GET ON BOARD with virtual games night
When the UK plunged into lockdown in March 2020, all manner of leisure pursuits were put on hold. For the country’s enthusiastic tabletop gaming community, the pain was especially acute. Promising Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) campaigns would go unfinished, and Games Workshop models meticulously painted for tournaments would have to wait a few months for their tabletop debut.
Several months later, and with the country again in varying states of lockdown, tabletop players are about to go through the same process again. However, for many, it will be less painful this time around, because in the intervening months millions of people worldwide have discovered the joys of digital equivalents.
“It’s taken off quite a bit, especially in March and April where it was just crazy,” said Doug Davison, co-owner and president of Fantasy Grounds – an online virtual tabletop (VTT) that allows subscribers to play games such as D&D and Vampire: The Masquerade remotely. “We couldn’t even keep up with the influx of new people.”
Fantasy Grounds had to quickly grow its support team to handle the surge in demand, but even then Davison was putting in 80 to 100-hour weeks just to stay on top of things. “Now it’s settled back down a bit, but it’s still really heightened to where it was a year prior.”
Fantasy Grounds, alongside its main rival Roll20 and more generalist software such as Tabletop Simulator, has everything you need
