COVID reached the height of the resurgence of table RPG Dungeons and Dragons, and although it is not the worse aspect of a worldwide plague, nerds not allowed to meet at the local hobby store and pretend to be elves really sucks. Fortunately, though, with a little knowledge, you can take fantasy online. Computers cannot replace the joy of face-to-face D&D, but if you overcome some technological hurdles, you can get pretty close.
The technical side of putting your role game online can be a little scary (especially if you play with crunchy techno-phobes like me) because there is no single app or website that provides everything you need to play, so you have to start a little creative. I set up this guide organized first by the simplest solutions from a technological point of view.
ANDessentially there are three aspects of Dungeons and Dragons:
- ÇCommunication
- Rules and data
- The table top
… and you will need to replace each of these things face to face with a computer equivalent. (If you are new to D&D in general, check the new player guide.)
Level one: conference call only
D&D can be played entirely as a theater game of the mind, so all of you need to play are some friends, some agreed rules and a way to communicate. Hell, you could play around with Morse code if you wanted to, but teleconferencing programs like Zoom, Skype or Discord will probably work better, and adding webcams helps to give The face to face.
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To play this way, each player has to do your own “accounting”, data entry, statistics maintenance and rule research, then everyone will need a separate copy of Player’s Book (essentially the basic rules of Dungeons and Dragons), a character sheet and a data set. From there, it’s just a matter of jumping on Zoom and telling a story together – a with a lot of math.
Speaking of mathematics: computers are really good at that, so if you’re playing D&D that way, you’re choosing not to simplify the most annoying aspect (for me) of the game. Another disadvantage of this style of play is that the “table” part of the table RPG is missing, so that groups that are in the tactical aspect of D&D war game will have a bad time, as well as players who like handouts, props, miniatures, or really anything physical.
Also: if you play with a guy who forges things, you won’t be able to see his dice moves— “Sure, Noah, it was other 20 natural”—Then you have to trust your peeps.
Level two: D&D beyond and conference call
It took Dungeons and Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast for over 20 years to get it right, but the fifth D&D edition offers a free, fully integrated, easy to use and intelligent online portal. D&D beyond greatly simplifies and automates the bureaucratic and mathematical part of the Dungeons and Dragons, freeing players for parts of the game to imagine things and do bad things.
You can use D&D Beyond to create characters, manage campaigns, roll dice and even create homemade spells, classes, items, and more. Online character sheets allow you to attack, cast spells, gain levels and do basically anything you need just by clicking on your character sheet. It will add all of your modifiers and whatnot, and spit out the numbers you need to keep the story flowing. Dungeon Masters can create campaigns, invite players and share notes and handouts easily.
Perhaps best of all, D&D Beyond allows players to share books. As long as a player has a $ 5.99 Master Tier account, any official book published on the website can be shared with players in a campaign. This means that only one person needs to buy a rule module or expansion and everyone can use it. In a movement that resembles the neighborhood dealer in an anti-drug ad from the 1980s, Wizards of the Coast it even gives the first taste of grace: The basic version of the D&D rules is available now, You’re welcome. Go ahead, try it. You will not be addicted to 1 games…
Level three: Combining a virtual table, D&D Beyond and conference call
The top level of online D&D is to add a virtual table to your game. This allows players to move around on a shared map, play virtual dice that everyone can see and gives the dungeon master a ton of options in the game to spice things up above.
have a series of apps and websites dedicated to allowing all players to use the same shared space (and millions of pages of geek arguments about which one is better and why), but the most commonly used virtual table top is Roll20, a free web-based application that is relatively easy for use for players and presents everything you need to continue your shared fantasy adventure.
Players will need to have a basic understanding of how computers work, and it can be a little tricky at first, so if you’re playing with newbies, you should probably start with a game with no expectations to figure out how to operate things. In addition: I strongly recommend Beyond20 Chrome extensions that integrate D &D Beyond with Roll20.
As in pen and paper RPG, the Master of the Dungeon has to do a lot more work in Roll20 than the players – the price of being God, I think – so if you’re playing, you need to prepare. Fortunately, there are a ton of detailed tutorials online for you to study. Starts here.
Roll20 allows you to use complete campaigns from Wizards of the Coast and independent developers, complete with pre-made maps, documentation, NPC tokens and everything else you need to get started, and even offers some unique campaigns and mini-campaigns for free. To do online transition as easy as possible, you should probably start with a pre-made game.
After climbing the initial Roll20 technological hill with one or two inclusive modules, you can roll your own, import your own maps, make your own encounters and otherwise create your ideal fantasy world.
It is possible to use Roll20 to perform a heavy improvisation style game, anything can happen instantly, if you are fast enough. You can even add custom sounds, music and effects, as well as dive into macros and API scripts if you want to be really geeky …and it’s D&D, so you’re probably going to want to be really geeky.