Last week Cards & Boards carried a story on how today’s boardgames and role-playing games seem to be meshing into one another.

RPGs are basically becoming more “visual” thanks to the plethora of actual products and components, such as prepainted miniatures and a variety of supplementary play-aids.

(Well, if you missed it, fret not, for you can check it out here.)

Well, looks like the level of “meshness” (sic) has gone up another notch, as a reader has pointed out. (The reader happens to be none other than David Lian, who was interviewed in the said article above!)

Dungeons & Dragons is getting a major ‘hi-tech’ treatment (and we’re not talking about the computer game sort – that’s been done for years now) thanks to Microsoft’s multi-touch product, Microsoft Surface).

Surface is like a giant touchscreen, so you could generate interactive objects and applications such as maps, diagrams and the like. It also recognizes 3D objects placed on it – yes, you can click and move your fingers all over it and the display responds accordingly.

Wired.com reported last October that a pilot project named ‘Surfacescapes’ is being developed on Microsoft Surface technology, to play interactive role-playing games such as D&D.

Now, if this takes off, it looks like all those fancy components such as maps, player stat cards and the like, will go obsolete and become collector’s items. With Microsoft Surface taking care of everything (theoretically anyways – remember, it’s still in the works, and no finished commercial product is available yet), say goodbye to line-of-sight disputes, and the ilk.

All you will (soon) have to do, is to boot up the Surface, kickstart the scenario (I’m imagining that a deep broody voice will even narrate the opening sequence / summarize the adventure / quest), and voila – your playgroup can start placing your miniatures!

Hmmm, maybe they’ll figure out how to generate 3D objects, making miniatures passé. Mmmm, we’ll have to wait and see then!