Defeat the Coronavirus Blues in a Free Dungeons & Dragons Adventure
If you’ve always wanted to try dice-throwing adventures, or are frustrated that your regular Dungeons & Dragons might have to virtually work for weeks (or months), now is the right time to fight the coronavirus – causing boredom with board games.
And since we’re all probably making a little penny, I recommend that you start your adventure with this all-new (and free) campaign from Wizards of the Coast: Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount .
You don’t get the full adventure, but this challenge should be enough to help you decide if you enjoy Dungeons & Dragons, or brush up a little bit of any major campaign you might be running. It all takes place in Wildemount, home of famous adventurers in critical roles (whose exploits you can stream for free if you’d rather watch people play D&D than yourself).
You must have a Roll20 account to set up with your friends, which I highly recommend because of the convenience it brings when playing remotely. However, you will face some restrictions if you do not pay:
When you’re ready to create your game (after giving it a name), you will be taken to your campaign landing page. From there, you will be able to invite your players (up to five in total in the free version) and indicate when the next session will be. Launch the game – and if you are launching it, I recommend doing a trial run alone before you start with real players, as after that you can go through the Roll20 guide to learn how to use the interface:
Roll20 admittedly takes some training, so don’t expect to be able to lead people through their very first adventure within minutes of setting up an account. It’s incredibly useful and powerful, but it’s not the only way to play Dungeons & Dragons remotely. I really love that it has built-in video and audio chat capabilities, as well as text chat. Heck, you can even import your own stage music for your campaign.
However, if this sounds too much for work, there is always a quick and easy way: use the text you get on Roll20, but start a video chat on whichever service you prefer the most (Skype, Facebook, Google Hangouts, Zoom, etc. further) and just explain to your players what’s going on. (Miniatures / hex boards aren’t for everyone.)
And don’t forget to add a few extra tools to your remote arsenal to make your game even more dynamic for everyone involved:
- 5e Random Generator – to create new characters, traps, encounters and more on the fly
- ROLZ – virtual dice rooms (so no one cheats)
- Desktop audio – add some atmosphere to your class! (Also worth looking into is Syrinscape .)
- DM Helper, – said naf.