Dungeons & Dragons is all about getting together with your friends and telling an epic tale of adventure. But what if you can't get together in person? Over the past couple of years, playing D&D online has become easier than ever and can allow you to join your friends for a quest wherever they may be. Whether you're a newcomer to D&D or a veteran looking to transition their game to a virtual setting, our guide will cover the basics to take your D&D game online, some ways to enhance your virtual game, and tips for making online D&D fun for everyone!
- Why Play D&D Online?
- How to Play Dungeons & Dragons Online
- Ways to Enhance Online D&D
- Tips for Online Play
Why Play D&D Online?
Modern-day technology has made playing D&D online a nearly seamless experience. Between high-quality video chat, virtual tabletops, and digital tools, you may be so enthralled by the game that you forget you're not in the same room as your party members! In the past, when your D&D friends moved from your hometown, it usually meant the sad ending of a campaign. But, with access to the internet, you and your friends can hop online and play no matter the distance between you.
Online D&D play can also help defeat Dungeons & Dragons' greatest enemy: scheduling conflicts. With the ability to play from home, you can avoid travel times, making your D&D nights more streamlined and easier to fit into your busy schedule. The multitude of digital tools available also benefits players who don't have the time to scan through books to create or level up their characters. Instead, they can let the tools handle the busy work while they focus on having fun with friends.
How to Play Dungeons & Dragons Online
Have the upsides of online D&D play intrigued you? Here are essential things you need to get your D&D game online.
Internet Connection
All you truly need to play D&D online is an internet connection or some other way to connect to your friends. While D&D is at its best when you and your friends can see each other, you can play using just voice chat software. Worst comes to worst, and your internet is inaccessible or unable to even handle audio during a session, some video chat software allows you to phone in so you can join in the game as long as you have cell service.
Microphone
Most laptop computers have a built-in mic and webcam, and even though they aren't professional quality, they're more than enough to get the job done. If you want to go one step further, a dedicated table microphone and webcam will give you better sound and video quality to make your online game easier to watch and listen to. If you don't have access to a computer, most cell phones have a perfectly fine built-in camera and microphone. You can make a simple phone stand using a stack of books or use a pop-out grip, so you don't have to hold your phone the whole time.
Text, Video, or Voice Chat
There are lots of tools that you can use to create a group video call. Discord is a popular option because it's simple and supports advanced integrations. Skype and Facetime are other free options but have certain restrictions between Windows and Apple devices. Zoom and Google Hangouts are solid alternatives that easily handle high-quality video calls, but they come with a price tag if you want to use them for group calls.
People to Play With
Maybe you're looking for a new group or just a couple more players to round out your party. Good news! Finding players to join an online D&D campaign is usually easier than an in-person one. For tips on how to find a D&D group online, check out our article on how to find a D&D group to play with.
Ways to Enhance Online D&D
Though it's simple enough to get the essential tools you need to play D&D over an internet connection, some optional tools might make your game more fun and convenient.
Webcam
While joining a video call isn't necessary to play D&D online, it can help with social cues as other players can react to your body language and facial expressions. If your device doesn't have a webcam, there are plenty of affordable USB plug-and-play options. You could even use your phone to join the call while using your laptop, tablet, or paper to keep track of your character sheet, maps, and notes.
D&D Beyond
D&D Beyond is the official digital toolset for D&D. We host a wide variety of tools that can streamline D&D for Dungeon Masters and players, allowing them to focus on the fun. For players, we offer a Character Builder that generates a digital character sheet, allowing them to manage their skills, abilities, and inventory, as well as roll dice with the click of a button. The character sheet even takes care of the math for you! To get started with your character, sign up for an account today!
If you're a DM running the game for your party, there's a lot of content available on D&D Beyond to get you started. You can access the Basic Rules and freely claim the Intro to Stormwreck Isle adventure. You can also build encounters and track combat with the Encounters tool and manage homebrew creations with our homebrew tool.
We recommend that DMs create a campaign and have players create characters in that campaign so you can see all of your players' character sheets in one place. This way, you can also use the Game Log to see what your players have rolled. Creating campaigns also allows Master-tier subscribers to share their content with their players, enabling them to create characters using options from all of the sourcebooks the DM owns on D&D Beyond.
Virtual Tabletop
Though not strictly necessary, a virtual tabletop is an excellent tool for playing online. It's particularly useful if you played using maps and miniatures in person since you can upload maps and create tokens for characters and monsters. You may not need a virtual tabletop if you're playing a game without a battle map (also known as Theater of the Mind), but they can be a lifesaver for online groups interested in tactical gameplay.
