The big test was tonight, running Battlestar Galactica.  For this campaign, I’ve usually got several files open in WordPerfect on my computer — the night’s episode, the command staff NPC list, other NPC list, and the fleet vessels stats.  About 400kb a file when moved over to .pdf for the big files.

The programs used were the same: Diceshaker, PDF Reader, and some light internet use at one point using Safari.  The main concern for me was swapping between the adventure notes and NPC files — it worked fine and wasn’t particularly slow — one good point with PDF Reader:  when you open files you’ve been using, it opens them in the last position in the manuscript you were, so I was always back to where I had been on the episode notes.  Swapping over to Diceshaker was easy enough.

I had a slight issue with Diceshaker in that I had to set up a pair (in case a character/NPC had two of the same dice to roll) of each die that might be used for Cortex (d2-d12) and roll each pair separately to get the results (i.e. I need, say a d8+d6 for the character, so I roll the 2d6 and take the first, then roll the 2d8…)  Problem?  Not really.  I’m just used to having the dice set to roll at one time on the laptop dice program.

No big battles, just a knockdock-dragout between a doped up deckhand (essentially on meth) and a couple of the players.  Mirth and violence ensured with little trouble running it.

I’ve got to say, after a few times taking the tablet to the game table instead of the laptop…I like it.  It’s small and light — a big consideration if you have to carry a bunch of books with you (and even better if you can just load those books onto the device!) or have limited carry space, as I do on my Triumph.  The battery life is incredible, the screen is bright and easy to read (make sure you hide the screen behind a GM screen or something; players can often read the notes from several yards away.)

At this point I’m willing to give the iPad a qualified thumbs up as a GM/gamer tool.