In case you’re somehow unfamiliar, the tabletop roleplaying game called Dungeons and Dragons has seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years. Because of this newfound popularity, various services and discord groups have popped up to better facilitate your party’s adventure into the forgotten realms. One such service is known as Roll20, a play on words for the dice roll required for critical success in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition.

So, do these services actually work? Are they worth it? According to TheGMSays.com, they do work, and very well at that!

So, what is DnD?

So maybe you didn’t grow up as a total dork in the early 90s and missed out on the whole trench-coated sessions of dungeons and dragons trend. Maybe you’re wondering what the hell a DM is. Let me break it down for you.

Dungeons and Dragons is a pen and paper-based roleplaying game that can be set in virtually any set or setting, however, it usually occupies a space that most would consider high fantasy. The game works by one player essentially acting as the world (this player is known as a dungeon master or DM) and the NPC’s (that’s a non-player character to you), and the “party”, a band of roving adventurers (AKA your friends huddled around a table), is played by the rest of the group. Each player, according to the guidebook, designs a character to their liking and acts as though they are that character interacting with the world the Dungeon Master has set up for them.

There is a seemingly infinite number of combinations of character traits, classes (think of these as your character’s “job”, what they do out in the world), races, and abilities, and character creation reflects that.

Probability and seemingly random events such as battles, attempts at persuasion, or various other skill-based interactions with the world are decided by the role of one or several kinds of dice; the most commonly used die is the 20 sided die, or the “D20”.

Roll 20

Normally when you play Dungeons and Dragons, it involves everyone going to your DM’s house, gathering around a table laden with notebooks, dice, reference books, and of course, snacks, while you traverse the perilous wilds of the Forgotten Realms. It used to be that everyone needed to be in the same place so that everyone could see dice rolls, share media props, and just have a general friendly banter throughout the adventure.

Roll 20 is an internet-based service that essentially acts as the meeting point for your party. It is a part chat room, part video game, part social media platform; it’s kind of a lot. Think of it as acting as the table you would normally gather around. You can share maps, ambient music, video, or other media with the group should you desire. It also has built-in tools to facilitate dice rolls in an easy-to-use, chatbox style format. Roll 20 also has various forms of premade media (maps, ambient music, etc) that can be used to increase the level of immersion your players feel. Essentially, Roll20 is an electronic DM’s tool kit. It provides the DM with all the tools necessary to run a great, immersive, fun, and accessible game of Dungeons and Dragons while also not getting bogged down in the sheer level of detail available for pen and paper RPGs. That’s really my favorite thing about Roll20; it truly unchains the DM and breaks the limits for what is possible in gaming.

One of my favorite things about Roll20 is that you don’t even need to bring a group. The service facilitates “looking for group” (or LFG) services so that you can find your way in the great pretend unknown even if you don’t bring your own group with you. This is where that “part social media platform” bit comes into play. Groups, DM’s, or just regular players will post listings looking for the “missing parts” of their game, and since it’s virtual, you can now play from anywhere, regardless of your party members’ physical location.

Great! Where and how do I sign up?

All one has to do to get their “ticket” to a place more magical and fantastic is sign up and make an account on the Roll20 website. Rules and references are linked to frequently and electronic copies are freely available online. The service to “join a game” works easily and games can be readily found at practically any time. It is free and easy to use as well.

In Summation

Dungeons and Dragons have seen a rather significant boost in popularity over the last decade or so, and with services like Roll20 being wheeled out it is no wonder why. The increased connectivity of the networked world provides us with ample opportunities to not only distract ourselves but to also reconnect with the world in ways we may have missed over the last 18 months particularly. These services helped me keep my head on straight during the pandemic and understand that I wasn’t really alone. I know they’re dressed up as games, but the connections we make through them are as real as anything.