D&D Beyond's Maps tool is a gamespace where Dungeon Masters with a Master-tier subscription can quickly and easily provide a virtual 2D map for their players. All of the maps and creatures from the DM's D&D Beyond library are automatically integrated with the tool, allowing them to set up a battle map for their encounters in minutes!
Some other popular virtual tabletops include Roll20, Owlbear Rodeo, Foundry Virtual Tabletop, and Fantasy Grounds. Roll20 and Owlbear Rodeo both have free options, but we always recommend supporting the developers if you can!
A Player Community
Having people to talk to about D&D outside their gaming group is a luxury not everyone has. If you can't find enough players for your online game or want to find more people to talk about D&D with, the D&D Beyond Discord community is a great place to start.
Discord Bots
Avrae is a Discord bot that can help groups integrate Discord with D&D Beyond. It's full of automated features, like virtual dice, initiative tracking, and character sheet support. So if your group plays over Discord and you want to streamline gameplay, Avrae might be precisely what you're looking for.
Tips for Online Play
Now that you have all the tools you need, you should take a few minutes to learn some good habits for playing online. Of course, most of these tips apply to playing in person, but since playing online is a different experience than playing in person, they're more important than ever. Share these tips with your friends on game day to help make your session go smoothly.
- Start simple: If you're just starting out with D&D, or even if you're a veteran and are making the move to online D&D, there can be a significant learning curve while everyone gets settled with the new technology. Before diving into all of the enhancements available, playing with a barebones video chat for the first couple of sessions might be best. Once everyone has that figured out, you can start adding in digital tools and virtual tabletops.
- Set guidelines and expectations: Transitioning your game to online can throw off the dynamic of a group. So if you're switching to online, it's best to go over what the expectations are for sessions using this new medium. This way, you can get on the same page with the rest of the group on important topics, such as when to join the call, how you want to handle dice rolling, what to do if you need to step away, etc.
- Avoid distractions: It's easy to get distracted while playing D&D, and while it's not a sin to let your attention wander, the online world can easily distract players when there's downtime for their character. Of course, each player will have their own way of dealing with this hurdle. So, if you find that it impacts your games, discussing it as a group never hurts.
Your Online D&D Session Awaits!
At the end of the day, playing D&D virtually can look and feel however works for your group. The best way to play D&D online is the way that allows your party to get together, have some laughs, and roll some (physical or virtual) dice. Hopefully, the advice we've shared in this article will enable you to hit your online D&D stride, so you can continue having adventures no matter the distance between your party members!
James Haeck (@jamesjhaeck) is the former lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and theCritical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, and is also a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and Kobold Press. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his partner Hannah and two wilderness defenders, Mei and Marzipan.
Mike Bernier contributed to the reporting of this article
This article was originally published on March 20, 2020, and was updated on March 6, 2023.
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Posted Apr 27, 2020Hi friend,
a session 0 look like this :
Experience
Player, Behavior, Game Behavior & DM Expectations
The DM Style
Ethic Concerns & Topics
Character Creation
Races & Classes
Game-style, Character Lifestyle
Backgrounds, Feats & Mounts
General Mechanic Rules
Inspiration
Advantage, Disadvantage & Ability Checks
Critical Hits or Fumbles
Spells & Spell Effects or Magic Items
Death, Resurrection, Resting
its for having the best possible experience knowing expectations
😎
Axe high friend, I go
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Posted Apr 27, 2020i made a encounter
is that suppose to be it
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Posted Apr 27, 2020You should start by trying to find some players. You can post an ad on the Forum under looking for players. Here is an example of what you should have in your ad:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/looking-for-players-groups/15196-looking-for-group-player-please-read-before
That is just the beginning. One encounter won't be enough. You may want to start of by reading one of the Adventures to get an idea of how to run the game.
One of the first things I would recommend is being more specific when asking questions.
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Posted Apr 27, 2020so create all of the encounter for one session?
okay i made a character
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Posted Apr 27, 2020Alright, uqysquash.
It sounds like you have a general plotline for your story, which is a wonderful start. It sounds as if you have an idea of the types of creatures in your game. Also very helpful, but if you want people to join, you should probably have a session Zer0 as EvilDM previously mentioned.
You should have a listing in some sort of Lets-Form-Group area with all least the info DM just listed.
Here are just some of the questions both players and DungeonMaster should cover(yes I extended the quality list DM covered):
Experience - Are we doing milestone XP? Do i need to keep track of my XP per kill? per encounter? Is the DM doing the math? Is one of the players who is good at math going to keep track? Which player? Do you get XP only for the kill shot or for being part of the team? How are we handling if one player gets split off from the rest of the party and gets ahead or behind in XP/levels? If a player skips a session, do they get their XP skipped too, or are we letting them have a freebie ride to balance the party?
