Truesight Battle Grid - Enhancing the Game Experience of Tabletop Role-Playing through Tangible Data Visualization
Bas A. Plijnaer, Daisy O’Neill, Eloisa Kompier, Günter Wallner, Regina Bernhaupt · 2020
Data visualization is often used in computer gaming to provide feedback to players. However, little research has investigated its potential in hybrid physical/digital tabletop games, or for tabletop role-playing games. Building upon the benefits of tangible interfaces we introduce and report on the design of the Truesight Battle Grid, a modular, tangible battle grid for the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Through visualizing game-play possibilities with lights, it aims to provide players with information about the fantasy world without being distracting. We report on a preliminary evaluation with two focus groups - showing that the tool was helpful and is able to contribute to an engaged audience - and reflect on possibilities for future work.