dungeons and dragons table top gaming dice

Our table ran up against technical difficulties as we felt out where the coding ended and our own recollection of 5e began. The game was fun even as it proceeded fitfully forward. After some initial confusion about who would play what characters, VTT Dungeon Masters Makenzie De Armas and Siera Bruggeman ran two tables through a short, classic adventure involving a kobold attack on the town. We were treated to a 3d landscape with virtual miniatures, dice that clattered off the scenery plus the ability to pan, rotate and even lift the roof off the dingy tavern where our characters met. The D&D Digital crew takes the idea of a virtual tabletop perhaps a step more literally than anyone else. Asking players to make another purchase seems like a big ask but so does subsidizing creation of unique VTT assets though the tight budgets of RPG production. Many players already resent having to purchase physical and digital content individually under the current D&D Beyond model. The business aspect is one of the most crucial elements to the survival of this idea. Will it be a subscription model? Will players and Dungeon Masters buy specific modules? Will community members be able to sell their creations? The duo also admitted that while there were discussions on how to monetize the product going on, there was not yet a consensus of a specific model. There was a sense that these tools are going to take a beating in public no matter what, so they might as well get that part over with before really committing to a specific direction. They want to get the play tools out early to let the community guide them into what they want versus choosing what they think everyone ones and then having to rescale based on feedback. The plans they shared stretched into 2025 and beyond. They want tables to mix and match so that a table might have a remote player, a few players on their laptops in the same room and the one paper and pencil holdout all having a good time. They want everyone to not just to have a good experience playing D&D with their toolset, they want the experience to cater to everyone’s preferences. What they envision for the Wizards VTT is something like a hybrid method of play. They laid out what their goals were for the project, a timeline for what they expect and some frank discussion of the challenges that lay ahead. Before I sat down to play, I was part of a discussion with Kale Stutzman, Principal Game Designer and Chris Cao, VP of D&D Digital.

Dungeons and dragons table top gaming dice