Player, Behavior, Game Behavior & DM Expectations - Are we allowing cursing? Kids? If the campaign was a movie, what is it's rating as a guesstimate, G/PG/PG13/R/NC17/X? Is this a relatively straight game? Is it fairly sandbox-styled? Must we do it online? Will it be a mix of tech? Can we have tech at the table as people may get distracted with net-browsing in between turns? How are we handling metagaming? Who is going to be the ONE accountant player to keep track of the treasure, so you don't have all the players copying the group gold as their own on each sheet so the one gold coin in the bandit's pocket magically turns into 5 coins, a coin in each adventurer's pocket. Are we going to have a group bank account used for resurrections/group-lodgings/food/drink or is every character on their own?
The DM Style - Are you going to do open rolls or hide dice behind the screen? Both have their advantages. What software do we need? Syrinscape? Roll20? Fantasy Grounds? other VTT? Syrinscape for SFX? Do we need a dice app? If yes, which one and how do we operate it? Do you take lots of breaks? Is this going to be a serious game or a relatively casual game? Do you tolerate the occasional crosstalk getting off-topic or are we in trouble for doing that? If we are in trouble, are we getting XP demotions or demerits? How many times can a player miss a session before getting dumped from game? Do you tend to use the standard monster HP or do you roll the dice scale to determine that some are weaker than others?
Ethic Concerns & Topics - What topics are off the table? In Curse of Strahd there is a lot of violence towards kids, is that something we should expect in your game? Are we discussing racism, blatent or subtle in game? Slavery? Cruelty? Sadism? how are we handling sexism? Homophobia? In game or IRL? Nationalism? what will we not talk about? IS there a safe word to use to state that the topic is uncomfortable and we should move on now? Is any -ism an automatic rejection from the table? Is there a strike3 system for that behaviour?
Character Creation - Much of the Character Creation guidelines are going to be solved by (what books can we use?) Are limited to AdventureLeague requirements of PHB+1? What style of ability generation? Standard Array? Point buy? Rolling? What kind of dice do we roll? Some use d8s to raise the chance of better stats. How many dice are we rolling per score? If rolling, are we tossing the lowest die? Do abilities have to be in the order rolled? How are we handling a largesse of low scores? How are we handling that PlayerX rolled VERY well and everyone else rolled lower-normal?
Races & Classes - What races/classes are off the table? Which ones are discouraged? Which ones are recommended? If we are going to be in a cramped dungeon, then would you warn me against my character with flight? If we are going into hell, are you sharing that we should probably plan to get fire-resistant quickly? If you are playing a fairly science-based spaceship-styled game, are there magic classes, or should we plan for that? If you are going to use a game-mechanic to separate us from our source of power, like sealing us off in an antimagic planet, would you warn us so we the players are ready for that even if our characters aren't?
Game-style, Character Lifestyle -
Backgrounds, Feats & Mounts - What backgrounds are we allowed or are off the table? Which ones do you recommend for this particular game? If we are
General Mechanic Rules
Inspiration - Do we start game with Inspiration? Should we expect to get Inspiration a lot? Does our Inspiration refresh per day? per session? per level? more often? less often? what should we do to make this happen a lot?
Advantage, Disadvantage & Ability Checks - Explain to any new players the base law that 99% of D&D is "Roll a dice and add the modifier" This is hard for some people and this WILL slow game to a crawl if people don't get this. Are you running your game under the official "Criticals only happen in combat" or the popular houserule that "Any 20 is a Crit in ability rolls." Let players know if Botches/Fumbles/1s work the same way?
Critical Hits or Fumbles - Are you running your game under the official "Criticals only happen in combat" or the popular houserule that "Any 20 is a Crit in ability rolls." Let players know if Botches/Fumbles/1s work the same way?
Spells & Spell Effects or Magic Items - Do we start off with any magic items? Should we expect a lot of treasure/items? Explain what do all the durations mean? How long is a round?(6seconds) How does concentration work? Can you use more than one concentration spell at the same time? Can I cast other spells while using a concentration spell?
Death, Resurrection, Resting - Is death in your game permanent? how are you running death? Is it at unconscious? Some do 10 HP beyond to a dead body is a kill, some require a full HP repeat of hacking at the prone figure? Some run that an attack to a prone body only adds a failed death saving throw. How are you handling the determination of "Yep, it's Dead, Jim!" Should we expect a lot of short rests? Should we expect to be running for a while and harried so that the few long rests we get are pitiful blessings? Do we get an automatic refresh/long-rest at level-up? Do we only get our current HP raised to its max at long-rests.
