'Dungeons & Dragons' Table Top Gaming In Virtual Reality? Thank AltspaceVR And Wizards Of The Coast

By Kevin Carbotte
published

You can now play Dungeons & Dragons in a virtual space. AltspaceVR and Wizards of the Coast formed a partnership to host officially licensed D&D tabletop games within a custom AltspaceVR virtual environment.

For decades, Dungeons & Dragons has been a fan favorite game to play with a gathering of friends. By partnering with AltspaceVR, Wizards of the Coast, which purchased the rights to the DnD franchise in 1997, hopes to replicate that experience in virtual reality by allowing you to gather with friends from around the world.

AltspaceVR created a set of virtual character sheets, figurines of heroes from various classes, and common monsters. The company made various terrain tiles, including dungeon-, wilderness- and city-themed pieces. The polyhedral dice needed to play the game were also digitally recreated.

The VR company didn't stop at just creating virtual copies of the game components. It created a new virtual room called the "Tavern" where players can gather for a game, and spectators can join in to watch. With a free account for AltspaceVR, Dungeons & Dragons fans can log in to the game's virtual landing page and either start a new campaign or search for a party in need of an additional player.

AltspaceVR is primarily designed for a VR headset such as the Oculus Rift DK2 or HTC Vive; you can access it without a VR headset, but the company suggests a VR HMD for the full virtual experience.

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Kevin Carbotte

 Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years. 

8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Mac266
    I'd prefer Yu Gi Oh, but this is cool.
    Reply
  • Chester Rico
    *Or* I can play actual D&D with my friends while having a couple of beers?

    Also, you can actually play most RPGs remotely pretty well with various tools, I just don't know who exactly this is for.
    Reply
  • eldragon0
    *Or* I can play actual D&D with my friends while having a couple of beers?

    Also, you can actually play most RPGs remotely pretty well with various tools, I just don't know who exactly this is for.

    The advancement of technology. The truth is, as we all know the future of tech if VR, and as nice as d20.net is it's not intuitive or user friendly, and as for the "with friends and having a couple of beers" Part of being an adult usually involves moving away from friends to well be an adult. Even if they are VR avi's, being able to sit at a table with your old DnD buddies with a real board, and figures, with the books open rocking out like old school no matter where in the world you all are sounds like a huge advancement to me.
    Reply
  • eldragon0
    *Or* I can play actual D&D with my friends while having a couple of beers?

    Also, you can actually play most RPGs remotely pretty well with various tools, I just don't know who exactly this is for.

    The advancement of technology. The truth is, as we all know the future of tech if VR, and as nice as d20.net is it's not intuitive or user friendly, and as for the "with friends and having a couple of beers" Part of being an adult usually involves moving away from friends to well be an adult. Even if they are VR avi's, being able to sit at a table with your old DnD buddies with a real board, and figures, with the books open rocking out like old school no matter where in the world you all are sounds like a huge advancement to me.
    Reply
  • FlayerSlayer
    MapTool works pretty well, or a webcam for a remote buddy, but I see this helping for people without a collection of minis and map tiles. There's something to be said for a virtual 3D map for your tokens. I just don't see myself spending 6 hours in a VR headset to play a tabletop game. And how would I, as the DM, properly emote and act out NPCs when my avatar is a featureless gray stand in?
    Reply
  • pdegan2814
    While it's a nifty idea, if I want to try and play D&D online with a group I'd rather do so in a way that lets me see everyone's face, either through a system like Roll20 or a simple group video call via Skype or Google Hangouts. The social component of D&D is a big part of what makes it so fun, after all. Plus, webcams and microphones are a lot cheaper than VR interfaces :)
    Reply
  • eldragon0
    16963953 said:
    MapTool works pretty well, or a webcam for a remote buddy, but I see this helping for people without a collection of minis and map tiles. There's something to be said for a virtual 3D map for your tokens. I just don't see myself spending 6 hours in a VR headset to play a tabletop game. And how would I, as the DM, properly emote and act out NPCs when my avatar is a featureless gray stand in?

    You are currently inside a box, you need to think outside of it. real time lip syncing is coming very very far, just audio if not a camera on your face, you'll easily be able to set your avi to the character you are rping as. Tada something you were worried about just turned around to something even better than rl.
    Reply
  • Quixit
    For some reason I was expecting the virtualization to be of the game, into the game environment. You know, you get together with your friends and then VR into a version of the game world. Why would you want to take a away the in-person socialization? That's at least half the point of playing D&D in the first place!
    Reply