Gamers delve into online Dungeons & Dragons while in isolation
Sessions of that most social of geek games, Dungeons & Dragons, and its role-playing game peers are curtailed during the COVID-19 quarantine. Many players are maintaining social interaction by moving their games online.
For the uninitiated, Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playing games are like a cross between board games, campfire storytelling and improvisational acting. Players imagine themselves as characters in a storyline crafted by a narrator, using dice rolls to determine the results of their actions.
Plenty of groups already play online via voice chat and tailored tools like Roll20. So it only makes sense that many would transition their games online in this time of isolation.
Local player Alpha Montemayor said of a recent online game, “Maybe it’s because we all have cabin fever and we were all just really, really wanting that kind of connection outside of the quarantine; it became just a giggle fest, and we just didn’t stop.”
Fellow KW Gamers Meetup.com group member Josh Stoddart told Spoke that registrations on the group’s Discord server reached almost 70 in about a week, this in a digital interview April 6. Montemayor said the group’s first regular Saturday afternoon games fest to be held online saw four or five virtual tables of about three to five players each, down only a handful in numbers from normal, and he predicted growth.
Indeed, Stoddart extended an invitation. “If anyone’s ever wanted to play one of these things, they can join us.”
