How to Play D&D Online
“Sorry, the Displacer Beast bit your left hand off.”
“What? I think you’re muted...”
“Oh. That better? Okay, you’re now a one-handed dwarf, like this!” shares screen
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Technology hasn’t always made things easier. If 2020-2021 has shown us anything (besides being “unprecedented times”), it’s that Zoom is both the best and the worst thing ever. We’re all Zoom’ed out. We Zoom at work, at school, with friends, and with family.
But on the plus side, this virtual meeting room has allowed us to expand our horizons like never before. One of the best things to come out of last year was the steep rise in online gaming, and I’m not talking about CoD: MW or WoW.
I’m talking about D&D.
We’ve all seen D&D played, on Stranger Things, on Community, or, if you’re a fan of Rick & Morty like I am (and chances are you are too if you’re reading a Blog post about online gaming), HarmonQuest. But the limited social interactions we’ve been able to have for the past 20 months could have meant an abrupt halt to these tabletop games, where traditionally a group of friends/players sit around a single table rolling dice and talking in funny voices.
But thankfully, that’s not so. D&D (and other similar “TTRPGs” - Tabletop Role-Playing Games”) has advanced to a virtual forum, and best of all, it doesn’t have to be Zoom! If you’ve been interested in getting into D&D, or have played for years and stopped due to “adult” or the pandemic, you’ll be happy to know that the game is fully accessible in a digital platform, and you don’t need to be a computer whiz to navigate it, so long as you have a competent DM (Dungeon Master).
I run several online games a month, and being a traditionalist, I like to keep a physical battle grid, 3D miniatures & environment pieces/tiles, and good ol’ magic marker. I host some of my games on Zoom (I promise, it’s not so bad!), where I simply point my camera at the map to let players know what’s going on during an encounter. I still roll physical dice, keep track of stats and Hit Points using pencil & paper, and move the pieces around the board the old fashioned way: by picking them up. With Zoom’s screen-sharing, I can showcase images of the monster(s) my party is fighting, or display a puzzle or map on-screen so everyone doesn’t have to crowd around to see 1 sheet of paper. Last session, I full-screen’ed a POV video of a runaway mine-cart to simulate a scenario for my players. I add in lighting effects (thanks, Alexa!) and music/sound effects, which is (mostly) transferred through my mic/camera to my players’ watching eyes. It is a bit tricky to toggle between screens when I need to review notes, so I keep print-outs and manuals handy. It “feels like” D&D, even if it’s a bit…remote. Still, everyone always has a great time.
Other games are run using a variety of online tools. Discord has become the go-to for audio connection, and in many games, especially on sites like https://startplaying.games, players never actually see each other face-to-face. Rather, the DM uses a mix of Roll20 and D&D Beyond to simulate the on-table experience. D&D Beyond allows players to create their entire character online, and by linking this with the Roll20 platform, they can simply click a button on said sheet and a virtual dice rolls for them, taking into account all of their modifiers etc., and displays their roll for all to see in Roll20. Furthermore, Roll20 lets the DM create virtual maps, place the Player Characters (PCs) and Non-Player Characters (NPCs) on the map, and add in environmental features like walls, doors, trees, and much more. The players can move their own characters around the screen but nothing else, and using “Fog of War”, the DM can also slowly reveal areas which the characters are unable to see until they, say, open a door or round a bend. Roll20 also has a built-in audio component which is probably the best way to play music (which I’m a huge fan of) during a game, although you need to use their audio library or purchase any other song you play. Roll20 can have a bit of a learning curve, but is definitely easier for players than it is for the DM, who has to construct a lot more and put in ample prep time, rather than just making a physical battle map at home.
Point being: if you’re someone who has loved D&D in the past, or someone who has heard how fun it is but is way too scared to try it out alone, it can in many ways be easier and less stressful to join an online gaming group than go to a physical table at a hobby shop or a friend’s house. I recommend checking out Roll20 and D&D Beyond, and of course, here at Tabletop Now we offer virtual AND live sessions…so let’s jump in and get rollin’!