The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a unique challenge for players of tabletop Role Playing Games like Dungeons & Dragons. Many businesses have temporarily closed in an effort to slow the spread of the virus, so players actually have synergised free time to get together and play games. At the same time, health experts are strongly advising social distancing and sheltering in place so meeting in person is out of the question.
The obvious solution is to hold sessions online, but with multiple virtual tabletops, chat apps, and other online tools it can be difficult to find an approach that works well for one group or another. Ultimately, your online role-playing setup will depend on the preferences of the players and Dungeon Master as well as the amount of time invested ahead of the session. Decisions about how sessions are organized should be discussed among the group before any approach is decided on. Anyone considering moving their game online should talk with their fellow players and decide together how to proceed.
Theater of the Mind
Some D&D groups can get by with just rule books, character sheets, and dice. The DMs and players in these groups tend to prefer using their imagination to drawing things out on paper. For this type of group, the online setup should be as simple as possible. Startup a Skype call or Google Hangout, whichever the group prefers, and proceed as normal. If players are trustworthy enough, they can roll physical dice and say the result out loud. For other players, who may or may not be named Gary, that conveniently reach for the snacks and bump the table when they roll a one, an online dice roller is required. Rollz and Roll For Your Party are a couple of examples of rollers that won’t set off your antivirus.
This approach works best for games with low stakes and players and DMs that are comfortable with a fair amount of ambiguity while playing. If a group is considering going the bare-bones approach, everyone in that group should be ready to be flexible about fictional positioning and rules.
Graph Paper and Pencils
The advantage of the Theater of the Mind approach is its simplicity. Its disadvantage is that it lacks clarity. Some groups can roll for years and never need to break out the graph paper maps but others need to see it to really get it. This is especially true for groups that enjoy perilous adventures where the player characters are frequently in mortal danger. For these groups, it's more important for everyone to be on the same page.
Adding screen sharing to the Theater of the Mind approach can bring much-needed clarity to a session. Google Hangouts, Discord, and Skype all offer screen sharing. Meeting for a session this way does preclude using the mobile versions of these apps since screen sharing doesn’t really work on a smaller screen.
This approach also requires more prep by the DM. At the bare minimum, they’ll need to download a PDF of a graph paper grid to share with their players. DMs with slightly more of a sense of presentation will want to use a drawing tool like MS paint to sketch out a coarse map. Another option is to use a generator like Medieval Fantasy City Generator or Azgaar’s Fantasy Map Generator to make a map to share.
As with the Theater of the Mind, players can still roll their physical dice.
Bespoke Maps and Minis
The first two approaches to online role-playing games are meant for fairly casual groups. More serious bands of adventurers will need a more robust tool than the ones above. Luckily there are a few Virtual Table Tops out there designed specifically for RPGs.
Roll20 has the advantage of being free to start up a campaign but the app does have a marketplace where maps, character art, and campaign modules are sold. Another useful aspect of Roll20 it the open-source nature of the platform. While there is no shortage of official maps, modules, and art on the app there is also a lot of homebrew content, sometimes available for free. Roll20 is also system agnostic, you can run anything from D&D to The Burning Wheel.
The Roll20 interface can be a bit clunky to use so DMs will want to check out the tutorials on the app’s YouTube channel. Some features of the app include: voice and video chat, integrated character sheets, monster stat blocks, a dice roller, an initiative tracker, a searchable compendium of game rules, dynamic lighting, fog of war, and animated environmental and spell effects.
Some other options with a similar feature set to Roll20 are Fantasy Grounds, Arkenforge, and GM Forge. These apps all require an initial purchase to start with so it would be best to test out Roll20 and see if this type of tool will work for a given group.
While these apps are useful and add a lot of value to a D&D session they require a much greater time commitment than the other two approaches. Groups considering this approach should be honest with each other about expectations for sessions so that the DM isn’t overwhelmed with preparation.
Whatever approach to online gaming a group chooses, communication is a crucial factor in creating a fun and welcoming gaming environment, just like with in-person sessions. Post-session chats about what did and didn’t work for people are essential to a successful group. Gaming safety tools like the “X” card and Lines and Veils should also be implemented if they aren’t already being used. The additional barrier of a screen and video chat delay can make it easy to go too far and make a fellow player uncomfortable without intending to.
Now you should be ready to get the gang back together online.