Why I Switched to Online D&D

So, some backstory. I was first introduced to D&D around 9 or 10 years old when I saw the 1st edition Monster Manual at a cousin's house. I still remember the picture of rot grubs burrowing into a man's arm, and that image branded itself into my young mind with frightful clarity. This intrigued my inner geek, but that wasn't the sort of game my parents would let me play. Instead, I opted for the Endless Quest series, of which I still have the original 36 books and a smattering of others in a similar series. Return to Brookmere to this day is dear to my heart, as is the wonderful, eternal art of Jim Holloway.

Fast forward a few years to middle school and I finally got to play real Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and it filled many a weekend night during that time. I was a player mostly, but I remember running a one-off with me as DM, and one guy controlled a bunch of PCs and I was the all powerful lich overlord. That was my first taste at DMing Dungeons & Dragons, and after that I started running it for myself and my brother and his friends.

Fast forward many, many years - decades even - and we get to 2019. I'm running Tomb of Annihilation for my group, and that's where some of these photos originate.

Prior to 2019, I had been collecting miniatures for the past, oh, fifteen years maybe? It's hard to remember. I recall I was in my 20s and started buying them on Ebay - lots of them - with little regard or care of the damage it did to my credit card. These minis undoubtedly scored a crit on my bank account. Those original sets were the old Reaper or Ral Partha metal ones, but when Wizards of the Coast started printing their pre-painted plastic line, that instigated a whole new level of purchasing mania.

And these things aren't cheap! And prices are artificially inflated by Common, Uncommon, Rare and Unique categories. You could have a small, poorly painted miniature with a Rare status and it will triple or quadruple the price of a comparable mini in the Common group. Furthermore, if you need groups of monsters - which is highly common in D&D - you have to buy multiples, so I would frequently purchase 5-10 of certain figures to flesh out my army. And honestly, I was not even a completist. I know there are people who sank enough money into the miniature hobby to buy ALL the figures that WotC produced. This line is still going strong today, with Wizkids now producing toys for Dungeons & Dragons, Critical Role, Pathfinder and more.

Well, we never finished Tomb. Life and obstacles got in the way, as well as a huge driving distance on my behalf, and I finally decided to try out the online Roll20 thing I had been hearing about for years. I had a few friends who enjoyed it and used it consistently, but I really, really loved my face to face gaming and had zero desire to shift our gaming online. I was also worried that the learning curve would be beyond my ability to really master and end with frustration. Still, in early 2020 we began tinkering with Forge of Fury, an old 3rd edition module upgraded to 5th.

And remember what I said about afraid of being frustrated by the learning curve? I was right! This thing was a goddamn pain in the ass. Wonky controls, confusing map layers, weird dynamic lighting oddities, it all congealed to convince me that I wasn't smart enough to do this. Still, I was the DM, we had a story to run, and players eager to get some orc-slaying on. Forge of Fury was purely a Roll20 test run for me, so we had bare minimum character development for the PCs.

The first two or three sessions were the hardest. We played once a week for two hours, so in-between games I would log onto Roll20 and read forums, practice with the system or watch Youtube tutorials. It was literally like a part time job just trying to understand how to use the thing and not look like an utter fool. But I did it. I learned tricks and shortcuts. I found out an easier, cleaner way to grab screenshots with a touch of a key. I started importing more art and tokens, and then I took the big jump: I went from the free Roll20 suite to the monthly Pro account, unlocking a number of powerful features including the ASI scripts that change how the game behaves. Now I could add specific scripts for initiative, light sources, animated spells and more.

I still had an in-person group at the time, and we were near the end of Lost Mine of Phandelver, but then March 2020 arrived. Covid shut down all in-person play, and 100% of our games shifted to Roll20. My in-person group dissolved as if captured by a hungry gelatinous cube, but my online groups increased from one to three. By April 2020 I was running Forge of Fury, Dungeon World, and Curse of Strahd. Forge of Fury was a short module (although very difficult; we had five PC deaths) and after that we started a new campaign called Tales of the Old Margreve. As of this writing, we are still playing Margreve and Strahd, so they have occupied two years of our lives since the pandemic began. Besides those two mega-campaigns, I have also run two jaunts of Alien the Roleplaying Game and a one-shot of an old 2e Ravenloft game, sprinkled here and there between the longer sessions.

Some months I was running three games a week online. And here is where I want to emphasize a distinct advantage of online play over in-person play: everything you need is instantly electronically available. As much as I love the social interaction and seeing peoples faces and the lovely miniatures and maps and props, I could never have run two or three complete games a week. Not consistently. All of the tokens and maps were right there, uploaded digitally. In the past, I had to print a map in separate sheets, cut them up, painstakingly tape them together, roll them up and DRIVE an hour and a half to the game house and store the maps in the closet (this wasn't a problem later when I started hosting at my place, until Covid arrived).

Roll20 (and any online platform, there are many) offer this shortcut. And I took full advantage of it. I joined some Patreons who produced high quality maps and tokens on a regular basis. I scoured the internet for free maps and started a backup folder of cool images. Would I ever need a map the size of a football field that is just a giant skeleton holding a rusty sword? Who knows! But if I do, I have that map (and I did use it). With a little Photoshop skill I started making my own tokens using art from various monster manuals for a simulated 2D view. And this went on for two years and counting. Everything I have uploaded to Roll20 is still there, and can be used interchangeably with any other campaign. I probably have three hundred soundtracks and sound effects uploaded. Hundreds of maps. A thousand images, all of them easily accessible.

Oh, and the dynamic lightning. How I love thee. Shadows, light, darkvision, range of sight, these are all very, very important factors in D&D (and any roleplaying game). When playing pen and paper, you have to literally use your imagination as to how far your character can or cannot see. With online play, the computer takes care of this for you, and shadows and light can become integral to the map. The aforementioned Alien game benefited greatly from shadows, enhancing player fear of what might be lurking in the darkness to facehug them.

So, I have been playing online for over 2 years now. I have logged thousands of hours into Roll20. I have either run or played in a dozen different storylines. I can honestly say - despite my initial fears to the contrary - that I did get a hang of the system, and eventually I mastered it. Oh, there are plenty of things I still don't know, and the coding is clunky and confusing, but can I run a game with ease? Absolutely. I can run a game faster and more efficiently than I ever could in person. The maps and miniatures are unlimited, and either cheap or free, compared to the plastic models and dry-erase wet maps, or my nemesis, having to print and cut and tape a map. I still have all the toys; I'm a collector and will not ever sell them, but my need to buy new sets has been curtailed. I suppose if (when?) I win a lottery I will go back and buy all the monsters I missed out on the past two years, but it's not as if I actually need them. I just like them a whole, whole bunch.

I don't know if I will return to a regular gaming group in person or not. The advantages to online play outweigh - in my book - benefits of in person. On the other hand, I do have lots of cooperative board games that would be a fun alternative to an evening of D&D, so that is an option. But as far as playing online - which I thought I would hate - I have 100% changed my tune.

I like it as much, if not more, than playing in person, something I never thought I would hear myself say.

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