So listening to the podcast today when Vinny mentioned what if Xcom had Skylanders figures. I got thinking about DnD. How sick would it be to buy your tabletop characters that have a chip inside of them that keeps track of their character sheet with all their stats. You could even buy generic unpainted ones and paint them yourself. You can make your party of 5 or so and scan them into the game or whatever. Players can make modules like in the orginal neverwinter nights game etc. etc.

Sorry nerd rant, but think that would be pretty fuckin cool lol.

I think Jeff mentioned this exact idea back when the first Skylanders was a thing. It definitely sounds like a cool way to use the tech.

I fully expect that this will happen at some point.

The same goes for stuff like Heroclix and Warhammer.

@Kerned said:

I fully expect that this will happen at some point.

I think you overestimate the ability of WotC to smartly capitalize on their license.

Last time I checked people are still using a free, kinda obscure tool to play dnd over the internet. Its 2012. What the fuck are they even doing

@FoolishChaos: A man can dream...

This can be done with other themes as well, I'm surprised Pokemon hasn't jumped on the Skylanders bandwagon, it could sell BILLIONS!

I already have to buy new books every 5 years, and who knows what else. Please don't make me buy figures for 15$ to play a game that is mostly played in my imagination.

@FoolishChaos: Do you really think that they could charge for a tool? Wizards of the cost are doing just fine. They make plenty of money off of D&D by merchandising like the Lords of Waterdeep board game. This actually seems like a perfectly logical progression.

@slayergnome said:

@FoolishChaos: Do you really think that they could charge for a tool? Wizards of the cost are doing just fine. They make plenty of money off of D&D by merchandising like the Lords of Waterdeep board game. This actually seems like a perfectly logical progression.

They've been charging for tools for years now. But they were ungodly slow at releasing them, and last I checked (probably 8 months ago), I wouldn't say anything but the character builder could be described as a quality piece of software.

edit: I do hope that they do something cool with this though, trust me I do. But it doesn't seem like the best employees at WotC give a shit about software

Maybe everyone is just waiting for the market to pick back up. Whenever that will be...