So this is an idea I've been toying with for a bit.
One of my players has a projector that plugs into a laptop. I've been thinking of actually building the dungeon they'll be going into in Minecraft and then allowing them to explore it and map it themselves, instead of relying on hand-drawn maps and descriptions to explain room layout.
My question is, do you think this sounds like it'd be something fun to do in a game, or would moving the character around sound like it'd be too distracting and gimmicky immersion breaking?
My vote is for distracting and gimmicky.
But, then again, I'm not big on Minecraft.
At some point, you cross a certain line where you're no longer playing a tabletop RPG, but rather a computer game. I'm not sure where that line is, and I don't know if this point is across it. However, I feel like it's there somewhere.
I'll admit I'm worried about that line. Out of curiosity, would the distracting/gimmicky be because the look and feel of minecraft in particular - if it was a smoother, nicer looking game would that be better - or is it more the very fact that it dances so close to that line?
It's more that it is so close. I don't think it has anything to do with the look of the game, to be honest. It's that the players are manipulating a game, directly, and getting response from it, rather than the usual dynamic of saying what they're doing and then getting new information from the GM.