I am sure there are other questions but this should at least get you started. Game with Honor! Q'aplah.
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Posted Apr 27, 2020Archaratar, Sir/Miss That was just lovely 😊
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Posted Apr 28, 2020WHAT IS A SESSION 0
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Posted Apr 28, 2020https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/105388/what-is-a-session-0
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Posted Apr 29, 2020TLDR answer: session Zer0 is the first group meeting where the sorts of questions I mentioned get discussed. People get a basic social group primer for the game.
LONGER: Some gamers have gone through multiple iterations of D&D amongst all the other great games out there, so they need reminders and refinements.
Some newer gamers have never even held click clack math rocks, so you have to give them some basic rules to work with.
Most are in the middle somewhere.
Session zero is meant to be a syllabus to the adventure. Give us enough to hook but also enough to sate us. We will listen to your house rules. You will get our hopes, dreams, and preferences in a game.
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Posted Apr 29, 2020Evil, it is Sir, and the compliment is appreciated. Thanks for the highlights to start off with. I am rarely succinct. I just rambled on, extending your quality list.
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Posted Apr 29, 2020Wellmet Archaratar,
English is not my native language and I could not write to save my hide !
But thanks to your kindness Sir, I have learn a new word that I shall use for evil purpose for my games 😋
Axe high friend, I go
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Posted May 2, 2020You can create a DM role in a discord server and then give them the ability to activate the Priority Speaker function, which lowers the relative volume of others while the DM holds down a keybind of their choice. I have yet to need to use it, but looking for similar functions while digging around in the settings of your platform can be useful.
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Posted May 4, 2020I use GoToMeeting for work and that allows you to mute people
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Posted May 11, 2020Astral integration with D&D Beyond is by in far one of my most anticipated moves in the D&D world right now.
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Posted May 11, 2020do any of you guys have campaign
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Posted May 12, 2020What's the minimum required internet connection to start streaming ???? aDSL ??? HDSL ?? 3 mb/s bandwidth ??
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Posted May 14, 2020Yes, we have campaigns we play in. They are great games. The sheets are pretty. Our DM brings our sheets together behind his screen.
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Posted May 14, 2020could you let me join your campaigns
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Posted May 15, 2020My campaigns are mostly for people i have vetted for a number of years.
One group is for my church Fridaynight Adult Spiritual Talks(FAST) or D&D&D(rinking). We use D&D to discuss spiritual issues in our faith of Unitarian Universalism. I do not happen to know your faith, but since we have mostly moved past the Satanic Panic, you could try talking to your local library or church about starting a Gaming group. there are great free reasons for those sorts of groups to get started. Try looking up your local game store for their Facebook page, PH#, or Discord server. Look any of these up on google and get some contact information. Offer to run a quick game for the adults or the children and build your presence. Even if you don't want to DM yourself, you could try stirring the community waters for another local library/church/gaming member who has been looking for a group to run for. You guys and girls should always try to make your areas comfortable for both ends of the gender spectrum and everyone in between. There used to be this idiotic stigma against women playing, but once you actually put forth real effort to try a mixed gender player group, you get stories that are amazing. When the the Dark Crystal is combined, it is brilliant! I cannot be more excited about you making your own stories. If you get a group together that is big enough, say 10+ish, then you can apply to DnD and DnDBeyond for Club discounts for discounted and/or free books and/or additional digital campaigns for your group. Our church group has several of these deals in play with some digital sites and we currently have all the books for our club.
One group is for my local gang I have been with for 5ish years. We have told several stories together. It is my core group. I would prefer to know more about prospective players before messing with that mix.
One group is for my BF in HTX and his family. It is only played at his convenience because he has such crazy hours that he works.
One group is for my local library. It is a lot of one shots on their Zoom account. It is rarely more than 5 at a time and is highly a rotating cast.
One group is not even D&D, but is a game called Scion 1E that is kind of sputtering a the moment with a Swedish guy who knows the rules very well and is a pro-DM rules lawyer, a girl from Norway who is amazingly chipper like Kaylee from Serenity, a guy who is from the Eastern European area who doesn't talk because he just types ALL of his interactions, and then there is JK who I know the least about because I think it may be a computer program.
One group is a small 3woman group for a game of Exalted 2E. They are a smaller part of my Saturday group who just want to get rid of the supernatural problems plaguing Creation.
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Posted May 16, 2020this was so helpfull! thank u!