Tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) have seen quite the renaissance over the past few years, in part owing to the appearance of Dungeons & Dragons in Netflix’s Stranger Things. TTRPGs had risen from obscurity and become almost mainstream before the pandemic, but they faced an obvious challenge when people could no longer sit around a table with their friends.

Tabletop gaming is a more than $20billion industry and the inclusion of digital solutions has the potential to raise that bar even higher. The pandemic has forced the hand of creators and led them down a path of creating digital alternatives to the classic tabletop.

Setting up the virtual tabletop

The pandemic moved even the most old-school TTRPG groups online. Instead of pens and paper around a table, players used virtual options like D&D Beyond and Roll20 to continue their adventures. Though these options kept the game going, some of the social aspects were missing. Enter Role, the new remote tabletop gaming platform that recently raised $2.75million in seed funding for their platform. Role focuses on the aspects of tabletop gaming that matter most:

‘We asked ourselves, why is it that people, when they have all these options, choose to play D&D on the internet? And what we figured out is, it’s the people,’ said Logan Dwight, Co-Founder of Role. ‘The game lives in the minds of the people, a shared social experience. It’s about the conversation, the face-to-face interactions.’

Role aims to make gameplay more intuitive too, meaning players can spend more time interacting with one another and less time trying to figure out the complexities of the game system. Role has previously run Kickstarter schemes – a common method of fundraising in the TTRPG world – but this is their first round of VC funding and represents a significant step in the company’s development.

This VC funding for this remote tabletop gaming solution suggests that these virtual alternatives might be here to stay even when we are free to gather around tables once again.

How the pandemic changed the way we socialise and play

Digital additions to TTRPGs help make them more accessible to players who may not be able to access traditional in-person gaming groups. Lockdowns levelled the playing field by moving everyone’s experience online, which in turn led to a more equal gaming experience and made the accessible option the norm. Some people have even had the opportunity to take part for the first time thanks to these digital alternatives.

These added accessibility options don’t just come in the form of being able to play remotely. Apps like D&D Beyond provide additional tutorials, allow the use of screen readers and include a myriad of other accessibility settings. Some old-school TTRPG players feel that digital alternatives will never replace the classic pen and paper options, but the community has been largely very positive about these solutions that make the game accessible to more players.

Physical iterations of the games have not been sat gathering dust during the pandemic, they’re just being used on smaller scales: some players are passing the hobby on to their kids and have found it to be a wonderful way to get some quality time together while at home. Others who struggle with their mental health find painting miniatures very therapeutic and have found the hobby to be ‘a saving grace’ during the pandemic.

Are TTRPGs the same without a tabletop?

The very phrase ‘virtual TTRPG’ feels like a bit of an oxymoron. If the tabletop is virtual, does it then become just a Dungeons & Dragons inspired video game? The gaming community does not seem to have got caught up in the semantics and many have welcomed the new developments. Most of the developments in the TTRPG world come from within as fans pour their hard-earned cash into supporting the games and media they love:

Critical Role, a web series featuring a group of voice actors playing Dungeons & Dragons, recently raised $11.3million of funding through Kickstarter to create an animated show inspired by their in-game adventures. Funding for TTRPGS themselves has not declined during the pandemic as was first expected, quite the opposite; one game, Frosthaven, reached almost $13million in a 2020 Kickstarter. This large amount of investment from fans proves that TTRPGS and all their associated media will continue to thrive no matter what the real world throws at them.

The financial contributions of the TTRPG fanbase shows how strong the community is and how important these games are to those who play them. In light of this, it’s hardly surprising to see VC investments beginning to pick up for digital solutions that keep the community connected.

Returning to the tabletop post-pandemic

Whether solutions like Role will remain central to the post-pandemic TTRPG experience is yet to be seen. Collecting and painting miniatures is a key part of the hobby that digital solutions simply cannot replicate. Luckily, there is one digital solution that allows players to still make use of their existing collection:

The Last Gameboard seeks to level up the in-person gaming experience with the perfect hybrid between digital and classic tabletop role-playing. As the name suggests, The Last Gameboard intends to be the last game board you will ever need to buy. The tablet-like board can be used for everything from Dungeons & Dragons to chess with responsive animations that can ripple across to other boards, no matter where they may be.

Multiple boards can be connected to form larger maps and they can be paired remotely; if one player moves a physical piece on their board a marker will move on the other board, truly combining the classic experience with long-distance alternatives.

According to Lee Allentuck, previously of Hasbro and now part of The Last Gameboard team, ‘there’s widespread interest in the toy and tabletop industry to be more tech-forward, but there’s been a “chicken and egg scenario,” where there’s no market because no one innovates, and no one innovates because there’s no market.’ Following a successful $4million seed round The Last Gameboard are preparing to break that cycle.

The pandemic has kickstarted this change in the TTRPG industry and led to more gamers dabbling in these new and innovative alternatives.