/pc and get playing
I can see both sides of the arguement for and against this
As a side note I play rpgs a lot and until about 3 months ago never used anything beyond words and rolling dice in my sessions
Sooo people are liking this idea, but not Exillis? huh?
True, the problem is that Exillis just work for their game and not for any other ( at least that’s what i know ). Is pretty awesome but is not open to reuse and make itself a standard for AR board games ( i don’t know why people don’t get that open source is the way to go -.- )
Ex illis runs the game and has a virtual battle field as well as needing minis and the battle board…this seems to just replace the need to have dnd playmats or terrain. Slight difference but enough to maybe appeal more to folks.
However I see it working better for rpg rather than wargames
May I suggest to look at this flavor of our technology as it has been designed for the hobby:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfSAb1ABZgw&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Large surface, support of 3d landscape modules, no risk of being broken when falling on the floor,…
And provides some help to compute lines of sight, blast areas, etc.
I really like it but the trackers on the bottom of the bases are just too big, line of sight would be clearly affected by it or you have to make all the terrair higher that it should ( a side that it’s ugly to move a big pillar while the perfection would be to me a fully transparent base so that the mini and the terrain fusion perfectly.
They need to make them insertable in the base so that they don’t increase the size. Maybe using some type of small Arduino like this one http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/ArduinoLilyPad and signal emitters would be a lot easier.
Review this a little more, it can be done with a XBee+Accelerometers+some ultra-thin-battery. I saw it is very expensive the cost per unit but it achieve a less than 5 mm additional height with seems a lot less that what is shown in the video.
If someone is interested i can send you the info, it works with wifi and arduino platform.
What this woulld be really interesting for would be to play online. Inagine being able to dip in and out of TTWG while on the go