Roll20 beta app will let you play Dungeons & Dragons and other RPGs within Discord calls

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If running a voice call and opening a browser window at the same time sounds like too much work to play your weekly RPG, you're in luck: Roll20 has announced the launch of a beta app that will run its popular virtual tabletop within the dedicated Discord platform.

Roll20 will appear in Discord’s Activities section, joining games like Watch Together, the Catan clone Colonist, and a host of lightweight multiplayer games that users can launch while on a voice or video call. The Roll20 app will be full-featured compared to the browser-based original, only it will be integrated into Discord’s infrastructure. That means loading up a digital map and throwing some tokens on the board is just a couple extra clicks from what it takes to join a voice channel, and the companies promise the process should be fairly straightforward at launch.

Discord-supported games should reflect the full Roll20 library, including Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder and Starfinder, Fallout, Cyberpunk RED, and Dune: Adventures in the Imperium. Users who own books and roles in Roll20 will have access to those resources and will be able to share them between players, along with character management, 3-D dice rolling, and all the other quality-of-life improvements. The only snag will be convincing players whether to join Roll20’s built-in voice channels or hop on the Discord call.

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Campaigns won’t be limited to a single platform, and ongoing adventures can be switched between Roll20 and Discord without losing any progress or having to manually change files and preferences. If you pay for Roll20 Pro or Plus, the Discord app will let you access advanced features — a press release mentioned only dynamic lighting and compendium sharing.

Pro users will be invited to an exclusive beta test on April 30, which will take place within a private Discord server, likely to facilitate feedback and find a well-rounded group. If you’re eager to try out features, Roll20 has slashed the price of Pro subscriptions by 30% if it’s your first time. VTT hit 10 million users in 2022, at the height of the pandemic-driven tabletop gaming boom, which may not seem like much compared to Discord’s 563 million registered users, but it still makes it the most popular virtual option in the hobby.

“We're thrilled to introduce Roll20 to a new audience through our collaboration with Discord,” said Riley Dutton, founder-in-residence at Roll20, in the press release. “We also know that many existing Roll20 users love Discord, and we're excited to offer them an easier way to play!”

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