Table toppled: Dungeons and Dragons during a pandemic
Table toppled: Dungeons and Dragons during a pandemic
Table toppled: Dungeons and Dragons during a pandemic
By Nikai Morales
December 05, 2020
Summary
With the COVID-19 pandemic, players now interact with each other through online servers like Discord and Roll 20, an online virtual tabletop simulator.
Courtesy of Fox Dark/THE REVIEWWith the COVID-19 pandemic, players now interact with each other through online servers like Discord and Roll 20, an online virtual tabletop simulator.
Dungeons and Dragons is a roleplaying game that has grown in popularity over the past few years with the releases of "Stranger Things," "Critical Role" and "The Adventure Zone." These pieces of media brought fantasy roleplaying, action and comedy into the public purview to inspire a new generation of younger players.
"Until the pandemic I've been playing entirely in person," Toby Bulk, 19, a sophomore biochemistry major, said.
Bulk, who started playing DND in high school, explained that even when people use their cameras during a game, it is harder to read their group members' facial expressions and gestures, which he described as an important part of in-person roleplaying.
Bulk is a player in two active games: one homebrew and one other that utilizes the "Arcanis 5e" campaign setting.
Roll 20 helps players see top down map views of cities and dungeons, which are some of Ortiz's favorite aspects of DND. "I'm a huge [miniature] user, and I like using maps as well," Ortiz said.
Although moving online has been one hurdle to bypass, change is natural to older players in the DND community.
An employee at The Days of Knights, a board game shop on Main Street, isn't a fan of playing online, he acknowledges that for a lot of people it's better than not playing at all.
Although the pandemic has forced major changes in how players meet to play campaigns, change is natural to the DND community; with sourcebooks being released as recently as this month, the game is ever-changing.
Reference
Morales, N. (2020, December 05). Table toppled: Dungeons and Dragons during a pandemic. Retrieved December 08, 2020, from http://udreview.com/table-toppled-dungeons-and-dragons-during-a-pandemic/