COVID hit at the height of the rebirth of the mass role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, and although it is not the worst aspect of a plague around the world, nerds who are not allowed to gather at the local hobby shop and pretend to be shitty elves. Fortunately, however, with a little know-how, you can take the fantasy online. Computers can’t replace the face-to-face joy of D&D, but if you remove a few technological hurdles, you can get pretty close.
The technical side of playing paper online can be a little daunting (especially if you’re playing with crusty techno-phobias like me), because there’s no single app or website that offers everything you need to play, so you have to get a little creative. We set up this guide organized first by the simplest technological solutions.
Ein essence, it exists three aspects of Dungeons and Dragons:
- Ccommunication
- Roils and dice
- Table
… and you’ll have to replace each of these things face to face with a computer equivalent. (If you are new to D&D in general, consult the official new guide for players.)
Level one: teleconference only
D&D can be played entirely as a theatrical game of the mind, so everyone need to play are some friends, some agreed rules and a way to communicate. Hell, you could play with Morse code if you want, but teleconferencing programs like Zoom, Skype or Discord will probably work better, plus adding webcams helps Yes face to face sensation.
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To play this way, every player has do their own “accounting”, scrolling, keeping statements and searching for rules, so everyone will need a separate copy of the Player’s manual (essentially, the basic rules of Dungeons and Dragons), a character sheet and a set of dice. From there, it’s just a matter of jumping on Zoom and telling a story together – one with a lot of math.
Speaking of math: computers are really good at that, so if you play D&D this way, you choose not to streamline the most annoying (for me) aspect of the game. Another disadvantage of this style of play is that the “table” part of the table RPG game is missing, so the groups that are in the tactical aspect of the D&D war game will have a bad period, just like the players they play. I like materials, props, miniatures or really something physical.
Also: if you’re playing with a guy who messes things up, you won’t be able to see the roles of death – “Sure, Noah, another natural 20”- so you have to trust your eyes.
Level two: D&D Beyond and teleconferencing
It took Dungeons and Dragons the publisher of Wizards of the Coast for over 20 years to understand, but the fifth D&D edition offers a free online portal, fully integrated, easy to use, elegant. D&D Beyond greatly simplifies and automates the part of documents and mathematics Dungeons and Dragons, freeing players to imagine things and to make bad accents parts of the game.
You can use D&D Beyond to create characters, manage campaigns, roll dice, and even create homebrew spells, classes, objects, and other. Online character sheets allow you to attack, cast spells, gain levels, and do pretty much anything you need just by clicking on the character sheet. It will add all the modifiers and what not, and spit out the numbers you need for the story to flow. Dungeon Masters can create campaigns, invite players to them, and easily share notes and documents.
Perhaps best, D&D Beyond allows players to share cards. As long as a player has a $ 5.99 Master Tier account, any official card published on the site can be shared with players in a campaign. This means that only one person has to purchase a module or extension as a rule and everyone can use it. In a move reminiscent of pushing the neighborhood into a 1980s anti-drug ad, Wizards of the The coast really gives the first taste for free: The basic version of the D&D rules are available right now, for nothing. Go on, try it. You will not become addicted to one game…
Level three: Combining a virtual dining table, D&D Beyond and teleconferencing
The highest level of online D&D adds a virtual table to your game. This allows players to move on a common map, roll virtual dice that everyone can see, and gives the dungeon owner plenty of options in the game to spice things up. up.
Are a series of dedicated applications and websites to allow players to all use the same common space (and millions of pages of geek arguments about which is the best and why), but the most commonly used virtual table is Roll20, a free, web-based application that is relatively easy to Use it for players and provide everything you need to start your joint fantasy adventure.
Players will need to have a basic understanding of how computers work and can be a little difficult at first, so if you’re playing with noobs, you should probably start with a game without expectations to learn how to run things. Also: I highly recommend Beyond20 Chrome extensions that integrate D &D Beyond with Roll20.
Just like in the role-playing game in pen and paper, Dungeon Master has to do a lot more work in Roll20 than the players – the price of being God, I think – so if you’re DMing, you’ll have to prepare. Fortunately, there are plenty of detailed online tutorials that you can study. Start here.
Roll20 lets you use full campaigns from Wizards of the Coast and independent developers, complete with pre-made maps, documentation, NPC chips, and everything else you need to get started, and even offers a few one-shot and mini-campaigns. free campaigns. To do online transition as smooth as possible, you should probably start with a pre-made game.
Once you’ve climbed the original Roll20 technology hill with an inclusive module or two, you can run your own, import your own maps, make your own appointments, and otherwise create the ideal fantasy world.
You can use Roll20 to run an improv-heavy game, anything can happen on the go, if you’re fast enough. You can even add custom sounds, music and effects, as well as delve into Macro scripts and APIs if you want to be really geeky …and it’s D&D, so you probably want to get really weird.