Coronavirus inspires huge uptick in remote Dungeons & Dragons games

We’re weeks into the coronavirus-mandated quarantine, and a lot of businesses are hurting. With everyone shut up inside, there’s no one to go out and patronize restaurants and movie theaters and the like, which is difficult on a lot of people. We’re going to have to help each other through these next bunch of months.

And there are some businesses that are actually getting a boost from everyone being inside all the time. I’m sure folks are watching more Netflix and Disney+, for instance. And people who enjoy playing Dungeons & Dragons — and people who have never tried it but are getting into while they look for something do during this pandemic — are turning to a number of programs that allow for smooth online experiences.

Take Fantasy Grounds, a virtual tabletop program that allows Dungeons & Dragons fans to play remotely, created by Smiteworks USA. “We have seen a huge spike in users,” Smiteworkds president and owner Doug Davison told SYFY WIRE. “It’s becoming a mandatory thing where that’s the only way people can still get together and game.”

Davidson estimates that about 10 times more users signed up for Fantasy Grounds that normal…during the three days before he talked to SYFY WIRE two weeks ago; I’m betting it’s even more now. Another virtual D&D platform, Roll20, is also seeing a surge in users, including in Italty, where the coronavirus has hit particularly hard. “There was a day last week where we had more Italians sign up for the service than we had Americans,” said co-founder and managing partner Nolan T. Jones. “We’ve never had that happen before.”

There are some ways that playing remotely can allow dungeon masters and players to do and experience things they couldn’t in person. For instance, a new version of Fantasy Grounds allows DMs to “speak” in the voices of characters with different languages, and only those players whose characters speak those languages can read the text, while the others will only see unintelligible runes. And both Fantasy Grounds and Roll20 allow the DM to hide parts of the map they don’t want the players to see, which can be tricky if everyone is together and the DM has to quickly cover part of the map with paper or something.

But of course, there are drawbacks, too. “The thing that you’re clearly going to be missing when playing remote during this crisis is human interaction,” said Adam Bradford, Vice President of Tabletop Gaming at Fandom, which owns D&D Beyond, another online D&D aid that’s getting a coronavirus bump. “You’re going to miss the little side-conversation jokes that happen, you’re gonna have to slow down the pace of the game. It’s going to be missing some of the physical body language interactions and elements that make this game so great.”

There’s also the learning curve to figure out. D&D is famous for having thick manuals and lots of nuance, but there’s no reason to take it in all at once. “My biggest piece of advice is that you don’t have to do everything,” Jones said. “Just like tabletop games in general, sometimes if you’re getting into Dungeons & Dragons, you go ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve got to read all of these manuals otherwise I’m going to be bad at this.’ That’s a false fear. Same with virtual tabletop tools. ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve got to set up every macro and use every feature.’ No, we’re a toolset, you can use as much or as little if you want.”

"I’d compare it to how some people just play with a dry-erase board and some markers, some people go out and buy gorgeous figurines and model castles. Neither one of those versions of play is wrong, do what feels right to you, and have fun."

But even with those reservations, being able to play remotely is far better than the alternative, especially now when some people are isolated and in need of social connection. “If this kind of crisis happened in our world 30 or 40 years ago, we could not even be able to continue the game,” Bradford said. “It’s a massive growth that we have the technology available to us. Regular games of friends and family that had been playing for, potentially, years can continue to play during this time.”

Still, I can definitely agree with this point from Jones: “The number one thing virtual tabletops are missing is pizza.” We all have to make sacrifices.

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