using a tablet for tabletop gaming?

[adecoy95]

i was thinking about getting a tablet, perhaps a motorola xoom or a blackberry playbook for tabletop gaming. and i was wondering if anyone here has any experience using these devices or other similar ones for gaming?

i have a laptop, but its cumbersome to use at a table when its crowded with your fellow friends.

i don't know much about the tablets, i tried the blackberry playbook at office max and it was really neat, the keyboard was kinda wierd to use but it comes with little external ones for quick typing.

obviously i would store pdfs of my books and my character sheets, i would like to be able to edit the sheets like you can on some of the ones for the PC, can you on a tablet?

does the text from the book pdfs show through easily, is it difficult to scroll around if you have to look up information in the book?

[LibraryOgre]

In our Savage Worlds game last night, almost everyone had a tablet or netbook. Most of us have the game book as a PDF, and our character sheets on Word.

[adecoy95]

In our Savage Worlds game last night, almost everyone had a tablet or netbook. Most of us have the game book as a PDF, and our character sheets on Word.

how would you compare the experience to using pen/paper and regular rulebooks? is it better?

[mint]

My group has a lot of tablets and laptops. And it is better. No waiting for the eraser again, ever.
I like tablets more than netbooks. For me its a thing where people seem less zoned out with a tablet.

Trying new systems is much easier when everyone has easy access to the pdf.
Also secret notes!
Easy access to information and junk like that.

Not so great if you have problems with immersion or feeling inattentive to begin with maybe. But mostly its pretty great.

[LibraryOgre]

how would you compare the experience to using pen/paper and regular rulebooks? is it better?

It varies. I had a netbook, the DM had a laptop, one player had her iPad, and another had the DM's Playbook. Generally, I found that the netbook and laptop did better... they don't take up appreciably more space, but had a lot more flexibility. Since it was SW, I was able to use a dice roller on my phone fairly easily. The Playbook and iPad did ok with character sheets, but seemed slower than writing or real typing (on a keyboard v. a screen) for taking notes, and weren't nearly as flexible at switching between "book" and "character sheet".

[DontEatRawHagis]

"ctrl + f" is definitely necessary for anyone having a player's handbook on their laptop. There are so many times where I need a search function for fire damage versus heat.

[gbprime]

I'm using a Motion Computing Windows tablet, and I love it. Windows Journal software can turn any PDF or Word file into something I can scribble on with the stylus, which makes for the perfect c-sheet. and having my entire library there is priceless.

Only thing I don't do on the PC is dice rolls, just because I want that d20 out there for everyone to see.

I'll be upgrading to an iPad2 in a few months, since the tablet PC is aging. I'll be getting this app for it to streamline it for the task...

http://www.ajidev.com/iannotate/

[kyoryu]

For those playing 4e with an iPad, I recommend i4e. It's got a few bugs, but it's a nice little tablet character sheet.