D&D (2024) D&D's Upcoming Digital Tabletop

Perhaps the showstopper of todays D&D Direct event was a preview of the upcoming D&D digital playspace. Hosts Gina Darling and Ify Nwadiwe met with Kale Stutzman, principal game designer of D&D Digital, where he ran them through an adventure using the technology. The video shown in the presentation, though, was labeled “Pre-alpha gameplay footage.”

The upcoming D&D VTT uses Unreal Engine 5 to power it.

“There are a lot of ways to play D&D online and we don't think a lot of them hit the big three things we think are important – fun, convenience, authenticity,” said Stutzman.

In the demo, you see the dice roll on the screen, and it bursts into the result. Encounter mode is when you roll initiative

“The DM can set the mood, the lighting, what time of day is it. Is it raining? Are there fire embers falling from the sky?” said Stutzman.

The community will be able to create and share assets. “We want to make content that's building blocks that people can break apart and make their own content with. That remix is core to the DNA of D&D, said Stutzman.

Stutzman didn't answer when the VTT will release, but he did say that D&D staff and limited friends and family are trying it now and that they're going to gradually open it up. “...and a lot of people listening will be able to play it this year,” Stutzman added, which means a play test in “late 2023.”

 

[Zaukrie]

The only time less is more, ime, is with monster minis..... But terrain always increased my players creativity.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

This is the way Roll20 does it. I actually prefer it this way, but some people hate it.

Roll20 isn't streamed, it's a web application that runs in your browser. The graphics are all drawn by your computer

 

[MNblockhead]

No. If everyone has the software installed locally, then the amount of data that needs to be sent goes down drastically.

This is generally an either or, never both. Either you essentially have the equivalent of streaming a movie and your hardware matters little, or you produce the graphics locally and the information sent is a lot smaller because all you need is who is standing where and what they are doing

Except it just isn't bandwidth, it is also the path the packets have to travel. I host Foundry with The Forge, which allows me to select what region I want to host the game server in. But what is really cool, and what really helps with running games with players in different regions of the world is that the assets library is geo-distributed and available from over 200 different locations around the world at all times. So players are going to be loading the assets from the area closest to them.

I'm not sure how Roll20 works in terms of geo-distribution, but I've used Roll20 in places with poor internet and was still able to play and have rarely had issues with it, regardless of the country I'm in.

Fantasy Grounds was always a crapshow when outside of the US. First, its cloud mode servers get blocked in some countries. But even when you get those working using a VPN, it just takes too long for the assets to get transferred from the DMs computer to the players. I've just always found that having the maps and other assets in the cloud to begin with (e.g. Roll20, Foundry when hosted in the cloud, etc.) makes everything load much more quickly.

 

[bert1001 fka bert1000]

My idea is that nothing is more immersive than your mind. All the efforts to make the game more immersive by visualize it by means of minis and scenarios, both real or virtual, are an illusion. The stuff you put down the table to make it more immersive ends up in a limitation of your fantasy. More, the aesthetics of the assets it is not appropriate for all the games you want to run and the worlds you want to show, and the whole thing lead to a standardization of the imagination. Sometimes to give less details is to lead your mind to fill the gap and create a very immersive world. The fact that every player has a slightly different scene in his mind can create some misunderstanding but on the other side leads to brilliant ideas and is definitely more interesting to see difference in perception of a situation between players than to avoid confusion.

100% agree.

This is why we usually play just by skype and sepdom do more than theater of the mind.

What I noticed using roll 20 or tokens that look like actual creatures is that I remember the encounter as a board game, not as a scenery.

In contrast, a real 3d VTT even if imperfect, simulates the scenery better so I am again in scenery mode, not boardgame mode.

So I think the middle ground (2d tabletop simulator) unifies the worst of both worlds.

For me, it's not even that my imagination is always better than an artist rendition, but the "game is mostly in your head" is one of the key selling points for a traditional in person rpg for me. And highly differentiating from board games and video games.

I actually don't find most 2-D maps and tokens that distracting though. Even if they are detailed, I can still see them as placeholders. And the virtual versions are still trying to emulate the table top.

I'm really not sure about something like this new 3D VTT though. Only the most hard core 3-d terrain and minis people would have anything even remotely like this on the real world table top.

For me, it may not really matter in the end for remote play, as it is different enough from face to face already and you are staring at the screen anyway so perhaps why not take advantage of being digital. No way I would use something like this in person though, even if projected on one screen. And definitely not multiple laptops like the demo (I know that was probably just to make it easier to demo but it makes for a very unappealing scene for me).

 

[Clint_L]

My idea is that nothing is more immersive than your mind. All the efforts to make the game more immersive by visualize it by means of minis and scenarios, both real or virtual, are an illusion. The stuff you put down the table to make it more immersive ends up in a limitation of your fantasy. More, the aesthetics of the assets it is not appropriate for all the games you want to run and the worlds you want to show, and the whole thing lead to a standardization of the imagination. Sometimes to give less details is to lead your mind to fill the gap and create a very immersive world. The fact that every player has a slightly different scene in his mind can create some misunderstanding but on the other side leads to brilliant ideas and is definitely more interesting to see difference in perception of a situation between players than to avoid confusion.

So, there are pros and cons to using miniatures and terrain, just as with anything else in the hobby. Sometimes, we do pure theatre of the mind, but for combat encounters I find it very useful to have a good sense of what is around so that we can make tactical decisions. My players love the sets I build and have commented that they can be much more creative when making tactical decisions when they can see what they are working with. As well, I just enjoy collecting and painting miniatures and terrain, and building sets for games. It's a key part of the hobby, for me.

I do not agree that giving more details through the use of miniatures and terrain makes the world less immersive. Is a stage play done with a detailed set, costumes, and props less immersive than one done on an empty stage? I also do not agree that using them leads to a standardization of the imagination. Theatre of the mind and detailed sets are just different types of experience. One is not automatically better than the other. Different strokes for different folks.

Here's a set from Saturday's game:

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Cool idea for solo play with D&D...

I really hope they do more stuff like Before the Storm, before we get to the VTT stage. I would 100% pay for Endless Quest adventures on D&D Beyond (not the terrible ones from the 1980s) that included actual dice rolls and such using D&D Beyond. (Lord knows I've paid for enough versions of the Fighting Fantasy games over the years.)

 

[EthanSental]

Thanks @Whizbang Dustyboots for that before the storm link….missed that when it came out and I wish they would create more of those.