I remember back in the foggy vastness of the past how valuable having a decent gaming surface was when playing Dungeons and Dragons. My friend Chris and I eventually hacked together a particle board, mactac “wood grain” and screw on leg monstrosity for gaming. I’m not sure what ever happened to that, but I’m sure it is a treasured heirloom.
Almost as treasured as something like this: the Sultan gaming table. An actual, honest to goodness piece of furniture beautifully crafted for gamers. Each player has their own “station”, with the game master getting the deluxe treatment. There are dedicated areas for rolling dice, a multi-layer map surface, panels to cover over the game in progress and turn the thing into a massive “multi-purpose” table- it even has cup holders! Mind you, for nearly $10,000, I guess it should have cup holders. If I were still gaming for half a dozen hours every weekend the way we did back when I was between 15 and 25, I could almost see buying this.
I’m sure Irene would be on board…
Only 1/2 a dozen hours? *lol*
It’s very nice and if I was a very wealthy gamer I’d be looking at it. Mind you since it is 9 feet long you would need a suitable room.
And I have to say, I just can’t see the average DM squeezing all his “stuff” into that amount of space. I recall often having the size of small asian apartment with papers 😉
Mind you, nowadays I would expect ( or provide, if I am going to spend 10K on a table,) a network linked netbook for each player as well.
I would be very curious as to how many they sell. Generally the guys that spend enough time gaming to really use a table like that don’t have the money, and those that have the money don’t have time ort ambition to game that much anymore.
Re: 1/2 a dozen hours… I have recollection of pretty regular 12 hour sessions for several years: mixed in there were a few 20+ hour marathons. But my gut tells me that was balanced out by the five years or so we spent playing later on: I think most of our sessions the last five years or so were probably less than eight hours? But memory is a tricky thing…
Regarding how many they sell- I had the same question. I have felt like “traditional” gaming is a dying hobby, but I could be completely out of touch. And that table isn’t just for D&D or even RPGs: war games, miniature games, and related simulations all have similar “paper and marker” needs. I suspect, though, that the market is pretty thin: maybe a half dozen tables a year or something.